The Debt Read Online Free

Carmen.”
    “Yes. As far as I’m concerned, they are my real parents. They took me in, gave me everything I have. Hadley made that happen.”
    “But after the panic attack...”
    “I couldn’t stand to look her in the eye. I looked at her, and I saw him . I thought about being with her and knew that meant forever reliving those nightmares of what that man did to me. No girl wants a guy who can’t finish without turning into a paralyzed little shit shaking on the floor.”
    My life was like a web attached to Hadley on all sides. From the moment we landed in foster care together, we became inextricably linked. I couldn’t escape her. I wasn’t sure I wanted to, despite what she represented.
    And I could have lived with all of that—the girl I loved within sight but always just out of reach—if I hadn’t so thoroughly shattered Hadley. Because whatever happened that night after I peeled out of her driveway, she suffered so much worse.
    For that, I didn’t deserve her.

Chapter 4
    By the time Hadley and I got back to the house from running our errands, my bandmates were already tuning up for rehearsal in my garage. We had a weekly gig at a college bar in the city. Nothing spectacular, but it gave us a hobby and a little extra money. For me, it was an excuse to keep writing music.
    Corey played a double paradiddle at his drum kit while I pulled a couple broken strings from my guitar. He had no great musical aspirations beyond dive bars and the occasional street festival. Though he was proficient enough, Corey’s first concern was attracting the attention of women who fawned over musicians.
    “Where the fuck is Scott?” I had energy to burn and there were changes to the set list that we needed to practice. There was just one problem: We were short one rhythm guitarist.
    “He had a date.” Corey laid his sticks on his tom and cracked his knuckles.
    Scott had always been a bit of a flake, but lately he’d been a stranger. Skipping rehearsals, never answering his phone. He would show up ten minutes before a gig, looking hungover and like he hadn’t slept in days.
    “I thought he broke up with Tori,” I said, pulling a broken E string off my guitar.
    “He did.” Corey leaned back against the wall behind his kit, thick arms bent behind his head. “I think he’s out with that chick from Saturday night.”
    “Getting his dick wet is not a good excuse.”
    “Speaking of which...” Trey, our bassist and resident buzzkill, walked in from the house and sat on a road case. “I heard what happened with Stephanie.”
    In our collective of misfits, Trey was an oddity. Two happily married parents. Never arrested or institutionalized. No addictions or personality disorders. Had we not become friends, I would have hated the prick.
    “Spare me the lecture. I got enough of it from Hadley.”
    “What the hell were you thinking? You can’t fuck Scott’s sister and then hide from her.”
    “Hey, she came on to me.”
    “Doesn’t mean you have to pull your dick out for every girl who flirts with you.”
    “The way things are going, Josh might have to leave the country. Or marry her.” Corey eyed me with a stupid grin. “Stephanie’s been posting photos of you from our shows on Instagram.”
    “She keeps calling Hadley. Someone sent me half a dozen tit pics since last week.”
    “Maybe it says something about your lifestyle that you aren’t sure who,” Trey said.
    “What does that mean?”
    “I don’t mind if you want to throw a groupie my way.”
    “Piss off, Corey.” I rubbed my hands through my hair, tired of the subject. “She’ll get bored and move on eventually.”
    “I get it.” Corey barely contained a laugh. He was built like a linebacker but gossiped like a pubescent girl. “She’s been after your dick since high school. But she’s straight-up psycho. You know she keyed Clint Holmes’s car at prom in eleventh grade because he took Lisa Libby instead of her, right?”
    “Clint was an