Rachel hears her out

"Something crazy happened last night. Really crazy."

Izzy's blood was racing while she waited for her sister's answer. Contrary to all reason, this was way more nerve wracking than everything that had happened last night. She could understand, on some level, why she did the things she did then. Every once in a while she got flashes of Mina's beautiful face looking down on her and remembered how strong the urge to play along was. It didn't make sense to admit any of it to her sister, not really. Why not go on with this secret locked very tightly away in some shadowy back closet of her psyche, never to be spoken of again? Only, it was too late. She'd sent the first message and knew she wouldn't be able to pivot and hold the rest in once Rachel replied.

It was too bad her sister wasn't more active on her phone, but she had a baby and a husband and a big girl job to occupy her time. Izzy lay back in bed and dreaded the response. At the forty minute mark she felt the buzz of her phone on her stomach, and looked at it right away. Rachel wasn't some boy she wanted to come off as nonchalant to. "What happened? Are you okay?" she wrote.

The trouble was that Izzy didn't know how to answer. Not even to the first part, though that felt like there was a train flying off the tracks and toward her. She could give a curtailed account of the night's events that wouldn't be TOO shocking. Was she okay? She was tired, for sure. Doing the math she thought she'd slept for more than eight hours. It was probably the cocaine that had her so messed up. And she was sore. Her mouth most of all, and thinking about that reminded her of... everything, very viscerally. While Ivan would, if he saw her, think she looked like ****, she couldn't say she was sick. Aside from shame, she didn't even feel too bad emotionally.

All of a sudden she regretted saying anything to Rachel. This was something she needed to sit on before she gave anyone a version of the events. Her impulsivity made that impossible, though. Rachel would fly out here on a private helicopter she couldn't afford if she thought her little sister was in any kind of real danger. Something had to be said.