Take My Hand (6 page)

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Eat Chinese food until you’re
so full you throw up

 
Seriously, where did she get these ideas
from?

“I’m gonna get going now. You need anything
before I go?”

“Jared’s cock if you’re not gonna use it.”

“There’s something wrong with you, you know
that right?” I teased, rolling my eyes.

“Nah, Ho. I’m just special, remember?”

“Be good,” I ordered playfully as I bent down
to kiss the top of her head.

“Never.”

**********

“Hey, cutie,” Jared greeted when I approached
his door after being buzzed in. “I’ve missed you,” he added before cupping my
cheeks and landing a long, squelching kiss on my lips.

“Missed you too.” It was only a white lie. I
had
sort of
missed him – just like I’d miss any of my friends if I
hadn’t seen them for two days.

“I was thinking we could just stay home
tonight. Rent a couple of movies, order Chinese…” Oh the irony. Number 12 was
my first goal yet there was no way I was going to try and accomplish it in
anyone’s company other than Rachel’s. I wasn’t sure Jared or his sheepskin rug
would appreciate it.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed before brushing
past him and heading towards his couch. “Will Dex be joining us?” I kind of
hoped not. I’ve been sitting next to him in class everyday for two whole weeks
and I still know
nothing
about him. If I’m honest, he’s starting to
creep me out a little.

“Doubt he’ll be home till the early hours.
He’s covering my shift so I can spend more time with you.” Jared flashed me an
affectionate smile as he joined me on the couch and pulled me closer to him. I
should’ve melted there right? He’d just said something adorable but for the
effect it had on my insides he might as well have been talking about the
weather.

Jared was the perfect gentleman. He twirled
my hair around his fingers while I rested my head on his lap, he whispered
sweet things to me every five seconds and he even rented the entire Twilight
Saga for us to watch. I couldn’t shift the niggling suspicion that it was all
part of his master plan to get into my knickers however. This inkling was only
intensified when he started kissing me half way through Eclipse and in that
moment I decided it was time to give it my best shot. Maybe I wasn’t ‘feeling’
it because I didn’t know what I was missing. If I gave it a chance, he might
turn my whole world upside down.

Right?

Wrong.

I should’ve known it wasn’t going to work the
second I started chanting the mantra ‘you can do this’ over and over in my
head. My heart raced faster and faster the higher his hand slipped up my thigh,
but not in an excited way – in a ‘dear God I think I’m gonna pass out’
kind of way. Then, by the time his fingers began to trace the lacy edge of my
knickers I think I actually started shaking.

“I’m sorry,” I muttered, pulling away from
him. “Can we just, um… slow things down a little?”

“Sure,” he replied with a smile that didn’t
reach his cheeks. I’m sure I heard him sigh too.

“Sorry,” I repeated.

“Don’t be,” he assured… weakly. “How ‘bout I
get us something to drink? I’ve got Jack in the kitchen.” Hmm. There were two
reasons here why I should’ve said no. Number one: This could’ve been phase two
of Operation Remove The Knickers. And number two: I’d never drank such a hard
liquor before which probably meant this wouldn’t end well.

Yep. I needed to pass this time.

“Sure.” It seemed my mouth didn’t agree with
my brain on this occasion. But what harm could it really do? If I took it easy
– just a glass or two – I’d surely be able to keep it down and I
might even get to cross off Number 1 on the New Life list.

When Jared disappeared into the kitchen I
reminded myself that I was an adult now. I needed to stop obsessing over such
trivial dilemmas. I was having a couple of drinks for God’s sake! I was going
to be totally fine.

**********

“I don’t feel too good,” I slurred, hoping
the room would stop spinning so I could find Jared. “Jared? I need your
bathroom.” For some reason I couldn’t remember where a single thing was in this
apartment, and I was almost certain I wouldn’t be able to hold myself upright
long enough to find it on my own. “Jared!” I snapped, growing impatient and
increasingly bilious.

It was then I made out a hazy looking heap
draped over the armchair. Great. Jared was out for the count. I was sweating,
trembling, about to spew up a lifetime’s worth of food and I was all on my own.
Left with no other choice than to try and find the toilet alone I stood up
warily, hovering my left foot above the ground as I prepared to take my first
step.

Hold up, why was the ugly as sin sheepskin
rug coming towards me? Oh wait… it wasn’t anymore. What was I leaning on? Had I
started walking or sat back down?

“Whoa there, doll. I’ve got you.”
Have
you?

“
Jared
?” Why did he sound so funny?

“No, it’s me. Dex.” The enticing smell of his
aftershave assaulted my senses before I actually saw him. Yay. Someone else to
witness me making a complete tit of myself. Whoop whoop! “Put your arm around
me. I’m gonna sit you back down.” I sensed what felt like arms gripping me
around my waist. That wasn’t a good move…

“I’m going to be sick.” It was coming I could
feel it. And of course once you start thinking about it the urge to actually do
it only becomes stronger. It gets to a point where the bottom of a toilet pan
is all you can think about and then your stomach finally gives in and erupts
against your will.

I was so at that point.

“Hold on, doll.” Doll… He’d never called me
that before tonight. I liked it. It was kind of cute.

At first I didn’t know if I’d collapsed or
been picked up – all I knew was that my feet were no longer touching the
floor. But then I was moving – fast. Dexter was carrying me –
cradling me in his arms like an infant while I hung on for dear life with my
arms around his neck.

He lowered me down cautiously in front of the
toilet and I was hurling my guts up before I’d even had a chance to bend over
it fully.

“That’s it. Let it all out,” Dexter soothed,
teasing the hair from the side of my face and holding it in place at the back
of my head while I retched repeatedly until my throat began to burn. I’m sure
if I hadn’t been too busy feeling like I was dying, I would’ve been
embarrassed.

We must have stayed in that position for
almost half-an-hour – although it felt like a hell of a lot longer. When
I eventually felt sturdy enough to move without falling, Dexter lowered the
toilet lid for me and held my arm whilst I lowered myself down onto it.
Instinctively I shrank back a notch when I felt something cold and wet brush my
forehead, until I realised it was the soothing sensation of a wet flannel and
it was without a doubt the most heavenly thing I’d ever experienced.

“Helping?” Dexter asked gently as he smoothed
the reviving flannel back and forth across my clammy skin.

“Uh huh,” was all I could summon. My brain
was still too foggy to form coherent words.

“You ready to stand?”

No.

“I’ll try.”

“K, doll. Take my hand.” Dexter held his hand
out and supported my weight as I pulled myself into a standing position.
Whoa.
I stumbled and grabbed onto him tighter, digging my nails into the firm
flesh coating his forearms.
“You okay?” he asked, his words coming out
in a rush as if he were genuinely concerned.

“Head rush, that’s all,” I replied, releasing
my grasp a little.

Dexter led me to the couch where he slept and
didn’t let go of me until I was sat firmly down. The first thing I noticed was
that Jared was missing from the armchair.

“Where’d he go?” I asked, confused and
disorientated. Maybe I’d been so drunk I only imagined seeing him there
earlier. If that was the case, how could he leave me in the state I was in?

“I’ll go check while I fix you some coffee.”
I was about to tell him he didn’t need to go to any trouble but by the time my
mouth was prepared to co-operate with my brain, he’d already left the room.

I had never felt so awful in all my life. The
twinges of a migraine were beginning to taunt me - I felt sick, sweaty, dizzy…
Why the hell did Rachel think this was a good idea? I think I might genuinely
hate her right now.

Closing my blurry eyes I relaxed to the sound
of the Breaking Dawn Part One credits playing softly in the background. It felt
homely – comforting. It was a sound I’d heard a thousand times and with
my eyes closed I could’ve been lying in bed next to Rachel enjoying one of our
‘Twinights’ rather than making a holy drunken show of myself in front of a guy
I barely knew.

“He’s took his sorry ass off to bed,” Dexter
informed, handing me a tall mug of steaming black coffee when he re-entered the
room. “When you’ve finished that I’ll fetch you a water.”

“Really, you don’t need-”

“Do you
want
to feel like shit all
night?” he interrupted, sounding annoyed.

“No,” I answered sulkily.

“Then just do it. The more you drink the
faster you’ll start to feel better.”

Assuming he was probably more experienced
than me in the hangover department, I followed his advice. The coffee was too
hot to drink all at once so I took slow, careful sips while I waited for it to
cool down.

“So how come you’ve got a voice all of a
sudden?” I asked boldly. Wow, I really
was
intoxicated. I’d wanted but
never dared to ask him why he was such a miserable pig since the first time I
met him.

“How’d you mean? I talk to you,” he said
somewhat defensively, ruffling his purposely-shaggy brown hair with his
fingers.

“Barely. I don’t know anything about you.”
Hmm, maybe feeling like a sack of horse crap was worth it for the confidence it
seemed to be giving me.

“There’s nothing you’d want to know, doll.”
The dizziness was finally subsiding only to come crashing back down on me again
every time he called me ‘doll’. My body appeared to like it more than my brain
thought I should.

“How do you know if you don’t try me? You
don’t know me either so you don’t know what I would and wouldn’t want to know.
And I think I
do
want to know. Unless you just don’t want me to know.
What is it I don’t know again?” I rambled, unavoidable tiredness setting in and
making me forget what we were even talking about.

“I think you need to sleep now,” he suggested
before bending behind the couch. He re-emerged with two fluffy pillows and a
folded up duvet. Then he laid them out onto the cushions and made an awfully
inviting looking bed. “Lie down. I’ll go get that water and leave it right
here,” he added, pointing to a small side table next to the couch.

“But where will
you
sleep?” I asked,
feeling guilty about stealing his bed but not enough to stop me lying straight
down.

“Don’t worry about me, doll. Just close your
eyes and sleep it off.”

The last thing I remember was smiling
gratefully – my eyes already closed.

************

Oh. God.

I was awake but I daren’t open my eyes. I
knew if I did I might have to chance making eye-contact with another human
being and then I would die from sheer shame. Then again I think I was dying
anyway. I felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach, dipped into a bucket of
steaming vomit and then shoved under a speeding bus. Yep, I was
definitely
dying.

Ugh.

After just a few minutes of refusing to move
I was soon left with no choice – I needed a wee. Still with my eyes
closed I sat up tentatively, purposely trying not to rock my extremely
precarious stomach. Oh sweet Jesus, the pain in my head almost knocked me
straight back down. It was official – I am never drinking again. Ever.

Right, time to open my eyes.
I can do
this.
The light literally burned my retinas the second I peeled back my
eyelids. I blink several times in an attempt to stop the stinging and then rose
slowly to my feet, holding on to the back of the plush couch for support.

When I reached the bathroom I made the grave
mistake of catching my reflection in the mirrored cabinet. My hair was a
tangled mess – all that was missing was some twigs and bits of straw. The
dark purple circles framing my eyes were so prominent it looked like I’d been
punched in the face and I had smudges of mascara trailing half way down my
cheeks. And I stank. Badly. Stale alcohol mixed with sweat and sick was enough
to make me want to retch again.

Wow. Sexy.

I got the necessities out the way first by
having my wee and brushing my teeth with one of the two toothbrushes propped up
on the side of the sink. I hoped it was Jared’s, otherwise it would be weird.
Then I stripped off and hung my clothes over the back of the bathroom door
while I sprayed them down with some spicy smelling men’s body spray I found in
the cabinet before hopping in the shower.