Chapter 23

Drake's lips were hard and ravaging on mine. His one hand on my neck, tilting my head to the side as his lips moved mercilessly on mine. Dancing and coaxing mine to move with him as he did with my whole bod a while ago.

But my lips didn't oblige, they were poised in a straight line because even in my state of drunken haze I can remember one thing. This is wrong.

Why? I couldn't remember. But something was holding me back. Telling me to put a stop to all of this.

Before I could place my hands on Drake's chest and try to push him. He was ripped off of me and I was thrown back from the impact. I bumped into someone on my back and I can hear a voice yelling 'Bitch!' or something like that but I was not paying attention.

My eyes were fixated on the place, where Cross and Drake were standing nose-to-nose. They looked like they were in a heated argument. Cross's fists were clenched on his side as if he was ready to beat Drake to a pulp, and was barely holding himself back.

But what made me more intrigued was, Drake had a defensive stance like he was trying to apologize. Either it was that or I am really drunk.

Cross had ripped Drake off me. But why? Even though I was going to do that myself and I would have thanked him for doing that for me, but I find it hard to believe that he did it for my sake. So, no need to thank him.

But when Cross pushed Drake back and stalked towards me with a vicious scowl on his face, all the previous thoughts left me. Anger rolling off of him in waves made me shrink back a little, or you can say I swayed back a little from all the alcohol in my system. The look on his face left no question that he had definitely did it for me.

Why?!

Cross grabbed my hand in a firm grasp and started dragging me behind him. I didn't even make a noise and let him drag me to wherever the hell he was taking me. Because truth be told, I was actually a little scared of him.

Cross took me out of the frat house to the parking lot. We stopped in front of a shiny black Escalade. He opened the passenger side door and said, "Get in. I'm going to take you back to your dorm," his voice was tight but I can't trace the anger anymore.

I opened my mouth to say but he was not having it. "Not. A. Word. Get in. Right now."

I looked at him for a while silently. And can't help but feel like a small child, who was being scolded by his big brother for sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night to go to a party. Even though I never had a brother.

"Actually, I was going to say that my purse is inside."

Did I slur?

The look on his face confirmed my thought and made me giggle. Oh, god. Why am I laughing? Cross might be kidnapping me for all I know.

He opened the door wider and urged me with his hand to go inside.

"Get inside and lock the door. I'll bring it."

I huffed but did the same. I was trying hard to keep my eyes open as I waited for Cross to come back. I sat upright to chase the sleep away but only after a second slouched back again.

Damn, do they mix sleeping pills in alcohol nowadays?

The door to my left opened and Cross came in with my bag in his hand. He threw the purse in my lap and started driving, leaving me in my struggle to stay awake.

What is it with men and dragging women to places against their will? First I was dragged to this party and now when I don't want to leave I'm being dragged back to the dorm, I thought to myself with a huff and crossed my arms on my chest.

Cross let out a smooth chuckle and I came out of my reverie. Did I say that out loud? I looked at him in horror and the amused expression on his face confirmed my suspicion.

Shit.

I slouched even further in my seat. God, it's better if I go to sleep. Then probably I won't make a fool out of myself with my big mouth.

I closed my eyes and let the darkness engulf me. In my haze of sleep, I might have heard him mutter 'Cute' maybe, but I'm not sure.

**********

What is this smell? Like a hundred dead rats were rotting around me.

I tried opening my eyes, but they just won't open. Instead, a sharp pain shot through my head as if someone was opening my skull with a knife.

What the hell?

I can say that I was laying on my stomach, on what felt like a bed, and something was holding up my neck. I tried taking a deep breath to calm the pounding in my head but a rush of liquid came out of my mouth instead.

Oh, joy. I'm puking.

I groaned as the roiling in my gut quelled and rolled to get on my back. Ugh, this is not fun.

Suddenly a wet cloth touched my face and my eyes flew open on their own accord. But it was a mistake. A. Big. Mistake. A glare of light from the room pierced my irises inducing zings of shrill pain in my head that I am sure, a couple of nerve cells in my brain just got burnt to a crisp. That could be the only reason for this crappy headache.

I groaned loudly as I felt the bed shift and then the lights were out. I opened my eyes immediately. Alarmed to know who was with me in the room.

But when I saw Cassie coming to sit beside me, I closed my eyes in relief.

"How're ya feeling, girlie?"

That should be obvious. "Like a person who jumped on rail tracks to suicide but instead of dying, the train crossed through it innocuously. And he was left with the aftermath"

"Eww. That would be terrible."

"Tell me about it," I said dryly.

"You made your bed yourself, girlie. When you drink for the first time, you go easy on yourself. Not guzzle gallons of alcohol at once 'cause you don't know how much you can bear. And considering the state you're in, I say you're a freaking lightweight."

I opened my eyes and looked at her with a bland expression. "Thanks for your advice at the right time, Cass," I said in a wry tone.

Cassie just shrugged, "Okay, I forgot."

"No shit," I murmured.

Cassie went somewhere and I thought that she left but she came back after a minute.

"I've run you a hot bath. Go soak in it. You'll feel better after that and yeah," she said giving me an amused look, "You missed classes today."

"What?!" My head turned in the direction of the alarm clock on my nightstand and sure it says five past three in the evening.

I groaned out loud, "Next time I say about willing to go to any party. Slap me."

"Will do," Cassie said in an amused voice, "Now go."

I did what she said and true to her words I was feeling substantially better after soaking in hot water for almost fifteen minutes. I came back into my room and to my surprise, everything was cleaned up. And there was lavender fragrance coming from my room instead of the foul smell of puke.

"Here," Cassie's voice came from my back. I turned to see her standing in the corridor with a cup of coffee in her hand.

"Did you do all of this?", I stared wide-eyed at her.

I saw blush creeping to her cheeks and she tried hard to cover it with her hard-ass attitude. "What? I can do a little cleaning. It's not a big deal," she said glaring at me.

"Sure, you can," I said smiling softly at her that made her even more uncomfortable.

"Whatever," she mumbled, practically shoving the cup in my hand. "Just drink it and get out of my hair."

She turned to leave but stopped and turned around. "I forgot to tell you, your phone has been blowing up since this morning. That guy, Brian, is incessantly calling and texting you. You might want to check that one."

Confusion and worry gripped me at the same time. For valid reasons though, Brian never calls me in the daytime. I didn't even reply to Cassie and came into my room.

I placed my coffee on the nightstand and started searching for my phone. After a minute of looking everywhere, I found it stashed in my purse and sure enough it was blowing up with calls and texts. I didn't bother to check the texts and voicemails and called him right away.

Brian picked up my call immediately.

"Why did you do this to me?", his voice came hoarse, as if he has been crying for hours.

I did? What did I do?