AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, yes, pizza!” Everyone starts shouting.
Josh hangs up the phone and throws it on the table.
“Josh, your brother’s a little scary,” I tell him.
“You’re scared of Dean? When you sleep next to that one at night?” Reilly asks me.
“That one? You mean Josh? He’s not scary at all. Are you, Josh?” I turn into him.
“No, babe, not at all. Remember that.” He kisses my forehead, and I melt into him.
* * *
Argh,God, why is my head pounding? I feel a body move behind me and I tense up. What did I do last night? I don’t remember what I did to make him mad. I try to catalogue my other injuries. But all I feel is nausea. I need to find the bathroom. I climb out of bed as quietly as I can. Nothing other than my head hurts, so maybe it’s not that bad.
Although it must have been a pretty big hit, for me to feel this nauseous. This doesn’t happen that often. But when it does, it can last for days.
I find the bathroom, my stomach emptying as soon as I’m near the loo. My head pounds as I lean back against the wall and close my eyes.
“Babe, here, drink some of this.”
I must be dreaming because I just heard Josh’s voice. It’s times like these that I wish I could go to him. I wish I could take the phone out of the cistern and call him. Why can’t I just call him?
“Emmy, open your eyes. You need to drink a little,” he says.
“If I open my eyes, you’ll be gone, and I’ll be back in hell. Just let me dream a little longer,” I whisper. I cannot let Trent know I’m awake. I don’t have the energy to deal with him yet.
“Emmy, I’m right here. I’m not going anywhere. Open your eyes, babe.” I feel his hands place a bottle in mine. That feels a little too real. I jolt back, my eyes springing open.
“Josh?” I ask. How did he find me? “How… how did you find me?” I say the question aloud this time.
“Emmy, you’re okay. Look around. You’re not there anymore.” He scoops me up and carries me back to bed. The room I’m in… it’s not where I thought I was. I’m in Josh’s apartment. The last few days come back to me. Mostly.
“Why does my head hurt so much?” I ask him.
“Tequila. You and Ella both finished off the bottle.” Josh hands me two pills. “Take these. This is just ibuprofen—it’ll help with the headache. And this one’s for the nausea.”
“I think I’m dying,” I complain. I don’t handle being sick well at all. Now that my heart has calmed down a bit, blurry parts of last night are coming back to me.
“You’re not dying. You’re just hungover. Haven’t you ever been hungover before?” he asks.
“No, I wasn’t allowed.” I shut my mouth, choosing to shove the pills into it instead. I’m obviously getting way too comfortable around Josh for me to keep slipping up like this. He doesn’t need to know about the last few years of my life. The less he knows, the better.
“Argh, why didn’t you stop me?” I groan as I lie back down and snuggle into the blanket.
“You were having fun. You’re also a full-grown adult, Emmy. If you want to let loose and blow off steam, I’m not about to stop you.”
I think about what he said. He’s not about to stop me. I wonder if he’d stop me if I was to get up and walk out the door now? The only problem is, I’m too scared to test the theory. What if he didn’t stop me? I don’t know if I want to leave this dream yet.
I watch as he pulls on a pair of grey sweats. God, what is it with this man and grey sweatpants? How many pairs can one person have? He comes over to the bed, leans down and kisses my forehead while stroking his hand through my hair.
“I promised Ella I’d meet her for breakfast. Do you want to get up and come eat?”
I shake my head, which was a mistake. “Argh, no. I’m just going to stay right here.”
“I doubt Ella is actually awake anyway. I’m going to bring you back some food.” He gets up and walks to the door.
“Josh?”
