Fuck me.
All I planned for was a night out with my bestie. Instead, I'm half-naked and in pain.
The pounding in my head is nothing like the wine hangover I had a few weeks ago. I swear, whoever fucking slipped that shit into my soda is going to feel the wrath of me. I don’t care what Jagger says. I’m going to kill that stupid bitch he said was with me.
“Jagger?” I whine when he moves beside me on the bed. Every time he moves, it makes me move, and then every inch of my body hurts.
"Yeah, babe?" he asks, rolling onto his side to face me.
“Don’t move, or I’ll never have sex with you again.”
A grin forms on his face. He leans forward and presses his lips against my forehead before he pulls back. "Baby, you wouldn't be able to go back to no sex. You barely go six hours before you beg me for my cock."
I roll my eyes at him the best I can without being brought to tears from the pain in my head. I don't know what that bitch or her stupid little friend did to me, but everything hurts.
"Why did they do it?" I ask. He refused to tell me anything other than they found me being dragged around the party by some chick and some dude. He won't even tell me where Ireland is or if she's okay. "If Martin Vargas played a part in this, I'm going to rip his balls off his body."
He chuckles and rolls to his back. "Little girl, I have no idea if he played a part, but if he did, a hospital stay would be the least of his worries this time."
I look over at him slowly and see the anger written all over his face. He's serious. I know he will do what he has to in order to protect me, even if that means getting himself in trouble.
I can’t let him do that.
"When do I get to see Ireland?" She hasn't responded to my text messages. It makes me nervous that I haven’t heard from her yet. If something happened to her because of me, I don't know what I'd do. She's my best friend. I can't fathom her being hurt because of whatever these people want with me.
“Bresin…," he starts before the ringing of his phone takes his attention away. He puts it to his ear. "What did you find out?" I scoot a little closer, biting my lip to stifle the groan of pain. I try like hell to listen to what the other person is saying, but it's no use. I can't hear a goddamn thing.
Everything that happened last night is still fuzzy as hell. I remember Jagger dropping us off at the frat house before we grabbed drinks from the kitchen. I never drink anything I've been given, so I made my own. I still have no idea how they drugged me. I hung out with a few of Ireland's friends, and before I knew it, I woke up in Jagger’s bed with this damn pounding headache.
Nothing makes sense. I wish like hell that I could remember something.
Sighing, I close my eyes and hope something will come to me. I run through the night one more time. When we got to the party, we got drinks. I got mine, and Ireland got hers. We danced a little on the makeshift dance floor, grinding up against each other and laughing at who knows what. I got another drink, followed by some conversing with Ireland’s friends from her sorority.
I never once put my drink down or let someone else even hold the cup. I went to the bathroom, my cup still in hand, then came back out and started to feel dizzy. After that, my memories just faded away. The next thing I knew, I woke up in Jagger's bed. He looked angry and scared at the same time, something I’ve never seen on his face before.
"No. Tell Ridge she's fine. She's got a headache, but she's not going anywhere. If he has a problem with it, he knows where I live."
My eyes snap open and I stare at the side of his face. I don't know if this feud between them is ever going to end, but as long as Ridge is doing drugs, I don't want anything to do with him.
He rubs at his temples, so I curl on my side and watch him. Reaching out, I run my fingers down the side of his face and watch as he relaxes.
"No," he says before pausing. "I haven't heard. You tell me." He looks over at me. I can already tell that he's going to tell me something I don't want to hear.
He tells the person he will call them later. I feel my stomach drop. Something bad is going to be said, and I don't know if I can handle it right now. I've had nothing but weird and bad stuff happen for the last few weeks, and I'm ready for life to stop being so shitty. I finally have Jagger, but everything around us has exploded with weird shit.
He reaches over to brush my hair out of my face as I hold my breath. "Ridge found Ireland last night…” He stops for a second, almost like he's trying to figure out the words to use. Something must have happened to her. I hope she's okay. What if someone seriously hurt her, or worse? Oh, my god. I think I might be sick.
“Is she okay?” I ask hesitantly.
"She's a little banged up, but they said she would be okay in a few days. She has a few bruises and a couple cuts on her."
I sigh in relief. “Where did he find her? And how did he even know something happened to her?” He rolls back over to his back and puts his arm over his eyes, covering half his face from me. "Jagger," I whisper, moving slowly. I have no clue why I hurt so damn much right now. “Please, tell me.”
"When I was carrying you to the car last night, he showed up. He was going to start shit with me, but as soon as I mentioned Ireland was still missing, he left to go find her." He blows out a breath before continuing. "I think he has something to do with the shit that's been happening. It all started once he began using again. If something happens to you because of him…" He trails off.
“Why do you think it has to do with him?” I ask, hating the way my voice breaks.
"I just have a feeling. When I said as much to him, I could see he thought the same thing. They would have just gone after you if it had something to do with me. You're the one thing people can go after to hurt me. Ridge has two downfalls."
I swallow around the lump that has now taken residence in my throat. “Me and Ireland.”
He nods. I don't know how I could have missed that. Everyone knows Ridge would do anything to protect me, and the same goes for Ireland. I think they had a thing at one point. They both deny it to this day, but I know she has feelings for him.
“When can I see her?” The words tumble from my mouth before I can stop them. I don’t care what they say. I want to see my best friend. I need to.
"I don't know. I can talk to your brother and ask him to bring her here."
I nod before laying my head on his chest and curling up into his side. His arms wrap around me and I close my eyes. Being in his arms is the only thing keeping me sane right now. If I didn't have Jagger, I don't know what I would be doing…besides going crazy with worry.
The doorbell rings, making me groan. He kisses the top of my head and rolls out from under me. All he has on is a pair of sweats that ride low on his hips. I watch the way his muscles move and contract with every step he takes. As he walks out of view, I try to close my eyes again. My body is telling me that I need sleep, while my mind races with a million different things that I need to find out.
I know if I ask more questions, Jagger will get quiet on me. He only likes to tell me things I need to know, preferring to keep me in the dark on everything else.
I hear voices coming from the other room, but I can’t bring myself to get up to see who is here. A flash of blonde hair comes into the room and jumps onto the bed, making me suck in a breath. Ireland buries herself under the covers so quickly, I think I’m hallucinating. “Thank God you’re okay, Bresy,” she whispers as she hugs me tightly. I yelp from the pain, then wrap my arms around her, too.
"I glad you're okay, too," I whisper into her hair. We just lay here, arms around each other, not moving. We’ve been through a lot of things together, but this is probably the worst yet.
“What happened?” I hate asking the question, but I need to know. It bothers me that I can’t remember much of the night.
"I don't know. The last thing I remember was dancing with you. Next thing I knew, I was being carried through some shitty hallway until I ended up with Ridge." A tear runs down her cheek. I carefully reach out to wipe it away. Her face is swollen, scratches and bruises covering her normally clear skin.
“Ridge wasn’t a dick, was he?” I ask, a hint of a smile on my lips. She giggles and shakes her head.
"It was like he was totally a different person when he brought me to his place…which is a disaster, by the way.” I wrinkle my nose at that. Ridge was always such a damn neat freak, so for her to say he is now a slob worries me.
“Really? It’s a mess?”
She nods before grabbing my hand and intertwining our fingers. "Yeah, it is so unlike him. I don't know what's going on, but he needs you, Bresy. I can see the hurt written all over his face when we talk about you. He loves you so much, it is killing him that you guys are at odds.”
She will never understand. I already know that’s how it’s going to be.