Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“Hic… I’m fine… Hic.”
Paige laid me down on the bed, Cate followed with a glass of water.
“After one finger of gin he’s steaming?” Trev said.
“He did warn us,” Paige countered.
Curse earthly alcohol.
Hic.
The ceiling throbbed. Every time I turned my head, the edges of my vision blurred. A spin here, a spin there, my stomach lurching each time.
“Stars…” I breathed.
“Drink this,” Cate said.
I managed to sit up to gulp the water, collapsing after the last drop.
“I can’t…”
“Sleep it off, mate,” Trev added. “Poor thing.”
I closed my eyes, listening to their voices. James returned, said something, so many sounds, so many sentences stopping me from sleeping and escaping the spinning darkness behind my eyes.
At least I hadn’t vomited yet.
I plucked Trev’s voice from the amalgamated noise. “I’ll stay with him.”
Noise. Noise.
Spin. Spin.
Lurch. Lurch.
Gone.
Awake.
Still drunk. No more noise. Wait. One noise. Loud snoring from beyond my door.
Hic.
Sleeping? How long for?
I got up, swaying on my feet before putting one foot in front of the other. Step by step, I shuffled past the troll snoring on my sofa, grabbing a wind-up solar lantern and made it out of my door to the stairwell leading up to his place.
Him.
Mr. Moody.
Mr. Let’s Mess Around on Glass Roofs and Get Shot At.
Hic.
Taking one step at a time, I bent over to inspect my ascent by the light of the lantern. A wicked drunken entity was my master, plucking at every string, freeing me from rational thinking.
Hic.
I found his door, slamming my fist into it.
Miko opened the door wearing a vest and sweatpants.
Yum.
Hic.
“Orion?”
“You!” I jabbed a finger at him, lumbering forward.
He caught me.
I shoved off him, palms throbbing at the action, close to tumbling to my ass. “I want to talk to you.”
“What happened?”
“You’re nothing but a…a pig’s wart. Not a pig because pigs are super cute and loving and warm and pink and…hic. So there. You’re the nasty warts they get on their poor bum holes. Painful…hic…and itchy and… and… Oh, piss off.”
“Are you drunk?”
“I…hic…had one. One!” I held up two fingers, aware of my behavior but locked out of the control room.
“Come in and sit down.”
“I… I don’t want to sit down…”
He touched my shoulder.
I pushed him with as much effect as a mouse shoving a boulder, legs giving out from under me.
Miko caught me and helped me over to a sofa. The room blurred around the edges of my vision, my skin crawling under his touch.
Not crawling.
Singing.
Spread out on the comfy cushions, one leg hanging off the side, I closed my eyes. “You put…put me in danger. That…that wasn’t very nice.”
“I’ve already apologized.”
“Ah, no…no you…you didn’t mean it…hic.”
“I did.”
“You scared me.”
“I’m sorry.”
“You shouldn’t mess with me.”
“I’m not messing with you.”
“I can be dangerous.”
“I’m sure.”
“Only between the sheets.” I howled with laughter, hiccuping, snapping my fingers. “Daaaannnnggggeeeerrrrroooouuuussss.”
I disconnected with everything else after that.