Chapter 5 Giulia #2
I’m finally getting the chance to live a little, and I might as well go all-in. I toss the drink down my throat as she does and fight to play it off like it’s no big deal, even though it’s way stronger than what we drank earlier. When she hands me another one, I do it again. It’s easier this time.
There’s a funny sort of warmth filling my veins after another minute or so. The beat of the music works its way through me, pushing aside my fears. I could be anybody tonight, from anywhere. I can let go of everything holding me back.
“Let’s dance!” I shout. Olivia nods, and we fight our way onto the dance floor. Brynn and Serena meet up with us there, and pretty soon we’re all dancing with our arms in the air, swinging our hair and cheering each other on.
So this is what I’ve been missing out on. The feeling of freedom. Moving with the music. Not thinking about it too much. Letting go.
It’s easy to lose myself, and I welcome the feeling. I’m alive and in love with the world. I love the music. I love my new friends. I love tasting real life for just a little while.
I love it so much that when a pair of hands land on my hips from behind, I don’t shove them away. Instead, I look over my shoulder and size up the cute guy now dancing with me.
“Hey!” he calls out, his chest pressed against my back.
I’m a little thrown off at first, but go with it because isn’t this the point?
Meeting people, maybe connecting? And he is really cute, with a head full of hair almost as curly as mine and a smile that eases my doubts.
“Hi!” I shout back, leaning against him when instinct tells me to.
Soon we’re moving as one, letting the beat and the chemistry between our bodies lead us.
The warmth that filled me when I drank those shots turns to heat.
Until he cups one of my boobs, and I freeze.
“Don’t do that!” I swat his hand away, then push him back. I’m surprised none of the girls jump in to rescue me, at least until I realize they’re gone. Somehow, in the past minute or two, they totally abandoned me.
“What’s your problem?” He rakes a hand through his hair, scowling. “If you don’t want to dance, just say you don’t want to.”
It’s not the dancing I mind. I would tell him that, too, if the music wasn’t so loud and my head wasn’t suddenly spinning like it is. I need to find the girls. My legs are rubbery, and I feel all hot and sweaty.
When I turn away, trying to find one of them, the room spins, and I sort of fall back against him. His hand closes around my arm. “You look like you need help!” the guy shouts, looming over me, making me cringe and stealing all the air around me.
He’s too big.
I don’t like this.
“No. Let me go.” My tongue is thick, and I can’t stand up straight without swaying because the room is tilting.
His grip tightens, and a flash of something close to pain makes me think of all the stories I’ve ever heard about girls who end up hurt or worse after meeting the wrong person.
Is he the wrong person? I don’t know. I don’t know anything.
I just know I want to get out of here and away from him, but he won’t let me go.
“Let me help you,” he insists with a smile that turns my stomach when it made me feel relaxed at first. “You’ll be okay. Let’s get out of here.”
When he starts to pull me across the dance floor, I try to plant my feet, but all I do is stumble and go down on one knee. “Let me go!” It’s a shriek, a plea. I’m going to be trampled. Too many people, too many feet, nobody notices me.
I’m in trouble.
I need help.
And then all at once, his hand is gone. I’m free. The area around me clears out too. When I look up through the curls that have fallen in front of my face, I see a tall man in a dark suit hauling the stranger in by his collar, getting in his face.
Then he looks down at me over his shoulder, and I have to push my curls aside to make sure I’m not seeing things. “Alessandro?” I whisper, but the sound is lost under the music.
He lets go of the stranger, shoving him away, then reaches down and helps me off the floor. His touch is rough but welcome.
“Let’s go,” he almost barks as he starts forcing his way through the crowd of bodies. “It’s time to go home.”
But I don’t want to go home. That wasn’t the point.
I’m supposed to be staying with the girls, only I can’t find them, and everything around me is moving way too fast. If it weren’t for Alessandro keeping me on my feet, I would go down again.
I have to lean against him, but it’s not so bad. He’s strong.
And he’s grumbling loudly by the time we get outside, where I gratefully gulp in fresh air, even if I didn’t want to leave the club yet.
“Fucking lucky I was watching,” he mutters, walking me down the street while I stumble and struggle to keep up. “It went exactly the way I thought it would. Are you happy? Are you proud of yourself? What would’ve happened if I wasn’t in there?”
“You were supposed to wait for me.” I don’t feel good. At all. I can almost feel my stomach sloshing around with every unsteady step I take.
He barks out a chilling laugh. “Right. And what would’ve happened if I did?”
I hate this goddamn know-it-all.
He’s disgusting.
He’s evil.
He saved me.
We come to a stop at the corner and wait for what seems like a million cars to go past. All of the lights blur together and start to tilt along with the rest of the world. Alessandro Vitali rescued me. The thought makes my stomach churn worse than ever.
“Don’t you dare,” he warns when I clap a hand over my mouth.
Too late.
I barely have time to bend at the waist before an entire flood of puke comes rushing out of my mouth and splashes all over the sidewalk.