Chapter Twenty-Six
Leo
I was falling for Sophia. Not slowly. Not just a little bit.
I was crashing to the ground at the speed of a meteor for this girl and I had zero interest in stopping myself from hitting the ground.
She had just enough spunk to keep things interesting while also being one of the kindest people I’d ever met.
She was funny and caring, adventurous and smart.
I couldn’t think of a single thing I could ever want in a woman that she didn’t possess.
I’d told her once that I knew what love looked like because of my parents, but even having seen their love all my life, I couldn’t have imagined how it would feel to be falling in love.
It was like a drug I imagined people would kill for.
I’d officially hit a point where I was falling for her so badly that I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up with our arrangement without telling her how I felt, but I also wasn’t sure if telling her would scare her off, or interest her in making things official between us.
We clearly had something together, and there were moments when I thought she might feel something for me too, but she’d mostly brushed off the comments and hints I’d dropped about how I felt thus far as if she still doubted that I could be this infatuated with her.
Or maybe, she was just the more sensible of the two of us because she knew she was going home to Hawaii at the end of the school year no matter what happened between now and then.
As far as I was concerned, I’d rather have something real with her until then than never be more than friends with benefits.
We’d hooked up after last night’s loss—which had sucked—but being with her had quickly made me forget about it.
It was also the first game in weeks that I hadn’t had to push through rib pain to play.
We watched Modern Family for hours before I walked her back to her room, a new post-sex habit of ours.
She’d told me she was going to be at Devon’s party tonight and asked me to meet her there.
I hardly ever attended the parties thrown by Devon and his roommates, two other seniors who weren’t going pro next year.
But if Sophia was going to be there, I was going.
And not just because she’d asked me to be there, but because Devon’s parties were known to get out of hand.
I couldn’t help myself from becoming more and more protective of this woman.
I’d spent most of my night working on an assignment for my exercise science class and was a little later to the party than I’d planned to be by the time I finally walked into the loud space.
The guys had a two-story town house and the bottom floor was packed with people in the kitchen and living room.
A few people were making out in corners, and I suspected many people were doing the same upstairs.
I spotted Jia in the kitchen chatting with Rickles and a dark-skinned guy I’d seen sneaking in and out of his room last week. I made my way toward them. “Hey,” I said, slapping hands with Rickles. “Have you seen Sophia?”
Jia smirked. “She’s around here somewhere. Last I saw she was blowing-off Devon. He was hitting on her while she played beer pong.”
My muscles clenched. Of course, he was hitting on her. She was the hottest girl to ever roam the earth and I hadn’t officially told him to back off. Way to go, Leo, you dumb fuck.
“Thanks,” I said, already walking away from them. I’d seen beer pong in the living room, so I walked back in that direction, scanning the crowd.
My heart plummeted to the pit of my stomach when I found her sitting on the couch with Devon on one side of her and Harley on the other. Harley had an arm around her, and she was leaning into him.
No, not leaning. Falling.
My eyes narrowed as I walked toward them, taking in the scene. Harley’s other hand was on her knee and Sophia looked completely out of it.
But she hardly ever drinks at these parties.
She had a can of hard seltzer in her hand, nearly spilling it as she struggled to stay upright.
I clenched my hands into fists at my sides. She was blinking slowly and struggling to lift her head. There was no way she’d gotten that drunk already. Harley leered at her in a way that made me see red.
“Soph?” I said, marching over to her as fast as possible.
Her eyes shifted to me, but she still didn’t lift her head. “Leo?” she asked, sounding relieved at the sound of my voice. “Why is the room spinning so much?”
“You’re fine, baby,” Harley said. “You just had too much to drink.”
“Get your hands off her,” I said, lunging for him and pushing him away from Sophia as I bent down into a squat to catch her head.
“Leo, I don’t feel good,” Sophia said, eyes glassy. Her words slurred as she looked at the can in her hand. “I barely even drank this.”
“What the fuck did you do to her?” I asked Harley. I pulled Sophia to my chest and held her in place as she slumped forward, head on my shoulder.
“Like I said, the girl had too much to drink.” Harley smirked and sipped on a bottle of beer. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll take care of her.”
“The fuck you will,” I yelled.
“Calm down, Leo. She’s fine,” Devon said.
Sophia groaned against my chest, and I felt her body droop even more.
“She’s not fine. She can’t even support her own weight.” I held her tighter, my heart thumping out of my chest while every muscle in my body tightened.
“Look, you two can share her if you want. The Rohypnol should make her plenty agreeable,” Harley said.
“You drugged her? You fucking piece of shit,” I snarled. I looked down at Sophia to find her eyes closing slowly as she tried to fight against the drug. “If you touch her again, I will fucking kill you.”
Devon stood up. “Leo—”
“Don’t even think about telling me to calm down again,” I said glaring at him.
“If the bitch hadn’t turned down my brother I wouldn’t have needed to make her more compliant,” Harley said with a sleezy smile.
I let Soph fall back on the couch as I lunged at him. “You sick son of a bitch.” I pulled my arm back and my fist connected with the side of his face before I’d even registered what I was doing.
“What the hell, man?” Devon yelled, pulling me back as I wound up again.
I shook him off, noticing that a few people were watching us, but most were oblivious because of the loud music and noises of the party around us.
“You knew he drugged her, Devon? What were you going to do to her?” I gestured to Sophia.
Devon swallowed and averted his eyes from me.
“Come on, Soph.” I bent down again and pulled her up, letting her slump against my shoulder. “I’ve got you, okay?”
“Leo?” she asked, her words slurred. “What’s…what’s wrong with me?”
“You’re going to be okay, baby,” I mumbled into her ear as I grabbed under her legs and lifted her into my arms. “I’m not letting you go.”
“Have fun,” Harley called after me as I turned for the door.
I spun back around and looked between him and Devon. “We’re done, Devon. And if she is anything other than one hundred precent okay after this, I’ll be knocking on Coach’s door Monday morning with a lot to say.”
Harley snorted. “You really have your knickers in a twist for this girl. Learn to share, buddy.”
“Enough, Harley,” Devon said, looking down at the ground as he put an arm in front of his brother. “Just take her home, Leo.”
I certainly didn’t need his permission, and I wasn’t going to waste any more time with them. Devon and I might have been friendly enough but if he thought I was going to be able to overlook his brother’s behavior and his own complacency in hurting Sophia, he had another thing coming.
I walked quickly across campus to Sophia’s dorm with her passed out against my chest, moaning uncomfortably every few minutes.
It was the only sound I heard over the blood rushing in my ears.
My muscles should have gotten tired given the length of the walk from Devon’s place to hers, but I felt nothing except my racing pulse and erratic breathing as I moved through a wave of panic.
I kicked on the door to her suite three times in an attempt to knock. Sophia had told me Alyssa was staying in tonight, so I was hoping she was home. I wanted Soph to be in her own bed when she woke up so she wasn’t any more afraid of what happened than she already would be.
“What the hell?” Alyssa groaned as she pulled the door open. She froze when she saw my frantic state and Sophia limp in my arms. “Leo! What happened?”
She stepped back, opening the door to let me in.
“She was roofied.”
“Oh my God,” Alyssa said, putting a hand over her mouth and watching as I made my way to the bathroom. “What can I do?”
I set Sophia down in the corner on the floor of the bathroom and propped her up against the wall. “My dad’s a paramedic. I’m going to call him and do whatever he tells me to do,” I said, palms sweating as I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
I ran a hand through my hair and fought back the stinging in my eyes. I could not fall apart. She needed me to help her, not panic and worry without acting.
“Okay, I’m going to get some water.” Alyssa darted off into the kitchen while I pressed the button to call my dad.
“Hey, what’s up?” my dad asked, sounding happy to hear from me.
“Dad,” I croaked, swallowing the lump in my throat and forcing my voice to steady. “I went to a party on campus and a friend of mine was roofied. The guy said he gave her Rohypnol.” My voice cracked. “I need you to tell me what to do. Please.”
“Jesus Christ, Leo,” Dad sighed. “Where are you? Are you both safe?”
“Yes. I got her out of there as soon as I noticed something was off. We’re at her dorm. Please just tell me what to do,” I begged.
“Okay. Take a deep breath. If you care about your friend, you need to keep a clear head. Can you do that?” he asked in a calm and commanding tone that I imagined served him well at work.
“Yes,” I said. I had to. I wasn’t leaving her, and I cared more about her than I’d ever cared about anything.