8. Faith
“No!”
Unable to control my reaction, I shoved past Ravi and streaked into the bathroom.
I barely managed to find a clean, puke-free spot on the floor before I fell to my knees beside Hudson.
“Please don’t be dead. Please don’t be dead,” I chanted as I lifted two shaking fingers to his carotid. His throat was warm, and a steady, insistent bump greeted my fingers, letting me know his heart was still beating. Then his torso shifted as he inhaled.
“Oh, thank God,” I breathed, plopping my butt onto the floor in relief. “He’s alive.”
When I glanced up, Ravi still looked irritated in the doorway. “Fucking lovely,” he grumbled before sighing out, “I’ll get some Super Sorb.”
And then he disappeared, leaving me alone in the bathroom with a passed-out Hudson.
As the door swung shut with his departure, the scent of urine and bile swamped me, and I gagged, immediately covering my mouth and glancing away from the mess.
“Oh… You’re going to owe me so big for this,” I swore, breathing through my mouth to keep my stomach calm before I was able to return my attention to the drunk who’d made such a mess.
Strangely enough, his hair still looked amazing. My fingers actually tingled with the need to touch it. But I resisted and gripped his shoulder instead. Except, damn… That was one fine shoulder.
I’d been so right; he really did have some decent muscle tone under all those clothes.
Swallowing past that, I shook his shoulder gently. “Hudson? Hey, Hudson,” I tried to coax him back to consciousness. “You need to wake up now, hon. Do you hear me? Hudson.”
I shook him just a little bit harder, and then I couldn’t help myself. I ran my hand over his hair, trying to stroke him back to the land of the living.
He drew in a sharp breath, and I pulled my hand back guiltily. Then his brow furrowed, and he let out a small growl of protest.
Realizing the hair thing had worked, I plowed my fingers back into his silken tresses and gently scraped my nails over his scalp, making him shudder. “Hudson,” I sang sweetly. “Come on now, baby. Open those pretty blue eyes for me.”
He did. Slowly and blearily. And before he could completely focus, he rolled toward me, landing on his back and squishing his hip right up against mine. I would’ve scooted back to give him more room, but I didn’t actually have anywhere else to go since the sink was, like, right there.
Hudson squinted up at me, still obviously trying to rouse himself, and then he mumbled, “Stalker?” in a hoarse, scratchy voice. Lifting a hand to shade his eyes from the overhead light to see me better, he rasped, “What’re you doing in my room?”
Oh boy…
“We’re not in your room,” I told him. “We’re still at Calamity’s, the restaurant. In the bathroom. You passed out in here.”
“Oh, thank God,” he breathed, closing his eyes briefly and resting his wrist cuff against his brow. “I was gonna be real worried if my room smelled this bad. It’s like piss and…and…” He winced and had to swallow thickly before asking, “The fuck is that?”
He started to lift his head to check out the space around him, but I stopped him, cupping his face and making him stay focused on me. “No. Don’t look,” I warned. “You threw up. A lot.”
Squeezing his eyes shut, he let out a miserable groan. “Great.” When his lashes parted again, he winced at me in apology. “Did I get any on you?”
“No,” I said. “But it’s all over you.”
“Fuck.” His body heaved as he gagged over that idea.
“Oh jeez,” I shrieked, rearing back but basically trapped where I was. “Are you going to throw up again?”
“I don’t know,” he moaned pathetically, cradling his stomach.
“Okay, alright. We can deal with this. Let’s get you upright. Come this way to stay out of the mess.” I gripped his arm, directing him which way to go.
“Thank you,” he said, moving slowly but steadily until we were both sitting upright and side-by-side on the floor with our backs to the wall and the mess he’d made plenty of feet away in front of us.
For the longest second, we just sat there like that, with our knees bent, taking in the disaster of the room.
“I really don’t remember doing all this,” Hudson admitted, squinting at everything before he started to gag again.
“Seriously?” I cried. “Stop looking at it.”
“Sorry,” he managed to say as he turned his face my way.
Our gazes met, but before either of us could say anything, the door swung open.
“Whew!” Ravi announced, covering his nose and mouth with the back of his hand that held a can of liquid absorbent. “That is rank.”
I knew he was going to just toss the Super Sorb inside to me and make me do all the nasty work, so I clutched Hudson’s arm and started to drag him upright with me. “I need to get him out of this bathroom and cleaned up.”
Hudson bobbed his head in agreement and pointed at the floor. “Before I do that again.”
Ravi narrowed his eyes, but then huffed out a grunt of defeat and grumbled, “God, fine.” He stepped aside to let us out. “I’ll take care of this. You just…get the guy an Uber or something.”
“Will do,” I said as I carefully led Hudson into the hall.
In the corridor, Bianca was waiting near the end and leaning against the wall, blowing a bubble with her gum as she played on her phone and waited for Ravi to finish. But when she saw us, she jerked upright in surprise and blinked at Hudson.
“Holy shit! Where’d he come from?”
“Narnia,” Hudson told her drunkenly. “You would not believe where the wardrobe in that bathroom leads to. Hey, d’you have any more of that gum? Or a mint? Tastes like something crawled into my mouth and died.”
Leaning heavily against me, he shuffled along like an old, arthritic grandpa as he steered himself toward Bianca, but I tightened my grip on him and said, “This way. I’ll get you a drink to wash your mouth out at the bar.”
“Oh, thank God,” he said and easily switched directions, following along where I led. Swinging his glassy-eyed gaze to me, he grinned loopily. “You’re the best stalker ever.”
I sighed and took him over to a stool at the bar where I had him sit.
“Think you can stay here without falling?” I asked, keeping my hands lifted and ready to catch him if he so much as swayed too heavily in one direction.
He nodded and then looked at me. But as soon as he lifted his hands and announced, “Tada!” he started to topple sideways off his seat. “Shit.”
Slapping his hands down onto the counter, he caught himself just as I reached out and steadied his arm.
We stayed there a moment until we were both sure he was stable. Then he lifted his face and sent me another goofy but wholly adorable grin. “All good.”
Shaking my head, I blew out a breath and took a cautious step back. When he continued to hold onto the counter for support, I nodded and hurried around to get behind the bar. There, I made him a glass of ice water and slid it across.
“Drink slowly,” I commanded before dropping a handful of mints in front of him.
Nodding, he picked up the cup and closed his eyes as he gulped. Once finished, he hissed out a satisfied sigh. “That was the best damn water I ever had.”
I couldn’t help but smile. There was just something affectionately sweet about him when he was wasted. “I imagine it was.” As I produced a roll of paper towels and a spray bottle of cleaning solution, he was already popping two of the mints into his mouth. “Now let’s get you cleaned up, shall we?” I said, returning to his side of the bar.
“Uh, okay,” He sounded confused but swiveled the seat of his stool around to face me so I could have better access. “Am I dirty?”
“You spewed all over yourself, buddy. What do you think?”
“Did I?” He glanced down at his lap, and his eyes widened. “Oh shit. I don’t remember that.”
“Don’t touch it.” I grabbed his arm to stop him when he tried to brush a dried chunk of something off his shirt. “Just…stay still. Let me do it.”
He obeyed, and I sprayed his clothes directly before taking a paper towel to his shirt and trying to wipe everything away the best that I could.
All the while, Hudson watched passively as I worked, his attention drifting back and forth between my expression and his shirt. “You take the best care of me,” he slurred as he nodded to himself. “Yeah, I think I like having a stalker.”
I ground my teeth, about to tell him yet again that I wasn’t stalking him, but then he finally glanced around the quiet, empty restaurant and said, “Hey. Where’d everybody go?”
“Home,” I answered bluntly. “We closed almost an hour ago.”
That seemed to confuse him, though. With a frown, he started to shake his head. “But my friends…”
“Yeah, real great group of friends you got there,” I muttered, unrolling a few more fresh sheets and spraying the paper towel this time before I took his arm and scrubbed at his elbow. “They’re all gone too.”
“They left me?” He seemed surprised.
“Yep.”
Mouth dropping open, he tipped his head and murmured, “Huh.”
“Yeah. Happy freaking birthday to you.” I tossed aside another wad of used paper towels and grabbed a new one before moving to his other arm.
When he merely blinked at me, not amused by my lame joke, I hissed out a sympathetic breath. “Don’t worry. I’ll call you an Uber here in a sec, just as soon as you’re cleaned up. Okay?”
But Hudson waved a sloppy hand. “Naw,” he said. “Don’t bother. Someone will come back for me. Because you’re wrong; I do have good friends.”
Pausing my task, I looked up at him with lifted eyebrows. “They forgot you and left. That is not what I call a good group of friends.”
He shook his head insistently. “Then you don’t know what good friends are.”
I pulled back in surprise, actually hurt. Because it was true. I’d never been able to keep a single friend in my entire life. So I’d eventually stopped trying to even make any.
But to Hudson, I snapped, “Honey, I’m the sober one here. Don’t argue with me.”
“Hey, I’ll argue with you if I want to,” he insisted, somehow sounding entertained instead of belligerent.
He tore his elbow from my grip so he could fumble with his watch before he ripped it off his arm completely and tossed it on top of the bar. Then he clutched his thick black wrist cuff connected to the other arm and clumsily removed that next.
I took a step back, not sure what he was planning because it almost seemed as if he were gearing up to physically brawl with me over the whole debate.
But then he held up his hands, showing me the scars that lacerated the insides of both wrists. And these weren’t barely visible, little white slash lines either. These were dark red puckers of skin that revealed places where deep cuts had been gouged from his flesh violently.
“Want to know how to really tell who’s a good friend or not?” he challenged. “Cut your fucking wrists open when you’re fourteen and then overdose on drugs because you can’t handle all the pressure in your head, and then see who’s left standing by your bedside when you wake up again in the hospital. That’s how you tell.”
“Holy shit,” I murmured, grabbing his hands and keeping his wrists facing up so I could bring them closer to see exactly what he’d done to himself.
“They’re the best fucking friends I ever had,” he swore. “I’m alive today because they refused to give up on me.”
I blinked up at him as fear and panic crammed its way inside my chest. “You tried to kill yourself when you were fourteen?”
That just…
It was all wrong. He seemed so carefree. So laid back. So relaxed. Like nothing ever bothered him.
I didn’t like the idea of something haunting him enough to make him want to take his own life. I liked him being on this planet. The world was more beautiful and pleasant because he was in it.
Worried that he was still unstable, I tightened my grip on his fingers as if that would keep him from harming himself again.
Nodding severely, he leaned toward me and whispered, “The pressure made me do it.”
I squinted, confused. “The pressure?”
What the fuck was he talking about?
“Yep,” he rasped even more quietly as if he didn’t want the pressure to overhear us. “In my head.”
“Like a headache?” I guessed, cocking my face to the side as I tried to understand. “You got migraines?”
He frowned, letting me know that word didn’t sound right.
“Your head hurt?” I asked, using a different terminology.
This time he nodded immediately. “Yeah.”
“And now…it doesn’t?” I had to know. “The pain’s gone?”
Hudson blinked. Then he straightened in surprise. “It was,” he told me, seemingly startled by that fact, only to squint curiously. “When I woke up in the hospital, it was gone. And it stayed away for the longest time.”
“The longest time?” I repeated, shaking my head. “What does that mean? Does that mean it’s back? Is the pressure back again?”
Was he suicidal again?
My heart started to beat harder.
“I…” His brow furrowed in thought as he squinted at me. “Yeah, I think the pressure is starting to come back again,” he admitted bleakly before pressing a palm against the side of his brow. “I mean, it’s gone right now.” After experimentally dabbing at his head, he lifted his gaze to me. “But it was here earlier.”
“Fuck,” I admitted.
Hudson winced. “This isn’t good, is it?”
I swallowed thickly. Because, no, this wasn’t good at all.
I opened my mouth, even though I wasn’t sure what to say. I think I wanted to reassure him that it would be okay. I wouldn’t let him hurt himself, but that was complete bullshit. How the hell could I keep him from harm? I hadn’t even known his dang name until tonight.
And he was Genesis’s boyfriend, anyway. Who was I to take on any responsibility for some guy who was dating the one person I despised most? That didn’t make any sense at all.
Before I could come up with a proper response, however, someone blew around the corner from the front of the restaurant.
“Yeah, some bubble-gum-chewing chick just let me in. I can’t believe you fucking lost him,” the man was growling into his phone as he stalked angrily into view. “No! Why would I drive him home? He lives with you!”
Recognizing him, I pointed. “Isn’t that your?—”
“You better hope to God he went home with that damn waitress,” the newcomer barked. “Because if he’s not here…”
Next to me, Hudson straightened. “Oh, hey. It’s Ohrley,” he announced happily. Then he waved. “Yo. Parker!”
Parker lifted his attention and pulled up short. Immediate relief flooded his expression, and his shoulders fell as he gripped the back of his head before closing his eyes briefly.
“He’s here,” he announced abruptly and then stalked toward us, scowling heatedly. Pocketing his phone after he disconnected, he grumbled, “Jesus, Ive. Give us a fucking heart attack, will ya?”
“Why?” Hudson blinked cluelessly and began to glance around. “What happened?”
Parker shook his head and exhaled deeply. “Nothing, buddy. You ready to go home?”
Hudson bobbed his head compliantly. “Sure. I could go home. Sleep sounds pretty good right now.”
“Great.” Gripping Hudson’s arm, Parker hauled him off the stool. “Let’s go.”
When Hudson tripped and started to fall, I dove forward to catch his free arm, “Watch it!” I snarled. “He’s still incredibly drunk, you know.”
But my scolding only caused Parker to lift his eyebrows. “I got him,” he assured before tugging his friend away from me.
I slapped my hands to my hips and snapped, “Oh yeah? Didn’t seem like you had him very well ten minutes ago when I found him passed out on the bathroom floor, lying in a puddle of his own vomit.”
Parker grimaced and pulled his face away from Hudson. “Aww, man. You puked on yourself?”
Hudson bobbed his head sadly. “I know… I was trying to hold it so I could puke on you, but you were taking too long.”
“Fuck.” Lifting Hudson’s arm so he could get a look at his torso, Parker asked, “Do we need to clean you up before you get in my car?”
“No,” I snarled. “Because I already cleaned him.”
Parker glanced my way, seemingly once again startled by my anger. As if he had no idea why I would be pissed. Then, he heaved out a sigh and reached into his pocket to pull a wallet free.
When he extended some bills toward me that appeared to be more hundreds, he finally said, “Thanks for looking after him. But I got it from here.”
I scowled at the cash, utterly offended. “I don’t want your fucking money. I want you to take better care of your friend.”
“Hey, I’m here, aren’t I?” He took an intimidating step closer. “Maybe you need to?—”
“Whoa…whoa,” Hudson spoke up, swaying as he manually nudged Parker back away from me. “Be nice to my stalker, Ohrley. I like her.”
I lifted my brows, smug. “Yeah, Ohrley,” I taunted. “Be nice.”
As Parker sent me a warning glance, Hudson turned my way. “And take the money, darlin’. He’s too rich as it is. Maybe losing a few bucks will help him be less of an arrogant ass.”
“Fine,” I said for his benefit and snagged the cash ungraciously, not even bothering to say thank you to his pompous jerk of a friend.
“We good, then?” Hudson asked, glancing between the two of us with a drunken swivel of the head. “Great.” He reached up to pat both my and Parker’s cheeks simultaneously. “I love it when everyone gets along. Now, let’s go home, Park. I’m ready to crash.”
With that, he strolled away, leaving Parker and me there still stewing and glaring at each other. But as I glanced toward Hudson who was staggering toward the exit and bumping into a new chair with every third step, my shoulders fell.
Things inside me softened. Affection blossomed. And all the stiff, uptight anger I’d been experiencing just…loosened, falling away like crumbs from a cookie.
I had no idea what it was about him, but the fucking guy turned me to absolute putty. Every time I looked at him.
“Is he going to be okay?” I asked, growing worried.
Next to me, Parker snorted. “Who? Ivey? Hell yeah. He’s like a cockroach. He’ll survive past the fall of everything as we know it and just keep chugging along as if nothing happened.”
When I glanced up at him, I wasn’t so convinced. “I don’t think he should’ve gotten that drunk tonight, what with his past and all. You’re going to stay with him until morning, right?”
Parker sent me a sharp glance. Instead of answering, however, he narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “What do you know about his past?”
I lifted a challenging eyebrow, refusing to answer. “Don’t let him out of your sight again. Not for the rest of the fucking night. You got me?”
Parker stepped close. “Look. Ivey might think it’s all cute and fun to tease and call you his stalker, as if it’s no big deal, but if you’re really following him around and sticking your nose into his personal shit, learning things about him you shouldn’t, I’ll tell you right now, sweetheart, that’s not a smart idea. Because if you fuck with Hudson and hurt him in any way, then you’ve fucked with me.” The smile he sent me was downright threatening. “And I don’t play nice like he does.”
I lifted my chin, refusing to back down. “Wow. A pretty, entitled rich boy is threatening me. How original. I’m terrified.”
Parker blinked and straightened away, clearly thrown by my words, which let me know he hadn’t even been thinking in that vein. He’d honestly just been worried about Hudson.
Huh. Maybe he wasn’t such a shitty friend after all.
Tilting his head as if viewing me in a new light, admiration seemed to glitter in his eyes before he murmured, “Damn, you have quite the backbone on you, don’t you?” Then, he lifted his eyebrows. “And you think I’m pretty, huh? Prettier than Hudson?”
I scoffed. “Not hardly.”
He released a disappointed breath. “Fucking Ivey. Lucky son of a bitch always draws in the best chicks.”
Realizing he was jealous, I lifted my brows in surprise. I had no idea how my being a bitch to him had caught his interest, but he definitely seemed interested.
“Well maybe if you tried being nice and personable like him every once in a while and not like such a dick, then you’d draw in a few, too,” I suggested, unable to help myself.
Parker smiled. A genuine smile. And it was gorgeous. Leaning closer, he lowered his voice confidentially as he murmured, “Then who’d be left to play asshole?”
Leaving me there to stew on that, he turned away and strolled off.
I frowned and called after him, “Don’t leave him alone tonight.”
Waving over his shoulder, he merely called back, “Later, Stalker.”
“Hey!” I frowned. “That’s Hudson’s name for me.” He couldn’t steal Hudson’s pet name. That wasn’t acceptable at all.
Except Parker didn’t seem to care. The only answer that floated back was an amused chuckle.
“Ass,” I said, turning away, except he’d forced me to say it as more of a compliment than a complaint.
When I faced the bar, however, I noticed the watch and wrist cuff that Hudson had ripped off earlier had been left behind. With a gasp, I reached out and scooped them up. I could still chase after Hudson and probably catch him in the parking lot. But something made me pause.
Something called a plan.
A really bad plan, too. Maybe even an evil plan. But a plan I couldn’t dismiss.
Because Genesis Gusano did not deserve Hudson Ivey for a boyfriend. That’s all there was to it. He was way too good for her.
Not saying that I was good enough for him, but she definitely didn’t deserve him.
Hell, I’d be doing the clueless boy a favor if I followed through with my really, awful, terrible, no-good plan. And honestly, I’d just be making sure he had his property returned if I walked into the final on Monday and handed his shit over to Genesis in Statistics class, sweetly saying, “Hey, your boyfriend left these with me on Friday. Could you get them back to him for me? Thanks…boo.”
I wouldn’t even have to lie and say I’d done a single untoward thing with him. The inference alone would gnaw at her and pester her and drive her crazy until she ended up flat-out dumping him.
Then, he’d be free, I’d finally get a taste of revenge, Genesis would be crushed, and everything would be right in the universe again.
Justice would be served.
I had no idea why I was debating with myself whether I should actually go through with such a plan or not—no idea why even thinking about it made me feel guilty—it was clearly the best thing to do.
“Hey, Woods,” Ravi’s voice called, making me jump as if I’d just been caught with my hand in the cash register.
Acting quickly, I stuffed the wrist cuff and watch into my vest pockets along with the extra hundreds Parker had given me just as Ravi and Bianca appeared from the back hall.
“You get the drunk guy a ride home?” Ravi asked as he set a hand on the small of Bianca’s back to escort her away.
I bobbed my head, not immediately able to speak. Then I cleared my throat. “Uh, yeah. He just left. It’s all good.”
I’d just stolen his property in the hopes of getting his girlfriend to break up with him, that was all. Nothing to see here.
“Good.” Ravi guided Bianca toward the door. “Let’s lock up, then. The bathroom’s done.”
“Right.” I swallowed thickly, then hurried into gear so I could get my things and leave too. “Thank you, Ravi. Goodnight.”
But as I went, the items in my pocket seemed to burn against my stomach in temptation, and then guilt, before the thrilling taste of revenge, and finally shame coated the inside of my throat.
Did I really have the nerve to give Hudson’s things to Genesis and potentially start a cataclysmic series of events that left her scarred and heartbroken?
I guess we would see, come Monday.