Chapter 23 #2
I nod. I was about to suggest we call for back-up from the boys.
Pity Dean can’t tolerate places like this.
Another time, when everything’s calm and nobody’s making bad choices, I’d love to bump and grind with him.
But it’s a trade-off; there are some things he and I will never do, but all the many things we will are more important to me and always will be.
“I’m gonna go wait for him. Are you alright to stay here?”
“Yes.” I turn back, and one of the men holds out a hand to me with a smirk, a clear invitation.
“No, thank you,” I say clearly with a polite smile.
Fortunately, he just shrugs and lets the matter drop.
I’m dancing just enough to not look out of place, keeping watch without cluing her in.
She’s not in the mood to be patronised or mothered, and if she even thinks that’s what I’m doing she’ll dig her heels in.
Braveheart by Neon Jungle starts playing at top volume, and the red and orange lights are dancing perfectly in time with the beat.
It’s visually spectacular, but by the way she stumbles slightly, Sadie’s getting disoriented.
She visibly shakes it off and grabs their hands, running them over her body while the guy behind her starts kissing her shoulder.
Hurry up, Leo .
It’s a huge relief when I spot him barrelling through the crowd to Emily, who talks to him urgently as she points in our general direction. He spots Sadie, and nods without looking away, starting towards us.
It takes a few moments, but eventually the two men Sadie is wiggling her butt against notice him standing there, fists clenched, staring them down.
He doesn’t say anything. The position is quite clear: fuck off or die, make your choice .
They bristle, but hardly any time passes before they decide Sadie isn’t worth taking on the visibly angry brick shithouse in front of them, and extricate themselves, legging it.
“Hey, where you goin’?” Sadie slurs petulantly after them. “Fuckers, see’f I care - ”
She steps backwards, right into Leo, who gently turns her. “Hey, pumpkin,” he shouts brightly but firmly, “time to go home.”
She giggles. “Oh yeah? Is it finally my turn on the Leo Mills wonder-dick?” She wraps her arms around him, pressing her breasts against his chest as she resumes dancing against him. “Your place or mine?”
His face tenses up, and his eyes travel to her smirking lips. She sneaks her fingers under his shirt, travelling provocatively over his abs, and he swallows hard. Shit . She’s drunk. Surely he’s not going to -
He yanks her thigh towards his, giving her intense eye contact, a look of pure sex.
You called down the thunder , his dark look says as he melds their hips together, keeping them glued as he starts responding to her moves, and now you’ve got it .
Her eyes widen and take on a triumphant look as they begin full-on bump and grind dirty dancing.
And she licks his neck . It sends a visible jolt through him, his face turning quick as lightning toward her.
It’s like watching a lit fuse crackle and burn closer and closer to the dynamite pipe.
I glance at Em, who doesn’t look worried, so I take my cue from her.
Better Leo than one of those rando creeps.
He starts to move Sadie across the floor, heading towards Em, and…ah. I see what he’s doing. He’s dancing her off the dancefloor, getting her to the exit without her fighting him all the way. Genius. I follow them, relieved to be leaving.
By the time they get to where Em is standing with our jackets, he’s peeling her off him. “OK, babygirl, that was fun, but it’s time for lots of water and plenty of sleep - ”
“What? No!” Sadie sneers at him. “The evening’s just getting started, right, ladies?”
“I mean…it is midnight,” Em says, not having to shout so loud now that we’re not so close to the speakers.
“Well, you c’n go, then. I’m stayin’ ‘ere.” She scowls at all of us. “We’re s’posed to be havin’ a proper night out…”
“And I think you’ve had one,” Leo says, still gentle but insistent. “I’ll give you a ride home - ”
“Give me a ride at my home,” she says, giving him a dark, spaced out look. “Leo, either you take me home and fuck me like I deserve to be fucked, or you fucking fuck off… ”
His eyes narrow at her, and she staggers on the spot, steadying herself on one of the tables. “I don’t fuck anyone too drunk to consent, or appreciate it,” he replies slowly. “Or anyone who’d just be using me to avoid shit they need to deal with.”
Sadie’s lips tremble, like she’s genuinely wounded by his rejection.
“Fine, boooooring , I’ll find someone else - ” She spins around, and that seems to finish her off.
She sways where she stands, rubbing her temples with trembling fingers.
When she looks up, she gives me a confused, unnerved look, and her eyes start to roll back in her head.
“She’s gonna go!” I shout to Leo, and he swoops forward and catches her in his arms as she passes out cold.
I headed to Dean’s after that. I just wanted to collapse in bed with my favourite person after all that drama.
He looked cute and ruffled in his old, holey Wrestlemania t-shirt when I knocked on the door.
Edible, even. And surprised to see me, but he let me in quite readily as I filled him in on the night’s events.
“Em was a total mother hen. She’s so sweet.
But Leo carried Sadie out like a total hero, and put her in his car, which, by the way, was a white sports car that looked like something from the Top Gear wishlist, no idea what make or model, but since when does Leo have a supercar?
! Anyway, he’s taking her home and putting her to bed, but we know she’s safe with him, and then Em and I split a cab home.
And since you live just upstairs, it saves time and cab fare if I could crash here, maybe?
” I flutter my eyelashes at him comically.
Of course, he says, sorry, I just…wasn’t expecting you. The place is a bit of a mess.
I look around. Nothing unforgivable, just a pizza box left out and the washing up still needing to be done.
“Oh, honey, it’s fine,” I assure him, “I just want to crash, to be honest. I managed to keep up with Sadie well enough without drinking as much as she did, but I still had more than I was planning on, and I am exhausted .” I pull his hips closer to mine, not unlike Leo did to Sadie in The Lair. “Come to bed with me?”
He smiles down at me. Anytime.
Dean
Shit.
Don’t misunderstand me; I love that she’s here, love that she’s comfortable enough with me to drop by like this, but at the same time…
I am so tired. I really, really need at least a little sleep soon.
She stayed over last night, and I stayed awake all night long for her, and now I’m going to have to do the same again.
I’ve done a couple of days without sleep before, but it’s not an experience I enjoy.
I get spacy and short tempered, and I don’t want to do my appointments feeling that way.
Still, I think as she sleeps in my arms, I really would do anything for this woman.
And her safety is more important than any amount of exhaustion I may feel.
So I pull her closer, smiling at how she mumbles in her sleep as she snuggles in, and take a deep breath.
I won’t be able to get up and move around to keep myself awake, or go get some coffee, but I can do some long division or recite long lists of some shit to test my memory, like the presidents, the Roman emperors, whatever.
And at least I picked up some of that instant espresso powder earlier today, so I can stay alert enough to work.
My stomach starts to knot and twist when I think about how this problem could pan out, but I’ve got all night to come up with a solution. And it’s not as though I truly need a lot of sleep, anyway. I can get by.
Dean
Running.
Always running.
He’s always just behind me, about to shoot me clean in half. And I can never get enough distance between him and me. I can never run hard enough, push myself hard enough, and I hate myself for it.
I don’t want to go into that room. I know what happens in there. I know she’s cowering, safer where she is until I burst in. I know I lead him directly to her, and no matter how badly I don’t want to, no matter how much I fight against it, my feet run into the same fucking room every time.
Maybe just once I can change the outcome, make it so that he shoots me but misses her. Would that be better, experiencing it how it should have happened, or worse, seeing it and knowing I can never make it real? I don’t know, but it’s a mindfuck.
I’m in. There she is. I want to tell her to hide better, move some of the classroom furniture to conceal her myself, but my body won’t cooperate and I don’t know why.
Her eyes were so terrified.
The door exploding open. He’s here. I scramble backwards. He’s touching me, grabbing for me. That’s not how it happened. That’s not how it fucking happened. He never put a hand on me, he just shot me. Don’t fucking touch me. He’s shaking me. No. NO. Don’t you dare fucking touch me…
Somehow, I manage to shove with all my might, my limbs finally doing what I want them to do, and watching him stumble back against the door frame feels good, feels great , fuck you, Whitmire, I hope it fucking hurt -
“Ah!” he grunts, and that’s not Whitmire’s voice. It’s not. It’s…
Leo?
I’m confused. I’m not in the classroom anymore. I’m in my tattoo studio, and Leo’s in front of me, wincing and holding his head. There’s blood streaming down his face, and his eyebrow is split.
And then, like a bucket of ice water, everything becomes clear.
I’m sat in my dentist style chair. I must have fallen asleep. I didn’t get much so far this week. I was having one of my nightmares. And when I thought I was shoving Whitmire, I was actually shoving my cousin, who was just trying to wake me up…
Eli comes in, and as always, his and Leo’s first concern is for me, for my state of mind, rather than getting Leo to hospital to have the stitches he obviously needs because I attacked him.
I’m a curse. I’m a blight on this family. And for the life of me, I will never understand why I couldn’t have just fucking died that night.