Page 34 of Knight
He didn’t have to say it. The thought of some asshole drugging her made my blood boil and the fact that I wasn’t there to stop it seized my heart. Something could have happened to her. Something really fucking bad and I wasn’t man enough to brush off the words she’d said to me earlier and do the right thing. I should have fucking been there.
“I don’t know, I could be wrong. I mean, I probably am. She just seemed really out of it.”
“Did you ask Tara about it?”
“Yeah, she said that Gwen was hella pissed off and started downing drinks the moment they walked into the place. I asked her if she had been around any guys or if anyone had bought her a drink. Tara said that Gwen was dancing with some guy for a long time. She said she left Gwen on the dance floor but it was only for like five minutes.”
His eyes were on me with a strange intensity. Something I couldn’t read but wanted to understand. However, I knew he wasn’t going to go into whatever it was right then. I had a huge idea that it didn’t have anything to do with Gwen and that maybe his past demons were somehow edging in on this situation.
“Is Tara in there now?” I asked because I didn’t want Gwen to be alone. Hell, if she was drunk then she could puke and not even realize it. I didn’t want to imagine what else but I also couldn’t turn a blind eye.
“Yeah.” He pulled out his phone, looked at it for a brief second, then tucked it back away in his pocket. “She kept saying to Gwen that she was going to take care of her, so I don’t think she’ll be leaving anytime soon.”
He gave a half-shrug then went to the fridge. He pulled out two beers and handed me one. Maybe it wasn’t the best time to be drinking but all I could think was ‘fuck it.’ Tara was watching over Gwen and I knew she wouldn’t let anything happen to her. I needed something to take the edge off of this fucking night.
We stood there in silence for a long while. I heard footsteps coming down the hall and when I looked up, Tara was standing in the doorway. She was still wearing the same dress she had on when they had left, but the shoes were gone.
“I gotta piss,” Sketch said abruptly and made his way out of the room.
“She alright?” I asked tentatively.
Tara’s eyes cut over to mine and I wasn’t sure what to do with that the angry fire burning in her gaze.
“She’s like this because of you,” she bit out. I stood up straighter and crossed my arms over my chest. “You’ve got her sitting in this in between and you think being friends is the solution to whatever the hell is going on between you two, but it’s not. You just need to let her go. As long as you are around, she’s going to want to do her best to be close to you and all it will do is continue to ruin her on the inside.”
Her words hit me hard. I thought that I was doing the best given the situation. Now that Gwen had come back into my life, I couldn’t imagine life without her. No, that was a fucking lie. There wasn’t a day that went by while we were apart that I didn’t feel lost and I knew it was because she wasn’t there. I had tried my best to keep Gwen at arm’s length, but it was her idea to try thefriendsthing.Shewas the one that had pushed through my armor.
“I don’t think that is true,” I said trying to stand my ground. Tara didn’t know us. She had no idea how much we meant to each other.
“Then you’re an even bigger asshole than I had originally thought.” She cocked her head and pinned me with a blank stare. With a blink, she turned, snatched up the glass of water and bottle of aspirin, then walked away.
Something about that whole exchange made me feel uneasy. When I’d first met Tara she seemed shy and reserved. However, her words right then were anything but. I realized that she and Gwen had gotten pretty close and so I shrugged it off as Tara being a good friend. A little overprotective, but still, she appeared to have Gwen’s best interests in mind.
“You good?” Sketch said.
“Yeah,” I grunted out.
“Want me to take the couch?” It came out as a question that wasn’t intended to receive an answer.
I gave him a nod. He was a good guy and he wasn’t going to leave knowing that there was something strange going on. It wasn’t like I could go in there and demand answers even if that was all I wanted to do. And I knew if I hovered, I’d be tossed out on my ass by Tara. She had made that perfectly clear.
“Thanks. I’ll be in my room.”
I knew I wasn’t going to get any sleep and the longer the minutes ticked on, the more my muscles started to ache from being so tense. I finally gave up when the color of my walls started to glow with a golden hue. I knew the new day wouldn’t hold a fresh start, the tension of last nights events wouldn’t be erased, and the shitty feeling that had a hold of my heart would only clench tighter the moment I opened my door.
I left the peacefulness of my room with heavy steps, it was as if my body was doing everything in its power to keep me back. But I wasn’t a fucking coward and as much as I wanted to avoid the whole situation, I was more worried about how Gwen was doing.
I hit the doorway to the living room to find Sketch sprawled out on the couch in only his boxers. A sight I wasn’t prepared for or needed to see first thing in the morning. Or ever, really. I only managed to make it two steps towards the kitchen when his body sat up with an alertness that wasn’t normal. His eyes wide as he scanned the area.
“Hey,” I said in a calm tone. His eyes landed on me and I could see the instant sag of his body as he relaxed.
“Yo,” he said in a rough, groggy tone as he stretched. “Fuck, I need some coffee.”
“Yeah, me too.”
I made my way to the kitchen without saying anything else. I didn’t know much about his story and I wasn’t about to call him out in any way. The last thing I wanted to do was make him feel uncomfortable or embarrassed.
I set to work making a pot of coffee. Thinking of how many people were in the house, I pulled out four mugs from the cabinet and set them out on the island.
