Page 72 of His Heart

“Dude, she is fucked up,” someone said. “What are you going to do with her?”

Something wasn’t right again. The arm around me felt wrong. I pushed against him. Tried to move away. “Let go.”

“It’s okay,” he said. Was it Joel? He spoke softly into my ear. “It’s not what you think. You’re all right. Just hang in there, sugar.”

He led me up a set of stairs and into a house. I could barely stand. The floor felt like it lurched beneath my feet. Footsteps moved around me, but hands held me in place.

Next thing I knew, I was on a couch. How long had I been there? I looked around, but I didn’t recognize anything.

“Hey,” Joel said. “There you are. I think you passed out.”

I smiled, mostly because it seemed like there were three faces in front of me, their edges blurring together.

“Who do you want me to call?” he asked.

“What? What’s going on?”

“Look, you’re really fucked up,” he said. “And I don’t do that shit, okay? A lot of guys do, though, so you’re lucky you wound up with me tonight. That Sasha chick is drunker than you are, and my fucking roommate still took her to his room.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” At least, that’s what I meant to say. It came out slurred.

“Brooke, focus for just a second,” Joel said. “Should I call Sebastian? You have a bunch of missed calls from him. But if he’s like your ex or something, I don’t want to mess around with that.”

“Seb’s not my ex,” I said. That made me laugh again.

“Okay, I’m calling him.”

I was half-aware of voices. Then I was waking up again—someone’s hands on my shoulders, shaking me gently.

“Brooke?”

I forced my eyes open and saw Sebastian. “Seb?”

“Goddammit.”

Why did he sound so mad?

“You need a drink,” I said. “Let’s go get another one. My buzz is going to wear off.”

“Not likely,” Sebastian said. My eyes closed again but I could still hear him talking. “Thanks for calling.”

“Sure,” Joel said. “Look man, if she’s your girlfriend, she never said anything. She just seemed like a cool chick and she wanted to party.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

Sebastian’s voice was so hard. So cold. The way he said that sliced through me.

“Let’s go,” Sebastian said.

I tried to stand, but my legs were jelly. Sebastian’s thick arms wrapped around me and he lifted me up, cradling me like I weighed nothing.

He smelled so good. So familiar. Even so wasted I could barely keep my eyes open, I realized this was the closest I’d ever been to him. Cradled in his arms, my head resting against the top of his chest. His beard tickled my forehead. I wanted to nuzzle my face into his neck, but he stuck me in the passenger’s seat of his car.

I shivered, suddenly cold. His body hadn’t just been warm. It had been smoldering hot.

He got in the car. “I’m taking you to my house. I want to make sure you don’t fucking die in your sleep.”

“I’m not gonna die,” I said, my voice dreamy. “I can’t die now. I already did.”

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