Page 53 of The Boy I Once Loved

Dylan blows a kiss to the screen. “I have a big di-,”

I cover his mouth with my hand. “Okay, we have heard enough, Dylan.”

He leans into me. “Your eyes are beautiful.”

“Thanks.” I lean him on the car and Connor gets the back door open. “Come on, let’s get you in.”

I guide him towards the car intending to push him in and then get in beside him, but drunk Dylan wraps his hand on my waist and then somehow loses his footing and ends up pushing me in the car. I end up lay across the back seat with Dylan sprawled on top of me.

“Dylan, get up!” I demand. Instead, he rubs his head in-between my boobs.

“You have comfy tits,” he tells me as he rubs his face against one of my boobs. His hand lands on my stomach and I jerk at the skin-to-skin contact. “Mmm, so soft,” he murmurs as he closes his eyes and falls to sleep with his face wedged in between my boobs.

Connor belly-laughs. “Oh, I can’t wait to show him this tomorrow!”

"A fat lot of help you two are. I'm being crushed back here."

“What by his big bollocks?” Connor says laughing as he closes the back passenger door, and he climbs into the front.

“Funny. Hurry up and get us to mine so I can breathe again.” I order as a contented Dylan sighs against my breasts.

We arrive at mine, and Connor helps me drag a half-comatose Dylan into my house.

“Think we can get him upstairs?” I look up at the stairs and feel his dead weight against my shoulder.

"Not a chance," Connor replies. "Let's get him on the sofa."

Between the two of us, we get him settled on the sofa. Dylan rolls onto his back and starts snoring loudly.

“You get off. I’ll see to pisshead here. I’ll sleep on the other sofa in case he’s sick in his sleep.”

“Good thinking. Thanks for coming for him, Ella. I knew if anyone would get him home it would be you.”

I scoff. “I don’t know why you couldn’t have done it.”

Connor smiles and looks down at his sleeping friend. “You’re his home, Ella, where you are is where he will go.”

“Well, who dealt with him before I came back?” I ask as I watch my drunk friend sleeping peacefully on my sofa.

Connor shrugs. "I've only ever seen him this drunk twice before. The first time was the night of the day he realised you had upped and left, and the second time was when his mum revealed his dad had left them and he moved in with his assistant."

I swallow and look away. “I had no choice about going you know?”

Connor squeezes my shoulder as he passes. “I know, but you left him behind and it gutted him. I’ll ring you tomorrow.”

The door closes shut behind him. With a tired sigh, I hobble into the kitchen and grab a bowl and put it beside his head on the floor. I then bum shuffle upstairs and grab him a blanket and one for myself. Once I know he is okay, I get as comfy as I can in the armchair and eventually close my eyes.

I wake in the middle of the night, still feeling half-asleep and to the feeling I am being carried. When I look up through half-closed eyes, I see Dylan.

“Dyl.”

“Shush. I’m taking us up to bed,” he whispers softly.

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