Page 189 of Now and Forever

Chapter 63

School was ending in a few days, and with Jackson planning to stay put in OC for the coming semester, Spencer and company decided to host a going away party at some new, trendy club and somehow managed to drag me with them.

It happened just after I arrived from class, and they were all there in the living room, enjoying a glass of alcohol. Since Drew was with Conrad at a business dinner, I decided to go along. But before I went to change, I texted Drew to tell him that I would be with Jackson and Spencer, explaining what was going on.

Drew immediately replied.

Be safe, please. Don’t trust Spencer or any guy except your brother. I’m heading home after this. Wake me up when you get back. Love you.

Gah, he was so cute.

After typing back my response, I went into my bedroom to change.

I’ll see you in a few. Miss you.

Half an hour later, I was ready to go and party. Half of my enthusiasm was from the fact that Drew trusted me enough to let me go party with Spencer, though he hated the guy. Spencer was harmless … to me, anyway. Apart from his cocky arrogance sometimes, he was bearable.

When we arrived at the club, it was packed for a Wednesday night, and it took quite some time before we reached our reserved tables with the pre-ordered drinks readily displayed. None of them were to my fancy, so I excused myself to get my own drink of Jack and Coke at the bar and also a short reprieve from Spencer eyeballing my breasts whenever Jackson wasn’t around to see him. Not only that, but despite my brother announcing to everyone that I was now dating Drew, Spencer still attempted to tease me into kissing him to make Drew jealous. There was some odd rivalry between them.

The bar was difficult to get through, and when I did, it was chaos. After ordering my drink, a group of six men enveloped me as they yelled their orders, hoping the bartender would cater to them first.

Reverting my eyes back to where the table was located, I let out a sigh when I saw Spencer flirting with someone else. True, he was harmless, but he could also draining to deal with. I was just rolling my eyes as I cocked my head back toward the bar when I saw my drink siting right before me.

Grabbing it, I took a refreshing sip and tried to catch one of the bartenders’ attention so I could pay for it. Then someone called out that they would pay for it if as long as I just left so they could get their order in. The rude man, whom I couldn’t see because of the dim lighting and the traffic around the bar, thought it was my fault that it was crazy busy.

Muttering something colorful, I left without a backward glance. Then I was trying to cross the swarm of people to get across the room when, for some odd reason, I started to feel funny.

I stopped, pausing to refocus, but the more I tried, the worse the dizziness became. Then, all of a sudden, my heart began to pound. Not the normal, exhilarated kind of pounding, but the kind where you thought you were having a heart attack. And when I began getting double vision, I knew I had been drugged.

I tried to focus on how far away my brother was, but with all the people, I couldn’t tell. I ended up in the bathroom, immediately confining myself inside one of the newly vacated stalls where I pulled out my phone and dialed Drew.

“Baby, I’m still at dinner—”

“I can’t breathe. I feel like my heart is about to explode.” Huffing air into my lungs felt like it took all the effort out of me.

“Chloe, stay put. I’m coming to you, okay?” The alarm in his voice couldn’t be mistaken. “I’m running out of here with Everson. We’ll come get you.”

“Hurry,” I whispered, feeling the muscles around my mouth begin to feel numb.

“Listen to me; don’t hang up. Baby, are you there?” In the background, I could tell Drew had just gotten into the car as he spoke to Everson. It seemed, too, that he was locating me through that app he had insisted that I download so he knew exactly where I was.

“Chloe!” he yelled into the phone.

I heard him—of course I did—but I couldn’t speak. Instead, I grumbled a sound before I felt the device slip from my fingers and crash onto the floor. Before everything turned black, I remembered thinking that the app, which I had cursed to no end, could just be my lifeline.

Feeling like I had a boulder sitting on my body, my ears perked up from the sounds of rushing then his voice, constantly speaking to me, reassuring me that we were on our way to the hospital. Then it all went dark again.

I woke up to the sound of Drew yelling at Jackson just as I heard the doctor and nurses trying to calm him down. By the sound of it, Drew was going off without any filter. Then I fell back into the bleak blankness of my mind.

I woke up again in my bedroom with the most excruciating headache I had ever experienced, and my body felt as though it had gone through a wringer and then back again. It took some time for me to focus, and when I did, a sigh of relief came out of my lips as I spotted Jackson sitting on one of the chairs right across me, crestfallen as he looked up when I called out to him.

“Chlo? Oh, God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know what was going on until Drew called me from the hospital.”

It wasn’t his fault.

“It’s okay. I should’ve been more careful. It’s not your fault, so don’t blame yourself. It’s the last thing I’d want you to do, Jacks.”

“But it’s my responsibility to watch out for you—”

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