Lawful Overdose (14 page)

“You have me so hard I might come in my pants.
Let’s go to my room, Trigger.” He moves off me to pull me up and that’s when I
come to my senses.

What the fuck am I doing?

I just found out about Jaxon. I just texted him
that we were over, and I’ve wasted no time letting another man try and get in
my pants. Mikey starts to walk me towards his stairs when I stop him.

“I can’t… I can’t do this.”

“What do you mean, Trigger?” He moves closer and
his lips start to kiss my neck. I push him off of me and stumble backwards.

“No, I can’t. I’m too drunk and this is wrong.”

As if my body wants to show me it’s in agreement, I
feel the vomit coming up my throat. I run to the bathroom and barely make it to
the toilet before I start puking the alcohol out of my system.

I feel Mikey come up behind me and start rubbing my
back. He pulls my hair back while I continue to empty the contents of my
stomach. When I’m positive I’ve got nothing left in me, I sit down on the tile
floor, raising my hand with the little energy I have, to flush the toilet.

I hear the faucet run for a few seconds before
Mikey sits on the floor next to me, wiping my face with a damp washcloth.

“Feel a little better?”

I answer him with a groan and lay my head on his
shoulder.

“Come on, Trigger. I’m putting you to bed.”

Mikey gets up off the ground and lifts me in his
arms, carrying me to his bedroom. I feel him lay me down in the bed and bring
the comforter up and over my body. He lays the washcloth gently across my
forehead, kisses my cheek and walks over to turn off the light.

“Night, Trigger,” he says faintly, before shutting
the door and leaving me in his dark room, alone.

Chapter Thirteen

It’s Over

I wake up to loud noise coming from somewhere in
the house. I roll over in bed, cursing my damn hangover and vowing to never
drink again. My temples are throbbing, my throat is parched, and my eyelids
physically hurt.

The noise gets louder and I’m forced to sit up in
bed. I look around Mikey’s room, familiarizing myself with my surroundings.
When I look over at the nightstand I see my cellphone. I pick it up, realizing
Mikey must have brought it in last night for me. It’s still turned off so I
reluctantly decide to turn it back on and face the music.

While I’m waiting for my smartphone to turn on and
get a signal, the noise from downstairs starts to become unbearable. My head
needs peace and quiet today, not a bunch of college idiots yelling at each
other.

God, don’t they know I’m nursing a motherfucking hangover
up here?

I hear the vibration of my phone, indicating all my
texts, calls, and emails are updated. When I pick it up I’m overwhelmed at what
I see. I have nineteen-missed text messages, forty missed calls, and six voicemails.
I decide for my sanity to skip any and all messages that are from Jaxon. That
eliminates all but one text from Piper.

Piper: I don’t know what’s going on with you, but
Jaxon’s a mess. He told me you broke up with him over a text. I didn’t tell him
you were with Mikey, but he found out. Someone saw you leave with him. Just be
safe and don’t do anything stupid. I’ll stay home all day tomorrow so you can
come by. Love you tons, don’t ever forget it.

I send her a quick text back and let her know I’ll
be by later. The noise downstairs escalates and I can’t take it anymore. I
storm out of bed and open Mikey’s door, ready to raise hell. It’s then that I
hear his voice.

“Where the fuck is she?”

“I told you, man, I don’t know. She had me give her
a ride back to your place last night and that’s where I left her.”

“You think I’m stupid? You think I actually believe
you don’t know where she is?”

“I don’t give a fuck what you believe, but you’re
going to get the hell off my property.”

“You think I don’t know?” Jaxon asks. I can hear
how tired he is in his voice. “You were just waiting for me to fuck up. I see
the way you look at her when I’m at Ryder’s. I know about your history. You’re
loving the fact that I don’t know where she is.”

“You’re wrong, man, I’m not getting any pleasure in
my friend being miserable, and you showing up at my door acting like a fucking
lunatic.”

I want to go downstairs and kick Jaxon out myself,
but I don’t want my cover blown. It sounds like Jaxon believes that I’m not
here. Coming downstairs would just start a whole new battle.

“You love her, I know it. So why should I believe a
word you say.”

“You’re right, Jaxon, I do love her. I love her and
want the best for her, but I’m not in love with her. You are and I suggest you
calm yourself down before you end up in jail because of it. If I hear from her,
I’ll let you know.”

It’s silent for a few moments and it’s killing me
not knowing what is going on.

“Thank you,” I think I hear Jaxon say before I hear
the front door close and the sound of the deadbolt lock.

I walk down the stairs and face a very tired
looking Mikey.

“I locked it, just in case that maniac comes back.”

“Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me, he scared me enough to
lock it for myself.”

I smile at his poor attempt at a joke.

“I meant thank you for everything. For getting me
out of that party, for being a shoulder to lean on, for understanding I was in
a delicate place last night and not taking advantage, and for holding my hair
back and taking care of me last night. You’re a good friend.”

“Well, you know, I try,” he says cockily, popping
his invisible collar.

“I should get going. Do you think you can give me a
ride to Piper's apartment?”

He nods his head yes, “Sure, let me go get my keys."

***

“Holy shit, girl. No wonder you got the hell out of
there,” Piper chimes from beside me on her sofa. Mikey dropped me off a little
while ago and I’ve been filling in the gaps from last night to Piper.

“Yeah, so it’s officially over with me and him. I’m
going to be on ice cream overload for the foreseeable future.”

She comes and wraps me in a big hug, cooing and
telling me how sorry she is.

“What did he say when you told him? Did he try to
come up with some excuse on why he was buying drugs from Jimmy?”

I shrug my shoulders in response, “I didn’t tell
him. I just sent him a text, telling him it was over. I didn’t want to talk
about the drug thing.”

“Tessa…”

“What?”

“You have to tell him what you saw. He needs to
know that you know he lied. Otherwise you might come out looking like the bad
guy in this, when he was the one who was in the wrong.”

I pull the throw blanket up over me, finding
comfort in its soft texture. “I don’t care what people think. I want to try and
get through the rest of the year without seeing him.”

“That’s going to be kind of impossible. You work for
his brother.”

“I’ll quit.”

“No,” she gasps loudly. “We’ve worked there our
entire time in college. You can’t quit. We’ll talk to Ryder to figure something
out.”

My phone vibrates on the couch cushion beside me. I
turned my phone on vibrate once I realized Jaxon was going to be a serial
caller.

“Is it him again?”

“Yep. Bastard won’t stop calling. I should tell him
I fucked Mikey last night. That’ll get him to stop calling me.”

“You slept with Mikey?” Piper looks genuinely
horrified.

“No, I didn’t. I just thought I’d tell him I did.”

“Real mature, Tess.”

I move to hit her on her arm, “I never claimed to
be mature.”

I don’t know what I would do without Piper. She’s
the most loyal friend I’ve ever had. There’s no judgment or pity in her eyes,
we just genuinely care about each other.

Someone starts knocking on the front door to
Piper’s apartment and I cringe at the thought it could be Jaxon. It takes me a
second to realize no one buzzed to come up. It’s not him.

I watch Piper move to the front door and press her
eye against the peephole. Her body stiffens, but she quickly recovers and
shoots me a brief glance before opening the door.

“Hey.”

“Where is she, Piper? I just want to talk to her.”

I dart off the couch and move to the other end of
the room so he can’t see me.

His voice sends shivers down my body, but not the
good kind. He sounds tired, his voice is rough. I move to see if I can sneak a
peek at them around the corner. I bring my body to the wall, keeping my back
against it as I slowly move my head around the corner to see them.

Piper has the door opened, but she’s blocking
Jaxon’s pathway. My eyes move to Jaxon and I freeze. He looks horrible. His
hair is a mess, eyes bloodshot, he’s wearing the same clothes from last night
and they’re disheveled. This is not the Jaxon I know. This is a desperate
Jaxon.

My first instinct is to run to him, hold him in my
arms and tell him it will be okay, but I know it won’t. I’ll only hurt us both
by doing that.

“She doesn’t want to see you, Jaxon.”

I watch him drag his hands through his hair before
pulling on it from the root.

“What did I do? Just tell me what the fuck I did
and I’ll make it better. I swear to you, Piper, I’ll make it better with her. I
just need to know what I did.”

He starts pacing in the hallway, whispering to
himself like a mad man. I watch him turn back to face her.

“We were happy. I love her and we were happy. We
joked around yesterday morning, made plans for when I came home last night, I
don’t know what I could have done in those few hours to change things.”

I see the compassion in Piper’s eyes change to
anger. “You don’t know what you did, are you fucking serious? Think about it,
asshole. Think about your evening last night, think about the party. I’m sure
you’ll figure it out.”

“I didn’t do any-” he stops mid-sentence. It’s like
in the cartoons when you see the character finally understand what’s going on
and a light bulb turns on above their head. I swear I could almost see a light
bulb go on when Jaxon put it together.

“No, no… she has it all wrong. It’s not what it
looked like.”

“Sure it wasn’t, Jaxon. What’s next, you going to
tell me that you thought it was powdered sugar you were buying? You didn’t know
he was giving you drugs? It’s all bullshit. I knew… I knew something was up
with you two. I even mentioned something to Tessa, but she defended you and
Ryan. I can honestly say, she never saw this coming.”

He slams his hands against the wall in the hallway
and I hear the drywall break.

“Piper, look at me. I swear it’s not what you
think. I swear it’s not what she thinks. Let me talk to her, just let me
fucking talk to her.”

I can’t handle it anymore. Piper shouldn’t have to
listen to Jaxon rant about his innocence. This isn’t her problem.

I stand up straight and take a deep breath, before
turning the corner and walking to the doorway. Jaxon must hear me because his
head turns my way and I see his facial expression soften. Piper just looks
worried.

“Get. Out.” I say firmly. I don’t want to look
weak.

“Tessa, baby, let me come in, let me explain.”

“I don’t need your explanation, I saw all I needed
to see. I never want to see you again.”

“Tessa, don’t do this. I promise it’s not what you
think. I love you, I love you so much, baby.”

I laugh dryly.

“You love me? Tell me, what was it then? What did I
see, because it looked to me like you were buying off Jimmy.”

“Yes, I know, but-”

“I saw the cash go from your hands to his, I saw
Ryan tastes the goods, making sure it was good stuff. So what don’t I get?”

“There’s more to the story, Tessa. There are things
you don’t understand, things you don’t know.”

“Okay, what don’t I understand? What don’t I know?”

I watch as a single tear fall from his eye, and my
heart breaks a little more. I’ve never seen this man cry before.

“I can’t tell you,” he whispers. “I want to, but I
cant.”

I can’t hold my tears off any longer and the
waterworks start flowing down my face.

“You can’t tell me 'cause there’s nothing to tell.
Goodbye, Jaxon.”

“Tessa, no,” he shouts as he barges in the
apartment and pulls me into his arms. I feel his strong arms embrace me as his
head goes to my hair. “Don’t leave me, Tessa. I can’t be without you. I’ll tell
you what’s going on, just give me a little time.”

As good as it feels to be in his arms his time is
up. He had a chance to tell me, he’s had several, and now I want nothing to do
with him.

I break away from his hold and gently push him out
the door. He doesn’t fight me; I think all the fight has left him.

“Don’t ever talk to me again.” I say, slamming the
door in his face. I turn around and lean my back against the door, crying like
a baby. My legs can no longer support the weight of my body and I slide down
the door until my butt hits the ground.

Piper comes over to sit next to me, never saying a
word. She knows nothing she says will make this better. She covers us with the
throw blanket from the couch and holds me, letting me fall apart in front of
her. She never once complains, never once tells me to quit crying or to suck it
up. She’s just there for me if I need her.

I realize now, more than ever, how lucky I am to
have her in my life.