The Mistake

Slurred

A half an hour and four shots later, Sophie was talking my ear off about James. "-And then we were dancing for like an hour until I saw you talking to Jacob, so I said I'd be right back and I haven't seen him since. Ugh, I'm dying for you to meet him! Help me look for him." I nodded enthusiastically, my head bobbing up and down. "But first, one more fucking shot!"

I giggled as Sophie called over a guy handing out shots. I reached out to grab mine, but someone snatched it from me before I could drink it. "Hey, my shot-!" I frowned, and tried to make out his face, but everyone was blurry around me. "That's mine." I pointed to the shot he was currently giving away to some other guy.

"Don't be so selfish, Sammi,"  I recognized his voice in a second, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up. "They're trying to catch up to you." My eyes regained the ability to focus again. I looked up as he stood there, smirking, I got lost in his smile for a second and stumbled. Nick reached out to steady me before I could fall, his arm around my waist, my hand resting on his chest. Our faces were two inches apart, his eyes burning into mine and I froze.

"Nick. Hi." I breathed out, sounding stupid.

He chuckled and it was the prettiest sound I'd ever heard. "Hi."

"Sam!" Sophie yelled next to me, breaking me out of Nick's spell. "There he is." She pointed to James in the crowd. I recognized him instantly this time, a flashback of that night trickling back into my mind.

"Relax." Nick whispered from behind me into my ear and placed his hand on the small of my back, the two of which had the exact opposite effect on me.

"Sam, Nick, this is James." Sophie said. Nick and James shared a knowing smile for a second and shared a quick hug. "Oh, well, that was... friendly of you two."

They pulled apart with a chuckle as Nick placed his hand on James's shoulder. "He and I go way back."

"Really? I didn't know you guys knew each other." Sophie nudged me with her elbow as she said it, probably already planning some double date in her head. Nick still had his hand on my back, and I couldn't concentrate.

"Yeah, we kind of grew up together," James said, then turned to me wearily, nervous. "Sam, it's nice to meet you."

"What?" I leaned on the wall next to me. "Oh, nice to meet you, too." I smiled, then my ankle rolled in and I fell.

————

"Ow," I said with my hand holding my pounding head as Nick walked me away from the party. I could already feel the lump start to form. I heard him chuckle under his breath.

"Don't laugh."

"Sammi, I promise you I'm trying my absolute best. You're just making it really hard."

"You're mean."

"And you're a lightweight." I gasped, slightly offended and probably exaggerating.

"Am not." But my body wouldn't cooperate and I stumbled again, starting to get frustrated with my sudden lack of balance.

"Here," he sat me down on a bench right outside.  "Drink slowly." He held out a cup in front of me. I obeyed but found it extremely difficult to find which of the three cups I was seeing was the real one. I took a sip of the mineral water but was too disgusted to take another. Now that I was sitting down, I couldn't tell which way was up. Everything spun around me. Damn it.

"I'm sorry, thiss- 'smbarrassing. You don't have to take care of me." I leaned my head on his shoulder. Maybe I shouldn't have; I felt him tense up at the unexpected touch.