BURNED - A Chicago Fire Fanfiction

Chapter Thirty Two

"Zahra," a voice called out. "Zahra...Zahra..." A warm sensation rested against my arm. I looked up and softly smiled as Otis looked down at me. "Hey, baby." Baby? He called me baby...and it made my heart flutter. I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a hug. "Zahra!"

My eyes fluttered open and I slowly looked down at an object I was holding tight in my arms...an arm. "Zahra, wake up!" I looked up and instantly recoiled, releasing the arm.

"Fucking hell, Cruz," I hissed. "What the fuck are you doing in my house?"

"You're not in your house," Cruz informed. I looked around the room for a moment. I was in a living room I didn't recognize. Plexiglass cases lined bookshelves containing collectible action figures, framed posters of Star Trek and Star Wars covered the walls, and a massive throw blanket of Hans Solo in Carbonite was lazily laying on top of me. It was definitely not my living room, that's for sure.

"So I'm not," I yawned and slowly sat up and stretched. I looked down at myself, not recognizing the shirt and tightly tied basketball shorts I was wearing. What happened last night?

"Cruz," Otis grumbled as he entered the living room. "I told you not to wake her up."

"I'm sorry, but a chick sleeping on your couch was more than enough reason for me to start asking questions, such as...WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"

"Do you have to fucking shout?" I groaned. Cruz leaned close to me and took a whiff. I leaned away from him and self-consciously smelled myself.

"She doesn't smell like sex, but reeks of alcohol."

"Hey," I whined.

"It's not like that, Cruz," Otis scoffed. "She was bored at a club with K'eon, I was bored at home, so I met up with her."

"And that led to her coming home with you?"

"K'eon brought some guy home last night, thought it'd be better to give him his privacy. We came here, watched TV, she fell asleep, and I went to bed." Cruz looked at me as if waiting to hear my side of the story.

"I went to The Lounge with K'eon," I confirmed. "He left me to go talk to some guy and Brian showed up. Some asshat decided he was gonna swing at me because I bruised his ego, but Brian intervened. That's all I remember."

"Did you get drunk?"

"She had a couple too many shots," Otis nodded and handed me a bottle of Tylenol and a bottle of water. "This should help."

"Ugh, my savior, thank you," I smiled and quickly threw back a couple of pills.

"So...nothing happened?" Cruz asked.

"I mean, Zahra put that asshole in his place so bad that she caused a scene, but otherwise no," Otis answered.

"Something's about to happen," I groaned as my stomach began to churn.

"Whoa, I don't wanna see any of that," Cruz protested.

"Zahra, you okay?" Otis asked.

"Which door?" I asked.

"Uh..." Otis stared at me for a moment before his eyes widened, realizing what I meant. "Down the hall, second door on the left." I quickly stood up and ran down the hall, finding the bathroom exactly where Otis told me it'd be. "Zahra, I should warn you—" Otis' voice was quickly drowned out as I collapsed to the floor and threw up the entire contents of my stomach into the toilet.

"Damn, bro," Cruz chuckled. "That sucks."

"Zahra, you good?"

"No," I whined. "I promised K'eon I wouldn't get—" I vomited once more. "—drunk."