You Again

Chapter 8

“Well, hi, there,” I said, and wrapped an arm around Dad’s waist.

“Reece Michelle Elizabeth Macpherson,” Dad said, anger in his eyes as he took the champagne glass away from me.  “Are you drunk?”

“Yep, but it’s not helping anything like I thought it would!” I said.  I looked over at Kane with narrowed eyes.  “It’s all his fault.  Everything that’s wrong with me is all his fault.”

“Reece, you’re staying here tonight,” Mom said, pulling a hotel key card from her purse.  She looked really disappointed in me.  “You’re not going anywhere like this.”

“Hotel room by myself tonight?  Hell yeah!” I said, grabbing the card from her hand.  “I don’t know how I’m going to get home in the morning but I don’t car!  Mini bar here I come!”

“Oh, no, you don’t, young lady,” Dad said.  “We got a room without one.  It seems like you’ve already got enough alcohol in you already.  I would punish you right now but you probably will be punishing yourself later with how you’re going to feel.”  He looked at Kane.  “Can you please make sure she gets up there okay?  You’re in the next room over from her, right?  So you can make sure she’s okay in the morning?”

Kane nodded.  “Yeah, I’ll be there,” he said. 

“I don’t want to be in a room beside his!” I said loudly.  Several other people looked over at me.  “You know I hate him.”

But they weren’t listening to me. 

“Just make sure she gets there alright,” Mom said to Kane.  “We’ve already put a bag with some clothes and things up there.”

Kane nodded.  “I’ll take her home tomorrow also.  Don’t worry,” he said.

I felt an arm wrap around my waist and my parents started to get smaller and smaller as I walked to the elevator.  Kane was the one dragging me.

“Get your fucking hands off me!” I yelled when the elevator doors closed. 

Kane sighed and let me go.  He pushed the button for the fourteenth floor and I held on to the railing for dear life as the elevator started to move up slowly.  It’s the weirdest sensation, riding in an elevator when you’re drunk.  Even though I’d been pissed just a moment before, I started giggling.  But when it stopped and the doors opened, I was back to my pissed mood. 

I stumbled out of the elevator and into the wall.  I groaned and started to slide down it before Kane scooped me up into his arms, somehow taking the key card from my hand also. 

“What the hell are you doing?  Put me down!” I yelled.

“Would you shut up?” he said quietly.  “People are probably trying to get to sleep.”

I just looked at him for a moment. 

And then burst into tears. 

“I hate you!” I said, crying. 

“I know you do.  You’ve said it enough already today,” he said, sighing.  “But I wish you didn’t.”

I didn’t realize when he opened the door and walked into what was apparently my room.  There was a duffel bag on the bed and he walked toward it. 

“I hate everything about you,” I cried, tears running down my face.  “I hate that I have to see you at school every day.  I hate that you look at me like you still love me but I know you don’t!”

“And why would you think that?” he asked, setting me down on the bed.

“Because I know!” I said as he knelt down in front of me.  “You’re not in love with me.  You just love me as your best friend’s little sister.  Do you not think that I remember what all you said to me before you left for college?  And I hate that, even after everything that you’ve done to hurt me.”