Lesson Learned {Student Teacher Romance}

Chapter 11

I twist out of his grasp so I can face him. My limbs are twitching with anger at Rory's suggestive maneuver, and the yucky poke of his semi-erection in my bottom.

"No thanks," I manage to choke out. "Why don't you go back to your friends?"

"They've found the objects of their affection for the night," Rory's eyes are burrowing into me, "And I've found mine."

I tried to catch Keri's attention, but she was tongue-deep in her new admirer.

"Can I buy you a drink?" Rory leans into me again.

"No thanks," I put my hand on his chest to keep him at arm's length as waves of bodies keep pushing us together from all sides.

Rory claps his hand on top of mine, forcing me to try and pull away.

"Oh, c'mon," he urges. "I think you'll find, I'm not all that bad."

Rory's athletic body is smashed against mine and all I can feel is sick.

His expensive cologne is invading my space to overpower my thoughts and crawling down my throat. His predatory stare feels like invisible fingers reaching down my top to fondle my body.

"Shots!" Keri screams nearby. "Woah!"

I turn in time to see my best friend slosh a tiny glass full of tan liquid down her throat.

Keri is too buzzed to notice my pained expression. In fact, she's swaying on her feet and slurring her words a little, which makes the hairs on my neck prickle.

Things aren't working out how I'd hoped at all. All I wanted was a fun night out with my best friend and D-Bag-Rory's aggressive flirting was totally ruining it.

Plus, my best friend seemed to be getting sloshed at an alarming rate. I didn't want to mother Keri on her night off from being a mommy, but I was starting to worry.

Then, Keri flopped over in the arms of her new gentleman friend!

He stumbled back trying to balance the weight of her tiny body.

My pounding heart was lodged in my throat. Keri was dangling like dead weight in a stranger's arms.

I broke away from Rory and shoved past people to get to her as panic tightened in my lungs.

"Can you help?" Keri's man friend begs after I nearly crash into him.

"What the hell happened?" I try and get ahold of Keri's face, which is limp against his shoulder.

"I don't know, she said she was feeling sick," he's talking fast and he sounds pretty inebriated too. "Then she just fell over!"

I've known Keri since we were kids and she's never had this kind of reaction to alcohol. This was something else. This was scary.

Rory appeared at my side, his face plastered with concern.

"We need to get her home!" He barks at Keri's guy. "You're going to help me get her to the front of the bar. Then, I'll get my car and give the girls a ride home."

I'm shocked by the maturity Rory is showing, but I'm not about to agree with that.

"We have a car and I'm sober," I shout as we wrestle with Keri's listless body. "I'm driving us home."

Keri's muscle-bound man (whose name I still don't know) helps me zip her up into her parka before we amble out to The Yella Beak's parking lot. It's freezing and drizzly but at least it's not pouring rain.

"How are you going to get this girl in the house?" Rory grunts. "It took three of us to get her this far and she's fading fast. I'll just follow your car so I can be sure you both get inside safely, alright?"

"That's super nice of you, bro," Keri's guy comments after a hiccup.

"See?" Rory scoffs over Keri's lolling head. "This guy thinks I'm nice."

I wanted to scream obscenities at both of them, but I had bigger problems to deal with.

Like getting Keri secured in the front passenger seat of her mom's van, for one. She's muttering incoherently in between sickly moans and burping like she might vomit any second.

In a weird way, it reminded me of all the times I had to pick my mom up off the floor after she got too wasted to help herself. I even felt the same rush of bone-chilling fear that made my limbs go temporarily numb.

"I don't think I should take her home," I tell Rory as soon as we've got her strapped to the front seat. "I think I need to get her to the hospital."

"She just had a little too much fun," Rory tries to assure me. "She'll be fine once she sleeps it off."

"No." I insist, not allowing Rory to downplay what is clearly something else. "I'm going to the hospital. So, don't bother following us."

Rory's face tenses.

"NO!" Keri screams from inside the car. I don't even know how she heard us but she's struggling against the seat belt and yelling through the open window. "I can't go to the hospital!! No! No! NO-"

Keri's wailing turns into a stream of clear vomit that coats Rory from head to toe.