Beautiful Disaster

Breakdown

"I'm capable of looking after myself. I didn't need your help." I snapped, glaring at him.

We somehow ended up at his car and he bundled me into the passenger seat before he climbed into the drivers seat and started the engine. I sent a quick text to Sophia and Romeo, letting them know that I'd left the party to go home, not wanting to worry them if they couldn't find me.

As I shoved my phone back into my jacket pocket, I glanced at Loren and was suddenly hit by an intense wave of attraction, which made me want to kiss him. I managed to push the urge away, although it was incredibly difficult because I'd been drinking and my brain couldn't figure out why kissing him would be a bad idea.

"Why did you dance with that guy?" He asked suddenly, catching me off guard.

He sounded more curious than anything else, but I found myself hoping that it had somehow made him jealous, although I knew that there was no way that Loren would ever see me as anything other than someone he'd been assigned to protect.

I just shrugged my shoulders, which he managed to see as he glanced away from the road and in my direction for one second.

"It was obvious that you didn't have any interest in him. I'm just curious about why you decided to dance with him." He said, his voice swarming with curiosity once again.

"I'm drunk. Bad ideas seem like good ideas when you've been drinking." I said as an explanation, because that was the only explanation I had right now.

"Not all ideas are bad when you've been drinking. Sometimes, it only lowers your inhibitions so you'd do the things that you don't have the courage to do while sober." He said, sounding older than his years.

"That doesn't mean you should do them." I said, thinking about my crazy urges to kiss him. Just because I'd never have the guts to do it while sober, that does not mean I should do it while drunk. The outcome would be the same either way.

"I'm not saying that you should. I'm just saying that drinking can sometimes give you the courage to do things that need to be done." He said.

For the rest of the drive home, neither of us spoke and I began to feel incredibly tired. I must have fallen asleep in the car, because when I opened my eyes, Loren was carrying me along the hallway to my bedroom, and my heart stuttered at his proximity. My head was resting against his chest, where I could hear his heart beating hard. One of my arms was around his neck, my hand resting on his shoulder, while the palm of my other hand was pressed against his chest. I didn't dare move in case he realised that I was awake and that I was letting him carry me.

I stayed as still as I could in his arms, as he opened my bedroom door and flipped the light on with one hand, while holding me tightly with the other.

He lowered me gently onto my bed, then he seemed to notice that I was awake and flashed me a smile that made my heart stutter once again.

"Hey. You should get some sleep. You'll probably feel horrible tomorrow." He said, grimacing as if the thought of a hangover was the most horrible thing in the world. Right now, I'd have to agree with him. I was not looking forward to the after effects of drinking I was bound to feel tomorrow.

I pulled my blanket over me, sighing as I settled my head onto my pillow, already falling into sleep. I heard Loren chuckle as he flipped the light off and wished me good night before he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

As I drifted to sleep, the first thing I dreamt of was what it would have been like to kiss Loren if I'd only had the courage.

~

For what seemed like days, my shoulder throbbed and burned with pain from having the knife thrust into it and the cut running the length of my face was no better. I drifted in and out of sleep, but when I was awake, I desperately tried to think of a plan to escape, to get away from this psychopath who was holding me captive.