• Troublesome • Rhett x Reader •

• Chapter Twenty Two •

"That sounded exciting." Rhett smirks, eyes on the road. I hand his phone back to him. 

"She implied that some shit went down after we left. I'm only hoping that shit involves my damn car keys."

"I'm hoping too, for some asshole thief's sake." His voice, dead serious.

"Ooh, you know you're quite the potty mouth when you're mad." I tease, in an attempt at starting a lighthearted banter. He doesn't say anything. 

We approach Nicky's complex and I begin unbuckling myself. To my relief, my dad's car is still parked at the end of the lot. As we pull up, I see Nicole waiting at her doorstep, texting. I take a moment to put my hand on Rhett's and he finally turns his attention towards me. 

"Hey," I speak in a low voice, despite me knowing that Nicky couldn't possibly hear even if I was talking normally. "I can't tell if you're joking about kicking somebody's ass. So... please, don't."

"No promises, (Y/n), they drugged you and stole your keys."

"We don't know that for sure. I was a fucking mess and I could've dropped them somewhere in her apartment."

"Okay." He settles. I hop out of the car and he follows closely behind. 

"Hey, I wasn't sure if that was you." Nicole stands and jogs up to us. "How're you feeling?" 

"Better. Still getting dizzy now and then, but nothing I can't handle. I'm sorry about your sheets." I apologize.

"Don't worry about them. Okay, so, about your keys." She starts. "Drew had your keys. It took everyone ganging up against him for him to even admit he spiked the fudge. I had to drag him to get him to give me your keys." 

I furrow my brow and suck in a deep breath. 

"A lot of people ate some of that fudge, but none had a reaction like yours..." She explains. "Maybe you have an allergy to whatever it was."

"I ate an embarrassing amount of the fudge." My voice is cooled with realization. 

"That would make sense. But how did he know to steal your keys?" Rhett asks.

"Yeah, he doesn't even know what car I brought. Did he really plan on going up to every single car and trying each one? Jesus." 

We all stand around for a moment as everything simmers down enough to make sense of. Nicole heads back inside to grab my keys from Jackie. I smile at the fact that she's still there. Maybe they made up for lost time, considering my groaning, vomit-drenched form so rudely interrupted them earlier. Not that I can remember much, having been drifting in and out of consciousness for over an hour. 

Suddenly, I feel uncomfortable. Drew had to have come into the room and searched me for anything I might've had on me. The idea of unwelcome man-hands digging in my clothes sends a wave of nausea over me. 

"Are you alright?" Rhett's voice startles me, but as I go to answer Nicky bursts out of the door with my keys.

"Here they are." She tosses them to me and I, to my surprise, actually catch them. I very obviously make a funny face afterward, as both of them start laughing. 

"I'm extremely disoriented and still caught these!" I grin widely. 

"Speaking of disoriented, are you good to drive your car back to the house?" Rhett makes a valid point. While I'm feeling better than before, I do have random bouts of dizziness every now and again. 

"I... Can come get it tomorrow. Yeah. I just really wanted the keys for some reason." 

"You sure? I could always drive it back with you. If you don't mind me and Jackie kicking it at your place for the night." Nicky offers, but the idea of having two more people at my house in one day exhausts me even more. 

"Not tonight, sorry. But we could hang out together when I'm all good again." I explain. "I think I'm just gonna cool it for tonight and tomorrow." 

She looks between Rhett and I as we begin to head back to the car. I turn around and wave before she can give me any shit. I can read her expressions acutely, even from 20 feet away. 

"I'm guessing you'll need a ride again tomorrow? To get the car?" 

"Probably." I unlock the car and grab my phone out of the glovebox before shutting and locking it again. "I'll also need to grab a new battery for my car if you are up to giving me a ride to the store, too."

"I'm up for it." He smirks. "Hey, you hungry?"

"I'm starving."