Front And Center (sequel to Behind the Scenes)

A Break

“HANNAH! Hannah, wake up!” I heard someone yelling at me but I felt like it was through a thick fog or a tunnel; something was distorting it.

I managed to open my eyes and saw Luke standing before me, concern all over his face. What was wrong? Was someone hurt?

I meant to ask these questions out loud but my mouth wouldn’t work so I just lay there looking at Luke, and that’s when it hit me.

I was lying on the ground of the alleyway behind the club and I could hear the music in the background, still blaring. It was dark outside, and I was terrified.

All I remembered was falling unconscious into the guy who’d drugged me; what happened to him?

I turned my head to either side and saw that he lay a few feet away from me, unconscious himself and most likely from Luke beating him up; judging by the blood I saw.

I felt sick to my stomach; had he done something to me? Had he taken advantage of me?

At this thought, I turned my head to the other side and threw up, the nausea rolling off me.

“It’s alright, you’re alright,” Luke told me as he held my hair for me.

“Did he...?” I asked, not wanting to finish the sentence.

“No,” Luke said quickly, helping me up, “I saw him catch you and lead you out here so I followed and saw you pass out and that’s when I knew he’d drugged you. Luckily the idiot didn’t use enough so you weren’t out for very long; just enough time for me to show him that he shouldn’t have messed with you,” Luke said the last part through gritted teeth and a glare in the guy’s direction.

I looked over at him, and immediately wished I hadn’t. The nauseous feeling came back and suddenly I started retching again.

“You alright?” Luke asked concernedly and I nodded, “come on, let’s get you back to the hotel.”

He tried leading me towards the door but I stopped him.

“Luke, nobody can know about this,” I said and when he began to protest I said, “Niall will freak out and try and come find him and everything will get massively complicated.” Luke still didn’t look convinced so I tried again, “Look, i’m fine and you took care of the guy, and really thank you for that,” I said sincerely, “But Please, let’s just keep this between us and I’ll be super careful with my drinks from here on out.” I promised.

Luke still didn’t look totally convinced but he grudgingly nodded regardless because he knew I wouldn’t let us leave until he agreed to keep it a secret.

I let him lead me into the club and back to our table. The music was blasting and everyone was dancing as though nothing had just happened, but I was tired and still felt sick and just wanted to leave.

“Hey,” Niall yelled to me when I stepped into view, a massive smile on his face, “Where you been?”

I tried to smile, and managed a half decent one and since Niall had been drinking he didn’t notice, “I got sick so Luke took me to the alley to get some fresh air.” I yelled back and I saw Luke frown out of the corner of my eye but I ignored it.

“You alright?’ He asked concernedly and I nodded, forced smile still in place, “It’s getting late, we should head back soon, I just have to run to the toilets for a minute,” Niall said, giving me a kiss on the side of the head before heading to go to the bathroom.

I sat at the table beside Harry, Liam and Danielle, completely worn out. I heard Luke say he was going to round everyone up and he told another security guard to watch us. He gave me a stern ‘stay here’ look and I nodded, not wanting to move anywhere.