Hopelessly Falling [book 2]

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Layla pointed out to me that Kevin's now split lip and red knuckles went well with his costume... which was quite the 'Layla' observation to make after a fight had just been broken up.

Other than that, there weren't really any big problems. Probably because Crystal wasn't here to get drunk and Ashton wasn't here to spend the whole party making sure she didn't accidentally kill herself.

Apparently, Justin had broken up with Savanah just earlier today because the 'distance was too much'. Whatever the hell that meant. I never liked that prick, anyway.. but Savanah wasn't letting that stop her from having the time of her life tonight.

I chuckled as I passed her making out with one of her ex girlfriends. 'It's times like this that I'm happy I can embrace the half of me that fully hates the male species.' She had told me after she was a few shots deep.

I walked away to get me and Layla drinks, and when I got back, she was up dancing to the music. I set down the drinks and grinned mischievously at the little prank I had just put together in my head as I grabbed the handcuffs attached to my jumpsuit and opened them up.

I snuck up behind her and closed them around her wrists... but I immediately found out that it had been a terrible idea.

• • •

Layla's POV ***

        Flashes kept appearing in front of my vision. Little spurts of memory from that night. They all seemed to attack me from every direction, not letting me go. I never got the full sensation, but I felt it all over my body, jumping in between the different feelings and sensations I had felt that night.

The handcuffs. It was the handcuffs. That was the second time in my life I had been put in them, and the memory of the first time sliced through my mind like a dagger piercing through butter.

My eyes shot open and I gasped for air. I gasped and gulped for any air I could take into my lungs, not being able to breath fast enough after not having taken a breath in god-knows how long. Aware that I had just been passed out, I could feel myself trembling, and I could also feel a bed under me. I heard a voice, it was Eli's.

I couldn't quite hear what he was saying, though, over my own heartbeat pounding in my ears and my shaky breaths wheezing in and out. I tried to blink away the blurriness as I my senses slowly began to wake up.

Eli was half holding me, half leaning over me, not knowing how to handle the situation. I appreciated him caring, but I couldn't articulate that at the moment.

All I could do was cry. And boy did I cry.

I hated crying. I've always fucking hated crying, especially in front of boys. I felt embarrassed, mortified even. I hadn't cried like this in front of anybody since I had been twelve.

Despite the violated sensations still shooting throughout my body at the flashbacks, I sat up and leaned into Eli, grabbing onto him and holding him as tight as I could. His safe presence in a way counteracted the feelings shooting through my system, and I clung to him probably too hard as I tried to alleviate them.

He didn't say anything, though. He only hugged me back and tried to comfort me. I hated the way that my broken sobs sounded in his empty room. They sounded so nauseatingly sad and scared. So not me.