Chapter 9: Recollection.
I stretched out my arms as wide as I could and slowly began to open my eyes. I sat up almost immediately after realising that I wasn't in Beck's penthouse, let alone his bed, nor was I back at my dorm room. Instead, I was in Pierre's bedroom. Sleeping in his bed. I looked down at what I was wearing. It was oversized black t-shirt. Probably Pierre's. I let out a sign of relief when I realised that my shorts was on me. I placed my hand onto my forehead and began to rub it gently as I was suffering from the worst headache I've had in my life.
Suddenly Pierre's bedroom door creaked open and Pierre walked in with not one but two cups in his hand. "Good morning, sunshine. How we feeling this morning?" He asked.
"Terrible. I have a headache from hell." I replied. I sat up straight and crossed my legs whilst I rested my head against his headboard.
"Here. Have this. Black coffee always helps." He says as he hands me the cup of coffee. He then sat down on the edge of his bed as I took the coffee from him. I drank half the cup of coffee almost immediately. The coffee was strong and it was exactly what I needed.
I searched through my brain carefully to try and unravel my last memory from the morning. The only thing I can remember was arguing with Aria about going to see Beck. She accused me of being too drunk and that was the last thing I remembered. The rest of the morning was such a blur. Such a mystery. "Wait, did we?" I asked and my voice trailed off. I didn't want to admit what I was thinking.
"Yes, we totally had sex last night." Pierre joked. I swear, he never takes anything seriously. Although hearing him say the word sex in his French accent was oddly weird. I looked at him with a straight face as he laughed. "No." He admitted. I looked down at the cup, embarrassed because I couldn't remember what happened. "I would never take advantage of you like that. In fact, I slept on the chair." Pierre added, catching me completely off-guard. I was not expecting him to say that.
I looked over at the chair and it looked super uncomfortable. And that made me feel bad because he had to sacrifice his bed for me. "Thank you." I said and smiled at him. I was very grateful for what he had done. "So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bad was I?" I asked, shyly. I was scared for what was to come next.
"Oh, you were a 12." He laughed.
My jaw dropped at his response. I pulled the pillow out from behind me and playfully hit him with it. I was careful not to hit his cup. "You are so mean." I chuckled.
"Nah, I'm joking. You were dealing with a lot. Aria told Lando and I what happened." Pierre said.
"What?" I practically muttered underneath my breath.
"But don't be mad at her cause we forced her to tell us. She called Beck to tell him that you were asleep and then she had a go at him. We knew something was wrong so we asked her." Pierre explained.
Aria had a go at Beck. Classic Aria, always defending me. Without realising, I began to cry. "From the time I started dating Beck, everyone kept telling me that I could do better, that I deserved better but I never listened to them." I said as the tears started streaming down my face uncontrollably. It was so bad that Pierre started to hold my hand. "How could I be so stupid to think that he wouldn't hurt me?" I asked.
"Because you chose love and you were hoping that a part of him will love you just as much as you love him." Aria said as she stood by the door. I was crying so much that I didn't even realise that the door had opened.
Hearing Aria say that shattered my heart into a million pieces. I started to cry harder and heavier than before. Pierre took the cup from my hand and woke up from the bed as soon as Aria sat down. She immediately grappled me into a hug. Pierre decided to give us some space by leaving. I sat there in Aria's arms, crying my heart out.
Later that day, Aria and I were chilling on our beds in our dorm room listening to this new album she was obsessing over. She told me the name and the artist before she started playing it but I've been so distracted that I wasn't paying attention. We had skipped all of our classes for the day as we tried to recover from the frat party. Thankfully I only had one class for the day and that was English. I hadn't spoken to Beck all day. And surprisingly, he hadn't called or texted. He knows that I know he cheated on me and he's avoiding me because of that. At some point, we're both going to have to be adults and talk about the situation but until then, I'm perfectly fine with not speaking to him.
Speaking about Beck, I looked down at my hand and noticed that the bracelet Beck had bought me with his name on it was missing. Sitting up straight, I turned to face Aria. "Do you have my bracelet?" I asked her.
"Uhm no. I left it on top of Pierre's drawer. I thought you would've taken it from there." She said.
I shook her head signalling no. "I completely forgot about it." I said. Which was true. I had a rough morning but that wasn't a reason for me to be so careless.
"I could ask Lando to get it for you. Although he's sleeping now so he'll only bring it when he gets up." Aria said. She reached out and grabbed her phone from the nightstand.
"No, don't stress. I'll go over there and get it myself." I said. I sat up from the bed and put on my sneakers. I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and walked towards the door. "See ya." I said and opened the door.
"Bye." Said Aria, who went back to singing along to the music. I laughed as I walked out.
Walking through campus, everything was so quiet. Most of the students were in lectures whilst others were probably hiding in their dorms, like we were. I took a moment to appreciate the silence. Everything was so calm and still. The only noises that you could hear was that of nature. Birds chirping, gushers of wind making the trees move and bees buzzing. It was refreshing.
A few short minutes later, I had arrived at the boys housing. I walked over to the front door and it was closed. It looked like there was nobody inside but that was just the boys hiding out. I knocked onto the door and waited for a response. Seconds went by and the door had finally opened. And there he was, standing in nothing but a towel. My eyes immediately dropped to his abs. They weren't 6 pack abs but they were definitely toned to say the least. Summer had just started and he was already tan. His hair was wet and if I'm been honest, it looked very sexy.
"Hello again Skyler." He said, snapping me out of my daze. There was something about the way he said my name. It was so attractive.
"Hi Carlos." I smiled. "Is Pierre home?" I asked.
Carlos shook his head and said "He just stepped out to get some groceries with Charles." I sighed. If only I was earlier, I would have caught him in time. "What do you need?" He asked.
"I left something of mine in his room. I was hoping that I could get it. It's really important." I explained myself.
"You can go up and get it. It's not a problem. Pierre wouldn't mind." Carlos said and my face immediately lit up. My phone buzzed at that exact moment but I chose to completely ignore it.
"You sure?" I asked.
"Trust me, he wouldn't mind you going into his room." Carlos chuckled as he stepped away from the door, allowing me inside the house. I ignored what he had said and simply just smiled at him.
I ran quickly up the stairs and thankfully I remembered which room was Pierre's. Third door on the right. I opened the door and went straight to his drawer. I grabbed my bracelet and headed towards the door. I stopped for a second as I stood by the door. It felt weird being in his room without him. I closed the door and headed back down the stairs. My phone started to ring just as I reached the last stair. It was Aria.
"Found what you needed?" Asked Carlos, who had been waiting for me for some reason.
"Yeah I did. Thank you." I said and showed off my bracelet.
Carlos returned the smile. "Anytime." He said. Carlos opened the front door, allowing me to walk out. We stood face to face at the door. "Is that his name on your bracelet?" Asked Carlos, referring to Beck. Of course, everyone knew Beck.
"Yeah." I said, a little embarrassed. I never liked the idea of the bracelet. I always thought it was like a collar. A name tag. Like he had claimed me to be his property. But I never fought against it because I knew how much it meant to him.
"That's romantic." Said Carlos. I couldn't tell if he was lying or if he actually meant that.
Then suddenly, I heard clapping coming from behind me. I turned around and my smile dropped all the way down to the floor as soon as I saw Beck leaning against his car. He was waiting for me. That was the reason why Aria tried to call me. I thought to myself. Beck was eyeing Carlos from head to toe. I mean, who wouldn't. He practically only had a towel on.
"Beck." I said. My heart racing. I didn't know what else to say.
"Get in the fucking car, Skyler."
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