Lauren rubbed her eyes. How long had she been sleeping? She didn't even remember falling asleep. She rolled over and there, lying next to her was...Dex!
Lauren screamed and jumped out of the bed as if it were on fire. She realized she was only wearing her bra and panties. What in the world was going on?!
Dex stirred sleepily and opened his eyes.
"Get out of my room!" Lauren shouted.
Dex sat up on one arm and smiled at her. "Hey, baby."
"Don't call me baby. I don't understand what's happening, here. Why are you in my room? Why am I half-dressed?"
"Don't you remember?" Dex laughed and stretched out lazily.
"No! Please get up and leave. I don't know what happened but I'm not OK with it."
"Baby, you're the one who gave me the key to your room. Remember? We were having drinks at the bar earlier? You gave me your room key and told me to come up here."
"I never gave you my room key!" Lauren said, shocked that he would even suggest it. "I don't know what you're talking about but you need to leave. NOW."
"OK, OK," Dex said and stood up. He was wearing boxer briefs and nothing else. Lauren looked away.
"Like what you see?" Dex asked.
"No," Lauren said. "If you don't leave immediately I'm calling hotel security."
"I'm sure hotel security would be happy to see the sexy texts you sent me. And maybe the video I took of us an hour ago."
Lauren froze. "You took video? How dare you!"
Dex pulled on his shirt. "I'm gonna save it for later."
Lauren felt her armpits prickle with sweat. She wrapped a blanket around her body and hurried to the hotel door, yanking it open. She glanced out into the hall. Empty.
What time was it? Had she missed the Welcome Dinner?
"When you snap out of whatever fit you're having, give me a call," said Dex, slipping past her. "Maybe we can do a repeat tonight after dinner."
"That won't be happening," Lauren snapped.
"Whatever you say, baby."
And he was gone. Lauren slammed the hotel door and slid down to the carpet.
How had this happened? Suddenly, a thought occurred to her: had Dex drugged her? What if he had slipped something into her beer when she wasn't looking?
But that still didn't explain how he got in her room—unless he stole her key. But what about the texts she'd supposedly sent? What about the video? Was he lying about that?
Lauren stood up and hurried across the room to the nightstand. She picked up her phone, tapped in the passcode and went straight to her iPhotos. Nothing.
Lauren looked at the time. 6:19pm. So, she hadn't missed the Welcome Dinner. But she knew she was forgetting something. What was it?
She sat down on the bed and took a deep breath. Her head felt foggy. Was that jet lag or the after effects of being drugged?
At that moment her phone buzzed. It was Mikayla.
Where are you?
Mikayla! She was supposed to meet Mikayla at 6:15!
Lauren shivered, suddenly cold. She texted Mikayla back: Go ahead without me. I fell asleep. I'll be down soon.
She was shaking. She hobbled to the bathroom and turned on the shower. What if....what if Dex had violated her?
Lauren checked herself but she wasn't sore anywhere. There weren't any marks or bodily fluids. Still, she felt dirty. SOMETHING had happened, she just didn't know WHAT.
Lauren opened a bottle of water that the hotel provided and drank the whole thing.
She stepped into the shower as tears began to fall down her cheeks. What was going on? What should she do? She wanted to tell someone but she was afraid they wouldn't believe her, especially if Dex had compromising pictures of her.
What did he plan on doing with those pictures? Lauren sat down in the shower and let the hot water beat over her body. She had to make a plan.
She had to find out the truth before something even worse happened.