Moments of Reckoning Read online

  Pushing through the now thick crowd, we found Abby and Xavier definitely getting their “freak on”, as the song suggested. They were pressed so closely together I’m sure a breeze couldn’t even find a spot to move through, Abby’s back to Xavier’s front as she was snaking her way up and down his body like they were the only two in the place. It was one of those situations you felt like you shouldn’t be seeing but you can’t help but to continue to watch. Jason coughed before suggesting that we stay where we were. I couldn’t help but laugh as I began to move to the beat of the song. He wanted to steer clear of them two just as badly as I did, apparently. Jason is a wonderful dancer; he can keep the rhythm of any song—which actually surprised me at first. We continued dancing song after song until numerous ones had played. We had taken at least three more of those vial shots from waitresses as they made their rounds on the dance floor. Damn those things were good—and most likely dangerous to a light weight like me. Looking around I couldn’t seem to find Abby or Xavier but I assumed they were off in the corner somewhere sucking face after their previous antics. Even though I did not agree with this for more than one reason, I wasn’t sticking my nose in the middle of it. Abby hadn’t broken up with Alex and Xavier knew this. But she is a grown-ass woman and it’s her decision to make… not mine.

  The music began to slow again. Finding myself quite drunk, I was staring at Jason like I was about to ravish him, as a cheetah would a gazelle. I realized what I was doing and tried to cover it up by grabbing two more vials from a passing waitress and handed one to Jason.

  Shew-Wee… I haven’t drank this much since I was sixteen at a field party; that night ended in me being passed out face-down in the backseat of a friend’s pickup truck. God, I hope I don’t pass out before I get home tonight and relive a night like that one.

  Jason threw back the shot just as I did. Placing the now empty vials on the table beside us, Jason pulled me into him. At this point I could tell he was almost as buzzed-up as I was, but I wasn’t complaining about my current situation of being wrapped up in his arms. Jason had never handled me like he has tonight; it was rather nice, even though I knew it was probably the alcohol’s fault.

  “I wonder where Xavier and Abby ran off to.” He spoke in my ear as we continued to move with the music. I shrugged my shoulders in response as I lowered my head against his chest. Breathing in his sweet scent—a mixture of his cologne, alcohol and sweat—was overwhelming, and seemed to make me even more intoxicated than I already was. I kept fighting back the urge to reach up and kiss him because I knew that would be a game changing moment and I was too terrified to tread on those grounds. Oh, Jason, if only you felt for me like I do for you… I thought to myself. I felt someone smack my backside and snapped my eyes open to find Abby and Xavier slow dancing beside us. She flashed me a guilty grin with a wink. I halfheartedly smiled back at Abby before closing my eyes again and snuggling closer to Jason’s body.

  “That was an awfully big sigh.” Jason’s voice startled me.

  “I didn’t realize I had sighed. Sorry about that...”

  “Don’t be sorry… Are you all right?”

  “Better than ever actually,” and when I looked up at him I saw something in his eyes change. It was like the whole world had disappeared and Jason was looking at me…only me. It felt like the room temperature raised a good ten degrees as I found myself lost in his glance. My legs began to feel weak when I felt Jason’s grip around my body tighten as he pulled me closer to him. With no room left between us, our bodies fit perfectly together, moving from side to side to the beat of the music. In that moment…that stand-still moment, Jason leaned down and kissed me. He kissed me deeper than I have ever been kissed before as time seemed to stop dead in its tracks. Without even considering my next move, I found myself moving one of my hands up into his hair. He responded by biting my bottom lip before continuing to ravish my mouth—one delicious kiss at a time. Is this really happening?! My mind was screaming with joy. He has got to be drunk off his ass to kiss me after all these years... Drunk or not, I didn’t care. This was the moment I had been waiting for since eighth grade and I sure as hell wasn’t about to ruin it by over-thinking things.

  It didn’t take long to be knocked back into reality by the loud voice of Xavier arguing with another guy. Jason let go of me about as fast as the whole situation had unfolded. I turned to my left and found Abby freaking out because Xavier was in the face of someone who looked just like… Alex. “Is that Alex?!” I asked as Jason ran past me to try and calm the situation without even responding to me. As the voices grew louder and louder I heard Alex threatening to beat Xavier half to death before switching to yelling profanities at Abby. All it took was Alex calling Abby a whore and Xavier threw the first punch that made contact to the right side of Alex’s face. Alex fell back as Xavier lunged forward. Knocking them both to the ground, he continued to punch him. I tried to grab a hold of Abby to pull her from the mess but I failed miserably, we both slid and fell. Busting my ass on the hard floor, Abby landed on top of me.

  “Son of a bitch..!” I yelped as Abby jumped up and headed back into the middle of the royal rumble. By this time Xavier’s crew from earlier had made their way over. They were yelling back and forth to three guys that seemed to be on Alex’s side. One looked vaguely familiar to me but in my drunken state I didn’t have time to process why. I couldn’t find Jason in the crowd but I knew he was in the middle of it all. Before I could get up from the floor the fight became larger. Xavier’s friends and the three guys went at it, causing a frenzy. Sliding back on the floor, to avoid being trampled, I felt hands around my arm that drug me up to my feet.

  “What the hell Hannah, I gave you and your friends a free pass in here only for you all to start a damn fight?!” Landon voice was laced with anger.

  Apparently it wasn’t as good to see Landon as I had thought. He was pissed and had every right to be.

  “Landon I….”

  “Save it, Hannah. You all need to leave… NOW!”

  “I don’t know where anybody is…” my voice came out in a whisper. My head began to spin, causing me to stumble. Landon grabbed a hold of my arm to steady me.

  “Ugh... Hannah, you’re drunk…What am I going to do with you? No wonder you were on the floor in the middle of a fight!”

  “Let go of her…” Jason’s voice came from behind me.

  You have got to be kidding me… Good thing I decided to tie one on tonight because this shit is straight up ridiculous. “Jason, it’s not what it…”

  “You don’t want to go there pretty boy.” Landon placed me to his side.

  The next few seconds seemed to go on forever as they sized each other up and I tried to regain my composure.

  “WILL YOU TWO STOP!” my voice finally broke through in a raspy growl. “Alex and Xavier have started World War Three over there and now the two of you are going to act like children?! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

  “You’re lucky I’m still on the clock and have to drag your boys apart. Or this would be ending very differently.” Landon stated poking his finger into Jason’s chest while completely ignoring me. Stepping back, Landon turned and barreled himself into the crowd. Turning to face me, Jason started to say something as I cut him off. I was beyond furious.

  “Don’t… Just don’t, Jason…Abby is stuck in the middle of that madness somewhere and I have to find her. I cannot let her get hurt, so if you’re not going to help me find her, MOVE!” I waved my hand in the air as I made my way past him. How did things end up so reckless after being so wonderful a few minutes ago and where the hell is Abby…? Why did I have to get drunk like this…? “ABBY!!!!!” I started yelling over the crowd hoping she would hear me. “ABBY!!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!?” My yelling was to no avail. There were still a lot amount of people fighting as I was trying to dodge the punches so I didn’t find myself with a bloody nose. I actually had a bright idea of standing a chair to get above the crowd and have a better chance of spotting Abby
. I wasn’t brave enough to try and climb into one of the taller chairs—even though they would have the better view—so I decided to climb onto the table of one of the booths lining the wall.

  Wow… I can see almost the whole VIP bar from here… Is that Abs..? Nope, definitely not her, she might kill me if she knew I thought that was her… hahaha…. Man the room is kind of wobbly… Maybe I should sit down for a sec…

  Plopping down in the center of the table, I let out an overly dramatic sigh before I grabbed an unopened beer from whoever’s bucket that was sitting beside me. Obviously drinking another beer was a horrible idea but I had pretty much given up trying to find anyone. Not only had I lost Abby and Xavier but Landon was pissed at me and Jason was…well… I don’t really know—either losing his mind because he actually kissed me or extremely drunk—hard to say which. Touching my lips caused me to remember the wonderful assault he had given me not too long ago. An aching for more of him started to take over.

  “Oh, Jason… what have you done to me,” I mumbled to myself, shaking my head.

  “Hannah…?” A voice came from the right of me.

  Almost jumping out of my skin I snapped my head to the right to see who it was. It was the guy who was backing Alex, the one I thought looked vaguely familiar to me for some reason. “Ummm... Yeah…?” I responded slowly. How the heck does he know my name?! Sitting there holding a beer half way to my lips I just stared at him like he had two heads.

  “Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” realizing he was still talking to me I looked over at him again.

  “Actually I am trying to find my friends I came here with. When the fight broke out I lost everybody and I’ve tried to find them—but as you can see I’m sitting here alone. Apparently you know them since you were helping Alex.” I responded waving my hand towards the exit in the back. “By the way, how do you know my name?” I asked defensively. Something about this guy made my skin crawl—even though he was very attractive. He stood there in awkward silence, looking at the floor with his hands shoved into his front pockets and his ball cap pulled down low for several minutes before he finally answered that he was in one of my classes at the college last semester. I thought I vaguely remembered him but I couldn’t quite see his full face. Chalking it up at that, I went back to drinking my beer.

  “I just saw Alex go out the back exit! Come on!” grabbing my arm, he was pretty much dragging me off the table. Luckily enough I snagged my beer and chugged it while he drug me along the crowded dance floor.

  “Are you sure?!” I yelled back over the noise of the music and crowd. He didn’t respond to my question. Brushing it off to him not hearing me over all the noise, I continued to let him drag me through the crowd. Then it hit me…I didn’t even know his name and I was allowing him to drag me across the bar to the exit he “supposedly” saw Alex go out. I stopped dead in my tracks, causing him to jerk back since he was still holding my hand.

  “What are you doing?! Don’t you want to catch Alex?!” he looked at me stunned.

  “Of course I do! But I honestly don’t know you or your name for that matter. I don’t really think it’s a good idea for me to allow you to drag me outside even if Alex is supposedly out there!” I blurted out before I realized how angry I sounded. He didn’t even flinch… he simply let go of my hand and as calm as anyone I had ever heard before, he said fine. Fine! All he said was fine and walked away without giving me his name still... Who does that?!

  I was furious although I wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe because he didn’t give me his name but knew mine, or because he didn’t care to help me the rest of the way to the exit? I had no idea why he was affecting me the way he did, but I was absolutely furious. I stormed the rest of the way through the crowd not caring that I was knocking into people. “Thank God!” I huffed, when I finally saw the exit sign slightly ahead of me. Pushing through the last group of people between me and the exit, I slammed into the door with full force, flinging it open so hard it smacked the wall behind it. The cool air hit my body and instantly began to cool me off as I stepped out into the alleyway. That’s when I realized just how intoxicated I was. I didn’t notice the two small steps that led from the door to the actual ground until I was stumbling forward. Throwing my hands in front of me I grabbed onto someone who was lunging towards me as I was falling. Apparently alcohol and I don’t mix… how many times have I fallen tonight?! Feeling familiar arms around me I realized automatically who it was.

  “Jason…?!” I mumbled breathlessly in astonishment.

  “Yeah, Han, I got you…are you okay?!” he was smirking at me. Oh that adorable smirk of his…

  His smirk slowly faded as he furrowed his brows, “Are you sure you’re okay?” I pulled myself out of his arms and crossed mine over my chest, “Yeah I’m okay…a little intoxicated…but okay. Did you find anyone? I still haven’t seen Abby…or Xavier for that matter.” He leaned back against the wall and nodded towards the parking lot a good football field length away.

  Noticing Xavier and Abby embraced in a hug beside a light post, I smiled a little and let out an overly large sigh. Leaning back against the wall beside Jason, I propped my foot against it and let my arms fall to my sides, exhaustion washed over me.

  Chapter 5

  The silence that hung in the air between Jason and I was unnerving. I didn’t know what to say…the last time we were face to face we had just experienced a breathtaking moment only to be shocked back into a drama-filled reality. So instead of saying anything I let the cool night air blow across my drunken self, standing there with my eyes closed and leaning against the wall.

  “Hannah…I…” Fumbling with his words, Jason paused for a moment. “I don’t want you to think…that I only kissed you because I was drinking.” My thoughts were running wild and I couldn’t seem to find my voice to respond to him. “You don’t have to say anything, Han…if you want to act like it didn’t happen then I will just have to deal with that…” What does he mean; he will have to deal with that..?

  I hadn’t even realized Jason had moved until he was in front of me with each of his hands placed against the wall, surrounding me. I looked up at him with hooded eyes as he continued to talk. “…I won’t apologize for finally kissing you because it has been the one thing I have been dying to do since I first met you. I know you look at me as your best friend and I haven’t wanted to jeopardize that but, Hannah…I love you…I fucking love you…I can’t go a day without talking to you, let alone seeing you. Everything you do intoxicates me and I am tired of trying to hide my feelings! I don’t want to look back and realize I didn’t even try to let the one person I love, know just how much I wanted them. Seeing the way you are with Landon made me realize even more that you won’t be single forever and if I don’t give us a shot then I don’t deserve to sulk over you when you find someone. Please, Hannah…Give us a shot…Give me a shot...”

  Jason’s confession threw me for a loop. All this time…all this damn time I have thought that he wanted nothing to do with me, other than a friendship and now he is telling me that he—he fucking loves me. I wanted to scream, jump, cry, and pass out all at the same time. Jason loves me…he actually loves…me. I couldn’t find the words to respond to anything he said so I did the one thing that I knew would give him all the answers he needed. I kissed him—I mean fiercely kissed him. It didn’t take long for Jason to start kissing me back with equal passion. He grabbed the sides of my face while I ran my hands through his hair. Dropping one of his hands to my lower back, he pulled me closer to him. Moving his other hand into my hair, he held the back of my head in place so that he could take control of my mouth, slowly moving his tongue with mine. A moan escaped from my throat that seemed to drive him even wilder. He began kissing down my jaw line, to my ear, and down my neck sending waves of wonderful sensations throughout my body.

  “Oh…Jason…” I moaned breathlessly as he continued kissing and nipping at my neck. My legs were starting to tremble. I
was afraid that they would give out on me at any moment so I clutched Jason’s shoulders for support.

  “Whoa there, beautiful…” his voice was low and husky. He ran his hands down my thighs and wrapped my legs around him as he continued to alternate kisses between my mouth and neck. He carried me over to a wine barrel sitting a little ways down from us and placed me on top of it.

  “Perfect” he whispered, gazing into my eyes. Was this for real?! Jason intertwined with me in the alleyway…

  I felt my face flush from his comment but it didn’t last long, we were right back into the rhythm of kissing one another like there was no tomorrow. Jason’s hand moved up my thigh slowly. I cursed myself under my breath for wearing these damn leggings. His hand would feel much nicer against my bare leg. The sweet taste of Jason on my lips was even more intoxicating than the alcohol I had drank all night. Drifting off in thought about the future and how nice it will be to be able to do this as often as we want; I heard Abby yelling at someone across the parking lot. Seriously?! AGAIN!? I yelled inside my head. The yelling pulled Jason out of our moment as well. Turning to see what was happening, we saw Alex in Xavier’s face again—and Abby stuck in the middle of them.

  “Let me handle this Hannah…stay here, I will be right back.” Sighing in defeat I shook my head yes as he began jogging away to the crazies that we call friends.

  Pulling my dress back down and smoothing it out, I touched my lips as a smile spread widely across my face. Jason had been on my lips…more than once tonight…and yes they were the best moments of my life so far. Sleep tried to invade me while I was sitting there so I laid my head back against the wall behind me. I noticed they weren’t yelling anymore so I figured Jason had made some progress in the situation. I glanced over and saw that Abby and Xavier were gone while Jason was left standing there with a very annoyed Alex. Poor Jason…He always ends up in the middle of making amends between people. He really is a great guy…