Page 12 of Come Back To Me

“Yeah, Coach. I’ll see you on Monday.”

Something unspoken passed between me and Vaughan and when I found my Dad looking at me, his lips are drawn into a thin line, his brows drawn low.

“Care to explain what I walked in on?”

Something in his tone confused me. In fact, this entire interaction with Vaughan King had me completely stumped, and my body didn’t get the memo that we were supposed to be confused because it was still humming.

“He,” - I pointed to the door where Vaughan just exited — “hurt himself, and I tried to help.Obviously he has something against that.”

Or me, I added silently. Before I could labor the issue any longer, my Dad clapped his hands, effectively ending the weird turn of events, and rubbed his palms together.

“Right, you said something about pizza.”

I snorted, and followed him back to his office. My Mom always said the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.

HAVING A WET DREAM about a stranger was perfectly normal. I think. I mean there weren’t any statistics saying otherwise, but then again, it was the first time it had ever happened to me so an expert I was not. What I could say was that is waking up, sweaty and achy between your legs wasn’t fun, especially when you had nothing but your own hand to get some relief.

“This is ridiculous,” I muttered into the darkness. The clock on my bedside table blinked, taunting me with the fact that it had just gone midnight. After I’d had dinner with my Dad, he dropped me off at mine and Maddy’s apartment and went home. I wasn’t expecting Maddy to be home, so I called it a night and went to bed. That was almost three hours ago.

I threw the covers off, feeling too hot, and contemplated taking care of it — it being my sudden, and unwelcome state of arousal. Oh for fuck’s sake, obviously I’d lost some of my memory, but last I checked I was never prudish, and a blow to the head wouldn’t suddenly make me behave as if I’d just stepped out of a Jane Austin novel. So yes, I was horny. There, I said it. Even virgins got horny, okay?

And now I’m having conversations with myself too.

Great.

I had one of two options, the first being obvious — flick my bean until I no longer felt so frustrated — and the second, I could distract myself until it went away. So the second may not be as appealing, because in reality everybody needs a good orgasm, but the second option was preferable. It’s not like I hadn’t masturbated before, I had, but the idea of getting myself off irritated me. I could go into a deep and meaningful analysis of why that was, maybe blame the fact that this week had been long and I was still adjusting to life after my accident, but in all honesty, I didn’t give a shit about why it annoyed me. I just was.

Option two it is then.

Distraction. I grabbed the book I was reading earlier — a smutty romance I found in our local Barnes & Noble - and wandered into the dark living room. After flicking on a lamp, I flopped on to the couch, tossed my legs up and start reading. It wasn’t so much the story that diverted my attention — even though I was devouring it — but rather the act of reading itself, getting lost in the words. I’d always been nerdy, so much so that I decided I wanted to pursue a career in publishing. Which was why it surprised me when Maddy told me I was studying teaching last year. It made no sense, but I figured maybe my Dad had something to do with that choice. Now though, I wanted to think I was doing what I wanted, and that was to spend my life surrounded by books in whatever way I could.

An hour later, I heard the front door being unlocked, and sat up from my place on the sofa. Aiden came in, half carrying Maddy, and gave me a quizzical look. His brown hair flopped onto his forehead.

“You’re awake.”

“Couldn’t sleep.”

“Kenziiiii,” crooned Maddy, stumbling as Aiden tried to bring her inside. She snickered, her head hanging to the side.

“Is she…”

“Wasted,” answered Aiden. He was only two years older than me, but his bulky frame almost took up our entire entryway, and the only difference between him and Liam was the scar Aiden had slashing across his left eyebrow.

“Where’s her room?” he asked, grunting when Maddy’s legs give out. Her level of intoxication worried me. She’d never been a drinker.

Aiden followed me to Maddy’s room, and left so that I could help her change. She mumbled to herself, saying God knows what, and as soon as I tucked her in, she was out. Hoo boy, she was going to hate herself in the morning.

Aiden was leaning against our kitchen counter, rubbing his face and then smothered a very obvious yawn.

“What happened?”

His tired green eyes met mine. “Maddy and Jackson got into it at Stella’s.”

“That why she got drunk?”

Which made no sense because Maddy was smarter than that. And she’d never been the kind of girl to get hung up on a guy. Sure, she was always a hopeless romantic, but she also believed in having fun — and not the kind that was found in a bottle.

“Think so,” replied Aiden. “I’ve never seen her so angry before.”