Page 89 of Maddox
“You’re not stupid,” he rasps before he wraps me up in his arms.
Although I’m fine, I think it's the final nail on a slew of shit that just keeps coming and tears fill my eyes.
I just want to go back to that girl who thought life was about Cheer and partying. I can’t be this girl…I can’t.
“Shit,” he mumbles, rocking me carefully while I stain his shirt with my tears.
What the fuck am I going to do?
Chapter 20
Delaney
Eventually, I pass out and when I wake, I’m alone. After rolling over in bed, I stare at the ceiling, relieved that the pounding in my head has reduced to a dull ache.
My mouth is as dry as the desert but when I look at the bottle of water by the bed, my stomach rolls.
Instead, I stumble into the bathroom and turn on the water.
Was I drunk? Or did something more nefarious happen last night?
Bile burns a trail up my throat at the thought, but I force it away and dip my head to sip from the tap. The cool water soothes my aching throat and after drinking my fill, I strip outof the t-shirt and my panties before stepping under the heated spray.
The warmth feels good against my chilled skin but even more the soap I spread everywhere in the hopes of washing away my stupidity.
I don’t feel different but knowing there’s a black hole where my memory should be leaves me unsettled and although I feel cleaner when I emerge, something lingers that I can’t scrub clean.
Maybe it’s stupid but I don’t think Micah drugged me. However, it is possible he decided to take advantage of my drunken state, and I can’t stand to consider the thought.
Avoiding my face in the mirror, I pull on the T-shirt I was wearing before because I don’t have anything else.
With no brush to tame my hair, I can only towel it dry and call it good. The wet strands create blotches on the shirt that I ignore as I brush my teeth with my finger and follow it with the mouthwash I found in the cabinet.
As clean as I’m going to get…for now, I step out of the bathroom and pause to find Maddox sitting on the bed.
Shadows darken his eyes as his gaze drops to my chest and when my nipples harden, I shiver, welcoming the feeling because it’s erasing the stain that’s been dirtying my skin since I woke this morning.
Although he licks his lips when he takes in my bare legs, to my disappointment, he turns away and says gruffly, “Here. Food.”
Biting back my sassy response because it’s not his fault that I feel like a broken fucking doll, I merely grunt and move to the other side of the bed.
I am hungry but as soon as I take a bite of the grilled cheese sandwich, my stomach rolls again and when he hands me a bottle of water, I eye it dubiously until he says, “You need to hydrate, Delaney.”
“Okay,” I whisper but I can’t drink from the bottle as though my heart is trying to tell me something that my brain can’t comprehend.
When I make no move to open it, Maddox grabs the soda sitting beside his head and hands it to me.
My soul warms at the innocent gesture and I manage to swallow half the sandwich before drinking the entire can of soda.
Meanwhile Maddox sits beside me, flicking through the channels before eventually stopping on a chick flick that I saw once about three years ago.
It was okay, but I’m more into slasher films.
I can’t decide if he’s watching this for me and I don’t want to say something rude after he’s gone out of his way to be so kind.
However, when a particularly cheesy scene comes up, I snort, and he glances at me sideways.
“What?” I ask and he raises a brow.
