Page 66 of Kane's Awakening
Why is a trashcan even here?I asked myself, once I stopped vomiting and gathered my thoughts a bit.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and tried to open my eyes more. As of right then, I could only squint in the dimly lit room. A glass of water sat on the nightstand, and I reached for it with shaking hands. I took a drink and cringed at the aftertaste.
Two pills were on the stand, too, and I stared at them, confused. More of my memory returned. Ryker. He must’ve sat all of that out for me, knowing how much of a wreck I’d be when I woke up.
After popping the ibuprofen in my mouth and swallowing them down with the water, I tried getting up. And damn it all, I was still kind of drunk.
When my feet hit the floor, I swayed and fell back on the mattress.
“Take it easy,” Ryker said, hurrying over to me. He put a hand at my lower back to help steady me as I tried to stand again. “Maybe you should rest for a while longer.”
Rest sounded great, but there was no way I could rest with puke breath. I told him that, and he chuckled. With his help, I managed to make it to the bathroom.
“I can take it from here,” I said before closing the door, leaving it cracked a little.
After taking a piss, I washed my hands and used some mouthwash to get the acidic taste out of my mouth. When my breath was minty fresh, I left the bathroom and slowly made my way back to the bed.
“Better?” He stood by the bed, watching me with a furrowed brow.
“Yeah. What time is it?” I asked in a sleep-heavy voice. More like what fucking day was it?
“Almost three a.m.,” he answered, reaching for me when I stumbled. “I was asleep when I heard you puking.”
He felt amazing against me, and I leaned more on him. Ryker was like my own personal island, a safe place from the storm in my head.
“You stayed,” I said as the realization struck.
Looking at him, my eyes stung, and I blinked away the tears that had tried to escape. Damn alcohol always made me emotional, which was why I’d stayed away from the shit.
“Of course, I did,” he replied, pushing me back on the bed in a tender way. I was about to argue that I didn’t want to lie down again, but then I hit the soft mattress and bit back any complaints. “There was no way I was leaving you.”
My chest swelled at his words. I also realized that he’d taken me from the bathtub, dried me off, and put clean boxers on me before putting me into bed. No man had ever taken care of me like that.
Molly jumped up on the bed, lying beside me, and I brushed my fingers through her fur.
Guilt knocked into my gut as I remembered more from before I passed out hours earlier. There’d been no clear thoughts in my head when I’d been in that bathtub. I hadn’t thought about how it would affect the people I cared about.
Shit. It hit me that other than my parents and my dog, I didn’t have anyone that really loved me—didn’t have anyone thatIloved. There was no great love in my life that kept me rooted to the world, that I kept holding on for.
My life was empty, and it was all my fault. My habit of pushing people away would only screw me over in the end. I was going to fucking die alone one day. Loving someone opened me up to heartbreak, but was a broken heart truly worse than never loving at all?
If love was even real… wasn’t it worth getting hurt over?
“Fuck, please don’t do that,” I said as Ryker grabbed the trashcan and began cleaning up my mess. “I can clean it.”
“Shut up, Kane. I’ll do whatever the hell I want.”
I propped myself up on the pillow and smirked at his feistiness.
Ryker smiled before looking away. The man couldn’t do bitchy well. He was too sweet-natured. He left the room with the trashcan in tow and returned a handful of minutes later, placing it back beside my side of the bed. It was clean and had a new sack tucked inside.
“Just in case you throw up again,” he said, nodding his head to it.
“You were sleeping?” I asked, recalling his words from earlier. “Where?”
“On the couch,” he answered.
“You could’ve slept in here with me.” I wiggled my eyebrows.
