My throat closed in a little. “What do you mean?”
Panic shone in her eyes. “I had two drinks, Eli. Two. But I could barely stand or talk. I passed out as soon as I made it to the couch.”
I felt sick. “Do you . . . do you feel as though anything could’ve happened?” I asked, trying so hard not to clench my hands into fists.
She frowned before glancing down at herself. “I don’t think so,” she said, not sounding entirely certain, though. “I mean, I’m still wearing what I was wearing last night—and they’re jeans, so they’re not necessarily easy to get off and on.”
I looked over her outfit, having to agree with her. Relief flared.
“And,” she said, slipping her fingers into the waistband of her jeans, happiness brightening her face as she pulled out a twenty-dollar bill, “I always keep a twenty here for emergencies. It definitely wouldn’t still be there if I’d been undressed.”
Exhaling, I let my shoulders relax a little more. “Okay,” I
said, agreeing with her. “But that doesn’t mean you weren’t drugged, Jess. I think you should have a test.”
Surprise rounded her eyes. “You do?”
“Jess, if someone drugged you, we have to do something about it. We can’t let them get away with it.”
Her face paled. “We?”
“Yes, we. I’m not just going to walk away from this, Jess. This is serious. It’s illegal. And if it was Zac or Wyatt, then, with their chosen career, it’s even more serious.”
I watched the realization of what it all meant dawn on her. Slowly, she sank down onto the nearest armchair. “But why would Zac want to drug me, Eli? I’m dating his best friend.”
I didn’t want to say it, but she needed to see all of the possibilities to this. “What if Wyatt is in on it, Jess?”
Her mouth dropped open, the depths of her eyes showing me just how much her mind was racing. Something was going on in there. Something that made my words seem plausible. “Okay,” she said, her gaze meeting mine head-on. “I’ll take a drug test.”
Giving her one swift nod, I offered her my hand to take. For her sake, I wanted it all to be a horrid misunderstanding. But, deep down, I already knew what the result was going to be. And I wasn’t sure how she was going to handle it.
Chapter 13
Jess
Standing on the sidewalk, I watched Eli slowly drive away. It had been hard to convince him to leave me here. Harder than I could understand. He seemed to be taking the whole situation so personally, it confused me. I mean, I knew because of Noah and Kaeli we were friends by default, and that implied a certain level of natural concern, but he seemed to be taking it to the extreme. Under normal circumstances, it would’ve given me a giddy little boost, but after the dream I’d had the night before, it kind of freaked me out.
I sighed as I turned to face the school dorms. It wasn’t because I found the idea of doing something naughty with Eli weird. In fact, it was the exact opposite. Eli was like my idea of the perfect guy. I wasn’t a superficial person by any means—I rarely took a person’s appearance into consideration when deciding if I was attracted to them or not. When a guy looked like Eli, though—looked like the entire Murphy clan, really—it was not something you could simply overlook. It was a fact, and there wasn’t anything anyone could do to change that.
But aside from his incredible good looks, he was a genuinely nice guy. He was funny, intense, sweet, and sexy as hell. I was sure he had to have had some downfall, because no one was perfect, but from where I stood, he was some lucky girl’s jackpot.
Pausing at the base of the stairs, I drew in a reassuring breath and raised my chin a fraction. I still had no clue what had gone on the night before—the test results wouldn’t come back until tomorrow—but I knew I needed to face Wyatt today. I needed answers.
Eli hadn’t been happy when I’d asked him to drop me off after the test was complete. He couldn’t understand why I’d want to see Wyatt, but the truth was, I had no idea if Wyatt had even had anything to do with what might’ve gone on. I had no idea if I’d been drugged, and I had no idea what happened in my apartment while I’d been passed out.
Somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, there was a slight panic over the fact that there was such a large chunk of time that I had no recollection of, but, so far, I’d done my best to keep pushing it back. My rationalization of wanting to see Wyatt stemmed from the idea that if I could just look into Wyatt’s eyes, I’d be able to see if there was something he was hiding. I hoped to God there wasn’t.
With my pulse slightly faster than normal, I raised a hand and knocked softly. Two seconds later, the door opened, and Wyatt’s surprised face appeared before me. The smile he gave me seemed genuine enough. It was enough to calm me down a little, anyway.
“Hey, baby,” he said, stepping forward to kiss my cheek. “I see you got my note. Sorry I had to leave you like that.”
My brow creased. “Note?”
Pulling me inside, he closed the door behind me. It was only then that I noticed he was in his gym gear. And super sweaty. “I left you a note saying sorry I had to leave and to come see me when you got up. Well, I said to call me, but same thing.”
His attitude was the exact opposite of what I’d been expecting for some reason, and it only served to confuse me more. “Oh, okay. I didn’t see it. I just thought I’d come see what happened.”
There was more meaning to my last sentence than he understood. He smiled and gave me another kiss on the cheek. “I just got back from the gym. Do you mind if I have a quick shower before I go into it?” he asked.