ROMANCE: Romantic Comedy: Love in 30 Days - The Best Plans Don't Always Work! (Plus 19 FREE Books Book 13) (53 page)

“Is she drunk?” Alison asked.

“I don’t think so,” Eve said doubtfully. “I was keeping an eye on her, I’m sure she’s only had three drinks all night. I’ve had two, I’ve never drunk before, and I’m just a little light-headed. She can’t be drunk.”

“She’s really sleepy,” Alison said, trying to get Jena to hold her head up. “You don’t think…?”

“Let’s get her out of here,” Eve said quickly, hooking one arm under Jena’s to support her weight.

She started to lift her out of her seat, but Jena was barely conscious. She began to drop to the floor out of Eve’s arms, until suddenly another pair of hands came out of nowhere to catch her.

“Need some help?” Ethan asked, barely pausing as he pulled Jena’s arm around his shoulders and lifted her to her feet in a smooth motion. Just at that moment, Eve inexplicably noticed that he probably worked out a lot. His arm muscles may have been hidden by that stupid leather jacket, but there was no denying the ease with which he hefted Jena’s full weight.

“We need to get her home,” she admitted quietly.

Ethan nodded. “Lead the way. I’m done here anyway,” he said, tossing his own empty red cup over onto a nearby table.

Eve took a deep breath, and looked at Alison. The other girl was already halfway out the door, waving goodbye and calling back over her shoulder that she would see her in class. Eve could sense that the troubles of this night were far from over.

“Thanks,” she said to Ethan, and led him out of the party.

Chapter Three

Ethan helped her carry Jena all the way back to their dorm, talking quietly on the way. Ethan asked how much Jena had had to drink, and whether she went out often. He also asked Eve about her major, and they made small talk, finally laying Jena in her bed without so much as another word from her. She seemed to be in a deep sleep now, peaceful at least, but Eve was still worried.

“If I were you, I’d tell her to go get a blood test in the morning,” he said. “I don’t think she’s just drunk. I’ll leave you my number if you need any help, like if she’s still groggy in the morning.”

“I don’t think it’s just alcohol either,” Eve said, frowning. “She was with some guys from your frat for most of the night.”

Ethan shrugged, evasively. “I can’t comment on that,” he said. “Just get her tested.”

“Alright,” Eve said, drawing away from Jena’s side and standing up to face him. “Thank you for helping her.”

“Oh, I wasn’t helping her,” he said, wearing what she recognised by now as his trademark smirk. “I was helping you.”

That was a weird thing to say. Eve tried to shrug it off. She was tired now, and it was late. “Well, thanks either way. I’d better get to bed too.”

Ethan gave her a dark smile, and stepped a little closer to her, reaching out a hand to lightly touch her on the waist. “I was counting on it.”

“What? No,” she said, pushing his hand off quickly and nervously. “I meant I’m going to sleep, and- and you should go.”

Ethan scowled, his mood turning quickly. “There’s no need to act like I’m diseased,” he snapped, lifting his hand in the air as if to demonstrate that there was nothing wrong with it. “I just thought you might be a little grateful.”

“I am. I told you I am. But that’s it,” Eve said, taking a couple of steps away from him and out of his easy reach. “I thought you were helping because it’s the decent thing to do.”

“I was,” Ethan replied, anger and confusion taking over his face. “I mean, it was decent, but you – you’ve been giving me signals -”

“No I haven’t!” Eve burst out, shaking her head quickly. “I don’t give signals, I don’t even know what you mean. We were just talking!”

“Fine,” Ethan spat out, pausing for a moment, before turning on his heel and striding to the door. He paused in the doorway and looked as though he might turn back and say something, but then shook his head with a frustrated growl and disappeared into the corridor.

After a few seconds had passed, Eve realised she had been holding her breath, and let it out. In a sudden fit of guilt she ran to the door, but he had already vanished from view in one direction or the other. She hadn’t meant to reject him quite so strongly. In truth, he had startled her. She was nervous to be alone with a man, especially in her room, and even more so after it seemed like Jena had been drugged. Her knee-jerk reaction had not been thought out. She had been too worried about Jena to even think about something happening between them.

She moved over to the window in their room and looked out across the manicured pathways. Ethan was already striding along, presumably in the direction of his own dorm, his hands shoved deep into his pockets. He walked past a bin and kicked it, sending old food wrappers and plastic bags flying. Eve covered her mouth, feeling guiltier by the minute. She hadn’t meant to insult him.

---

The next week, Poetry 1 was a dream. They looked into poetry throughout history, with a particular focus on female poets and the way they had shared their worldviews through the written word. Christina Rossetti was a Victorian poet that they lingered on, going over the love poems that she wrote and how they expressed her innermost feelings.

With all of the imagery racing through her mind, Eve felt herself longing for a love like the one Rossetti wrote about. The kind of love that swept every other concern aside. Even the kind of love that left a horrible ache behind when it was gone. Surely it was worth the ache to have first experienced the love?

She sighed quietly, idly remembering Ethan’s hand on her waist and the hurt look on his face when she pushed him away. It took her a moment, and then with a faint blush she realised she had been fantasising about him. About the idea of his hand staying on her waist after all. Of his arms pulling her close in to his strong, muscular chest…

She shook her head and mentally tried to dispel the image. It was not as though it would have been appropriate for anything to happen that night, with Jena lying there unconscious. The next morning she had gone for a test like Ethan suggested, and it confirmed that her drink had been spiked. Someone had slipped her something intended to make her fall asleep at the party, and that thought made Eve shudder.

They still had yet to figure out which of the frat boys it had been, and that was something that made Eve wonder if she should get in contact with Ethan after all. Maybe he could shed some light on what had happened. She knew that investigations were being made already; this was Brown, and the administration were not going to let something like a drugged freshman go without sanctions. There were rumours that Sigma Chi might get banned from holding or attending parties, but at the moment there was no way to be sure that it really had been someone from Sigma Chi.

Jena herself seemed to have recovered well. A little shaken at first, she was now mostly back to her old self, and had pledged for the sorority after all. Eve felt a little awkward about the whole thing. The next morning she had found Ethan’s number scrawled on a ripped-off corner of paper, dropped onto her bedside table when they moved Jena into the room. She had not sent him a message or called him. She didn’t think he would want to hear anything more about that night.

It wasn’t until Thursday, after Intro to Fiction, that she managed to meet up with both Jena and Alison again. They were all getting settled into their new schedules, and besides Jena had been called in several times to talk about what had happened to her. They made arrangements to head out to the same coffee shop, however, and Jena was waiting there when Alison and Eve arrived.

They sat and talked for a while. It was quieter tonight; most students were either back in their dorms, eating dinner, or getting ready for a party. The three of them were not quite ready for another night like last week. They avoided the topic, chatting about how their lectures were going. Jena regaled them with a re-enactment of something funny that had happened with one of her professors, and they were all laughing loudly when the open door of the café caught Eve’s eye.

“Oh, god,” she muttered quickly, ducking her head and pulling her hair out from behind her ear in an effort to hide.

“What is it?” Alison asked, looking around quickly.

“No, don’t stare!” Eve whispered. “It’s Ethan.”

“Oh,” Alison replied, ignoring the advice and staring at him quite openly. “What happened to his face?”

Eve looked up again, despite herself. Now that he was facing fully into the room she could see that Alison was right – something had happened. He had a black eye, a swollen bruise half obscuring the right side of his face. It looked like it was a few days old already, the swelling down to just a small bulge in his eyelid. Purple and yellow marks faded where they met his cheek.

“That looks painful,” Jena said, as all three watched him order a drink at the counter and then stand and wait for it to be ready. He swung his eyes in their direction and Eve ducked again, putting a hand up to the side of her face as if that would hide her from his view. Jena raised her hand and waved at him, smiling. After all, he had carried her home.

“Is he still there?” Eve asked after a few moments, and Jena nodded.

“Yes, and he’s still looking at you. What happened with you two?” she asked.

Eve sighed. “It was really embarrassing. I… insulted him by accident. But he was being a little bit of a jerk. But it doesn’t matter, anyway, I just don’t want to talk to him.”

“Well, he’s on his way out now,” Jena said. “Oh, wait, no, he’s talking to someone in the doorway… I think it’s someone asking about his black eye. No, they’re done talking – alright, he’s gone.”

Eve sighed with relief and sat up straight, finally able to look around the room freely again. “I wonder what happened to his eye,” she said.

“One way to find out,” Alison said, getting up before either Jena or Eve could interject. They both watched with bated breath as she went over to the counter and the man who had just spoken with Ethan, quickly talking with him.

“Well,” she said, sitting down at the table again. “Looks like you should be thanking him, Jena.”

“What? Why’s that?” Jena asked, frowning. “I mean, aside from him saving me at the party.”

“Apparently,” Alison said, with the dramatic air of someone revealing a very juicy bit of gossip. “He got into a fight with another Sigma Chi member. Someone who, the rumour goes, bought some pills last week and took them to the Kappa party with the intention of spiking someone’s drink.”

Jena gasped. “He beat up the guy who drugged me?”

“Sounds that way,” Alison replied. “Except for the fact that he ended up worse off.”

Eve looked out of the window, regretting now that she had hidden. She could no longer see him – yet again, he had walked away before she realised she wanted to speak to him. She chewed on her lip worriedly, wondering if he was alright.

Jena was looking at her with a curious expression. “You know, hun,” she said gently, “Someone should probably call him to make sure he’s alright. Since he’s been getting into fights to defend our honour, and all.”

Eve cleared her throat, trying to fight down a mass of butterflies that were attempting to take flight from her stomach at the thought. “You’re right,” she admitted, looking down at her cell phone on the table. “Someone should.”

Chapter Five

Eve took a deep breath, and picked up the phone. She had waited until they split up and went their own ways – Jena was meeting a friend from one of her classes, so she had their room to herself. She had never thought that she could be so nervous about a simple phone call, but she had to really steel herself to press that button. With her heart racing in her chest, she listened to the dial tone ringing.

And ringing.

And ringing.

Finally it went to answerphone, and she ended the call. She sighed. Either he wasn’t looking at his phone, or he wasn’t answering an unknown number. And since he didn’t know the number was hers, he wasn’t likely to call back. So what could she do?

She composed, typed out, and then recomposed a text message, reasoning it was the only way she was going to get through to him. Finally, taking another deep breath, she forced herself to hit send.

Heard you got into a fight. Hope you’re okay. Eve.

Then she tried to focus on studying. Reading through a volume of poetry from female writers, she tried to focus on the ideas that had been brought up in the lecture. It was almost impossible. All she could think about was why he wasn’t replying.

She wondered if she should have included a question in the message, something to make him answer. Or maybe even her last name, so he knew which Eve he was talking to? But then again, did he even know her last name? She chased her own thoughts all night, until Jena came home and she resigned herself to just going to bed.

---

The next day was another day of class, so she headed over to the lecture hall with a heavy mind. Ethan still hadn’t replied, and she had half made up her mind to call him again. She was walking towards Poetry 1 when something made her stop, and quickly pull back behind the wall of a nearby building so that she could watch without being seen.

Alison and Ethan were there, talking right outside the lecture hall. She didn’t even know they spoke to each other at all! What were they talking about? She leaned round further, curious, with her heart half-caught in her mouth. That’s when it happened.

Alison leaned up on her tiptoes, and kissed Ethan right on the mouth.

Eve pulled back around the wall quickly, hiding herself and breathing hard. So all this time he had been flirting with her, he had been going after Alison too? That complete pig! It seemed her instincts had been right about him after all! She was just regaining her breath when he walked past her, hurrying and with his back to her side of the path. He did not turn around, thankfully.

Lucky escape, she told herself, trying to straighten herself out. It’s a good job you didn’t get involved with that.

It was halfway through the lecture – sitting on the other side of the hall to Alison – that she got his text.

Sorry, my phone died last night. I’m fine. Have been thinking about you.

She felt her cheeks flush bright red with anger. How dare he carry on like that? With a brave determination that was carried by rage, she made up her mind to call him out.

That’s funny… I thought you would have had someone else on your mind.

Who do you mean?

I saw you kissing Alison.

A few minutes after her message went through, her phone started to ring. It was his number. She had set the ringer to silent, so she ignored it. He left a voicemail, but she ignored that too. It could wait until after the lecture.

She left the hall quickly, rushing away so that Alison couldn’t catch her, and went straight up to the dorm. It was late afternoon, and Jena wasn’t back yet. Finding a moment of privacy, she opened up her phone and played the voicemail, fully expecting some kind of ridiculous excuse.

“Hey, it’s Ethan,” his voice came through on the message, sounding far away. “I don’t know what you saw, but I’m not interested in Alison. She tried to kiss me and I pushed her off. Truth is I’m interested in you. If you want to see me, I’ll wait in the courtyard to the left of your hall when your lecture finishes. I hope you come.”

Eve’s heart sank.

She dialled his number furiously, pacing the room with her head in her hands. Like before, it rang and rang and rang. If he wasn’t screening her calls before, he probably was now.

---

“I think this is just what you need,” Jena said, handing her another of those infamous red cups.

“Maybe,” Eve sighed, looking around a little dubiously. “I guess it’s good to let my hair down once in a while.”

Jena had come home full of excitement about another party she had heard about, only to find Eve distraught over the whole Ethan situation. She had spilled all of the details there and then, admitting – to herself as much as to Jena – that she really was attracted to him. Jena consoled her, and with her wonderful way of talking, somehow convinced her that going to the party was the best possible solution. Borrowing another dress – a tight red number this time – she therefore found herself in another party, drinking another beer from a red cup.

Jena had already got talking to a pair of cute sophomores, and insisted that Eve stay in the conversation. One of them was actually not so bad – he was tall, built like a quarterback, and had unruly blond curls that just begged for hands to be run through them. His name was Dylan. After a couple of drinks, she started to feel more at ease. He was funny, honestly, and Jena seemed quite taken with his friend. It seemed as though she had met him before.

“You want another drink?” Dylan asked, and she nodded yes. When he brought it back she started to drink it immediately, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

“Thanks. So are you in a frat?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure. Wow, you were thirsty, huh?” he laughed.

She grinned and shook her head, finishing off another mouthful. She realised she had managed to drink down half the cup already. “I guess. What frat is it, then?”

“Sigma Chi,” he said, pulling out a necklace from under his shirt to show her.

Something about that seemed off. At the back of her mind, she knew there was something important about Sigma Chi. It just seemed a little far away right now. Too far away to reach.

“I think I need to get some air,” she said, feeling a little woozy.

“You want me to come with you?” Jena asked quickly, though it was clear she was having a good time with her new friend.

“I’ll go,” Dylan volunteered, helping her to her feet and outside of the building.

The outside air was refreshing, but she still felt weirdly groggy. She just wanted to sit down. “’m tired…” she muttered.

“I’ll take you back to my dorm, you can rest there,” Dylan said, starting to lead her off down the pathway.

Dimly, in front of her, she saw a familiar shape approaching. “… Ethan?” she murmured, just as she felt herself starting to sink into sleep.