Horrors by the Hudson

Chapter Seven

I cannot believe that I am carrying a man I literally just met into my apartment! Why am I doing this? I could've just left him at the bar and I wouldn't have to be in this situation!

I walked up three flights of stairs to get to my apartment door. After taking a couple of minutes to breath, I placed Zach against the wall hoping that he would have the strength to stand himself up, but instead he crashed onto a table in the hallway and fell onto the floor.

Unlocking my apartment as quickly as I could, I dragged Zach to my living room and placed him on my fluffy carpet, not having the energy to lift him up onto my couch.

"Zach, wake up. You need to wake up so you can go home," he continued to mumble incoherent words and turned his body so he was no longer facing me. I got up from the floor and got a glass of water for him if he woke up.

"Oh Zach, I'm sorry that you had such a rough childhood, but don't feel like you are alone because you aren't. You shouldn't have drunk the pain away tonight. Actually I shouldn't have asked you those questions," I sighed and swept his bangs away from his face. I got a good look at Zach's facial features and Jasmine was right, he is beautiful. His tan skin that had absolutely no imperfections, his long dark eyelashes, and his sharp jawline. I felt something, but I didn't know what it was.

I got up and went to the bathroom to get ready to go to sleep. I took off the makeup that had been sitting on my face for the entire day, and changed the uncomfortable clothes that I thought were appropriate for the club.

As I took off my shirt I saw the scars that Chase had left behind. The deep scars ran across my stomach and traveled to my back. I ran my slim fingers through the scars feeling the uneven skin. These were memories of the times where I was stuck with him, being held captive in some basement of an abandoned house. The cheap cooking knives that he would press against my skin every time I did something he didn't like. The scar that was across my chest from the time he wanted to kill me but was too drunk to actually put enough pressure to kill. No one knew what I looked like underneath my clothes, not even Jasmine.

With shaking hands, I grabbed my shirt off the towel rack and slipped it on. I wiped off the tears that suddenly escaped from my eyes and walked out of the bathroom. While putting my hair into a bun, I saw Zach sitting on the couch looking at the picture frames that I had on the coffee table of Jasmine and I.

"What the hell, you're awake?" He turned his head right when he heard my voice and set the picture frames but onto the table.

"Yeah, I woke up a few minutes ago and I saw you were in the bathroom so i wanted to wait for you here," he said with a soft smile.

"But you were so drunk, how are you sober after an hour?!" I stood in the hallway of the bathroom so he needed to turn his body to look at me.

"Oh yeah...I sober up pretty quickly after drinking. I hope you don't mind looking at your pictures," he turned back around to look at the pictures.

"Sure, that's fine," I walked to the couch and sat next to him, nervous about what he was thinking about the pictures.

"Do you only have pictures of you and Jasmine?" He turned to look at me, trying to figure out any secrets that I was finding.

"Basically yeah. She's the only person that stayed in my life and really cares about me so I have a few pictures of us displayed," he nodded his head understanding what I was saying.

"What about your parents?" He furrowed his eyebrows, waiting for my response.

"Alrighty, I think I'm going to go to sleep since it's so late. I need to go to work tomorrow so I think you should go," I said, not wanting to talk about my parents.

"Oh of course, I can go catch a cab," we awkwardly stood there just looking at each other, not moving.

"Yeah, okay. I can call you the next time I need help on your father's case too," I said smiling, hoping it would make it less awkward.

"Yes, definitely. I'll see you later then," he walked out of the living room and out the door.

I splashed my face with cold water wanting to make my blush go away. I grabbed a towel in my room to wipe off any excess water from my face and went into my bed, imagining romantic scenarios with Zach to help me fall asleep.