𝐈𝐧𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝

Chapter Forty-Three:

"Hey."

I turned around to meet Dylan's voice. "Hey."

Dylan walked closer. "Can we, uh, talk for a second, please?" he asked. His eyes were filled with something that I couldn't recognize at first, but I picked up on the feeling that he wanted to tell me something so I nodded.

"Okay... awesome, uh let's go this way," Dylan said, starting to walk away. As we walked he kept glancing over his shoulder, making sure I was still following him. Did he think I wouldn't?

When we passed the Lululemon, I smirked. "Wanna talk in there?" I pointed towards the entrance to the store.

Dylan turned to face her and laughed. "No, thank you. I think I'll pass for now," he smiled awkwardly and turned his attention back towards the length of the hallway.

I furrowed my brow. Damn, I thought that was a funny joke. Something must be off. Unless my joke just wasn't funny. It had to be even just a little bit funny. Something was bothering him. Dylan stopped once we were just out of sight from the fountain.

"Dylan, what's going on? Are you okay?" I asked.

Dylan turned around to face me. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, I just..." he trailed off, scanning my face. "Do you remember anything from the party last night?"

I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Uh, not really-," I started to say, but Dylan cut me off.

"Just walk me through what you remember, please," he asked softly, staring intently back at me.

My eyes scanned his, trying to figure out what he was getting at before I nodded and began to work through my cloudy memory. "Okay, I remember going inside the building and there was a party. Taylor went to go into some office and we sat around a bar... um..." I trailed off, trying to force my brain to remember what happened last night.

Dylan nodded his head dejectedly. My eyes shot up when I remembered another piece.

"No, wait! I remember a woman. She gave me a drink, the one that must've been drugged. And then everyone else started to drink. You, you drank too..." I trailed off again, starting to remember more and more. "And then I saw Fed, or I thought I saw him. And then you found me and then-," I froze when she remembered what happened next.

I looked back up at Dylan to see if he figured out what I just remembered and if it was actually true. He stared back down at me and then nodded his head, confirming what I was thinking. You've got to be shitting me. I closed my eyes and let out a sharp breath.

How could I be so careless? What did I think were the consequences of taking random drinks?

"I'm sorry. That was my fault. I shouldn't have done that at the party," I started to ramble, shaking my head that still hung downwards, unable to meet Dylan's eyes.

Now I made him uncomfortable.

"Hey, it's okay. It's fine. You were drugged. It's not your fault," he said softly.

"I know but...I just...still, I'm sorry," I said and finally looked up into his eyes. "Can we just forget that it happened, please?"

If we just forgot about it then we wouldn't have to be awkward or weird around each other, right? Right.

Dylan's eyes were glued to mine as he blinked for a few moments. Finally, he nodded his head slowly and I let out a sigh of relief. He turned his eyes away from mine, looking around the room.

"Okay, thank you. I, uh, I'm sorry again," I said weakly. Dylan nodded again.

I turned around away from Dylan so he couldn't see my face as I walked back to the fountain and cringed to myself. God, Nora. Be more awkward. Please. You just made it even weirder, you idiot. Just keep your distance until you get Raine back. You'll deal with it then.