Hold Me Down

Chapter 10

Ali! Alison!

Alison lets out a low disgruntled groan as the sound of her name slices through her head with skull-splitting sharpness. She rolls over and buries her head in a pillow that definitely isn't hers but somehow smells familiar. Her head is throbbing and her eye lids feel heavy, but someone is screeching her name and stomping heavily up the stairs towards her and if she's going to be able to kill whoever it is that's responsible for disturbing her sleep, she's going to have to wake up. She pushes the blanket aside and tries to open her eyes but the sunlight is too harsh and she has to snap them closed as the room spins around her.

The footsteps stop just outside the door and now she can make out another voice.

"What the hell are you doing?"

Alison instantly recognizes that second voice as Emily's and she finally forces herself to sit up and open her eyes. She leans forward towards the door as if that might make listening through the thick oak easier.

"I'm getting Ali," comes the response and Alison suddenly realizes that Emily is talking to Spencer. Spencer was the one calling her name like a crazy person a minute ago.

"She's sleeping," Emily says.

"We'll see about that. God, if I had known I would have never insisted she sleep here with you last night!"

Here? Where is here? Where the hell is she? Spencer's angry voice has Alison taking a surreptitious glance at her surroundings and realizing she's in Emily's room.

Anxiously she kicks off the blankets and feels around the bed for her cell phone. Did she call Emily last night? Did Emily invite her over? Did they hook up? Was she really so pathetic that she couldn't go more than a couple of weeks without giving in to the temptation of the stunning brunette? She needs to go over her text messages and calls from last night to try to decipher what the hell happened.

"What do you think I did to her?" comes Emily's response from outside the door, her voice matching Spencer's in anger and intensity.

Alison has no idea what the two could possibly be fighting about at such an hour, but she is sure she doesn't want to deal with it right now.

"I don't know what to think anymore," she hears Spencer say before she knocks on the door. "Alison!"

Alison freezes as the door burst open and Spencer charges inside with Emily trailing behind her. She hears Emily speak again before she actually sees her.

"Spencer, calm down. Let her sleep. Come back later and we can talk about it," Emily says from behind Spencer.

"No. She's coming home with me," Spencer declares firmly.

"Spencer, let me explain..." Emily trails off, stopping abruptly when she spots Alison awake and staring at her from the bed.

"Ali, come on. Get your stuff," Spencer orders.

Alison glances at Emily for a moment before shifting her gaze in Spencer's direction. She can feel the tension between the two girls but she's not exactly sure why Spencer seems so upset.

"What's going on? What's with all the screaming? And why do I feel like I've been run over by a freight train?" Alison asks, her voice raspy with sleep.

"You got drunk last night at the party," Emily starts to explain carefully.

"The Hollis party? You were there too?"

Emily nods and lowers her eyes. "I went with some girls from the swim team."

"Ok. But why am I here? In your bed?" Alison asks, the pitch of her voice rising. She looks down and picks at the unfamiliar baggy t-shirt she's wearing. "And why am I wearing this hideous rodeo shirt?"