From My Love to My Life (MXM) (sequel to From My Enemy to My Love)

Chapter 36

Gareth Scoville

I stepped out into the night air and took in a deep breath. It was getting stuffy in there and the dirty looks Bree kept sending me only made it worse. I wasn't sure what I had done tonight to make her more upset with me than any of the other nights.

"Hi," the woman who had been speaking with me earlier was suddenly there. If I had known she was outside, I might have stayed inside a little longer.

"Hi," I said.

"What a night, hunh?" she said.

"Yeah," I said, but had no idea what she was referring to. Unless it was Chet's win, but I didn't know how she would know I knew Chet even if that was what she was referring to. We hadn't talked about it at all. She must have meant something else and I had no idea what. And I didn't really care to learn.

"The sky is pretty tonight though," she said.

I looked up into the sky, but hardly saw any stars. There was too much light pollution in the city.

"Sure," I said, just wanting to leave.

"So what do you do for a living?" she asked. "Or are you attending the university?"

Small talk. I hated small talk. "I graduated several years ago, but I'm flattered that you think I look young enough to be a college student." I was just going through the motions.

She nodded. "I graduated last year," she said. "I got my B.A. I'm working at a coffee shop right now but that's just temporary." She droned on a bit and I looked for a polite way to end the conversation so I could leave. I decided to tell her I needed to go home and let my dog out before he peed all over my house. She didn't need to know I didn't have a dog.

I opened my mouth to interrupt her when my phone rang.

"Hello," I said.

At first all I heard was the music from the party coming both from the house behind me and through the phone. Then I heard a barely audible, "Help."

Kannika didn't say anything else. I heard other people talking in the distance, but I couldn't hear what they were saying over the music.

"Kanni," I said into the phone as I turned and rushed back into the building. I scanned the crowd, but didn't see her. "Kanni," I said a little louder into the phone, but there was no answer. I sprinted and pushed my way through the people until I was a little further into the house.

At the bottom of the staircase, Bree and a man lifted up a passed out Kanni. It looked like they were about to take her upstairs. All I knew was that Kanni had called me for help before she passed out and that was what I was going to do.

I rushed over to them, pushed my way between Kannika and the man and held her to me while Bree frowned at me and tried to pull her back towards her. "What happened?" I asked.

"She had too much to drink," one of the men said. "We were going to put her in one of the bedrooms to sleep it off."

"I was with her at the most twenty minutes ago and she was fine then," I said. I found myself staring hard at Bree. "Why wouldn't you just take her home?" I asked her. "Why would you try to take her upstairs?"

Now the other people were beginning to realize something was wrong. Panic began to well behind Bree's eyes before she narrowed them at me. "If you were with her twenty minutes ago, maybe you did something to her to put her in this state."

"If he had," the woman I had just been talking to outside said, "then he wouldn't have stuck around to talk to me." I hadn't realized she had followed me in.