What If He Didn't Die?

Chapter 16: Only If...

(Flashback Contd...)

When I opened my eyes, I was no longer in the club or under the open sky. I was in a dark room, lying on a soft bed. I jerked up when I realized I didn't recognize the place and above all that confusion, I could hear loud, louder than bearable sirens deafening my ears.

"What the-" My mouth blasted when my eyes met white ghostlike pupils.

"Oh my God." I held my head in my hands when I realized the eyes belonged to Daniel and the sirens were actually going off inside my brain. All the muscles around my skull were throbbing with pain.

I heard Daniel sigh as he stood up from the bed. My eyes followed him around the room but then I had to shut them because apparently, those two were too tired to stay open for even ten seconds straight.

"Here, drink this." His hand had a glass of something, which wasn't water because it wasn't transparent in colour.

I held the glass and raised it to my lips, but as soon as I took a sip of it, I spilt it all out on the floor. "I can't." I moved the glass towards him.

"Just shove it down the throat like you were doing with those filthy drinks." He whined. His voice demanded me to obey. I couldn't not.

"What was this?" I asked in a humble voice.

"Antidote to the poison you've been consuming all night."

"Right." I rolled my eyes at his exaggeration, or I tried and the pain made me regret it the very next second.

I tried to get up, supporting my body with both my wobbly arms but failed horribly. Just when I was about to hit the floor, he grabbed me and pulled me tight against his torso.

I looked up into his eyes and they scared me. I felt a little pang of fear making my body go cold in an instant.

"Sorry," I said like a child and his eyes humbled.

He pulled away from me and turned his back to my face.

"I'm sorry," I repeated in the same shaky voice.

He turned around abruptly and I took a few steps back in response to his forward-moving steps. His swiftest movement seemed violent. With a loud thud, he placed his palms against the wall, leaving me pinned between him and the latter.

"Why would you do that?"

His voice signalled anger and care, frustration and worry. I only stared silently into his eyes that demanded an answer.

I snaked my arms around his back when I couldn't think of something better to do at the moment and his stiff muscles relaxed at my touch.

"I'm sorry, Daniel," I repeated. "I'm really s-" My tongue lost words when I felt his hands leaving the wall and packing me in a hug.

The feeling that just took birth in me was something I'd never felt earlier. If there was a word to describe it, it would be 'safe'. I felt safe in his embrace. Safe, like I'd never felt in my life. I wanted to stay safe like that forever. That was literary all I wanted.

"Why do you have a hangover kit ready with you when you don't even drink?" I asked when I had started feeling much sober.

My head was leaning on his shoulder as we both sat on the porch of his backyard. I had no idea what time it was, but looking at the twinkling stars, I guessed it wasn't very early in the night.

He didn't reply and I tilted my head up to look at his face. It most probably was my eyes that made him give in and he sighed.

"It's a habit. Developed when I was in middle school." He said coldly.