Nothing We Could Do

Chapter 30

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———— K I O S H I ————

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I blinked my eyes open, squinting as they adjusted to the bright morning light. The first thing I noticed was that Ivanna wasn't there. For the first time in a while, she wasn't sleeping besides me.

It was my first indication that something was seriously wrong.

Every part of my body ached like hell. I groaned as I finally managed to prop myself up onto my elbows after many attempts. Every muscle in my body screamed at me and my vision was blurry as the room seemed to spin around me. I fought to stay upright, blinking my eyes hard to shake the wave of nausea threatening to wash over. It was nothing like any hangover I'd ever had before and I had been through enough to tell.

"Your finally awake."

Zeke didn't look very relieved as he stood over me, arms crossed and a dark frown on his brow. Immediately, I got that weird feeling in my gut that something was seriously off.

"Where's Ivanna?" I tried peering around him but she was nowhere in sight.

Zeke scoffed, "Really Kioshi?"

I stared at the door, waiting for her to appear so that uneasy feeling would go away, "She's not here?"

"You are such a piece of shit Kioshi, I can't fucking believe you!" Zeke growled, genuine rage and disgust all over his face.

"What?" I frowned, "Where's this coming from?"

He shook his head and fixed me with a look, "You know, even after what you did to her, she still watched over you all night to make sure you didn't choke on your own fucking vomit Kioshi, that's how much of a good thing you just blew."

I was so confused my mind started spinning, "What are you talking about? What did I do to Ivanna?"

"You just blew the one good fucking thing you've ever had in your life Kioshi, that's what the fuck you did."

Ok something was definitely not right. I fell back on the bed, my head pounding as I tried to wrap my mind around what he was saying and try to recall what could possible have happened. Weirdly, my mind came up blank. Not as in 'blurry drunk night memories', but genuinely nothing. Absolutely nothing from the moment we stepped foot into that party.

I shot upwards, ignoring the way my body screamed at me, "Zeke what the hell happened last night? Why don't I remember anything?"

He was reluctant at first, studying my reaction carefully before he realised I wasn't joking around, "Oh fuck, you don't remember a thing?"

I shook my head, "What did I drink? Did I smoke? Shit," I hissed, "Did I take something?"

Drugs had always been off limits for me and every basketballer. Sure, nobody cared about drinking and smoking but drugs were potential performance enhancers and tests were run very often. Drugs meant you couldn't play so I'd always steered clear of them.

Zeke knew this and shook his head instantly, "You couldn't have. I wasn't really keeping an eye on you but when I was talking to Ivanna you seemed fine."

"Where is she? You said something about watching over me after I did something."

Zeke's face dropped into an expression of pure grief, as if he desperately didn't want to tell me something really bad.

"Zeke," I swallowed the lump in my throat as my heart pounded hard, "What did I do to my girlfriend?"

And that's when he opened his mouth and with every word, my heart sank lower and lower into my chest. I couldn't even meet his eye, the pure shame and guilt that engulfed me from head to toe. When he finished, there was a long stretch of silence where I couldn't even get myself to utter a word.