Tom Riddle - Downfall

Chapter 13: Memories

I enter my dorm, and Kim is still lying in her bed. "Hey Kim, how are you feeling?" I sit down beside her on her bed.
She's looking up at the ceiling and thinking about last night. She seems a bit frustrated and agitated. When she sees me coming into the dorm room and sitting on her bed, Kim glances over at me with a slight smile, and she sits up a bit more.
"Hey Lucia..." her mood seems to instantly lighten up as soon as she sees my face, and she seems happy that I'm here.
"I'm feeling a bit better now that you're here... How are you doing?"
"I'm okay.. do you remember everything from last night?"
Kim thinks for a moment, and she nods, acknowledging that she remembers most of what happened. She has a brief flash back to the night before, and she recalls that she was quite intoxicated by the end of it. She then looks over at me with a bit of embarrassment, not wanting to talk about the more inappropriate moments of her behavior.
"I... I remember a bit of it, yes. I'm sorry if I did anything that made you feel uncomfortable..."
"You mean like.. throwing up at my shoes?" I laugh at her. Kim bursts out into laughter when I bring up the memories of her throwing up at my shoes. She's able to laugh at her own intoxicated mishaps now, and it's a sign that her embarrassment has subsided somewhat. She tries to stop laughing but can't help but let out another small giggle.
"I'm sorry about that... I'm really not normally like that when I get drunk. My brain just stopped working last night, lol..."
"Maybe because of Markus?" I raise my eyebrow.

Kim instantly turns red, and she seems slightly embarrassed when I mention the reason for her overindulgence last night. She shifts a bit in her bed, trying to avoid making eye contact with me now.
"M-Maybe... I just thought he was hot... and he brought out the worst of me, I guess..." she says softly, almost as if she's ashamed of herself.
"Now the real gossip. Orion tried to touch me last night without my consent, and Tom broke his nose for that today.." I cover my face with my hands. Kim sits up in her bed, and she seems utterly shocked by my confessions of Orion's inappropriate behavior towards me, and she seems a bit upset now.
"Wait, Orion... touched you...?" She can't help but feel a bit surprised and confused by this revelation. "He didn't... he didn't ask for consent? He was drunk, right...?"
"Yes, but this is clearly no excuse for what he did. I said no, and he didn't respect me. "

Kim nods and listens to my side of the story as she processes the revelation. She can't help but feel a bit disappointed with Orion's behavior towards me last night, even while drunk. She's starting to understand Tom's point of view on the situation and why he was so angry with Orion that he punched him.
"You're right... Just because he was drunk doesn't mean that he'd have the right to touch you without your consent..."
Kim sighs softly, thinking through the details of the situation. She's starting to understand the intensity of the situation, and she's disappointed with Orion's actions from last night. She now seems a bit more sympathetic towards Tom's response to the situation, even if she doesn't quite understand why he reacted in such a forceful way.
"And Tom got so mad... he was furious that Orion touched you? He punched him straight up in the face, and then he got injured too..."
"Yes, that's exactly what happened. He said he cares about me.."
Kim nods as I continue to provide details of what happened last night, and it's clear that she's starting to see Tom in a more positive light now. She's understanding his motivations, and she's seeing the depths of his feelings for me.
"He said that... he cares about you?" Kim seems like she can't believe her ears as she asks this question to me.
"Yeah, not a big deal." I smile at her."Can we now just go to sleep? I'm tired. And this whole thing annoys me to think about"

Kim chuckles softly as I shrug off Tom's admission of caring about me, and she nods her head, understanding and acknowledging my feelings about this whole situation.

"Sure, let's... let's just go to bed and get some rest. We can forget about last night..."
She sighs softly and turns over on her bed, trying to find a comfortable position to try and fall asleep.
"Oh, I will never forget how your vomit on my shoes looked." I laugh and lay down in my bed. Kim laughs at my joke, and her mood immediately lifts a little bit as she remembers that small aspect of her drunkenness last night. This seems to completely distract her from the other events of last night, and she seems much more relaxed as she lays down in her bed as well. She yawns softly and closes her eyes, preparing to fall asleep.