Claiming Innocence [#wattys2015]

Twelve

Swaying my hips in time with the music, I took a large gulp of what I'm guessing is my third drink. Axel was by my side dancing with me, along with the rest of my friends. 

I've been here for just over a week and I've met the best group of people I could ever ask for. I had developed a massive crush on Axel in such a short amount of time and I was drinking for the first time in my life.

I never knew drinking could be this much fun!

I was trying to keep myself balanced upright whilst I danced, if I didn't have Axels hands on my sides right now, lets face it, I'd probably be on my ass right now.

I swayed my hips left and right, allowing the alcohol to travel throughout my body and my head to spin. Finishing the rest of my drink, I pouted at the fact that I was out of alcohol.

I pulled myself from Axels grip before stumbling over to Ema.

"Ema! I need more to drink" I showed her my empty cup.

"Okay lets go!" she grabbed my arm and started pulling me towards the kitchen.

We only got two steps away before I felt myself being tugged back into someone's chest, arms helping me balance myself.

"Ema, I think Tash has had enough for tonight," Axel said from behind me. I could tell it was him because he was the only person here who called me Tash.

"Oh I'm fine, Ax, just relax a little!" I giggled, wiggling out of his grip.

"No you're not Tash, you're a lightweight and you're drunk. You're not drinking anymore" he sounded like he was getting mad. He reached another hand out to grab me, but was unsuccessful as I grabbed Ema's hand and ran to the kitchen.

I had no idea what I was doing, and Ema was to drunk to know what to do either, so we poured a bottle of clear liquid into our cups before downing it as quickly as we could.

A few boys were cheering us on, yelling things out in encouragement.

Not even five minutes later, Ema and I were both out of it, even worse than before. The guys who were sitting around us, told us about a game, you flip a coin, if it lands on heads, you take a shot, and if it lands on tails- you take an item of clothing off.

Of course, if I was sober, I would never imagine myself doing something like this in my life, but I was drunk, so drunk I couldn't even process what I just agreed on doing. 

Me and Ema were on a team, along with two of the random boys, Jake and Alex.

They went first, and ended up having to take their shirts off. Ema and I looked to each other, giving knowing looks.

They had good bodies.

They couldn't compare to Axels though.

I shake my head getting the though of him out of my mind, I was annoyed that he thinks he can control me like that. I can drink however much I wanted.

We flipped the coin, it landing on heads. Sharing a high-five, we took a shot each. The boys took their shots as they got a heads. 

It can back to us, landing on tails. Damn.

Just as we were about to take our dresses off, a very annoyed Axel and Luke walked into the room, storming over towards us. Ema and I giggled to ourselves, thinking this was the funniest sight ever. 

Ema darted off, before getting cornered by Luke. He grabbed her hand and dragged her out of the kitchen. 

I tried to run away too, falling over my own feet in the process. I lay on my back on the ground, giggling uncontrollably, squealing and he reached out to grab me.

Axel picked me up bridle style, an un-amused expression on his face. I rested my head on head on his shoulder as he walked me up the stairs to my room. I was starting to get really tired.

Opening my door, he managed to balance me in his hold as he kicked the door shut behind him and flicked my light switch in.

He walked over to the bed, sitting me down and taking my shoes off my feet. Still quiet, he shoved a water bottle in my hand. I have no clue where he got it.

After finishing off the water, he still wasn't talking to me.

"Why are you angry" I asked slightly annoyed. His angry eyes met mine and I knew he was about to explode.

"Are you serious right now Natasha?" his use of my full name sobered me up a little, knowing he was so serious, "you can't just binge drink like that! You don't know how to handle your alcohol! I told you to stop and you didn't listen to me. Anything could have happened to you, do you realize that? If we didn't come to find you when we did, you would be running around the room naked embarrassing yourself."

At this point, he was pacing back and forth in front of me, pulling at his hair.

I thought carefully about what he said. Alcohol was a bad idea.

I looked back up to him, I knew I stuffed up. I should have listened to him.

"Tash you have no idea how much I care for you and I don't want to see anyone taking advantage of you. And to be honest, I don't want any of those fucking assholes even looking at you, let alone think about you." His face showed a mixture of disappointment and jealousy.

He was disappointed in my actions and jealous of how other boys were looking at me.

He sat down next to me sighing.

I crawled over to him, and he helped me so I was sitting on his lap straddling him.

"I'm so sorry Axel. I messed up. I should have listened to you and stopped drinking. I've never done it before," I paused taking a shaky breath as I've decided I'm going to tell him, "my father was an alcoholic and used to abuse us when we were kids. I didn't know how to act. I feared him for years, for as long as I could remember. Thinking about drinking makes me cringe in fear. I wasn't going to drink at all, but I saw everyone else reacting well to it, so I thought I'd be okay too. I know I messed up. I can't believe I put myself into that position. I'm so sorry Ax, please forgive me" I finished as I wrapped my arms around him, burring my head in his neck.

"It's okay Tash, I'm sorry too. If I ever meet that asshole I'm going to kill him. He doesn't deserve family. He doesn't deserve you. I promise as long as you're with me, I'll protect you. I won't let him lay a finger on you ever again."

Us having this conversation has somewhat sobered me up, but of course I was still feeling the affects of the alcohol still in my system.

We sat in this position for a while. Axel combing his fingers through my hair. 

I let out a small yawn, looking to the clock to see it was 1AM.

"Come on, you better get some sleep, you won't be feeling good in the morning" he said as he lifted me up, placing me down on the mattress before walking over to my dresser.

When he returned, I smiled at the fact that he had his hoodie and football shorts, wanting me to wear them again.

He went to leave the room so I could change, but he came back when he saw me stumbling trying to stand up.

He grabbed the bottom of my dress, looking at me as if asking permission. I nodded my head, as he proceeded to pull my dress up and over my head.

He kept eye contact with me, refusing to take any form of advantage of my drunken state, and helped me slip on the hoodie and shorts.

Pulling my bed sheets back, he guided me in and pulled the sheets back over me. Giving me a short kiss on the forehead, he whispered a quick "goodnight gorgeous", before turning my light switch off and closing the door on his way out.