Claiming Innocence [#wattys2015]

Thirteen

Have you ever experienced being so drunk, that you wake up with no memory of the previous night, only to have it all slowly come back to you?

This is my current dilemma. I've been sitting here for the past 20 minutes- it now being 6 o'clock- thinking about all the stupid choices I had made throughout the night.

I remember how I got drunk and nearly ended up stripping in front of boys- but thank God Axel stepped in and stopped that from happening. I remember how he carried me to my room, made sure I drank water- probably to stop me from feeling so sick, and then we had a fight.

I know that we talked about what happened, he told me how he was annoyed I didn't listen to him, disappointed in my actions and jealous of what I was doing with Jake and Alex.

Of course, I still understood that this argument was my fault, so even though I apologized to him last night, I still needed to do it again.

I have slight headache and feel like I haven't gotten much sleep, probably because I didn't. I decided to man up, and get out of bed. 

It being so early, I'm assuming that Axel is still sleeping, but I couldn't wait any longer, the anxiety getting to me.

Peeling my blanket back, I jumped out of bed and grabbed a fresh set of clothes, consisting of undergarments, a mint green sundress and flip-flops. After I pulled my shower bag from the dresser, I ran down the corridor into the bathroom, proceeding to have a shower and freshen up.

By the time that I had finished and returned to my room, it was now quarter past six.

Exiting my room, I followed the vaguely familiar pathway that lead me to the outside of the door that belonged to Axels room.

Knocking on the door a few times, I stood quietly for a few seconds before the door swung open to reveal Axel standing with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, running a small hand towel through his hair.

Winning.

He gave me a small smile before gesturing for me to enter his room, but I was frozen in place as I stared at his glorious body.

How is it possible to look that good?

"Like what you see?" he winked before turning around and walking back into his bathroom.

When I realized I had been staring, I cleared my throat before walking in and taking a seat on his bed.

"How are you feeling?" I called out as I glanced around the room.

"I could be asking you the same" I watched as he walked out of the bathroom, changed into a pair of grey sweatpants and dark blue hoodie.

"I'm feeling okay, slight headache."

After a few seconds of him not replying, I knew that he was still upset.

"Ax, I'm so sorry for what I did last night, I regret what I've done, and you mean to much to me to lose over something like this. I promise you that I will never drink like that again, and I will listen to you. I can't stand to see you so upset and disappointed in me."

He was watching me carefully, as if he was trying to see if I was sincere or not, before walking over to me and engulfing me in a tight hug.

"I forgive you Tash, it's okay" he smiled as he pulled away "I just want what's best for you."

It's still funny to think about how just over a week ago, I had no one. No one cared about me or wanted to look out for me since Nickolas. Coming here has given me the opportunities to meet amazing people; it's just unfortunate that being here is for all the wrong reasons.

After this small talk with Axel, he told me he wanted to take me somewhere for a little bit. I didn't understand where it was exactly, because for the time that we were spending here, we weren't allowed to leave without consent from the bosses.

Walking down the halls as quietly as we could, we sneaked out into the backyard. I followed Axel as we snuck past the oval and towards the boarding tree line.

"Are we allowed to be back here?" I asked as we begun walking deeper and deeper into the woods.

"If I said yes would it make you feel better?"

"Yes"

"Well then yes, we are definitely allowed here, we just aren't allowed to get caught," he laughed.

Oh no, what if we get caught? 

There was no way I was going back on my own, not when I had no idea where we were or what wild animals could be out there.

We walked for about five minutes before we came to a small clearing. There was a large willow tree sitting in the middle of the clearing with long strands of leaves flowing out in different directions.

"Wow" I whispered quietly to myself as I reached Axels side. He gripped my small hand in his large one and smiled down at me.

"I found this a few years ago. I like to come here and think when I'm upset or when I need to clear my head." As he spoke, he led me through the branches and to the trunk of the tree, before sitting down. He pulled me down so that I was sitting between his legs with my back against his chest.

We sat there quietly for a few minutes, before I suddenly remembered that we all wore trackers. "What about our trackers? Won't they find us?"

I felt his chest as he exhaled slowly.

"Nah, they only look to see where we are if they notice we are gone, so we cant be out here between 7AM and 11PM, they check everyone's in their rooms at exactly those times," he glanced down to the watch on his wrist, "speaking of which, we need to leave now" he grabbed my hand, pulling me up before we jogged back to the house.

When we got back, we parted ways and I ran to my room as quickly as possible.

I carefully shut the door behind me, panting as I leant back against it. Taking a look to the clock, I let out a sigh of relief when I noticed that it was 6:59AM. 

We were close to getting caught, we need to be more careful.