The Knowing Secret

Chapter 29

I woke up the next morning with a groan. I didn't even want to move let alone open my eyes because the pain in my head. I knew I had to get up and face my parents. There was no way they would have slept through my drunkenness. I groaned again. I didn't even remember getting home. The last thing I remembered was Jay forcing me out of Evan's house after I, oh gosh, after I kneed Evan in the balls.

I groaned again and covered my face in shame. I slowly sat up with my eyes still closed. After a few moments of sitting upright I slowly started to open them. The light made the pounding in my head worse, but eventually my eyes adjusted. I glanced around the room and realized I wasn't even in my room. Instead I was in the middle of Sam's bed. I groaned yet again. Jay brought me to Sam's apartment. Sam saw me drunk. "Oh gosh," I mumbled.

I heard voices coming from the other room and I knew I had to get up and face Sam. I slowly stood up and became aware that I was standing in nothing more than one of Sam's t-shirts that fell right below my bottom, and the underwear I had on the night before. "Oh gosh," I mumbled again, as I began to wonder what had happened when Sam and I were alone.

I looked around the room for my pants and found them neatly folded on his desk. After a struggle I got my pants on and walked out of the room to find Sam and Jay standing in the kitchen. The moment they saw me they immediately stopped talking. I rubbed my hand across my forehead and asked, "Do I want to know what happened last night?"

Jay looked at Sam and said, "I should get going."

"That bad?" I asked.

Neither responded for a while, but Jay eventually turned to me and said, "I texted your parents from your phone. You spent the night at Corey's and Sam is going to pick you up from her house and take you to work. I thought it was best they didn't see you uh,"

"Drunk." I finished for him. He nodded. "Thanks," I added softly. He nodded again, then headed out the door without saying goodbye.

I looked back at Sam who hadn't said anything to me yet and watched as he took a sip of his coffee. He then sat his cup down and poured one for me. I stood, unable to move as he added three spoons for sugar. He pushed the cup to the edge of the counter then picked his back up and took another sip. I stood where I was, waiting for him to say something or move towards me but nothing happened.

After what seemed like an eternity he finally said, "Nothing happened last night, not between us anyway. Jay brought you here then after you passed out I changed you into a t-shirt to sleep in." I flinched a little when he said nothing happened between us. I knew what he was hinting at, but I didn't say anything. I just nodded, and he went on, "Jay slept on the sofa. He heard the party got busted a few minutes after the two of you left and he didn't want to risk driving. I slept out here on the floor," he gestured to the pile of blankets folded on the coffee table.

"You could have slept in the bed," I said, softly as I rubbed between my eyes.

He shrugged, "Didn't want to. Coffee should help."

I nodded, took the cup off the counter, and took a sip. Sam silently poured some Captain Crunch into a bowl, added milk and a spoon and placed it where the coffee cup had been. "I'm gonna get ready for work," he said, and started to walk out of the room.

"So, we aren't going to talk about this?" I asked, tired of feeling like I was walking on thin ice. He paused for a moment with his back to me, shook his head, and then kept walking. "Sam!"

"What do you wanna talk about, Riley?" he snapped, as if all he had been holding back was breaking out. "Do you wanna talk about how you were dancing like a hoe with guys you probably don't even know? Or maybe you wanna talk about how you called your best friend a slut in front of everyone? Or perhaps you wanna chat about how the one topic you said you'd drop, you didn't, and ended up kneeing the host in a very unpleasant spot." I let my eyes fall to the floor as he paused to catch his breath. "Or maybe..." he added softly, "you wanna explain why you showed up here with Jay, with your shirt already off."