Cognizant (Adopted By Alex Gaskarth: Book 2)✅

Chapter 12

I cuddled tighter against Alex as everything finally went silent, only the deep throb of my heart echoing in my head. "I... I'm o-okay... I'm sorry." I began slowly standing up, my legs swaying and buckling under my weight. Alex put his arms around me slowly to help me stand.

"Are you sure?" He gazed at me, concern watering in his eyes.

I nodded and brushed him off of me. "I'm sorry," I told him quietly.

Alex hugged me briefly again before allowing me to pull away. "It's okay, you don't have to apologize... But what... What happened?"

I shrugged as we slowly began making our way back inside. "I-I don't kn..." I trailed off, remembering the stranger who had talked to me. I had turned to text Alex and left my drink alone.

"The guy must have put something in my drink," I realized in a mumble.

"What guy?"

"Th-The guy who was..." I felt another wave of dizziness as I pointed to the curb.

"The guy you met outside," Alex breathed out. "Can't fucking talk to anyone anymore..."

My legs buckled again, and I fell. I felt Alex catch me before my knees hit the ground. "You okay?"

I tried standing, leaning against him and blinking as bright lights invaded my vision. The loud noises from inside the building muffledly swam through the air, making my head pound. "Y-Yeah, I'm..." I forgot what I was saying. I felt dizzy again and struggled to stand.

"Come on, let's get you home," Alex stated softly.

"No, I-I'm... I'm fiiiine," I slurred, trying to keep control of what I said.

"Nope, come on." My body was hoisted in the air, making me squeak in drunken surprise. "Come on, I'll call the others and we're gonna get you home." I felt my body being cradled in Alex's arms as my vision began going dark. I found it hard for me to force my body to move or speak until my body was forced to relax against a moving body. I felt warm hands gently place me somewhere before I fell asleep.

.

My head swirled and stung as I slowly began peeling my eyes open. White light blinded me suddenly. I blinked away forming tears as I slowly sat up to figure out where I was. A burning pain shot through my brain as I sat up.

"Hey, hey, just relax, Ad," a soft voice said, and large hands supported me on my shoulders. My vision finally focused, although still blurry without my glasses or contacts. I saw Alex kneeling on the ground next to the couch where I lied. A fluffy black blanket lied over my lap.

"How're you feeling?"

"What," I asked, barely above a whisper. "F-Fine..."

I tried deciding what happened, why my head hurt so much, why I was dizzy, and why Alex looked like a helicopter mom. "What did we do last night?" I still couldn't get my voice above a whisper, my throat hoarse and scratchy.

Alex reached out and handed me something, but I couldn't tell what because of my terrible farsightedness. He placed it in my hand as I tried to observe the blurry object and decide what it was. It was a water bottle. I thanked him and drank probably half the bottle, coughing into my sleeve-covered hand as the water scratched along my dry throat.

"What's the last thing you remember?" I heard a female voice, then looked up to see Lisa sitting down next to Alex.

"Uh," I tried to recall what I had done last night. "Writing my Electromagnetic Theory paper."

Alex stared into my eyes with concern. "Do you remember what you did after that?"

I tried to think, but the harder I tried to recall memories, I only received a bigger headache. I shook my head and rubbed at my stinging eyes. Even after ingesting the entire contents of the water bottle, my mouth had a burning and bitter taste. I knew what it was, it was familiar, but found it hard to remember where I had tasted something like acid...