Heartbreak Story - Byler

XIII - Here Together as One Now

Will's POV:

I awoke to the lingering final gifts of all the alcohol from the night before: a pounding head and nausea.

Groaning heavily, I opened my eyes and found myself safely in my own bed with no recollection of how I got there or of even what happened at the party. I remembered sneaking out of my bedroom window to meet up with Rick and him driving us to some fancy house up in Loch Nora. The memories of how the house had been elaborately decorated and how I'd wanted to sit outside and sketch it before we went inside but Rick dragged me away still remained along with the memory of me heading straight to the refreshments table. All I wanted was to drown away any knowledge of what my life had become.

Yet I didn't remember anything following my fifth drink.

I presumed I should probably be getting up and letting Jonathan know that I was home but I found I couldn't move as something was trapping me, holding me in my position. I started to panic as I looked down to see what was wrapped around me, my mind jumping to the conclusion of the vines from the Upside Down. I certainly didn't expect to see what really was occurring.

Pale arms were encircling my naked lower waist and holding me tightly. My memories were still hazy but I hastily tried to piece together any snippets of information that could explain my current predicament as my levels of anxiety began to rise. I attempted to squirm out of the grasp of the person I'd somehow ended up sharing a bed with and all I achieved was that they held me even closer to their own body and buried their face in my hair, mumbling in their sleep. Though the words had been unintelligible, I recognised the voice as it belonged to someone whom I could never forget - trust me, I'd spent weeks trying to do just that - and suddenly everything that occurred the previous night came flooding back to me.

Using all of the force I could muster, I wrenched myself out of Mike's grip and flew to the other side of the room, as far from him as possible, as terror took hold of me. I threw on some boxers to try and preserve what little dignity remained to me. Oh god no, how could I have let this happen? I thought I'd been so careful.

My sudden movement disturbed the curly-haired, freckled boy in my bed and I observed with alarm as his dark eyes fluttered open and he blinked a few times whilst looking around my room, clearly confused and out-of-place. For a moment, I watched on as he continued to stare at my ceiling looking dazed and flummoxed before his face hardened and he sat bolt-right up in shock, clearly remembering.

Mike's gaze found me and I saw as his eyes were large and round, his mouth was hanging open and he didn't seem to be breathing. Horror washed over me as I took in the whole sight of him: he too was naked and therefore I could easily see the bruises on his neck that my own mouth had made there in the heat of the moment the previous night. I began to shake as I slid silently down the wall, shame overpowering me.

"Will." Mike muttered, pain was evident in his voice as he watched me break down. He made a move in my direction and terror turned my blood to ice.

"Don't!" I wailed back. "Don't come any closer. I want you to stay back from me right now."

"Are-are you...erm...okay?"

"How could you?" I whispered in despair.

"What?" Mike asked, looking utterly bewildered.

"How could you?!" I demanded again, this time raising my voice to him. "How could you use me like this? You knew  how I was feeling, you knew I was vulnerable and hurting and you used it for your own gain, didn't you?"