Breaking The Rules

2

"Ugh!" I groaned out, slamming my door shut and slipping to the floor. Today was a long and dreary day and I couldn't stop myself from blaming a certain individual who made me late to work this morning.

"Damn you Nickoli." I muttered underneath my breath as I closed my eyes, memories of earlier resurfacing in my brain.

Not only had I ended up reaching late for work but as fate would not have it, everyone noticed and gave me shit for it and instead of me trying to make up for it by being the most dedicated workaholic of the 21st century, I spent majority of the day thinking about our unsolicited bathroom session.

It was bad enough I kept zoning out every time the woman put in charge of me kept talking but it was even worse when she noticed my boner.

The woman probably hated me now and I didn't blame her, I was a mess and it was all Nickoli's fault. Sighing deeply, I grabbed my house key and headed back out as I relocked my door. I don't normally drink because when I do, I do stupid stuff like kissing strangers and confessing secrets that I ought not to but today had to be an excepton.

There was no way I would be able to talk to my parents about my epic fail of a first day when surely my boss would be calling her since they were such good friends.

I groaned again as I started the slow walk to the bar and ignored the street limers as they tried to sell me all kinds of illigeal drugs.

That reminded me of another reason why my mom could never visit me or she'd be all controlling and want to interfere with my life once more.

"Yo, curly fries!"

I stopped as I was being pulled into a drunken hug by a guy I was yet to recognize and as soon as I did, I groaned.

"Oh God, not you again."

"Hey! I'm hurt. I thought we had such a good time this morning." He continued, leaning into me and stepping further into my personal space.

"A. That was unwanted and you could have been arrested for assault if I had called the cops and B. Why are you already so drunk on a Monday night? Do you party every night?"

"Now look who cares about me. You're the clingy type, huh?" He replies, once more falling towards me and I push against him as he smirks. His eyes are half closed and I rolled my eyes as I no longer had the desire to drink.

"Nick! Buddy! We've been looking all over for you man."

I turned to see another group of drunken guys and I rolled my eyes as the one who spoke threw his arm around 'Nick'.

"Who's the hottie?"

"My boyfriend." He responds. "But he's clingy."

"Ohhhh."

"What?! I'm not your boyfriend! I'm not even your friend. You slept in the wrong apartment and I had to kick you out this morn-"

"Shh." He shushes and I push his finger from off my lips, not knowing where he had it. "Don't ruin this moment Zach."

"Okay, I'm headed home now. You and your merry band of drunk friends are way too wasted and I'm not about to stand around here while you pretend to have 'known me all your life'".

I start to walk off and is stopped as he pulls me into him with both hands. I feel oddly safe there and I go to pull out of his grasp but froze at his next choice of words.

"You are the person I've been searching for all my life."He whispers in my ear. "Now that I have you, do you really think I'd let you go so easily?"

I rolled my eyes as I pushed away from him and heard his friends laughing as I stormed off.

"Assholes."

"Hey! Where're you going?" One of his friend shouts and I continued to retrace my steps home.

"Dude wait. Please don't make me chase you drunk. I could really injure myself." Nickoli says as he tries to run why also focusing on trying not to fall over.

"Why are you even chasing me?"

"Don't go. My friends are really nice people. I swear."

"I don't have a problem with your friends."

"Wait please." He says, pulling me to a stop.

"Why?"

"Come have a drink with me."

"No. You're already drunk and I really don't feel like drinking. Besides, I have work in the morning."

"So do I."

"And you're out partying?"

"My boss doesn't really care about what I do."

"Wow, must be nice." Came my sarcastic remark.

I turn and start to walk and Nickoli does the same.

"Why are you still following me?"

"The neighbourhood is bad. I don't want you walking alone."

"A. I have been living here for a few months so I know how bad it is and B. You're drunk. How do you intend to protect me? By scaring them away with your bad breath?"

He stays quiet as he continues to walk and I stick my hands in my pocket as I quietly followed suit. I really didn't feel like going home because I knew the second my phone got internet, my folks would be calling to yell at me.

"This is me." I say quiet enough for him to hear and although he hasn't sobered up, he still looked as though he wouldn't fall over drunk if I pushed him.

"I remembered." He murmured, opening the gate for me and following me to the run down place I managed to rent for a far reduced price.

The sky had turned a nice dark shade and because I forgot to turn on my outside lights, we were enveloped in darkness as we stepped onto the porch.

"Thanks for the walk home Nickoli."

"My friends call me Nick."

"I prefer Nickoli. It sounds more exotic."

"Exotic huh... I like that."

I smile and turned the key in the lock, fully intending to just say good bye and leave him out here when he pulls my waist and surprises me with a kiss.

His mouth is hot and as his tongue clashes with mine, I can taste the bourbon on his lip.

Knowing that kissing a total stranger was all kinds of bad, I resisted the urge to wrap my hands around his neck, but soon did just that as he closes the tiny gap between us. His strong hand grabs my butt from the outside of my jeans and I groan against his lips as I feel his erection against my stomach.

All too soon he's pulling away and I want to protest at the sudden loss in contact.

"What time do you come off work?" He asks and I stare into his eyes with confusion at his question.

"What?"

"I wanna walk you home from work."

"You don't even know where I work."

"You work at the hospital right on the edge of town... Don't you?"

"Ah... Yeah but how-"

"What time do you get off?"

"At six on most days. Eight on a busy one."

"I'll be there."

He pulls me in for another quick kiss before leaving and I don't know if I should be alarmed at the fact that he knew where I worked when I knew neither his last name nor where he lived.