What To Do When The Venom Kicks In

Chapter 8

***Naomi***

By the time I'd explained everything to him, he'd managed to get me to wear his jacket so that I didn't get sick, put on the beanie that I'd shoved in my pocket, and sit in a bus stop with him. The busses had stopped running by that hour, so we were in no danger of getting a bus to accidentally stop for us, which would have been embarrassing.

He'd been hugging me the entire time I'd been retelling the night's events, shaking his head and muttering under his breath about what he ought to do to Noah for what he did to me. I couldn't even protest. All I could do was cry.

"A-and that's th-the e-end." I managed, between heavy sobs. "I-I'm so s-sorry that y-you had to see m-me like this."

"Listen, Nai, I'm just glad that I found you before some creeper did. Next time you go out into creepy woods alone, please just tell me, okay?" Thomas' voice was a lot calmer than usual, almost as if he actually had some compassion in him.

I nodded in response, leaning my head back on his shoulder. It wasn't the world's most comfortable pillow, but I felt safe there. Thomas had always protected me as a best friend should. He was practically family to me; I hated the ones I had anyways, except for my sister.

"Look, I'm going to make this up to you. You've had the worst night, so, so I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that tomorrow night is your best night. You're coming round to my place, okay? We're gonna spend all night just watching horror movies and forgetting about nasty boys who we were too good for anyways."

"Please don't l-leave," I whispered, hands clinging onto his coat a little tighter.

"Hmm?"

"Stay."

He laughed softly. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon. I'm here for you - it's what best friends are for."

***

"If either of your parents catches me, I'm going to blame everything on you."

I'd managed to get Thomas to keep his promise of staying by my side. I didn't want to spend the night alone - I was scared of being by myself and in my own head - and plus I was sort of scared that Noah would like show up to actually murder me, even though it was super silly of me to ever think that. My imagination precedes me.

So, to keep me company, he's sleeping on my floor tonight. We're kind of a lot too old for tops and tails now, so he'd offered to take the floor for the night.

"Nobody's going to find out, Tommy," I whispered, cautious of waking my parents.

"Your room is so different to how I imagined it."

"How do you mean?"

"I never pegged you for a single bed kind of girl for starters."

"I'm not."

"The black paint suits you really well, but it's too neat and tidy to possibly be your room. And there's like only one cat plushie so..." 

"I'm not as obsessed as you, Thomas."

***

The familiar relentless screaming of my alarm clock snatched me right out of dream-land and dragged me kicking and screaming to the cold, fresh autumn morning. My head ached and my eyes were puffy. Great. I silently thanked the Universe for not making today 'Picture Day'.