Drowning

Chapter 16:

My eyes opened again when I felt him jerk away from me. I heard a loud crash. I tried to find the source of the sound. My vision was blurry, but I could see the shape of the guy who was just on me on the floor rubbing his jaw. A flash of black moved through the room, looking like a big blurry shadow and the guy's head snapped back. A trickle of blood dripped down his chin where one of his piercings used to be. The force he was hit with must have knocked it back into his mouth. I laid on the table, watching the red line slowly drop down onto his shirt.  His head snapped back again and he groaned.

"What's going on?" I asked in a slow, low voice.

The big black shadow moved close to me too fast; it caused my head to swirl. Strong but gentle hands pulled me up to a seated position and then wrapped themselves behind my head to hold me up. The cool callused fingertips stroked my head gently which felt nice against my burning skin. I could feel thumbs brush over my cheeks to wipe my loose strands of hair from my face.

"Guard the door." The deep honey-filled voice commanded to someone.

"Ezra?" I asked, not able to make out the exact shape of his face, but I knew it was him.

"Yeah, it's me.  Are you ok? Did he hurt you?"  He said softly.

"The bitch wanted it." The pink-haired boy spat.

Ezra began to pull away from me and I grabbed his shirt, trying to stop him from leaving me.  He paused when he felt the light pressure of my hands tangled in his shirt.

"Get him out of here before I fucking kill him." I heard Ezra's deep voice boom as he pulled my head to his abdomen.

Who was in the room? I couldn't see who it was. The blurred shape grabbed Pinky and started to drag him out of the room.  The shape stood in the doorway, blocking it so no one else could come in.

Ezra was still holding my head in his hands. I heard some more muffled sounds and everything started to go black again. I felt a little sting on my cheek, which brought me back into my body. Ezra was tapping my cheek with his hand.

"Riley, stay with me. Don't go to sleep. How much did she drink?" Ezra turned around to ask the hazy shape.

"I don't know. I wasn't with her. I didn't even know she was here yet. I thought she might have gone home." I heard Aiden's panicked voice from the doorway.

"This isn't my house. Aiden, you're silly. I'm right here."  I said, looking around. 

"JD's going to be pissed. She is wrecked." Aiden said.

"Jchay Dee is not the boss of me." I slurred. The words tumbled out in a slow way, making the voice not sound like my own. "You are not my b-boss too...too... tutu. You aren't wearing a tutu. Ha." I leaned back and poked my finger in Ezra's chest and almost fell off the table, laughing.

He pulled me back up and bent down to look into my eyes. His eyes had turned a stormy gray with no trace of the light devious blue he had earlier tonight when he was on stage. I couldn't look away from them as they bore into every cell of my body. He had my attention.

"When you make bad decisions, you don't get to call the shots anymore." Ezra whispered darkly into me.

"I'll go find JD." Aiden said. His voice sounded too high under the stress.

"Don't." Ezra turned to him and put his hand up to stop him. His hard tone stopping Aiden's blurred shape in his tracks. "I will take care of this. We're not going to tell JD."

"What's going on in there?" A girl's voice cut through. 

"Nothing.  Go find Mark. He was asking where you went. He wanted to show you something." Ezra called back to her. "Aiden, I thought I told you to block the door.  Don't let anyone else in."