Come Back To Me

Chapter 8

2 Years Ago…

“Come on Hadley, let’s just do it.”

“But I’m not sure we should.”

“Come on, you know you want to.”

Reid smiles mischievously at me and hands me the bottle of vodka that he swiped from his parent’s liquor cabinet. I take the bottle from him, open the cap and take a whiff. Tentatively I lift the bottle to my lips and take a sip, it burns a little going down, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be.

It’s eight o’clock, and Reid and I sit on the floor of his bedroom. His parents are away for the weekend with his little sister, and he had decided to stay home with Gavin. Gavin is out with his friends, so Reid thought it’d be fun for us to get drunk for the first time, just to see how it feels.

I hand him the bottle and watch him take the next sip, though his is more of a gulp than a sip, and he pulls back, coughing.

“Smooth,” he laughs.

We pass the bottle back and forth for a little while, until it’s half empty.

“So, how are you going to cover that up?”

I point to the bottle, and hiccup.

“I dunno, hide the bottle.”

Reid smiles a lopsided grin at me, and I giggle at him. Suddenly Reid pounces on me and starts tickling me mercilessly while straddling me.

“Stop! Reid, stop it!” I beg, laughing so hard that tears are streaming down my cheeks.

Reid relents and stops and watches me while I calm down and wipe my face. I smack him on the chest playfully.

“I hate it when you do that,” I complain.

“No you don’t,” he replies knowingly, still straddling me.

He’s right; I don’t really hate it at all.

“So what do you want to do now then?” I ask him, feeling like I might actually be drunk now.

Reid stares down at me for a second, and then lowers himself down onto me, planting a soft kiss on my lips. I wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him back enthusiastically.

“Hey Reid, you home? Oh! Sorry!”

Gavin barges in on us, and we look up at him in surprise.

We sit up quickly, our faces turning identical shades of red at being caught in a compromising position by Reid’s brother.

“You could knock you know,” Reid complains as he gets to his feet unsteadily and offers me his hand to help me up.

Gavin looks at us in confusion, and then spots the vodka bottle on the floor.

“Where’d you guys get that? Are you guys drunk?” he asks in disbelief, but then laughs loudly.

“So?” Reid shrugs.

“So, you guys wanna come to a party tonight? I’m just headed there now,” Gavin offers.

“Really? You never asked us to go to a party with you before,” Reid asks skeptically.

“Yeah well, why not,” Gavin bends and picks up the bottle, “but we’re taking this.”

Fifteen minutes later, we arrive at Gavin’s friend Brad’s, house. We walked because it’s only a few streets down from ours. The narrow street is crowded with vehicles, and we can hear the base of the stereo thumping from outside. Reid and I look at each other nervously. We have been to parties before with people our own age, but Gavin is a senior, and these are his friends. What are they going to think when a couple of fifteen year olds show up with him?

Gavin opens the front door and just walks right in as we follow behind him. In our drunken silliness, we thought this was going to be a good idea, but now I’m a little unsure as we step across the threshold into the loud house, filled with people.

“Relax guys, it’s okay,” Gavin laughs at the semi-afraid expression on our faces.

“Are you sure it’s okay we’re here?” I ask him.

“Sure it is, I bet there are even people here from your grade, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were,” Gavin says as he leads us into the kitchen.

The people in the kitchen all shout their greetings to Gavin as he proceeds to pour three drinks. He hands one to Reid and then me.

“Reid!”

I hear someone shout from behind us, and we turn and see that it’s Cole. Cole grabs Reid into a bear hug, clearly inebriated.

“Glad you came out, for once!”

“Hey Cole,” Reid laughs, “Glad to see you too.”

“Hey Hadley!”

Cole turns and hugs me tightly too.

“Hi Cole.”

I giggle at his enthusiasm. I look around the room, and realize Gavin has already disappeared.

“Looks like your brother has already ditched us,” I inform Reid.

“Hey, you’re with me now!” Cole chuckles.

“Come on, everyone is in the back yard.”

Cole takes my hand, and I grab onto Reid with the other as Cole pulls us through the house and out the back door into a large back yard filled with people, complete with roaring fire pit as the focal point.

The drinks continue to flow, and Reid and I become progressively more intoxicated. Julia is at the party too, and she has pulled me away from Reid, but he’s not alone as his friends surround him. Gavin was right, there are surprisingly a lot of people we know here.

“Wow Hadley, I’m so glad you guys came, I never see you two at any party’s.”

She giggles, holding onto my arm for support, though I don’t think I’m any steadier than she is.

“We’ve never been invited,” I tell her.

“What are you talking about? Of course you have, I know for a fact that Reid was invited to this very party by Cole today,” she informs me.

“Really? He didn’t say anything about it. In fact, it was Gavin that invited us out,” I say, feeling a little confused.

“Probably because he likes to keep you all to himself,” she giggles and nudges me with her elbow.

“Yeah, we do kind of like to stick to our own little bubble,” I agree. Even if he had told me about the party, we probably would have still just hung out in his room.

“So Hadley,” Julia whispers in my ear conspiratorially, “have you guys done it yet?”

“Julia!” I exclaim, surprised at her forward question.

“Oh come on, you’re my best friend, we’re supposed to tell each other these things. I’ll tell you mine…me and Cole finally did it a couple weeks ago,” she reveals, with a large grin on her face.

I gape back at her.

“Wow! What? Really?” I gasp.

Her and Cole have been going out for about six months now, which in high school can seem like a very long time, apart from the rare type of relationship that Reid and I have.

“Well, I’m happy for you,” I smile at her.

“Now you,” she prods.

“No, not yet,” I reply simply.

I don’t want to say anymore than that, because when it does happen, it’ll be a very private and special thing that Reid and I decide to do, not something I want to talk to anybody but Reid about.

“Still? Geez, it’s been forever you guys, get on it,” she teases.

I just shake my head at her, we’re in no rush, and I smile to myself.

“What are you smiling about?” Reid’s voice is like silk in my ear.

“You,” I whisper back to him, and he wraps his arms around my waist from behind, hugging me to him.

“You guys are too cute,” Julia gushes.

“I think Cole is looking for you Julia,” Reid tells her.

“Oh? Okay, see you in a bit,” she grins, and goes off to search for her drunken boyfriend.

“Hey Reid, I need to go to the bathroom,” I tell him, my bladder feeling a little full from all the booze.

“Okay, do you know where it is, do you want me to walk you?” he offers sweetly.

“No, that’s okay Reid,” I laugh, “I’m a big girl, I’ll find it.”

I kiss him quickly on the lips and stumble across the yard towards the house to find the restroom.

When I’m finished, I stumble my way back outside. The party is in full swing, and I scan the crowd from a ways back, trying to spot Reid. I finally spot him, standing with Cole, Julia, and a few other friends. I take one step forward, but then I spot Taylor standing in front of them, talking to Reid. Ugh! I don’t want to go over there yet while she’s there, so I wait. As I wait, I can see that she’s trying to flirt with Reid, and she’s sloshed.

I watch in horror as she suddenly throws her arms around Reid’s neck, and kisses him! What the hell! Reid removes her arms from around his neck, and moves her gently away from him. He says something to her and laughs. Laughs? Tears start to sting my eyes, and I’m glued to the spot where I stand, unable to make my legs move. I stare at the ground, feeling like I might get sick.

“You like what you saw?” Taylor’s voice enters my consciousness.

I look up from the ground, and she stands right in front of me with a hand on her hip, looking smug. She leans down close to me, and I can smell the alcohol on her breath.

“Reid’s mouth tastes good, like oranges…yummy,” she breathes in my face, and I cringe.

My hands ball into fists at my sides, but I do nothing. She stands back and laughs cruelly before stumbling away. I quickly wipe the tears off my face before anyone sees me, and turn around to go back into the house. I quickly make my way through the house, and out the front door. I start walking at a brisk pace to go home, feeling very sober all of a sudden.

“Hadley! Hey wait!” I hear Reid’s voice calling me.

I don’t turn around and just keep walking. I can hear his feet pounding the pavement as he runs to catch up with me. He catches up quickly and grabs me by the shoulders to stop me, and I yank away from him, he looks hurt by my rejection of his touch.

“Hadley, what’s wrong?” he pleads.

“I seen Taylor kiss you, and you didn’t do anything!” I shout at him, tears begin to flow anew.

“Yes I did, I removed her arms off of me and held her back,” he defends himself, remaining calm despite my yelling at him.

“But you just laughed it off, you didn’t even tell her off, then she came and told me your mouth tastes like oranges,” I cry.

Reid wraps his arms around me, and hugs me tightly, talking into my hair.

“Hadley, did you happen to hear what I said to her before I laughed at her?”

“No, I was too far away,” I sniff.

“I told her that her breath smelled like s**t,” he chuckles.

“You should have seen the look on her face, and everyone around us heard it. If she can get anyone else to kiss her tonight, I’d be surprised.”

I pull back and look up at him, and I can’t help the slow smile that forms on my lips.

“Really?” a quiet giggle escapes me.

“Yeah, I mean, I couldn’t shove her away from me like I would have liked to do, because I don’t think that would go over very well, but I was still able to humiliate her for doing that. Seriously Hadley, it was gross, she practically slobbered all over me,” he assures me, and I know he’s serious.

“Don’t you trust me Hadley?” he frowns.

“Yes,” I answer immediately.

“Then why’d you run away and get upset?” he asks, confused.

“I think I’ve just had too much to drink, and seeing her touch you, then what she said to me, I was just…” I trail off, feeling very tired. Reid just nods his understanding.

“I guess stuff like this starts to happen when liquor is involved. People start to get stupid, confused and hurt. How about we don’t do this again for awhile okay?” he suggests.

“Sounds good to me. Can we go home now? What time is it? I’m going to be in so much trouble for staying out late,” I groan.

Reid reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, checking the time.

“Shoot! It’s just after midnight,” he tells me.

“Looks like I’m going to be grounded then.”

When we make it to my house, I am happily surprised to see that my mother’s truck is gone, and the house is dark. I breathe a sigh of relief.

“Hmm, guess she’s not home, that’s lucky,” Reid chuckles.

“Yes, lucky. I better get into the house though so she doesn’t pull up with me standing here with you.”

“Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow Had.”

Reid leans in and plants a slow, soft kiss on my lips, and I giggle into his mouth. Reid pulls back with a confused expression on his face.

“What?” he asks.

“You do taste like oranges.”

I smirk at him, and he shakes his head at me.

“Goodnight Hadley.”

“Goodnight Reid, I love you.”

I wave at him as I walk up my porch steps.

“I love you too, forever, its me and you babe,” he calls out to me in the dark as I step into my house.

I switch on the kitchen light, and see that there is a note from my mother on the table, informing me that she had a date, and should be back by one a.m. I better get ready and into bed quickly then before she gets home. I take her note and throw it in the trash, grab a glass of water, flick off the light and head to my room. I walk into my dark room and turn the light on.

“Reid! What are you doing?”

I giggle at him; he’s sprawled out on my bed. I quickly shut my door, but don’t lock it.

“I didn’t want to be alone,” he appeals.

“Okay, but my mom is going to be home at one, so she can’t find you here.”

“I’ll hide.”

He smiles mischievously, and he knows I can’t argue when he does that.

“I have to change,” I say shyly.

“Okay.”

Reid grins, putting his hands behind his head, awaiting a show.

“Um…close your eyes.”

I feel my cheeks warm at the thought of Reid watching me change. I could go into the bathroom, but for some reason, I don’t.

“Okay.”

Reid puts a hand over his eyes. I proceed to strip down into my bra and panties, and search my closet quickly for pajamas, not finding any I turn around to search my dresser, and I see Reid is watching me through his fingers with a giant smile on his face.

“Reid!”

I laugh and grab a stuffed animal off my dresser and throw it at him, and he just laughs. I shake my head at him, and proceed to open my drawers and find some pajama pants and a t-shirt. I quickly put the pants on.

Then feeling incredibly brazen, I face Reid, remove my bra so that he gets a full glimpse, and leisurely pull the t-shirt over my head. When I’m finished, his mouth hangs open in surprise.

“That’s all you get,” I say before flicking off my light and jumping onto my bed with him.

“I’ll take it,” he whispers, as we crawl underneath the covers.

“Maybe just one more peek?” he murmurs, and I am about to oblige when I hear footsteps coming down the hall.

Reid hurriedly scrambles out of the blankets, and ends up falling off the bed with a dull thud, so all he has time for is to crawl underneath the bed, just as my mom opens the door.

“Hadley?” she whispers.

“Hmmm?”

I do my best fake ‘hey I was asleep’ mumble.

“I’m home now dear.”

“Kay,” I whisper.

“Goodnight honey.”

“Night mom.”

I hear her close the door and retreat down the hallway.

“That was close,” I hear Reid whisper from underneath the bed.

“Yeah, now get back up here.”