Chapter 13

Georgina

My head feels like I’ve got a rock concert going on inside it. I crack open my eyes and see an unfamiliar room.

I turn my head slowly to the side and am met with the sleeping form of AJ fucking McGabe. Topless. His black hair is a tousled mess. His one arm is under his head, making his bicep bulge.

~Topless!~

~

It’s undeniable that he’s hot, especially laid out like this, with his smart mouth shut. But what the fuck am I doing in bed with him?

~Did I mention he’s freaking topless!~

~

Someone moves behind me, and my eyes widen. Did I really get ~so~ ~drunk I had a threesome with AJ and one of his asshole friends?!

I tentatively look around the other way and let out a huge sigh of relief when I see the lightly tanned face of Jake. Who is also topless.

I pull the sheets back a little and find myself dressed in Jake’s ~Big Lebowski~ T-shirt.

~Thank fuck for that.~

~

I slowly start to climb out from between the sleeping boys. As I get out from between them and onto all fours, someone clears their throat. I freeze.

“Nice thong.” ~AJ. Why couldn’t it be Jake? I turn around to look at him. He has a smirk on his face. He also has a split lip and bruised jaw.~

~

“What happened to your face? Someone else agree with me on you being an asshole?”

I sink back into bed next to Jake, and he slides his arm around my shoulders, linking the fingers of his other hand with mine.

“Nope. Your boy here was protecting your honor.” AJ chuckles. I turn Jake’s hand over and notice his knuckles are bruised too. He shakes his head, and I feel his lips on my hair.

“It was a misunderstanding. How are you feeling, Smidge?”

“Awful. My head is banging, my stomach feels sore, and my leg is really painful.”

AJ leans over and produces a glass of water and aspirin from beside him.

I mutter thanks and gratefully down the pills and the whole glass of water.

Jake pushes the sheet back and runs his hand down my leg to my ankle. I yell as his fingers get near it.

“George, I think we need to get you checked at the hospital.” He scoots down the bed to be closer to my foot.

I look down, and my right ankle is swollen to nearly twice its normal size and is bruised so badly it’s almost black.

“Can you move your toes?”

I try, but they only twitch slightly and cause shooting pain all the way up my leg, making me feel queasy and groan again.

“I think you’ve broken your ankle. I heard something crack last night, but I just thought it was your shoe.” AJ picks up one of my heels, which now has the heel pointing at ninety degrees to the sole.

“Ok. Ok! So…ok.” Jake paces the room, raking his hands through his hair, his face pale.

AJ grabs him by the shoulders and stops him. “Go grab a shirt from PJ and some shorts, too, for Gina.” His cheeks seem slightly flushed.

Jake nods and runs out of the room. AJ pulls his shirt back on and looks at me with his hands on his hips. “Do you need to…um…” His eyes flick toward the bathroom.

My bladder is near bursting, so I nod.

He puts an arm across my back and the other one under my knees, carrying me into the en suite. He sets me down on the toilet and then stands back.

“I got it from here, thanks. I’ll call you when I’m done.” I blush again, and surprisingly his cheeks go red too. He quickly backs out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I manage to shuffle my panties down and pee but can’t seem to pull the one side back up properly. The toilet is frustratingly not close to anything I can lean my weight on.

After a few seconds of struggling, I give up and call out. AJ comes back. “Is Jake not back yet?”

“Nope. What’s wrong?”

I sigh and drop my head. “I can’t get…they won’t go back up unless…” I stop as an unexpected sob threatens in my throat.

AJ steps forward, helps me back up from the toilet, and gently pulls my thong back into place.

He then scoops me up again and deposits me back on the bed just as Jake comes back in, closely followed by PJ and Drew, both of whom are topless, wearing baggy gym shorts.

~What is it with the abs on display today!?~

~

Jake has another pair of black gym shorts in his hand and a white wife-beater on.

“Do we need to call an ambulance or something?” PJ looks worried.

Drew walks over and looks closer at the swollen monstrosity at the end of my leg.

AJ shakes his head, frowning, and pushes Drew back from me.

“Dudes, turn around so I can help Gina put these on.” The three boys dutifully turn toward the wall, and with Jake’s help, I slide the shorts on.

His T-shirt actually comes down longer than the dress I was wearing last night did, but I suppose if I’m going to be carried around, then my assets will be on full display.

It was actually really thoughtful of AJ to suggest getting me some shorts.

“Fuck!” They all spin around to me, panic etched on their faces. “What happened to my dress? I mean, Katy’s dress really, but she’ll kill me if I don’t return it to her.”

“You puked on it, girly. I dumped it in the trash.” Jake shrugs. “We’ll buy her a new one if she really gives that much of a shit.”

***

AJ insisted on carrying me to his Jeep and then from his Jeep into the ER. Jake called my dad from the car, and both my dad and his met us there.

It took a lot of persuading to get AJ to leave, especially once we got the results from the X-rays confirming that I had, in fact, broken my ankle.

While we waited for the technician to come, our dads went to grab a drink from the cafeteria.

“I think Andy feels guilty.” Jake spins himself around on the wheely stool. “Y’know for not realizing last night that you’d broken your ankle.”

“What actually happened last night? I don’t remember much after dancing with all you guys.” I look down at my slightly scabby knees.

Jake stops spinning and makes his way, slightly wobbly, to sit next to me on the bed.

“You disappeared for ages, and Andy went looking for you. He said he found you in the garden, and you were hammered, like beyond drunk.

“You fell down the few steps there, where he thought you’d just fucked up your shoes, then you puked into PJ’s mom’s flowers. He took you around the back to his room, and he came and got me.”

~So it was AJ who was rubbing my back, not Jake.~

~

“I’ve not seen you that bad for a long fucking time. I was worried when he said he had you passed out drunk in his room…”

Jake swallows hard and shakes his head. I squeeze his hand, and we sit in silence for a few minutes. “Got his face something good, though, right?” He grins down at me.

After my leg is wrapped in plaster, dark green to match Jake’s eyes as he insisted, we slowly make our way back to my dad’s truck.

Getting used to walking with these stupid sticks is going to take time.

“Well, you do know this is the last time you go to any parties. And definitely the last time you will undertake underage drinking, Georgina.” My dad shakes his head.

There are dark circles under his eyes, and his auburn hair is speckled with more white hairs than I remember.

He tucks my hair behind my ear and runs his thumb down my jaw, stopping at my chin. “I was so worried about you when you didn’t come home last night. All sorts of things ran through my mind….” He sighs heavily.

“And you, young man! You could have at least sent your dad or me a text to say you were both ok and staying at PJ’s.”

“Yessir,” Jake mumbles. He meets my eyes in the mirror on the back of the passenger sun visor. I stick my tongue out and cross my eyes at him.

He chuckles and gets a firm hit across the sternum from his dad who is driving us home. “Ow-uch!! Dad, not fair, it was George!”

James Nelson shoots me a look in the rearview mirror, and I smile back sheepishly.

“The two of you are nearly eighteen, and it’s time you started acting like it.” His green eyes, so like Jake’s, look back at me and soften slightly.

“You two are all we’ve got. So you both have to put up with us being a touch overprotective.” My dad puts his arm around my shoulders and pulls me in for a tight hug.

“Now, who’s up for IHOP?”

***

My Sunday morning is rudely interrupted by the arrival of Macy.

“So how come I’m hearing stories about you spending the night in AJ’s room with both AJ and Jake?” She paces my room.

“Clever girl, though, getting AJ to sneak you in through the back door so nobody sees you go in there, protect your perfect image. I just wonder how many times you’ve done it before, hmm?”

I sit up straighter in my bed and wait for her to stop talking.

“And don’t think I don’t know you’ve told Jake to stay away from me. Jealous little bitch. Just because he doesn’t look at you that way, you don’t want anyone else to have him either.

“In fact, I don’t think any of Jake’s friends looked at any of us last night. Did you cock block all of us and keep them for yourself?”

“Macy. Sit down. You’re making my neck hurt.”

Macy shoots me a dirty look but plonks herself down on my desk chair, which protests slightly.

“Firstly, I got so drunk I passed out, broke my ankle, threw up in front of AJ, and was carried by him into his room.” I pull back my duvet so she can see my plastered leg.

“Jake and I slept in the room with him but only because I was too drunk to be moved anywhere.”

She opens her mouth, but I hold up a finger to silence her.

“Jake is not interested in you. That’s nothing to do with me.

“And I’m pretty sure Katy hooked up again with PJ last night, so I think what you are really saying is that none of the boys you wanted paid ~you~ any attention last night.”

Macy scowls and opens her mouth only to be interrupted again by my door opening.

Jake and Drew pile in, arms full of candy. Behind them, I see PJ and Katy standing on the landing. Macy immediately repositions herself onto the bed next to me, plastering a huge smile on her face.

“Hi, Drew! Jake! I was just making sure Gina here was feeling ok after Friday night.” She smiles wider, leaning slightly closer to me and tilting her head toward me.

Jake rolls his eyes and snorts. “Yeah, ok, Macy.” Her face drops, and I hear her correct him under her breath. “Anyways, George, these miscreants wanted to make sure you were ok.”

Drew drops the candy into my lap and backs away with a smile. “Sugar always makes me feel better.”

“I’m still surprised you don’t have diabetes yet.” PJ sits on the chair Macy vacated, pulling Katy down to sit on his lap and resting his chin on her shoulder.

“Hi, guys. That’s really nice of you to check up on me. Where’s AJ?” I realize he’s not with his friends like normal. Drew and PJ share a look. “Is he ok?”

“Yeah, yeah. It’s all good. Just, um, family stuff. Yeah. Family stuff.” Drew picks up a pack of Oreos off the pile he gave me and opens them, shoving a whole one in his mouth.

All three boys look a little sheepish, and Jake quickly makes excuses and drags them next door, where the loud sound of violent computer games soon erupts.

Macy and Katy don’t hang around long once the boys have retreated, and I am soon left on my own again. I wonder what is really going on with AJ?

~Family stuff my ass~.