Take Me Higher

Chapter Thirteen-Olivia

Let me know what you think in the comments! Chapters 14 and 15 are on radish!

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 It's almost eleven when we get back from the restaurant and Jessa is already asleep, sprawled out in my bed. "Should I try to scoot her over?" I whisper. There is no space on my bed with the way she's laying.

Reggie steps beside me to look. "You can sleep in my room, if you want."

"Okay."

I lose my balance and sway forward, but Reggie reaches out and curls his arm around my stomach. My skin tingles beneath his touch as I twist to face him, his arm now resting on the small of my back. He shouldn't be touching me like this.

No, him touching me shouldn't leave me feeling this way.

I wrap my arms around his waist, sleepily lying my head on his chest. "I like when we hang out, Reggie. I miss you."

I should never drink again.

I'm not the most coherent after four drinks. Which, had Reggie told me he was going to fight me over the check, I wouldn't have ordered that many. I told him before we went that I would pay. Well, guess who drank four peach Sangria's and didn't pay for dinner?

"Alright, it's past your bedtime. I'll take the cou—"

"You really don't have to sleep on the couch, I know it's not comfortable," I tell him quietly as he pulls me through the doorway. He wastes no time fighting me. "Wait! I'll grab a shirt from my room."

He tugs on my wrist, shaking his head. "I've got plenty."

At least I'm conscious enough to change my own clothes tonight. Reggie snags a shirt off of his hanger in his closet and tosses it to me. He keeps his back to me while I change out of my clothes, which is nice, even though I'm sure he saw more than enough last week when I was too hammered to change. That is so embarrassing.

"Is this how you feel when you drink?" I sigh, feeling exhausted. "I seriously cannot keep up with you. Or Blake and his friends. Like, I know drinking in college is a given, but I feel so sluggish and... But also cocktails are so delicious, you know?"

Reggie faces me, laughing. "Are you gonna be okay?"

I lift up the covers at the bottom of his bed and slither underneath them until I reach his pillows at the top. Reggie's laughing at me the whole time.

I start giggling, feeling silly for inch-worming my way up his mattress.

I try not to stare at Reggie as he kicks off his shoes and replaces his jeans with sweatpants and loses his shirt completely. His body used to be a lot bulkier in high school when he played hockey, but since then he's become more lean.

Reggie doesn't have washboard abs, but he's toned. I like that he's always been attractive in a realistic, raw kind of way. Not like Blake, who was probably a greek god in a previous life, chiseled directly from a block of man meat. I sound ridiculous right now.

"You know, Olivia, you don't have to keep up with anybody," Reggie tells me. "It's cool that you typically do your own thing."

"And look where that got me? I'm just now making friends."

"I've always been around."

"Yeah, don't even get me started on that miracle."

Reggie laughs. "I could say the same for you."

"It's just... I really like Blake and the girls, and I want them to like me too..." I trail off, not knowing where I was going with this. "I just don't feel like I fit in with them, but I want to. And like, okay, you should see his ex-girlfriend, she's gorgeous!" I toss my hands up in defeat. "I would be with her over me. I don't know what I have that she doesn't."