Someone Like You

Chapter 18

Incoherent murmurs swirl around my head, and mix with the heavy, black air surrounding me. I'm stuck inside my own head, which feels like it's being pounded in by a metal hammer. I'm spinning around, which makes me incredibly dizzy. I need to stop.

I try to force my eyes open, but it feels like they've been glued shut. The murmurs get louder and shout through my eardrums. I try to open my eyes, but come up short once again. I begin to spin faster, giving me the sudden urge to throw up. I groan and try one more time.

Slowly the hurricane of mumbling fades from my ears and my eyes open up to light. At first everything is blurry, and I blink a couple of times. The throbbing in the back of my head suddenly gets worse, and I groan.

My eyes focus in and I see a crowd of people around my bed. Ava, Jay, Brady, Kylie and Alex all stand around my bed. They watch me with concern as I slowly come to.

Light spills through my window, and I quickly turn my head away from it. The light hurts my eyes. Alex sees this, and swiftly closes my blinds.

"How are you feeling there?" Ava carefully asks me. I groan loudly and pull my blanket up higher.

"Who ran over my head with a semi truck last night? I would really like to kill them." Kylie steps forward and holds out a glass of water along with a couple of pills. I gratefully take them and down them all fast. I thank her and she steps back to where she was before.

"Do you remember anything that happened last night? Anything at all?" Jay asks me. When I look at him, I gasp. His face is covered in bruises, with a couple of minor cuts scattered around. I've definitely seen him look worse, but it's ugly. I look at his fists and see his knuckles are red and swollen.

"Who were you fighting last night? You aren't supposed to fight anymore," I question him. He sighs, then walks over to take a seat beside me.

"You're incredibly hungover, so it's no surprise that you remember nothing," he reasons quietly. My eyebrows furrow.

"No, I'm not. I didn't have any alcohol to drink last night. I didn't want to, because Parker wasn't having any to drink. Parker was watching me and taking care of last night."

At the mention of Parker's name, Jay tenses up and he clenches his fists. "No, he wasn't. Do you want to know what happened last night? Parker got his friends to slowly get you blackout drunk. Then he drugged one of your drinks and tried to take advantage of you. He was forcing himself onto you in one of the bedrooms. He would have gotten his way, too, if we hadn't gotten there."

My throat closes up as his angry words spew out. My chest feels heavy and I struggle to breathe. I can feel tears making their way to my eyes at his words. My memories from last night are sort of a blur, but that doesn't sound accurate. "That can't be right. Parker cares about me. I know he does," I defend weakly.

"No, he doesn't. One of Parker's friends came to us and told us everything. That's the reason we found you in time. He told us about how Parker got dared to get with you. He took it up because he also saw it as a way to hurt me. He never cared about you. He was trying to get into your pants. He used you, Olivia. Don't you get it? You were wrong this whole time. We were right and you didn't listen to us. He doesn't care about you. He never did."

He shouts all of this at me in a rushed, heated rage. Tears are softly falling down my cheeks as Jay finishes his spiel. He is breathing heavily with a murderous look I'm his eyes. He abruptly stands up and storms out of my room, slamming my door behind him. The door rattles and for a moment, there's silence.

Then I start bawling. Kylie and Ava automatically rush over to me and wrap me in tight hugs. Chunks of the night start coming back to me. I remember him calling me pathetic, and trying to kiss me, and grabbing me roughly.