𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞

𝟎𝟗

"Do a flip! Do a flip!" Everyone was chanting at me as I stood in the middle of the small dance floor.

"C'mon Ellis, do a flip!" Josie shouted at me. I had taken a couple years of tumbling lessons up until last year, when I started high school and decided I didn't want to anymore. Somehow, I let it slip and now everyone was pressuring me into doing a back tuck. So, I listened. I made sure I had enough room, prepared for the jump, and did a back tuck. I landed flat on my feet without any teetering and stood up straight as everyone around me started cheering.

"That was awesome!" Dylan exclaimed.

"Holy shit," Dylan said as he approached me.

"Bitch," Josie said as she stared at me in awe. "That was awesome!"

I shrugged my shoulders, "it's not that big of a deal."

She shook her head in disagreement. "No, that was fucking sick." I chuckled in response.

"Blondie, that was really cool," Jayden said as he walked over to me from the other side of the dance floor.

"Thanks," I said.

"You never told me that you were a gymnast."

"Not a gymnast, I was a competitive cheerleader up until last year. I took tumbling lessons too. I quit all of that last year, it wasn't my thing anymore," I said as I walked over to the couch and sat down. He sat down next to me and nodded his head.

We sat for a while in a comfortable silence, watching everyone have fun. Eventually we all got bored and decided once again to go to the cafe and sit and talk.

I was absolutely exhausted. After being out in the sun and swimming all day, I was having trouble keeping my eyes open as everyone around the table conversed. It was around 11:30 when I leaned my head on Josie's shoulder because my head was heavy. My eyelids felt like cement and soon enough, they were shut and I couldn't open them. I drifted in and out of consciousness, hearing bits and pieces of conversation as everyone chatted. I didn't know how long I had been out for when I heard a couple of voices drifting through my ears.

"What should we do with her? It's getting close to curfew so we have to bring her with us, but we've been trying to wake her up for the past 10 minutes and she's not fully coming to. Definitely not enough to walk," I heard Charlie say.

"Why don't one of you carry her to her room and the rest of us will stay here until whoever takes her comes back and then we'll leave," I heard Josie say. I could tell that I was now laying slumped over with my head on her lap. She was stroking my hair.

"I can take her," I heard Jayden's voice say. Wait, Jayden?

"You sure man?" Charlie asked him. "Because I can totally take her."

"Nah, it's fine. I'll take her. She has her room card on her right?" Jayden asked.

"Yeah, it's in her pocket," Charlie.

Just then I felt Josie's hand stop stroking my hair and two strong arms lifting me up and holding me behind my shoulders and under my knees. My body instinctively curled into the warmth the body was emitting as my head rested on a hard chest.

"Okay, I'll be back in a little bit, I'll put her to bed," Jayden said. I could feel the vibration of his voice through his chest.

I adjusted a little bit to get more comfortable. I could tell that we were in motion because Jayden was readjusting his hands so that he didn't drop me when I moved slightly.

"Hey, Blondie," I felt Jayden's voice. "I know you're wakin' up." He said softly.

I didn't say anything. I was still half asleep and not really registering that Jayden, of all people, was carrying me to bed right now.