THE SPACE BETWEEN

Chapter 22

Trigger Warning(s):  Language and Sexual Situations

(Shannon's POV)

A knot formed in my stomach as I struggled to focus my eyes. I'd awoken face down on someone's couch and had no idea whose or why I was there. Nothing about the expansive great room I found myself in was familiar. The remnants of white powder on the glass coffee table were a telltale sign of a party, along with the empty bottles of booze, heaping ashtrays, and drug paraphernalia that littered the room. I looked around for signs of life, but I was the only one in the room. As I walked around I heard someone banging upstairs, but from just moans I didn't recognize anyone'svoice. At least my clothes were intact, and I had my phone and wallet.

Rubbing the top of my head vigorously, I tried to recall the night's events. The bathroom door was ajar when I found it, so I knocked quietly before pushing it any further. Passed out  cold on the floor was a blonde woman. I poked her with my foot to make sure she was alive, and her annoyed groan was all the affirmation I needed. I stared at her briefly hoping for a clue, but she didn't look familiar.

'Sorry babe, I gotta take a piss.' I unleashed the dragon and hovered over the toilet.

I thought of asking her whose house this was, but I figured it was best to fly under the radar. She appeared to be too out of it to know where she was anyway.

'Ah. That's better.' I sighed as I shook off the last drops. 

A quick look in the mirror was further evidence that I'd partied pretty hard. My eyes were glassy and looked like they'd sunk into the dark recesses around them.

I decided I needed a boost to get me home and went back to the coffee table. I scraped the remnants of coke around until I had a line and snorted it. My mouth was dry, so I grabbed a warm beer on my way to the front door.

My car was parked in the street. I wasn't familiar with the area and drove straight until I got to a main thoroughfare. Eventually a route number sign appeared, and I knew how to get home from there. As I drove along, I started having flashbacks of being balls deep inside someone and pounding away.

The jump start from the coke was wearing off, so I stopped at a convenience store for coffee and cigarettes. I needed to sort my head out before I went home. Hopefully I'd remember what I'd done and with whom.

The store was deserted and the clerk behind the counter gave me a nod when I entered. He looked almost as bad as I did, and I highly doubted from the smell of burnt coffee that he was relying on its bitter taste to tide him over until quitting time. I didn't have the luxury of being picky, I needed caffeine despite its tar-like texture as I poured it into the Styrofoam cup.

I set my coffee on the window ledge outside the store and lit up a smoke. Pacing the length of the parking lot I sloshed coffee and inhaled cigarettes like a fiend.

I couldn't recall anything from the party except conversing with a few people. Surely to God I hadn't cheated on Missi. Maybe I couldn't remember because I didn't want to. For all I knew I'd done the blonde on the floor in the bathroom. After a while I decided to give it up and tossed the coffee cup in the trash. I was climbing back in the car when it hit me. I'd cheated, but not like I thought. I'd cheated Missi out of the opportunity to tell me something by fucking her like a rabbit instead.

It pained me to think of what a prick I'd been, and I hoped what I recalled was all I'd done or said. I truly despised moments of clarity and the guilt they brought. I quickly switched gears as the pain deepened and skipped to the blame game. Why couldn't she understand that if she'd just behave the way I wanted her to that everything would be okay? Why couldn't she see that everything that was wrong had started when she hadn't comforted me in the ways I needed? I was fairly sure that if she went back to being herself again then I'd go back to being me.