The Best Friend Scandal - Lucia Jordan Page 0,32

feeling that we kissed. Plus, that didn’t even count as an actual kiss; it was more of a lifesaving maneuver.”

“No, we didn’t,” I said. I didn’t want her to remember that as our first kiss. “We just slept here, that’s all.

“And what happened with Cai?” she asked.

“What do you remember?” I asked again.

“I remember him giving me shiny little silver pills, and I can remember dancing with him at the club. After that, things got pretty fuzzy,” she said.

“Yeah, that’s thanks to the drugs Cai gave you, which should now be mostly out of your system,” I said.

“Did you carry me out of the club?” she asked.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because you were hallucinating, and you weren’t safe there with Cai. He was drugged-up, too. If something were to happen to you, he wouldn’t have been able to do anything to protect you. Not that you would need protection from anyone other than him, but you know what I mean.”

“I can’t believe he would slip me more drugs,” Hensley frowned. “I thought I could trust him.”

“You can’t trust any of those people,” I said to her seriously. “And how did he slip you more drugs? Did he slip them into your drink?”

“No,” she said. “He kissed me.”

11

Chapter Eleven (Hensley)

My whole night of sleep had been fitful and troubling. I had nightmares that I wanted to forget and felt like I was waning between lucidness and complete delusion. When I finally woke up in the morning, I was shocked to see where I was. I thought for a solid minute that I was still hallucinating.

I felt his skin underneath the palm of my hand before I even opened my eyes. When I did open them, I saw that my head was resting on top of Arlo’s shoulder, and my hand was flat against his muscular, bare chest. His fingers were wrapped around mine, and I could see the steady rise and fall of his breathing as our hands moved up and down on his ribcage. One of his arms was wrapped around my shoulder. I tilted my head slowly upward to look at his face and found that his eyes were still closed and he was still sleeping. How in the world did I end up here, in Arlo’s bed, wrapped up in his arms? I tried to think back to remember as much of last night as I could, which was difficult since I was in a drug-induced stupor for most of the evening. I remembered feeling like a dragon, which was crazy. I remembered Cai kissing me and slipping pills under his tongue into my mouth. I remembered being carried out of the club and not knowing who was holding me. I vaguely remembered something about laughing until my stomach hurt. That was it. After that, I didn’t really remember anything aside from a slew of crazy nightmares that I would like to forget.

“Morning,” Arlo’s voice said to me in a whisper.

I tilted my head back up to him again to see his open eyes.

“How are you feeling?” he asked with a slight smile.

“Confused,” I said.

“Well, that’s to be expected. Cai pumped you with enough drugs to tranquilize a small animal. I’m surprised you weren’t in worse shape than you were, to be honest.”

Neither of us moved. I didn’t think either of us wanted to. Our hands stayed together, and our bodies stayed together. Our fingers and arms weren’t squeezing or pulling each other closer, just resting and remaining still. We both knew that if we moved, the moment would be over.

“Did you get me from the club last night and bring me back to your apartment?” I asked as I tried to put all the pieces together.

“Yeah.”

“Why?”

“Because I knew you were in trouble.”

“But how did you—”

Arlo didn’t let me finish.

“I’m sorry about everything that happened, Hensley; I really am. What you thought wasn’t true. I think you’re beautiful, and the only reason I didn’t want you to model in the runway show was that I didn’t want you to get mixed up with those guys. They party hard, and they only care about themselves.”

“How did you find me?’ I asked.

“I just had a hunch that’s where you would be.”

For a minute, we just stared at each other. This was the closest, physically, that I’d ever been to Arlo. Yeah, we gave hugs, and he picked me up and spun me around, and all of that platonic, friend-type stuff. But lying here in bed with him, in his arms, with my face close