Moments of Reckoning (5 page)

“You’re lucky I’m still on the clock and have to drag your
boys
apart. Or this would be ending
very
differently.” Landon stated poking his finger into Jason’s chest while completely ignoring me. Stepping back, Landon turned and barreled himself into the crowd. Turning to face me, Jason started to say something as I cut him off. I was beyond furious.

“Don’t… Just
don’t,
Jason…Abby is stuck in the middle of that madness somewhere and I have to find her. I cannot let her get hurt, so if you’re not going to help me find her, MOVE!” I waved my hand in the air as I made my way past him.
How did things end up so reckless after being so wonderful a few minutes ago and where the hell is Abby…? Why did I have to get drunk like this…?
“ABBY!!!!!” I started yelling over the crowd hoping she would hear me. “ABBY!!!! WHERE ARE YOU!?!?” My yelling was to no avail. There were still a lot amount of people fighting as I was trying to dodge the punches so I didn’t find myself with a bloody nose. I actually had a bright idea of standing a chair to get above the crowd and have a better chance of spotting Abby. I wasn’t brave enough to try and climb into one of the taller chairs—even though they would have the better view—so I decided to climb onto the table of one of the booths lining the wall.

Wow… I can see almost the whole VIP bar
from here… Is that Abs..? Nope, definitely not her, she might kill me if she knew I thought that was her… hahaha…. Man the room is kind of wobbly… Maybe I should sit down for a sec…

Plopping down in the center of the table
, I let out an overly dramatic sigh before I grabbed an unopened beer from whoever’s bucket that was sitting beside me. Obviously drinking another beer was a horrible idea but I had pretty much given up trying to find anyone. Not only had I lost Abby and Xavier but Landon was
pissed
at me and Jason was…well… I don’t really know—either losing his mind because he actually kissed me or extremely drunk—hard to say which. Touching my lips caused me to remember the wonderful assault he had given me not too long ago. An aching for more of him started to take over.

“Oh
, Jason… what have you done to me,” I mumbled to myself, shaking my head.

“Ha
nnah…?” A voice came from the right of me.

Almost jumping out of my skin I snapped my head to the right to see who it was. It was the guy who was backing Alex, the one I thought looked vaguely familiar to me for some reason. “
Ummm... Yeah…?” I responded slowly.
How the heck does he know my name?!
Sitting there holding a beer half way to my lips I just stared at him like he had two heads.

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.”
realizing he was still talking to me I looked over at him again.

“Actually I am trying to find my friends I came here with. When the fight broke out I lost
everybody and I’ve tried to find them—but as you can see I’m sitting here alone. Apparently you know them since you were helping Alex.” I responded waving my hand towards the exit in the back. “By the way, how do you know my name?” I asked defensively. Something about this guy made my skin crawl—even though he was very attractive. He stood there in awkward silence, looking at the floor with his hands shoved into his front pockets and his ball cap pulled down low for several minutes before he finally answered that he was in one of my classes at the college last semester. I thought I vaguely remembered him but I couldn’t quite see his full face. Chalking it up at that, I went back to drinking my beer.

“I just saw Al
ex go out the back exit! Come on!” grabbing my arm, he was pretty much dragging me off the table. Luckily enough I snagged my beer and chugged it while he drug me along the crowded dance floor.

“Are you sure?!” I yelled back over the noise of the music and crowd. He did
n’t respond to my question. Brushing it off to him not hearing me over all the noise, I continued to let him drag me through the crowd. Then it hit me…I didn’t even know his name and I was allowing him to drag me across the bar to the exit he “supposedly” saw Alex go out. I stopped dead in my tracks, causing him to jerk back since he was still holding my hand.

“What are you doing?! Don’t you want to catch Alex?!” he looked at me stunned.

“Of course I do! But I honestly don’t know you or your name for that matter. I don’t really think it’s a good idea for me to allow you to drag me outside even if Alex is supposedly out there!”  I blurted out before I realized how angry I sounded. He didn’t even flinch… he simply let go of my hand and as calm as anyone I had ever heard before, he said fine. Fine! All he said was fine and walked away
without
giving me his name
still
... Who does that?!

I was furious although
I wasn’t exactly sure why. Maybe because he didn’t give me his name but knew mine, or because he didn’t care to help me the rest of the way to the exit? I had no idea why he was affecting me the way he did, but I was absolutely furious. I stormed the rest of the way through the crowd not caring that I was knocking into people. “Thank God!” I huffed, when I finally saw the exit sign slightly ahead of me. Pushing through the last group of people between me and the exit, I slammed into the door with full force, flinging it open so hard it smacked the wall behind it. The cool air hit my body and instantly began to cool me off as I stepped out into the alleyway. That’s when I realized just how intoxicated I was. I didn’t notice the two small steps that led from the door to the actual ground until I was stumbling forward. Throwing my hands in front of me I grabbed onto someone who was lunging towards me as I was falling.
Apparently alcohol and I don’t mix… how many times have I fallen tonight?!
Feeling familiar arms around me I realized automatically who it was.

“Jason…
?!”  I mumbled breathlessly in astonishment.

“Yeah
, Han, I got you…are you okay?!” he was smirking at me.
Oh that adorable smirk of his…

His smirk slowly faded as he furrowed his brows, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
I pulled myself out of his arms and crossed mine over my chest, “Yeah I’m okay…a little intoxicated…but okay. Did you find anyone? I still haven’t seen Abby…or Xavier for that matter.” He leaned back against the wall and nodded towards the parking lot a good football field length away.

Noticing
Xavier and Abby embraced in a hug beside a light post, I smiled a little and let out an overly large sigh. Leaning back against the wall beside Jason, I propped my foot against it and let my arms fall to my sides, exhaustion washed over me.

Chapter 5

The silence that hung in the air between Jason and I was unnerving. I didn’t know what to say…the last time we were face to face we had just experienced a breathtaking moment only to be shocked back into a drama-filled reality. So instead of saying anything I let the cool night air blow across my drunken self, standing there with my eyes closed and leaning against the wall.

“Hannah…
I…” Fumbling with his words, Jason paused for a moment. “I don’t want you to think…that I only kissed you because I was drinking.” My thoughts were running wild and I couldn’t seem to find my voice to respond to him. “You don’t have to say anything, Han…if you want to act like it didn’t happen then I will just have to deal with that…”
What does he mean; he will have to deal with that..?

I hadn’t even realized Jason had moved until he was in front of me with each of his hands placed against the wall
, surrounding me. I looked up at him with hooded eyes as he continued to talk. “…I won’t apologize for finally kissing you because it has been the one thing I have been dying to do since I first met you. I know you look at me as your best friend and I haven’t wanted to jeopardize that but, Hannah…I love you…I
fucking
love you…I can’t go a day without talking to you, let alone seeing you. Everything you do intoxicates me and I am tired of trying to hide my feelings! I don’t want to look back and realize I didn’t even try to let the one person I love, know just how much I wanted them. Seeing the way you are with Landon made me realize even more that you won’t be single forever and if I don’t give us a shot then I don’t deserve to sulk over you when you find someone. Please, Hannah…Give us a shot…Give me a shot...”

Jason’s confession
threw me for a loop. All this time…all this damn time I have thought that he wanted nothing to do with me, other than a friendship and now he is telling me that he—he
fucking
loves me. I wanted to scream, jump, cry, and pass out all at the same time. Jason loves me…he actually loves…
me
. I couldn’t find the words to respond to anything he said so I did the one thing that I knew would give him all the answers he needed. I kissed him—I mean fiercely kissed him. It didn’t take long for Jason to start kissing me back with equal passion. He grabbed the sides of my face while I ran my hands through his hair. Dropping one of his hands to my lower back, he pulled me closer to him. Moving his other hand into my hair, he held the back of my head in place so that he could take control of my mouth, slowly moving his tongue with mine. A moan escaped from my throat that seemed to drive him even wilder. He began kissing down my jaw line, to my ear, and down my neck sending waves of wonderful sensations throughout my body.

“Oh…Jason…” I moaned breathlessly as he continued k
issing and nipping at my neck. My legs were starting to tremble. I was afraid that they would give out on me at any moment so I clutched Jason’s shoulders for support.

“Whoa there
, beautiful…” his voice was low and husky. He ran his hands down my thighs and wrapped my legs around him as he continued to alternate kisses between my mouth and neck. He carried me over to a wine barrel sitting a little ways down from us and placed me on top of it.

“P
erfect” he whispered, gazing into my eyes.
Was this for real?! Jason intertwined with me in the alleyway…

I felt my face flush from his comment but it didn’t last long
, we were right back into the rhythm of kissing one another like there was no tomorrow. Jason’s hand moved up my thigh slowly. I cursed myself under my breath for wearing these damn leggings. His hand would feel much nicer against my bare leg. The sweet taste of Jason on my lips was even more intoxicating than the alcohol I had drank all night. Drifting off in thought about the future and how nice it will be to be able to do this as often as we want; I heard Abby yelling at someone across the parking lot.
Seriously?! AGAIN!?
I yelled inside my head. The yelling pulled Jason out of our moment as well. Turning to see what was happening, we saw Alex in Xavier’s face again—and Abby stuck in the middle of them.

“Let me handle this Han
nah…stay here, I will be right back.” Sighing in defeat I shook my head yes as he began jogging away to the crazies that we call friends.

Pulling my dress back down and smoothing it out
, I touched my lips as a smile spread widely across my face. Jason had been on my lips…more than once tonight…and yes they were the best moments of my life so far. Sleep tried to invade me while I was sitting there so I laid my head back against the wall behind me.  I noticed they weren’t yelling anymore so I figured Jason had made some progress in the situation. I glanced over and saw that Abby and Xavier were gone while Jason was left standing there with a
very
annoyed Alex.
Poor Jason…He always ends up in the middle of making amends between people. He really is a great guy…

A loud bang came from on down the alleyway “What was that…?” I whispered to myself
, halfway jumping out of my skin. I couldn’t really tell who it was but I saw someone standing there facing me quite a ways away. Normally I would have jumped off the barrel and ran as fast as I could over to Jason but apparently the alcohol, and the wonderful events of the night, had given me a sense of courage. Hopping off the barrel I called out to the figure, “Hey…Who’s there…?” But no response came. I looked back to Jason and Alex, but couldn’t see either of them anymore. I felt my pulse quicken at the thought of being alone in the alley with whoever it was that wasn’t responding to me. I quickly spun back around but no one was standing there anymore.
Maybe my mind is playing tricks on me…I mean it is dark and I am pretty buzzed up still…
Calming myself I walked farther down the alleyway with my cell phone in hand as a flash light. I didn’t realize how far I had gone until I noticed that I couldn’t see the parking lot anymore behind me.

My heart was pounding as I approached what was clearly a male figure leaning against the wall, and I almost jumped out of my skin as a voice finally spoke up,
“Did I scare you Hannah…? I never want to scare you…”
Can we say creepy…
I wanted to take off running and my instincts were telling me to, but when the man stepped into the light relief washed over me.

“Landon… My god
, you scared the shit out of me!” Placing my hand over my heart in an attempt to slow the pace, I smiled back at him.

“Sorry
, darling, I never meant to do that. I also didn’t realize how much of a potty mouth you have, either.” He was laughing now. “Why are you in the alley all by yourself, anyway?”

Crossing my arms over my chest I shrugged my shoulders
in response before stepping closer to him. “Shouldn’t I be asking you why you are out here scaring the shit out of people in the pitch dark?” Laughing at me again, we began to walk farther down the alleyway towards a different exit door.

Landon pulled the door open to let us back inside when I saw that the place had cleared out quite a bit. It must have been close to closing time by now and I still wasn’t with anyone I had come
here with.

“Maybe I should go back down the alleyway to find Jason.” I mentioned to
Lan. He didn’t like that idea very well since I would be out there all alone again. I didn’t have a chance to argue because I saw Abby coming up the stairs waving at me, obviously looking for someone.

“There you are!” she squealed while embracing
me. “I have been looking for you for hours! Where did you run off to…” she continued as I threw my hand up to stop her mid-sentence.

“Seriously Abby?!
You ran off into the royal rumble and left me high and dry on the floor. I have been separated from everyone except the few times I ran into Jason or Landon but yet you have been looking for me…I should be royally pissed at you!” I said with more annoyance than I had meant to.

The look on Abby’
s face showed how hurt she felt, I automatically felt like a horrible best friend for bitching at her, but I was only being honest. I had spent most of the night running around…alone…trying to find her, which in return ruined the first moment Jason and I had together. But yet she was off playing sucky face with Xavier and having Alex fight over her when he ran across the two of them doing so.

Jason…Crap…I bet he is looking for me…
I glanced around to make sure Landon wasn’t in sight, “Actually, Abby…don’t worry about it. I have to go back outside and find Jason. He is probably looking for me…I kind of ran off before he came back over to me…Ummm…tell Landon I’m not alone so he doesn’t
freak out
again please…” I rambled on as I headed back towards the exit door.

“Hannah, be careful…and you need to tell me about the Jason situation… I’m missing something here…” Abby called back to me with an anxious look on her face
. I pushed the door open to step back into the alleyway and paused for a moment half turning and flashed Abby a grin as I stepped out into the darkness.

The alleyway was much darker than I thought it had been earlier, maybe because I had sobered up slightly or because I was looking for Jason. A small gust of wind blew through the alley that slammed the door shut behind me
, causing a shiver to run down my body. Jerking on the knob I tried to pull the door open but it was now locked. I let go of the door knob in defeat as my phone slipped from my hands and crashed to the pavement, I cursed myself for not putting it back into my wristlet.
Please don’t let it be broken…Please don’t let it be broken…
Squatting down I picked my phone up from the pavement; my case had broken off of it and it wouldn’t power on. “Dammit…” I cursed.

“Looks like you did a number on it to me…”
a vaguely familiar voice said.

Standing up
, I turned around slowly and sighed, “Not you again…”