Moments of Reckoning (6 page)

Chapter 6
Jason

(Earlier in the night
)

Alex and Xavier’s bullshit was getting on my everlasting nerve. I finally kissed Hannah…even though the moment was rather fleeting…I loved every fucking minute of it. The way she tasted on my lips lingered on but yet I w
as stuck trying to make sure these two jackasses don’t kill each other. “CALM THE FUCK DOWN, ALEX!!!” I yelled as stepped in between him and Xavier, “ARE YOU SCREWING HIM, ABBY?! YOU KNOW HOW NASTY THAT MOTHERFUCKER IS…HE WILL LAY DOWN WITH ANYTHING THAT WALKS…I NEVER THOUGHT YOU WOULD END UP BEING A WHORE…” Alex yelled over me towards Abby, who had her hands on Xavier’s chest attempting to hold him back. I moved out of the way because I knew what kind of storm was coming after that comment. Abby had no chance of keeping Xavier under wraps; he pushed past her and punched Alex in the jaw while taking him down to the floor. All hell broke loose as Alex’s buddies jumped in, which in return caused Xavier’s frat buddies to jump into the mix. I stood back because there were more than enough people hitting one another.
Might as well let these assholes fight…

I heard a female yelp out a few curse words a little ways behind me
. Turning to find the source, I saw Hannah on the floor with Abby on top of her like they had both just fallen down. There were too many people in-between me and them to get there to help them up. But lord knows I tried to push my way through. Before I could move, Abby had jumped up and made her way back into the mess of Xavier and Alex. All I could do was shake my head at her.
Poor girl needs to figure her shit out…
Xavier is in fact a man-whore but Alex and Abby make no sense to me. I lost sight of Hannah as I pushed through a group of people.
Dear god, I hope she isn’t being trampled down on the floor.
My heart began to race as sweat beaded on my forehead from the thought of her on the floor. I pushed even harder through the crowd because I had to get to her…wherever she was.

Rounding the last swarm of people I couldn’t find Hannah anywhere on the floor. As I brought my eyes up to the wall adjacent to where I
was standing, I noticed Landon with a death grip on her arm and a distraught look scattered across her face. Suddenly all I could see was red.

“Let go of her!” I snapped through my gritted teeth. Hannah turned to me as her face flashed with surprise. “Jason it’s not what it……” Before I could catch what Hannah was saying Landon moved her
from in front of me to beside him, causing me to swell up in anger. I was waiting for the punk to make his move before I kicked his ass all over this place. Just because he was a bouncer here didn’t mean I couldn’t take him…I had all the confidence in the world when it came to protecting her. Hannah’s raspy growl asking us to stop snapped me back into reality. “Alex and Xavier have started World War Three over there and now the two of you are going to act like children?! YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!”

Landon didn’t even acknowledge Hannah’s rant, but I couldn’t miss the confusion in her eyes. I didn’t give a shit about this guy…that girl’s my world…not his.

“You’re lucky I’m still on the clock and have to drag your
boys
apart. Or this would be ending very differently.” Landon half-ass stated while poking me with his index finger in my chest before jetting off into the crowd, cutting off my response.
Ha! That was supposed to be intimidating…What a fucking joke!
It took all I had not to react to his ignorance but I knew Hannah wouldn’t approve. I turned back to Hannah to see if she was all right but before I could speak she snapped with fury.

“Don’t…Just d
on’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!”  She threw her hand in the air and walked away, leaving me with my jaw on the floor. I couldn’t even react...I should have grabbed her and demanded that she talked to me but I couldn’t process what had just happened. I could faintly hear Hannah calling out for Abby but instead of following her I went straight for the exit to catch some well-needed fresh air. I took up shop slightly down from the exit door. My mind was going a hundred miles a minute so I closed my eyes and let my head fall back against the building. “What the hell just happened…?” I sighed.

∙∞∙

I wasn’t sure how much time had passed since I first leaned up against the wall but the familiar voices of Xavier and Abby coming from across the parking lot made me open my eyes. They were making up for lost time…I bet you could smack Xavier upside the head and he wouldn’t even notice. The two of them were intertwined like a vine creeping across a railing. Seeing how different Xavier was with Abby made me think about how stupid I have been. I should have told Hannah years ago how I felt, yet I tucked my tail and kept her at arm’s length. The sound of the door knob turning snapped me out of my dazed state. The door slammed so hard against the wall that I automatically jumped and headed towards it. My eyes roamed over Hannah standing in the door way with her eyes shut and her head tilted up towards the sky…she was breathtaking as she took in the cool night air. My pulse began to quicken at the sight of her.
Why has it taken me all these years to admit how madly in love with this girl I am…? Fuck this shit…I’m telling her tonight. 
I smiled at myself as I noticed Hannah starting to step forward. “Shit!” I said under my breath when I realized that she hadn’t opened her eyes and was now going to miss the two steps in front of her. Hannah snapped her eyes open as she started to fall as I lunged towards her. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her to me, as she threw her arms lazily around my neck.

“Jason?
” she mumbled breathlessly with wide eyes.

“Yeah Han
, I got you…are you okay?!” I smirked back as her eyes fell to my mouth. That’s when I noticed how drunk she was. Hannah had always watched me but never made it so obvious without even blushing. Not to mention the way she could hardly hold herself upright.

Concern washed over me,
either she wasn’t this drunk the last time I was around her or I hadn’t even noticed. Either way, I hope she hadn’t been stuck in any type of situation that I should have been there for. My smile began to fade as I asked her again if she was okay, which I guess annoyed her because she moved out of my hold and crossed her arms over her 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.”
Damn, she is drunk…
The whole time she was talking I couldn’t help but remember the way her lips felt against mine earlier. I couldn’t take advantage of her drunken state without knowing if it was actually what she wanted from me. Giving up on my internal struggle, I leaned back against the wall. Nodding over towards the parking lot letting her know where the two love birds where residing. Watching her from the corner of my eye, I watched the disappointment in her eyes as she watched them. Right then I wanted to scoop her up and run all the way back to her apartment. That look broke my damn heart and I had no idea why she was feeling that way. A large sigh escaped her as she leaned against the wall beside me with her foot propped up against it, as her arms hung loosely at her sides. This girl owned me and I wasn’t ashamed to admit that. Fuck just friendship…I want her everything.

Chapter 7
Jason

A small gust of wind
blew down the alleyway, stirring Hannah’s hair on its way past us. I couldn’t help but stare, she was leaning against the building with her eyes shut. The silence between us had hung around long enough…I was about to drop a bomb. “Hannah…” I started to speak but stopped myself to think for a moment before starting again. “I…I don’t want you to think…that I only kissed you because I was drinking.” She hadn’t mentioned anything about our encounter earlier and we hadn’t been very nice to one another since. This gave me a feeling that she might not have wanted what transpired between us to have happened. I continued before she had a chance to respond, “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…” At that point I was going all in.
Balls to the wall…
I placed my hands against the wall surrounding her head and inched in closer as I began 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 are with somebody else. Please, Hannah… Give us a shot…Give me a shot...” I let the words flow off my tongue in the most honest way I could and I sure as hell wasn’t holding anything back at this point. I let out a deep breath as I realized how nervous I was, and Hannah was just staring at me in awe without responding. I didn’t know if she was freaking out because I had just thrown our friendship out the window or if she felt the same…This waiting game was killing me.

My hands were back against the wall surrounding her head as I searched her eyes for a response. Hannah let out a small quick sigh before she pushed her hands into my hair
, pulling me closer and smashing her lips to mine. The fierceness of her kiss caught me off guard as I froze for a moment before my body kicked into overdrive. I was grabbing the sides of her face as she continued to run her hands through my hair.
She is going to be the death of me…
I felt like an addict trying to get a fix. Gliding my hand down her spine I felt the fire building within me. Once I found her lower back I pulled her closer. Moving my other hand into her hair, then down against the nape of her neck, I secured her head in place while I slowly continued to savor every last taste of her lips and tongue. In-between my assault on her mouth, Hannah let out a moan that made my inner caveman go wild. I felt like I couldn’t get enough of her. I teased her jaw line to her ear and down her neck with kisses, causing her to shudder under my touch.
God I love the way she feels…
“Oh…Jason…” she moaned breathlessly close to my ear as I continued down her neck. The sound of her saying my name in that tone had places responding in no time. I hadn’t noticed she was slightly trembling until she grabbed hold of my shoulders to steady herself. “Whoa there, beautiful…” I ran my hands down her thighs and wrapped her legs around my waist. Without missing a beat I continued to kiss her neck and then her mouth, while walking us over to a wine barrel I had noticed. It was sitting slightly down from us against the building.

Hannah must not have been used to compliments because her face turned fifty shades of red after the few words I had said. It didn’t stop us from continuing our adventure of each other’s mouths and bodies. I began to run my hand up her thigh slowly as I kissed her with every inch of my being. Just as my hand was about to reach the top of her leggings I heard a female yelling across the parking lot.
You have got to be fucking kidding me…
Putting a halt to our mind-blowing moment, I noticed the yelling was coming from Abby. She was stuck between Alex and Xavier’s bullshit yet again.
These jackasses better stop this shit before I kick both their asses…
“Let me handle this, Hannah…stay here, I will be right back.” I sighed in defeat as I turned and headed towards the madness.

“I’m seriously going to kill these jackasses…” I mumbled to myself through gritted teeth. The closer I got to them the more I realized I definitely needed to intervene. Abby was half way falling down trying to hold Xavier back as he had a hold of Alex’s shirt
collar. “XAVIER LET GO OF HIS SHIRT, YOU’RE KNOCKING ABBY DOWN!” I snarled. It looked like it actually made him realize he was about to trample all over her. He let go of Alex and pulled Abby up to him. Alex drunkenly mumbled something that made absolutely no sense, even though he thought he was saying something witty by the look on his face. “Get out of here, you two…I will take care of Alex.” I said sternly. Abby didn’t waste any time, she grabbed Xavier’s hand and led him across the parking lot towards the front of the bar. “Damn, you are sloshed…” I said, turning back to Alex and putting my hands on his shoulders to steady him.

“That’s what reckless women do to a man….” Alex mumbled through a hiccup.

“Seriously dude…this isn’t solely her fault. Yes, Abby should have waited and broken up with you but honestly nothing had happened until tonight I don’t think. For all I know they hadn’t even been around each other much. You being M.I.A. all the time because of work didn’t help either. Can you blame her for being lonely? I’m surprised you all have lasted this long. Yeah, it sucks…it sucks ass that you had to walk into that but you have to be the bigger person and let it go. Don’t get shit face drunk and constantly try to fight Xavier because that will only end badly. He knows of frat guys that won’t hesitate to make your life a living hell. Now come on and let me get your drunken ass home.” Alex shook his head okay as I helped him back through the parking lot towards his car. Even though Alex went willingly I knew this conversation wasn’t over; as soon as he was sober enough to make sense he would be blowing my phone up about it all.

We searched
for Alex’s car for a good ten minutes we finally found it at the back of the lot. Knowing Alex couldn’t drive and I legally shouldn’t be driving either, I decided to call him a cab. Thankfully the cabbie said he would come back the alleyway and around to where his car was parked so I didn’t have to maneuver him to the front of the road. By the time the cab arrived he was pretty close to being passed out. I explained to the cabbie where he was staying, handed him a pretty hefty tip and off they went.

“Shit… I left Hannah alone in the alley …” I smacked myself on the forehead. It had to have been a good half an hour or so s
ince I had left her there. Full-on sprinting across the parking lot I rounded the corner to the alley and found it empty. I tried to open the closest exit door but found it locked. The exit door further down the alleyway was locked as well so as a last resort I made my way back around to the front entrance of Silhouettes. I had no idea what time it was but it had to have been pretty late because the bar was closed. There were a few stragglers hanging around outside but none of them were who I had come with. I searched my pockets for my phone but realized Hannah had it in her small purse because I had kept leaving it sitting around and she offered to hold it for me.

I pulled
on the front doors, they wouldn’t budge. “Just great…! The bar’s closed, I have no phone, and I can’t find anyone.” I threw my hands up in the air in defeat. My next option was asking random drunks if I could use their phone. I finally found someone that had one I could use and dialed Hannah’s number first…straight to voicemail. Hopefully it just died and she wasn’t upset with me for ditching her like that. Next I tried my cell, which rang for a while and went to voicemail.
Okay… Maybe she is pissed…
With no other options but flag a cab, I did so and headed to the girls’ apartment.

∙∞∙

Pulling into their driveway, I noticed both their cars were still here but the lights were off. Asking the cabbie to wait a minute, I handed him some cash. Hopping out of the cab, I made my way to the front door. Knocking quite a few times to no avail, I knew they were either passed out or not here. Abby would never leave without Hannah so they had to be together…probably at Xavier’s. I decided to get back into the cab and head on home for the night. My house wasn’t too far from theirs so the ride went by rather fast, even though my mind kept running a million miles a minute about Hannah. It was about damn time that I manned up and told her how I felt; I just hope we can make it work between us.

I poured my heart out to her, even though she responded rather
nicely; she didn’t say a word back. Her response could have been alcohol-driven or her way of letting me down easy at first. Man, I sound like a damn woman about this…But I guess that’s what love does to a man’s brain. Laughing at how crazy I was sounding, I splashed my face with water from the bathroom sink and headed to my room to crash.

Before I knew it the sun was blaring through my window causing me to wake. “God
, I need some curtains that would block that shit out in the mornings—,” I said to myself. Rolling over to face the alarm clock I noticed it was slightly past noon. I sat up and stretched my arms above my head, then jumped out of bed, grabbed some clothes, and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.

Twenty minutes later I was sitting in the living room
tying my tennis shoes. I had decided to jog over to Hannah and Abby’s, since my car was there and I needed to rid myself of some of my frustration, so I grabbed my water bottle off the coffee table and headed for the door.

∙∞∙

It was already pretty sticky out and barely afternoon, but summer was in full swing. I ran the back of my hand across my forehead to wipe off some of the sweat that was beading.
Only two more blocks…
I thought, planting the seed of encouragement within my brain. Usually I found myself running at the gym, because it worked better with my schedule right after classes, so I hadn’t run outside in quite a while. Feeling the air burn within my lungs as heat warmed my face, I made my way closer to Hannah and figuring out what was going to be our future…
hopefully
we had a future together.

Rounding the corner I saw my car still parked in the drive and no form of life within the windows. I made my way to the door and knocked in hope
s someone would answer. No response yet again…Sighing in frustration and confusion, I started to head down the steps when Xavier’s truck pulled up to the curb. Abby hopped down from the passenger’s side.

Waving at me as Xav
ier came around the cab to grab her bag from the back seat, Abby overflowed with happiness, “Hey Jason! Did you and Hannah have a good time last night?” She winked.

“Ugh…
Yeah, hadn’t gotten to talk to her after the whole alley incident. So I’m not sure how she actually feels about last night.” I trailed off.

“What do you mean you ha
ven’t talked to her?! I thought she stayed with you last night…?” Abby said, stopping in her tracks.

“No…After I
intervened in that Alex shit, I couldn’t find her. Thought she had left with you because I stopped by here last night to talk to her and no one answered. I also tried calling both her cell and mine since she has it, but I still didn’t get any response from her.”

Xavier stepped around Abby with her bag strapped over his shoulder. “So you haven’t seen her?” he asked.

“That is what I said, dude…” I responded.

“Surely to god she didn’t go home with Landon….” Abby tried to say quiet
ly enough that I wouldn’t hear her, but I heard her loud and clear.

“Let’s go
.” I said, waving at them to get in my car.

“Go where?!” Abby sighed looking lost.

“To Silhouettes…If Landon isn’t there to ask where the hell Hannah is, someone is bound to know. Now get in, both of you!” I said a little bit more forcefully than I initially meant to.

“Jason…Do you really want to find out if she went home with him
, man? You may just be setting yourself up for some bullshit you’re better off without.” Xavier butted in.

“Yes
, I want to know. Now are you all coming or not?” I was fuming by this point. The thought of Hannah at Landon’s place instead of mine, pissed me the fuck off. I poured my heart out to her like some pansy-ass boy last night and it’s possible she went home with him. Hell no, this wouldn’t sit well with me. Revving the big block engine on my 69’Camaro all I could see was red.

“Jason dude, get in the truck. I’ll drive. You don’t need to kill us while driving out of anger.” Xavier offered as he leaned in my window, turned the key to off, and pulled them from the ignition.

“Looks like I have no choice…” I mumbled.

“I’m going to run in the house real fast, change my clothes, and drop my bag in my room. Be right back!” Abby said swiftly while jogging up the steps to the front door.

I slammed my hands numerous times against the steering wheel before I forced myself out of the car and over to Xavier’s truck. “Man…I don’t know how I am going to react to Landon. That asshole got up in my face numerous times last night. He is lucky I didn’t kick his ass right then and there. I can’t even
think
about Hannah going home with him or I’m going to flip my shit.” All the confusion and stress to do with the situation between Hannah and me had me on edge, especially with Landon thrown into the mix. I rested my arms over the back of the truck, letting my head fall in between them, as Xavier came up and patted me on the back.