Restrictions

I laid in my bed, after Tom and I had gotten home.
I had taken a long shower. I felt gross, and was still shaken by what happened. I didn’t want to talk about it.
I had tried going to sleep, but Jean’s face kept showing up in my head. It made me feel like crawling up under the blankets, to never come out.

I hugged my pillow to me as I attempted to sleep again, there he was again. It made me whimper. Then I thought of Tom, the one who had came and gotten Jean off of me. The one who came and made sure nothing happened to me. I got out of the bed wrapping the blanket around me like I was five and wanting comfort from a bad dream. Oh, how I wished that would have just been a bad dream.

I walked out of my room to Tom’s door and knocked lightly so not to wake anyone else up. “Yeah?” I heard Tom grumble. He didn’t sound asleep, more like he had been trying to go to sleep.
“Can I come in?” I asked in a small voice.
“Uh, yeah. Go ahead.” I opened the door, walking in. Tom was sitting up with his lamp on. “What’s up?”
“Couldn’t sleep…Why are you still awake? Or did I wake you up?”
“Nah, I couldn’t sleep either…You wanna talk or something?”
“I guess.” I walked over and sat next to him.

We sat there in silence for a few minutes when Tom finally broke the silence. “Didn’t I tell you to be careful who you talked to.”
“Yes, you did…but if an attractive person from the opposite sex came and started talking to you, you wouldn’t have ignored them.” I snapped a little.
“I’m not trying to turn this into a fight, Riley.”
“It sure sounds like it.”
“Well, I’m not. I just want you to learn to be careful. What if, next time, I don’t see you leaving with some guy and you do get raped or even worse. How do you think that would make me feel, huh?”
“I think you’d just go on with your life, like I was never here.” I said truthfully.
“Wrong, Riley, I would hate myself for something happening to you when I was the one who took you to that club in the first place. What if I hadn’t have saw you leave with that guy and I found out what happened to you the next morning from Bill or Mason? I’d never be able to forgive myself, let alone would anyone else forgive me.”

“He didn’t do anything so let’s just forget about it…”
“No, I’m not going to just forget about it. Next time we go to a club, you are going to be at my side no matter what.”
“So does that mean I have to go and watch you have sex with you’re bed buddies too?” I rose an eyebrow.
“You can join.” That got a laugh from me and him.
“I’ll be more careful next time, alright?” I sighed after the laughter was gone.
“Thank you.” Tom smiled a little.

The silence took over again. This was a weird feeling, not once had there been an awkward moment between Tom and me before. Not even when he made sex jokes or his usual comments.

“Can I stay in here for a while? I’m probably not going to be able to fall asleep anytime soon.” I said yawning a little.
“If you’re tired you should probably try to go to sleep.”
“…Can I sleep in here then? I don’t want to be alone at the moment.”
“Yes, of course.” He moved over a little to give me room to lay down.
“Thanks.” I laid down curling up into a ball with the blanket that was still around me.
Tom turned the lamp off and also laid down.
“I’m sorry I left you alone, Riley.” He wrapped his arms around me in a hug.
“It’s fine…this is kind of awkward.”
“Oh, sorry.” He began moving away.
“No…it’s…a good awkward. If that makes sense.”
“I guess it does.” He chuckled a little.
“Thank you for saving my ass.” I cuddled into him a bit.
“No problem. I’d do it again if I had to.”
“You won’t have to, I’ll make sure I don’t get into that situation again.”
“That’s good to hear.” He yawned.
“Mhm.” I was beginning to fall asleep, amazing since only a little bit ago I was unable to sleep