Save Your Heart

Derek followed us to the bus. Everyone was pretty drunk when we got on the bus. Now that I think of it, Jake did smell of alcohol. He pushed me down on the couch next to Ashley who had a red cup in her hand as did all the other guys. She gave me a smile before taking a sip out of her cup. I looked around and spotted Derek pouring some kind of concoction into two cups. He walked over to me and handed me one of the red cups. I raised my hand up and shook my head.

“I can’t drink.”

He sat down next to me still holding both cups. “Why not?”

“I’m only 20 years old.” I replied quietly. I had never had a drink in my life. While my classmates were out partying every weekend, I stayed home and kept to myself. I was never much of a partier. Being on the bus made me feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t a fan of being around drunk people. Derek tried handing me the cup again.

“I won’t tell if you won’t. Just a few sips won’t hurt.” He gave me a nod of encouragement with a smile. Damn, that smile, I could never say no to it. I smiled back and took the drink from him. Before taking a sip, I looked around the bus again; everyone was in their own little tipsy world and weren’t paying the least bit of attention to Derek and I. The taste was sour and bitter. The feel of the drink going down my throat was warm, it almost burned. I started coughing and making faces. Derek placed his hand on my back. I felt chills go up and down my spine repeatedly at his touch.. “Are you okay?” He asked. I nodded still choking on nothing. “You’re not a very good liar, I hope you know.”

+++

I woke up to the sunlight pouring in from the window and warming my face. I looked around the room to see what time it was, but there wasn’t any clock to be found. The room had white walls and blue carpet. It was relatively big considering it could fit a full sized bed, two night stands, a mahogany dresser, and a dark blue couch There were light blue curtains that hung to the side of the large glass window. I looked down seeing that I was only wearing a t-shirt. I looked to my left and there he was sleeping soundly. He was shirtless and the white comforter was draped over his torso. His dirty blonde hair was messy. I reached over to move a stray hair away from his face. He looked so peaceful and happy in his sleep.

I felt a weird churning in my stomach followed by my face burning. The churning slowly turned into a tornado in my stomach and that tornado was making it’s way up my throat. I quickly got up from the bed and looked around the room for a way out. I saw a room to the right of the bed that looked like a bathroom and ran for the toilet a few steps from the door. I kneeled down in front of it and got really sick. My face was on fire. A sharp pain ran through my head. I rested my head on the edge of the toilet. I tried to remember the events of last night but nothing came to mind. “Fuck, how much did I drink?” I thought.

I heard footsteps come into the bathroom, but I didn’t feel like lifting my head to see who it was. However, I assumed it was Derek, because the person didn’t make a gross remark or tell me to get out. I heard him place something on the sink next to the toilet then he bent down beside me. He moved my hair away from my face. “Hey, sweetie.” I waved back without wanting to lift my head still. I heard Derek let out a tiny laugh.

“Shit, there go those butterflies again. They are so not helping my hang over.” I thought.

“Here, take these, it will help with your headache.” I turned my head in Derek’s direction, he was holding a cup of water in one hand and two pills in the other. I got up and did what he told me to do. “Come on. You should lay down.” He helped me up off the bathroom floor and we walked back into the bedroom together. I plopped into the bed. I have never been so happy to be in a bed before. I pulled the covers up over my head and let the warmth of the comforter and the comfortableness of the bed soak in. I felt Derek climb into the spot next to me. He joined me under the covers and gave me a grin. I gave a weak smile back. “The first hangover is the worst.”

“Really? I haven’t noticed.” I said with sarcasm ringing in every word. Derek just smiled. “Where is everyone?”

Derek shrugged. “I’m not sure. They’re probably all still out in the living room where they all passed out last night.”

I looked around. “How did I end up here?”

“I carried you in here when you couldn’t even stand up anymore without falling over.”
“How do you remember that? The last thing I remember is...” I tried to remember the events of the night before which was really hard for me to do. “...beer pong, I think?” I wasn’t even sure if that was the right answer.

“We learned that is doesn’t take much to get you drunk.” Derek chuckled.

I covered my face with my hand. “Oh God.” I peaked at Derek through two of my fingers. “What did I do?”

“There was some dancing and spinning around the apartment when N’Sync came on. After that, you couldn’t stay on your feet and that’s when I decided you had had enough for the night.”

“Thank you for saving me from further embarrassment.”

Derek nodded his head and smiled. There was a knock at the door and someone came bursting into the room. “I hope you two aren’t naked.” Jake cooed before he ripped the covers off the bed. Both Derek and I shielded our eyes from the intense sunlight streaming into the room.

“Ugh Jake.” Derek moaned. He rubbed his eyes a bit and propped himself up on his elbows. He was shirtless. His stomach was flat and pale looking. He had muscles popped out in all the right places on his arms. He had a small case of bed head, but on him, it looked good. I couldn’t believe I was too sick to notice this before. I stared as I heard Jake and Derek bickering.

“What if I complained about you sleeping all the time. Huh?” Jake asserted. He was standing at the foot of Derek’s bed with blue plaid pajama pants on with a white v-neck t-shirt. His brown hair was slightly chaotic, he must have just woken up as well. Derek climbed out of bed and stretched his arms over his head. I still had my eyes on him and he caught me. I felt my face turn bright red immediately. Luckily, he didn’t assume I had been staring at him all this time. He motioned his head towards Jake and rolled his eyes. We snickered together.

“Fine. You guys can laugh at me all you want,” Jake started walking towards the bedroom door. “but you’re going to miss some perfectly good pancakes.” With that comment, he left shutting the door behind him.

“Pancakes or no pancakes, that is the question.” Derek stretched again, then flopped back down onto the bed. I sat up, pulled my hair back into a bun, and got out of bed.

“I am always down for pancakes.” I skipped towards the door. I looked back towards Derek to see him still standing by the edge of the bed smiling at me. I bit my lip, then smiled back. “What?”

He walked towards me leaving that adorable smile on his face. “Someone’s feeling better. I’m glad.”