I Spun the Bottle

I Spun the Bottle: Chapter Twenty-Three

Song for this chapter: “Fine By Me” by Andy Grammer

My eyes were wide open as I stared at Taylor with shock beyond belief. I knew she was crazy, and I knew she was a blackmailing witch…but I did not think she would actually lay her hands on me.

I brought my right hand up and cupped my left, tingling cheek. I wanted to say something…but I didn’t even know where to start. Tears were beginning to build up from the sting, and I tried to blink them away. The one thing I didn’t want to do was to cry in front of her and David.

That would only make her feel like she was better than me. And I wasn’t about to give her that satisfaction.

“Taylor!” David hissed suddenly. He was just as shocked as me. “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

The blonde didn’t flinch from David’s outburst; instead, she just smirked at me. The look she gave me boiled my blood. I wanted to retaliate. I wanted to slap her back. But I didn’t. I couldn’t. No matter how much I hated Taylor and all the crap she put me through, I just couldn’t bring myself to slap her, or lay a finger on her. I wasn’t about to stoop to her level.

“I told you to stay away from him, didn’t I?” Taylor ignored David, and placed her icy eyes on me. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you, nerd.”

“What?” David turned to look at his girlfriend with disbelief. “You’re the reason why Lyn’s been avoiding me?”

She shrugged, finally looking towards him. She looked bored. “Yeah, why? It’s not like it’s a big deal anyway.”

A muscle in David’s jaw jumped as he grounded his teeth together. “It’s not your place to tell Lyn who she can and can’t hang out with, Taylor.”

“I can do whatever the hell I want.” Taylor snapped. I could tell that she was beginning to get annoyed with him.

David looked angry…maybe pissed. And I knew that this was time for me to intervene. “Stop, David,” I said, sending him a meaningful look. “You don’t want to do something you’ll regret.”

I turned towards Taylor. “I’ll stay away from him,” I told her, finally releasing my cheek.

If this was what it was going to take to leave me alone, then this was what I was going to do. Besides, Taylor was David’s girlfriend, and it’s normal for her to get jealous…right?

“You better,” she warned. She scowled at me, and I leveled my eyes with the floor, feeling a little more than intimidated. “Next time, it won’t just be a slap.”

I nodded. My cheek burned. And saying that my feelings were hurt was such an understatement. Taylor slapped me publicly…she degraded me…in front of my house and in front of David. And what was I doing in return?

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

“Lyn,” David’s voice made me jump a little. He had been quiet for a while that I almost forgot he was here. “Are you alright?”

I wanted to give him a reassuring smile, but I couldn’t. Not just because Taylor was here, giving both of us a death glare, but because I wasn’t alright. I tried to shrug my shoulders indifferently. “I’ll be fine.” My voice sounded dense, hard like I had just gargled a mouthful of nails.

He opened his mouth again to say something, but Taylor tugged on his arm forcefully. “We’re leaving,” she all but snarled at us.

As Taylor towed David along with her down the sidewalk, I watched quietly. Stunned. After a few seconds, I turned and headed to my house. When I opened the door, I kept my face directed to the floor. The last thing to needed to top off this awful day was Landon finding out what happened.

“Hey.”

The sound of my brother’s voice made me instantly freeze. “Hi,” I replied quietly.

“Wasn’t I supposed to pick you up from your friend’s house?”

“Yeah…I got a ride home from someone.” My body finally seemed to unfreeze itself, and I tried to casually look like I was just going to my room.

“Who?” he asked, turning around in the couch.

“David,” I mumbled, still walking slowly towards my room. Realizing that my swollen cheek was on my right side, and Landon was on my left, I decided to pick my head up.

“David…that name sounds familiar…”

“You met him remember? He took me home when I had that swollen ankle.”

“That asshole?” From the corner of my eye, I could see him wrinkle his nose. “You’re still talking to him?”

“No….” I trailed off, awkwardly. Not anymore. Before Landon could press any further, I cut him off. “I’m really tired. And I have a lot of homework to do, so can we talk about this later?”

“Sure, fine with me.” Landon shrugged. “Oh yeah, Mom’s in a meeting so she’ll be coming home late tonight. But Dad should be home soon.”

“Alright,” I called back to him, as I turned to enter the hallway.

Once I knew I was out of Landon’s sight, I made a beeline for the bathroom. I turned on the light, and inspected the damage Taylor had done. On my right cheek was a dark pink, almost red-ish, hand-shaped welt across my face.

I lightly poked the center of the welt, and hissed lowly. It was a dull, stinging pain that made me grit my teeth. I stared at the welt for a moment, before I looked for a clean cloth in one of the drawers. Turning on the faucet, I placed the small cloth under it. The fabric absorbed the cold water, and I could almost feel the pain in my cheek subside.

After wringing it out, I cautiously pressed it against the welt. At first, it stung like heck. The feeling of the rough, damp cloth only made it feel worse, but the pain began to subside, into a dull buzzing feeling. My cheek was no doubt going to be swollen tomorrow. I shook my head, hoping that it wouldn’t be too noticeable.

After staring at my cheek for a moment longer, I turned off the light and scurried to my bedroom. Once I was inside, I suddenly felt very tired. I glanced at my bed. It looked very inviting at the moment. For a second, I debated whether I should start on my homework…or take a nap. I went with the nap.

I flopped on my bed, but carefully made sure my cheek wasn’t pressed against the comforters. And then before I knew it, my eyes shut…and I fell asleep.

***

(The Next Morning)

Beep! Beep! Beep! Bee—

I swiftly pressed the button that silenced my alarm clock. I began pushing myself up from my bed when I realized that I wasn’t feeling too well.

My body felt achy, like I just ran five miles without stopping. I tried to swallow, but my throat was dry and itchy. I tried to shake off the bad symptoms…hoping that it was just a morning thing. It was strange that I was suddenly feeling ill.

I felt perfectly fine yesterday when I went to bed, so I didn’t know why I was now feeling, well, like crap. I tried to think back to yesterday, remembering what I did to possibly make me feel so bad. And then it struck me.

“I-It was the kiss,” I mumbled quietly to no one in particular. Even though I was whispering, my voice sounded like it was straining.

My mind began vividly recalling the sweet kiss Jace and I shared yesterday. I remembered the feeling of my lips against his. And the tingling sensation that I felt as his warm hand pressed against my skin. Ever since the incident with Taylor…I hadn’t for one moment thought about Jace.

I sniffled, noticing that my nose was now stuffy. I felt awful. And it hadn’t even been twenty –four hours since the kiss. The flu-like symptoms were affecting me quickly. Compared to my flu, my stinging cheek felt like a playful pinch.

“Lyn, are you awake? You were sleeping well last night. You didn’t even wake up when it was time for dinner.” I lifted my heavy eyes from the floor to see Landon peeking in through the bedroom door. Looking up at him was a mistake. I forgot about my cheek for a split second…and everything came crashing down. My brother’s eyes widened at the sight of my cheek, and I tried to turn my head to the side, beginning to hide the slap mark…but it was already too late.

“Landon don—“ I began raising my hand to halt his elderly brother panic attack, but he interrupted me.

“Don’t even try to cover that up,” he said sternly. In one quick motion, the door to my room was shut, and my brother was standing in front of me, reaching down tenderly for injured, slightly pink cheek.

It felt like déjà vu. I remembered back to the time when I had just come home from the beach party…and I had fallen and scraped my cheek against the sand. The only difference between then and now…was that David wasn’t here.

“Don’t look at me like that.” With some effort, I was able to push Landon’s hand away. He was giving me the what-the-hell-happened-to-you look. “And don’t get too close. I’m not feeling too well.”

He didn’t budge. “What happened, Lyn? Explain now.”

“Do we have to do this now, Landon? Really?” I groaned painfully. My stomach was beginning to churn, making me extremely queasy.

“Yes,” he replied, probably seeing my words as an excuse to shut him up.

I shook my head, trying to shake off the nauseous feeling. My face probably looked green. I shouldn’t have felt nauseous especially since I hadn’t eaten anything since lunch yesterday...but I was. I groaned again. My stomach was rising, and I had to bite my lower lip to keep myself from up-chucking.

“Lyn?” Landon’s expression shifted from panic and shock to worry in the blink of an eye. “Are you alright?”I couldn’t even manage to open my mouth to say no. Instead I just shook my head diligently. “A-are you gonna puke?”

Before I even knew what I was doing, I bounded out of bed, exited my room, and made a beeline straight for my bathroom. I made it just in time to the toilet.

Once I was done, I washed my hands and went back to my room. Landon had moved from the floor to my bed. By the look of his expression, I could tell he was still worried. When he saw me enter my room, he cautiously stood up. “Do you need help?”

I shook my head, giving him a somewhat of a reassuring smile. “I’m fine. I’m just not feeling too well. Can I not go to school today?”

I hardly missed school. Missing a day meant that the following day I’d have double the homework to do at home. And Jace’s flu had kept him out of school for several days. Who knew how long I’d be out?

“Yeah, I’ll tell Mom to call you in. Why don’t you just sleep for now?” he suggested, ushering me to my soft looking bed.

“Okay, thanks, Landon,” I mumbled incoherently under my breath. I wasn’t sure if he could make out what I said or not.

“No problem. But remember…I’m not done talking to you about what happened to you,” he warned, giving me a very serious stare.

I nodded through my half-lidded eyes. He turned to leave, but I stopped him before he could get to the door. “Landon…can you open up my window? It’s hot in here.”

“Okay,” he replied, doing as I asked. “I’ll head out to the store and get you some medicine. I think we…”

I heard him saying something, but I was already too far out. His voice trailed off…and my eyes shut completely.

I don’t know how long I was out, but I could faintly remember Landon waking me up to drink some medicine. My taste buds were so out of whack that I couldn’t even taste the thick, liquid medication.

The next thing I heard was someone calling or whispering my name. A large, cool hand prodded my arm, making me stir in my bed and groan.

“Mm…Landon? I’m…too tired…” I mumbled through a coarse, very sleepy tone. The medicine Landon gave me earlier was probably the thing that was making me feel utterly sleepy.

“I...I’m not Landon, Lyn.”

Suddenly, I could feel myself becoming more alert. Now that I was actually paying attention to his voice, I realized that his voice sounded nothing like Landon’s. Slowly, I opened my eyes, and rolled over onto my back. I could feel my tired body tense at the sight of David towering over my bed.

As quickly as I could, I sat up. “W-what? How…d-did you even get in here?” I wanted to yell the questions, but because of my sore throat I couldn’t.

David stepped back a couple steps, and he grinned, but it didn’t have the same edge that it normally did. “I came in through the window.” With the slight tilt of his head, David gestured towards the window that was now almost completely open.

I rubbed my eyes. “You broke into my house?”

“Not technically. I mean, I knew you were inside,” David explained, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

I coughed a couple of short barks. My flu was progressing…even with the medicine I was taking. I looked up at David through cloudy, tired eyes. He wasn’t supposed to be talking to me. He wasn’t supposed to be anywhere near me. But here he was, talking to me in my bedroom.

This guy…doesn’t he understand how much trouble I could be in?

“David,” I started, drawing in a slow breath. “You aren’t supposed to be here. Don’t you remember anything that happened yesterday?” I couldn’t help but notice that my voice sounded very nasally.

“I know, I know. But I wanted to check on you. You weren’t at school today, and you hardly ever miss school, so I just wanted to make sure you skipped because of what happened.” He looked away from me suddenly, looking somewhat embarrassed. And then he whispered so low…that I could hardly make out what he said. “I…was worried about you.”

My cheeks heated up. And this time I was sure it wasn’t from the illness. I tried to keep my face composed as I said, “Thanks…but I’m just not feeling well.”

“I see that.” A low, throaty chuckle escaped David’s throat. “You kinda look like shit.”

“Thanks…” I mumbled dully. “I’m going to go back to sleep now. Thanks for checking on me though.”

I began shifting back into a laying position when I noticed that David seemed to be hesitating. He turned towards the window…but then turned back to me with his mouth opened halfway. “Wait…I need to tell you something.”

My eyes were beginning to close again, but I willed them open. “What is it?” I croaked.

Again, he hesitated before he said, “I’m gonna help you with something.”

I stared at David curiously. “What is it?”

“It wasn’t right what she did. You cheek is swollen. She…took it too far.” He seemed to be talking to himself at this point. And then his eyes snapped back onto me with a newfound determination. “I’m going to help you get that picture from Taylor.”

My eyes widened and nearly bulged out of its sockets. Never did I ever think David was going to say something like that to me. It was unbelievable. He was Taylor’s boyfriend…and yet…he’s going to help me?

“Y-you’re going to help me?” When I said the words aloud…they just didn’t fit right. It caused a strange and unnatural feeling to well up inside me.

David smirked. It was a devilish smirk. It was the kind of look that made me shiver. “I am.”