A Night to Last a Lifetime

I was at Jeff’s apartment in record time and walked in to see him lying on the couch with Gabe sitting on the floor next to him.

“She’s here, Jeff! Look!”

He looked in my direction and I noticed that he was still crying a little bit. He tried to sit up but quickly fell back down.

“Oh, wow,” I said. “How much did he drink?”

“Umm… A lot,” Gabe replied, shaking his head. “He had at least 2 for every 1 I had. He just drank it so fast that I didn’t see what he was doing. I’m so sorry. I thought he’d be fine.”

“Nah, it’s okay. He just wanted to feel numb for a bit. I get it. It just backfired I guess,” I said, giving Gabe a tight smile. “Can you help me get him in bed? I can take it from there. Sophie’s waiting for you at home.”

“Alright,” he said, standing up slowly. I felt bad knowing that he was a little buzzed too and I wished I could just send him home but there was no way I was getting Jeff all the way to the bedroom by myself.

It took a while but we eventually got him on the bed and I walked Gabriel out to the door.

“I’m really sorry about that,” I said to him. “He’s just really hurting.”

“I didn’t think he was hurting that bad or I never would have let him drink so much! I thought he just needed to blow off some steam, you know? That all happened so fast.”

“He hasn’t talked to you about her, has he?” I asked quietly.

“Not at all after that day in the hospital. I think he doesn’t want me to see him cry or something, which is so stupid. He’s my best friend! This is a really sad thing. He’s supposed to cry! I’m not going to judge him for that! My God!” he exclaimed, frustrated.

“He’ll open up. I know he will. It’s just all really fresh right now. He’s completely broken and he hates that he’s such a mess.”

“I don’t understand why he’ll talk to you about it all but he won’t even say her name to me!”

“Gabe, I’m exactly where he is. I literally know exactly what he is going through – that’s the only reason he feels okay talking to me about it.”

Gabriel sighed heavily. “It just such a tough situation,” he said quietly. “I don’t know how to help him with this.”

“At this exact moment? There’s nothing at all you can do, honestly. Go home to Soph. She’s probably really worried about you. I’ll talk to him tomorrow when he sobers up and I’ll let him know how you’re feeling. He’ll be alright, he just needs time.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s tough. I should be going though. Thanks for coming. I was completely lost.”

“Not a problem,” I said, smiling at him. “Go home to your fiancée.”

He pulled me into a hug – I stood there awkwardly. “Um, what are you doing?” He had never hugged me before.

“You just look so sad now. I felt like you needed that.”

My eyes started to fill. “Thank you. God, I’m so happy my sister ended up with you. She deserves you.” I pulled him into another hug. “Now, go home.”

I closed and locked the door behind him, letting out a sigh. Then, I turned and headed to the bedroom, where I found Jeff sitting on the floor looking at a picture. I went over and sat next to him. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” I asked casually. I peeked over his shoulder and saw a copy of the last ultrasound. “Put that away,” I whispered. “Can we please just go to bed?”

“NO!” he yelled at me. “I’ll fucking go to bed when I want to,” he slurred.

“Oh, wow. Okay. I’m going to go get some water…” I stood up, putting distance between us. His outburst had scared me – I hadn’t heard him yell like that ever. I was at the door when I heard him say my name. I turned to look at him, “What?”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, still looking at the picture.

“Yeah,” I said back. “Me too.”

By the time I got back to the room with a couple bottles of water Jeff had stripped down to his boxers and climbed into bed. I noticed he had laid the picture on the nightstand right next to his bed and he was still staring at it. I walked over, sat on the edge of the bed next to him and handed him a bottle of water. “Drink up, drunky.”

After some struggle he managed to sit up and took the bottle from me. “There’s just so much potential in that picture,” he said after a few minutes. “I used to imagine what she’d look like.”

He had stopped crying and I figured he was probably dehydrated to the point that he physically couldn’t cry anymore. “I did too, Jeff. That’s normal for people to do.”

A tear slipped out and started running down my face. He leaned forward and wiped it away. “I’m just so sick of crying,” he said. “I’m sick of seeing you cry. I’m sick of us being so god damn sad all the time!”

“Well, that’s going to take time, hun,” I said. “It isn’t gonna just go away.” He stared at me for a few minutes. “What…?” I asked nervously. He leaned forward and sloppily kissed me – he was unbelievably drunk. “Jeff, stop,” I said, pushing him back. “I don’t want to do that and you are in no state to know what you’re doing right now.”

“That’s all I wanted,” he replied. “I don’t want to have sex tonight. I just want you to sleep in here and I want you to be near me. You make me feel better, Tori.”

I sighed, stood up and walked over to my bag. “I’m obviously not going to leave you here, Jeff. I brought pajamas this time.” I turned to look at him and saw the biggest grin on his face.

“Don’t wear ‘em,” he said, laughing.

“Excuse me?” I replied. “I’m not fucking sleeping in my clothes again. That was so uncomfortable last night.”

“Just sleep in your bra and underwear,” he said with a grin. “Come on, I’m in my boxers. It’s nothing I haven’t seen already. I won’t make any moves. I promise. Just cuddling. Well, I might kiss you a bit if you let me but that’s it. I give you my word.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” I said, taking off my clothes. “As long as you shut up, whatever.” I climbed into bed. He laid his bottle of water on the night stand and pulled me over to him. He started kissing me and before I knew it we were laying down and I was half on top of him. I was brought back into focus when he pulled away. “Okay, stop. If we don’t stop now I’m not going to be able to,” he said.

“Okay,” I said, smiling. “Go to sleep then. You better not be fucking sick tomorrow, either. I’m not taking care of your hungover ass.” We slept like rocks, waking up 13 hours later.

“Jesus Christ,” I shook him awake. “It’s almost dinner time, Jeff. We slept way too long.”

He rolled over and grabbed his head. “Holy fuck,” he whispered. “I don’t feel so good.”

“Yeah, shocker,” I scoffed. “You drank like a fucking fish last night.”

“Right. Oh, man. Gabe?! What happened to him?”

“He went home to his fiancée. You need to talk to him, okay? He was really shook up last night and is hurt that you won’t talk to him.”

“Really? I didn’t think he’d want to hear my sob story.”

“Call him,” I said, climbing out of bed. “I’m going to make breakfast. Or supper. Whatever.”

A few minutes later I felt him come up behind me and wrap his arms around my waist. “He’s coming over in a couple of hours,” he said. “We’re going to talk.”

I turned around and handed him a bottle of Advil. “Well, get yourself cleaned up. We’ve gotta have a chat too,” I said.

“Okay…?” he said nervously.

“Just go get a shower.”

A half an hour later he came into the kitchen and sat down to the plate of breakfast I had made for him. “Feel better?” I questioned.

“Kinda. What’s up?”

“We need to figure out what we’re doing,” I said to him bluntly. “I can’t keep staying here over night as a ‘friend’. I mean, friends don’t exactly sleep together. I know we’re not ‘sleeping’ together but you know what I mean. I used to do that - I was totally that girl but I can't do it anymore. I can't be a whore anymore. I'm changing. I NEED to change.”

“I’ve been thinking about that too,” he replied. “I’d call it dating, honestly. I've never exactly done the 'relationship' thing and I really don't want to jump into it but we’re clearly more than friends, Tori, and I’m having a lot of fun getting to know you and hanging out with you.”

“Okay then,” I replied. “Well, from here on out can we actually do stuff? Actually go out ON dates, if we’re dating? I’m having fun with you too and I think this is at least worth a shot.”

He smiled at me and started eating. “Well, you want to do something tonight? We’ve probably got hours before we can sleep again anyway. Let’s watch like a thousand movies.”

I laughed. “Okay. But you need to talk to Gabriel first. I’m going to go home and shower and stuff. Text me when he leaves.”

“Fine. And Tori?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for coming last night.”

I simply smiled, grabbed my bag and walked out the door. As soon as I got home I went to Sophie’s room.

“Can I talk to you?” I asked.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“Um, I think I might be falling for Jeff,” I said. “And I’m scared to death.”