Lawful Overdose

by Justine Elvira

  Maybe he has a twin.

  “Even if that's true, we won’t be having sex tonight.”

  He kisses me gently on the forehead and gets up from the bed. I watch him as he adjusts himself and zips his pants up. The other Jaxon does this, too. That’s when I realize how tanked I am.

  Jaxon walks over to me and lifts me out of bed. He adjusts my clothing so I look presentable.

  “Let’s get you home.”

  “Okay,” I whisper as I lean into him. I’m suddenly very tired.

  He walks me out of the room and we look for Piper and Ryan. Actually, he looks and I just snuggle closer to his chest. He looks everywhere he can, but he can’t seem to find them.

  “Don’t worry, Ryan is a good guy. He’ll take care of her, but you need to go home.”

  I stop and pull out my phone from the back pocket of my jean skirt. I send a quick text out to Piper.

  Me: I look everyeewhere for u. Jaxonnnn is taking me home.. Go hom and ull see me there!!!!

  Something about my text doesn’t look right, but oh well. My fingers are tingly and I don’t want to send Piper another text.

  We walk out the front door and I see two people hooking up in my peripheral vision. I turn to check it out and see Piper, straddling Ryan, on an iron bench on Dave’s porch. Ryan’s shirt is removed and his pants are around his ankles. Piper’s jeans are still on, but she’s grinding against him.

  Dry humping the shit out of him.

  Jaxon looks uncomfortable, but he walks over there anyway and taps Ryan on the shoulder. Ryan’s head comes up, but Piper doesn’t notice. She moves her mouth to his neck.

  “You’re out in public, where everyone can see the two of you. More importantly, everyone can see her,” he says, pointing to Piper. “What you do is your business, but now you're doing your business with my girl’s friend. You need to respect my girl’s friend. Stop, get yourself together, and take a ride back to Tessa and Piper’s place with us. If you both are still up for it, you can finish there and no one will stop you.”

  With that, Jaxon turns around and pulls me with him towards the street. We pass five or six cars before he’s pulling his keys out and opening the door to a black Charger. Not an old model Charger, one of the new Chargers.

  He gently places me in the passenger seat and then closes the door behind me. Then he walks in front of the car and enters the driver’s side. He closes the door, puts a key in the ignition, and I hear the engine purr.

  Even his car is sexy.

  “That was hot,” I try to say sexily, but it comes out in a mumbled slur.

  “What was?” He asks me.

  “You… with your friend… what you said,” I’m so tired, I can’t focus on what I’m saying as I sit here. The seats in his car are so comfortable. “It was hot.”

  My eyelids start to close and my head falls back on the seat. I can hear a low rumbling laugh come from his lips.

  He leans in over me and buckles me in to the seat.

  “Get some rest,” he whispers and then kisses my forehead.

  His lips feel so gentle and I feel safe knowing I’m next to him.

  “What about Piper?”

  “I can see her. They’re walking over to the car now.”

  That’s the last thing I remember before I close my eyes again and black out.

  Chapter Three

  Ice Cream and Coffee

  My head is pounding. I feel like someone smashed a rock against it and never let go. Why I haven’t learned my lesson yet, I don’t know, but tequila is not my friend. I know this and yet I keep coming back. It’s like the abusive boyfriend you won’t leave or the friend who makes you feel unworthy, but you want to be her friend anyway.

  I can’t open my eyes because my eyelids are too heavy. I’m too tired to move, but I know if I don’t get some water and pain killers in my body now, I’ll be useless the whole day. I move to stretch my limbs and my back bumps into something hard. My body instantly tenses, and I realize I’m not alone.

  My eyes pop open when I feel my stomach being squeezed, making my back push impossibly closer to the body behind me. I can feel his morning wood against the small of my back. I look down and see a male arm, wrapped around my waist.

  Oh, damn, what did I do?

  Piper and I have rules. The guy is never to spend the night after a hook up. That’s how they grow attached. I don’t want to be attached, not ever.

  I look down my body and that’s when I realize I’m fully clothed. I’m wearing the same thing from last night. I hesitantly turn over and see Jaxon.

  Right… Jaxon.

  Even in his sleep he’s flawless. I look him over and see he’s fully clothed, too. Something I would have been happy about a minute ago, but now I’m disappointed. I wanted to hook up with him last night. I needed the intimacy. The fact that neither of us is lacking in the clothing department means I didn’t get any.

  After a few more minutes of me staring at him awkwardly, and feeling creepy about it, I slowly peel myself away from his body and get out of bed. I look back to make sure I didn’t wake him. Luckily, he is still sound asleep. I’m not prepared for the uncomfortable morning after conversation.

  I leave my bedroom and drag my body slowly to the kitchen. Piper is already in there, doing God knows what, and making a lot of noise doing it. I sit at our breakfast bar that has an opening to the kitchen. My hands fall to the counter, and I groan dramatically as my head hits the tile.

  “That bad, huh?” Piper asks me.

  I decide words won’t work for me, so I nod my head up and down into my arm. I hear the fridge being opened and shut. Then I hear a cabinet slam down before I feel Piper’s hand on mine.

  “Here you go.”

  I look up to see a bottle of water and pain reliever.

  “You’re an angel,” I whisper.

  I open the bottle and down the pills with all twenty ounces of water. I feel a little better already. This is another one of the differences between Piper and me. When I get drunk, I’m miserable for the next twenty-four hours. When Piper gets drunk, it’s like a boost of B-12, an adrenaline shot, and an energy drink, all rolled in one. She can go like this all throughout the next day, but then she crashes hard. I predict she’ll be sleeping by six tonight and won’t wake up until tomorrow evening.

  “What happened last night… and why is Jaxon in my bed?”

  “Where should I start? Do you remember the party?” She asks me.

  I nod my head, “I remember everything up until getting into a black Charger. From there, I’m drawing a blank.”

  She laughs, “That’s because you passed out as soon as your body hit the comfortable leather seats.”

  “Oh.”

  “In a nut shell, Jaxon drove us all home, put you to bed, and then left. He had to put in a few hours at work, or something. Anyway… he left, I hooked up with Ryan, and holy shit, was it a fun night. He did things to me I didn’t know were possible. His body may not be perfection, but I don’t care. That boy knows how to use what God gave him.”

  I’m so confused at this point. It may be the alcohol trying to escape my body, or it may be that Piper is not making any fucking sense.

  “Explain this to me, if Jaxon left, why the hell is he in my bed right now?”

  “Oh, that. When Ryan and I were finishing up a few hours later, Jaxon called him and asked to be buzzed back up to the apartment. I let him in because he wanted to check up on you. I guess he decided to stay.”

  “You guess?”

  “I don’t know, I was drunk and my mind was focused on Ryan. He had to leave for work as soon as Jaxon got back here. You drank a lot, and I couldn’t take care of you. At the time, it made sense to have him watch over you. I can tell by your mood I was wrong.”

  I decide that I’m getting upset for no reason. I’m just miserable and hung over. “It’s not your fault, Pipe. I was just caught off guard, that’s all.”

  I stand up from my stool and walk to the entryway o
f the kitchen.

  “Do you need to get in here?” Piper asks me.

  “Just for my morning routine. I see you made coffee so I’ll only be a minute.”

  We switch spots so that I’m in the kitchen. I make a cup of coffee and put my French vanilla creamer in the steaming hot liquid. I then grab a bowl and spoon out from the cabinets. I make my way over to the freezer and grab my gallon of vanilla ice cream. I put two scoops into my bowl, put the ice cream back in the freezer, and leave the kitchen with my bowl and spoon in one hand, and my coffee in the other.

  I sit back down at our breakfast bar and take a sip of coffee.

  Wow. I imagine this is what heaven feels like.

  I move to my bowl of ice cream and scoop a decent size onto my spoon, placing it in my mouth. Perfection.

  “No matter how many mornings I see you do this, I’ll never think it’s normal,” Piper chirps from the kitchen. I ignore her and take another sip of my coffee.

  I see movement out of the corner of my eye. I turn my head to see Jaxon coming into the room from my bedroom.

  “Good morning, ladies,” he says confidently with just the right amount of sexiness. I watch him stroll over and take a seat next to me at the bar. His lips touch my forehead.

  “How are you feeling?”

  I can’t speak because I’ve just piled another scoop of ice cream in my mouth, so I nod my head and give him a thumb up.

  A thumb up! What is wrong with me this morning?

  “What’s with the ice cream and coffee? Is this your hangover breakfast, because I know from personal experience nothing works better than grease?”

  Before I can answer him, Piper chimes in.

  “Oh, no, this is Tessa’s every morning breakfast. She strolls in, grabs her coffee and creamer, and scoops out two scoops of vanilla ice cream. She sits down and alternates between sips of coffee and scoops of vanilla. It’s weird.”

  I roll my eyes at her, “It’s cool to be weird. You’re just jealous because you’re not weird like me.”

  In our true form, we both burst out in giggles. My laughter comes to a quick halt as my head protests the movement.

  “Argh, stop making me laugh. I still have a hangover headache.”

  I can feel Jaxon’s fingertips move to brush against my temple. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Yep, I’ll be fine.”

  He lowers his hand from my temple and moves it across the back of my chair. It’s odd how comfortable he is in my apartment.

  “So… Ice cream and coffee, huh? I’ve never seen a woman have such an incredible body and eat ice cream like you do, but my eyes don’t deceive me. You have a fucking perfect body.”

  My cheeks flush and I can feel the tingles start spreading throughout my body from the sound of his voice.

  “Thanks,” I say, slightly embarrassed. Piper heard his comment.

  The room becomes oddly quiet and I can’t stand the silence.

  “Piper says you left to go to work last night. What kind of job calls you out in the middle of the night?”

  “I was on call last night. They called me, so I had to go in.”

  I shovel another spoonful of vanilla ice cream in my mouth, “You didn’t have to come back here.”

  Jaxon lifts his hand to caress his knuckles against my cheek. “Yes, I did. I needed to make sure you were okay.”

  “I’m good. You don’t have to worry about me. You should probably go home and get some sleep.”

  He yawns almost on cue, “You’re probably right. It was a long night.”

  Piper leans over the breakfast bar from the kitchen and hands Jaxon a cup of coffee. “You’re new in town and already have a job, very impressive. What do you do?”

  I look over at Jaxon and I can sense something is off. Before I get a chance to think about it, Jaxon is speaking.

  “I’m going to school to be a pharmacist. I intern at a pharmaceutical company. You know, trying to learn as much as I can about the business.”

  “So you’re going to be a doctor?” I ask him.

  “You never know, things can change. It would be very cool though. My brother would be proud.”

  “Very awesome. I’m going to go take a shower. I need to wash off the alcohol smell leaking out of my pours. It was nice to meet you, Jaxon.”

  He nods in Piper’s direction, “You too!”

  She leaves the kitchen and walks down the hall toward her bedroom.

  We sit in comfortable silence as I finish my ice cream and coffee, and Jaxon takes sips of his coffee. Once he’s finished, he puts his mug down and turns toward me. Even though we didn’t have sex, we slept in the same bed, so I’m dreading the uncomfortable morning after discussion. I decide to make the first move and try to avoid the awkwardness.

  “Well, last night was fun. I’ve got to get showered before my shift at Ryder’s, so I better get moving.” I stand up from the stool and bring my dishes and Ryder’s cup to the kitchen. I place them in the sink and when I turn around, Jaxon is in front of me. “I think this is where we part ways and you leave to get some sleep.”

  He smiles at me as if I just said the most amusing thing. “Trying to get rid of me?”

  “No…. I mean, yes. You see, I don’t do this,” I say as I gesture my hands between us. “I don’t do the uncomfortable morning after, or morning sex or even post-cuddling. Last night was fun, but I had only one motive. I wanted to fuck you. That didn’t happen and now you’re here, making things awkward. I don’t date and I definitely don’t do relationships. You seem like an incredible guy, you should go hit on someone who’s deserving of that.”

  Yes, I nailed it. He will definitely be turned off enough to leave.

  “You don’t think you deserve an incredible guy?”

  What? Oh, of course. Of course he would turn my words around on me.

  “Maybe that's the wrong words. How about a woman who wants you? You deserve a woman who wants you.”

  “And that’s not you?”

  “Do you have to twist my words around and repeat them to mean something I did not intend?”

  “I’m not twisting your words around, I’m stating facts, and what you don’t realize is… I’ve learned more about you in the last minute than I've learned all last night, but I’ll leave you alone.”

  He steps closer to me and I’m frozen in place by his words.

  What does he mean he’s learned more about me in the last minute? I didn’t tell him anything.

  His hands grab my waist as he pulls me into his hard body. His hands move my hair from my shoulder and his mouth presses against my ear. I can feel the scruff from his five o’clock shadow lightly graze my cheek. He kisses my ear briefly before gently sucking on my lobe. He lets go and whispers into my ear, “Have a great day today, Tessa. I hope your hangover subsides and work flies by for you. Maybe one day, when you’re ready, I can show you the kind of man you deserve.” He bites down on my lobe softly, before releasing me and whispering, “Me.”

  My eyes flutter shut from the intensity of his words. When I open them again, he’s gone. I hear the front door open and then close, and I know it’s just Piper and me in the apartment now.

  My entire body is still tingling from his words and the proximity of his body. I was prepared to never see him again, but in the last few moments we had together, he threw that idea out the window. Now, I have a pulsing sensation between my legs, and goose bumps running up and down my back.

  Do not fall for Jaxon. Do not fall for Jaxon. You can have amazing sex with Jaxon, but do not fall for Jaxon.

  I need something. My body is on overload from being teased too many times in the last twenty-four hours, and not getting what it wants. I walk through the hallway and into my bedroom, shutting the door behind me. I make my way to my top dresser draw and pull it open, searching through my lingerie for my vibrator. I find it and pull it out.

  This will have to do.

  “It’s your job to remind me why I don’t need a man
. It’s time to get to work,” I whisper to my vibrator like a crazy person. I prepare to have a party for one and hope it will help clear my mind, but as my body starts to respond to my B.O.B, all I can think about is Jaxon.

  Chapter Four

  Tits and Ass

  The rest of my morning and afternoon flew by. After reacquainting myself with my B.O.B., I rehydrated with three bottles of water before taking a long nap. I woke up to Piper violently shaking me to get up for work. She was still pumped full of energy, and I was just waiting for her to crash and burn.

  I, however, am feeling refreshed and less hung over. I stand up and stretch next to my bed, looking over at the clock. We have an hour before we have to leave for our shift at Ryder’s.

  “Maybe you shouldn’t go in tonight, Pipe.”

  Her eyes are as big as saucers and there is slight discoloration under them, a clear sign that she needs sleep.

  “I’m fine, I took a nap like you.” Piper was never a good liar, and her body language along with her lack of eye contact tells me she’s lying now.

  “Bullshit! You need to go to bed, before you do something stupid at work because of your lack of beauty rest, and force Ryder to fire your ass.”

  I watch her walk over to my vanity and take a look in the mirror. Her hands reach her face as her fingers play with the skin under her eyes.

  “I do look like shit.”

  “I’ll never lie to you, Pipe.”

  Piper takes a deep breath and turns to face me. She points her index fingers to her face, “Nothing a little make-up can’t fix. I’ve got to work tonight and I’ll crash all day tomorrow. Big E is back in town, and he’s throwing a party over at the motel tonight.”

  Big E is a local guy around our age. His real name is Eric. He attends Eastern with us, and his parents run the motel in town. He likes to throw parties when the motel has vacancies. I’m not a big fan of his because he’s also a known dealer. I have friends who have bought from him, even Piper has bought from him a few times. I don’t know if she still buys from him now. A contingency on us staying friends is that she doesn’t tell me if she’s still smoking pot.