by Howe, Olivia
Damn, my head hurt.
I went to get back in bed, but realized I should thank Bethany for putting me to bed and leaving me the hangover remedies. Squinting my eyes to stave off the pain that pierced them thanks to the light streaming in through the window, I located my cell phone on the nightstand behind the hangover cocktail.
I plucked it up, ready to text Bethany and ask her where she was (although I pretty much figured she was in Finn’s room), I saw I had two texts. One was from Bethany, telling me she was, in fact, in Finn’s room. The second I had to stare at for a few minutes to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating. Landon. Texted. Me.
We’d texted a lot before our nonexistent first date, so it wasn’t a mystery as to how he had my number, I just didn’t think he still had it. It made me smile a little, until I realized that I was the idiot who still had his number in my phone, too. Why hadn’t I deleted it? The frown I’d had since awakening returned, and with my eyebrows furrowed, I carefully clicked on his text.
How’s your head?
What? How am I supposed to respond to that?
Ignoring his text, I lay back on the bed and threw my arm over my eyes. How had I gotten back to the room last night? I tried to conjure memories of Beth and Finn dragging me down the street from the lodge, walking in the cold and the snow, and her tucking me into bed with her helpful hangover cocktail, but I couldn’t find any in my muddled brain.
My phone chirped with another text from Landon. It was still in my hand so I lifted it to my face. I went to swipe the screen and it fell out of my hand and dropped right on my face.
“Dammit!”
Groaning from the pain of both screaming and being whacked with my own phone, I rubbed my forehead and looked at the text.
Do the shot first. Then the aspirin. Then the Gatorade.
I sat bolt upright, staring at the screen. What in the–?
My phone rang as I was holding it. Bethany.
“Hello?” I groaned.
“Hey, how you feeling?”
“Like a truck hit me.”
I heard her giggle, then she covered the phone with her hand, but I could still hear her. “Stop it!” Another giggle.
“Well you drank too much,” she said.
“Thanks, Captain Obvious,” I gritted out.
She giggled again. “Well I’ll be back in the room in a bit.”
Testing her, I said, “How did I get back here anyway? Did you guys have to carry me?”
She paused for a minute before saying, “No, Finn’s cousin offered. Glad you got there okay.”
“Don’t you mean Landon brought me up?”
“I’ll be there in a bit, grumpy. Gotta go.” And she hung up.
Starting to feel a tad bit better, I found Landon’s text and hit reply:
No way on the shot. #dryheave
He replied immediately:
Hashtags don’t work in texts.
I shot back:
Thank you for that, I had no idea! #sarcasm
There was a knock on my door about 30 seconds after I sent the last text. Thinking it was Bethany, I slogged out of bed. I opened the door to see Landon standing there with his phone in his hand, looking fresh and sexy as hell. How? How does he look so good all of the time? It’s not fair, really.
I was completely mortified to see him standing there, and blushed for what must have been a lustful expression on my face. I had so many questions, but I could only manage, “Why?”
Chuckling, with that sexy smile, he said, “Why not?”
“But you don’t even know the question,” I groaned, leaving the door open so he could come in. I sat on the bed and put my face in my hands. I couldn’t imagine what I looked like.
“‘Why not?’ is always the answer to ‘why?’.”
“To a rebel like you, I have no doubt,” I quipped, my reply mumbled since I still had my face down.
“Just checking on you,” he said quickly.
“Why do you care?” I asked back.
When he didn’t answer, I looked up at him. He was looking at me like he wanted to say something, but didn’t. He turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.
“You’re such a weirdo,” I murmured, flopping back on the bed.
Bethany bit back a smile at me trying to shove my foot into the ski. “Would you hurry up? I’d like to ski before the snow melts.”
I narrowed my eyes at her and grunted, “If you’d give me a hand here, we could get going a lot faster.”
I couldn’t get the stupid lock fastened around the boot and I wanted to cry. All the other beautiful people were already sliding down the slopes in their expensive ski clothes and their perfect, expert moves, and here I was, a total ski virgin, feeling like an ass.
I suppose it wouldn’t have done any harm to tell them that I’d never skied before.
“Here, let me.”
I looked up to see Finn moving toward me, his ski goggles on top of his shiny black hair, the afternoon sun gleaming off of them. He had mirrored aviators on and I envied him. The damn snow was blinding. I guess sunglasses just weren’t my top priority when I packed to come to ‘the snow.’
Leaning down, he fastened my boot in securely, then took the liberty of just doing the other one. I liked how he took charge, it was a great trait. Bethany would need that.
Bethany was staring out at the snow white slopes with a smile on her face. Her nose piercing glinted in the late morning sun, and with her light brown hair pulled back tight, the purple streak looked super sleek against her pale skin. She was wearing Ray-Ban type sunglasses and looked glamourous. I’m sure I just looked like a cheap fish trying to swim in a very expensive pond.
The ski bibs I wore were rented, black, puffy, and mostly uncomfortable, but what everyone else had on. Plus I could tell it would help me when I fell flat on my face while trying to “ski.” My clumsy ass is gonna suck at this, I could already tell.
“Okay, so just follow me,” Finn said, turning around and gliding gracefully on his skis.
“Like, do what you do, or literally follow after you?” I asked quickly, panic coloring my tone.
He turned his head around to look at me with a smirk. “Both, Sadie.”
Nodding, I let Bethany go ahead of me, and I followed behind them. I seriously had no idea what I was doing on these skis. I should be back at the lodge or at Finn’s cabin where it was safe. Maybe I should have offered to make the after-skiing snacks and meals. I could probably conjure up some pretty cool winter cocktails too. After all, I can find anything I need on the Internet.
“Try to keep up, Sadie!” Bethany called back to me as I was lost in thought about how I should turn around and scrap this whole ridiculous notion that I could ski.
Nodding, I just kept following them, realizing I was completely stuck. There was no turning back now. Bethany knew I put the ‘k’ in klutz, and as my best friend, she surely wouldn’t let me go skiing if it was dangerous.
Right?
Why am I sweating? It’s freezing out here. I can see my breaths as they turned to fog in front of my face. Okay, they’re coming out a little too fast. I should slow my breathing. It’s just skiing. Nothing is going to happen.
I’m not going to crash into a tree and break my neck. That’s ridiculous.
I’m not going to go ass-over-teakettle and roll down the hill over and over and end up in an all-body cast. That’s ridiculous.
I’m not going to have to go to the bathroom all of a sudden and pee myself while I’m skiing and embarrass myself. That’s ridiculous.
Bethany and Finn came to a stop and I was barely able to awkwardly stop myself in these huge-ass skis before I looked up to see why they’d stopped.
“Ready?” I heard Finn say.
Ready? Ready for what?
Looking at Finn’s amused face, I looked to see where his hooked thumb was directing me to, behind his shoulder. Peering around him, I s
aw an I-don’t-know-how-many-foot-drop/hill/slope behind him. A sudden surge of vertigo – or was it fear? – hit me, and after that, there was nothing but a sudden slap of cold as it hit me in the face, and after my eyes rolled back in my head, there wasn’t anything but complete and utter blackness.
Chapter 5
For the second time today (it felt like), my eyelids fluttered open and I was greeted with strange surroundings. Thank God my head wasn’t pounding this time. What happened?
Oh, yeah! I was about to go skiing. Didn’t I go skiing with Finn and Bethany?
Oh, dear God… I didn’t go skiing. I must have passed out. Dammit, I hate it when that happens!
“You’re awake!” I heard Bethany’s voice about three seconds before I saw her blue eyes looking at me in genuine concern.
When I was about to remind her that it was her fault for dragging me on this stupid ski trip, I suddenly remembered that I was the one who begged her to come with me.
“You scared me so bad!” Bethany laid her head on my chest and sighed in concern. “Don’t do that to me again. I thought you’d dropped dead.”
I laughed. “You are such a drama queen.”
She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes at me. “No, I’m not.”
“She kinda is,” I heard someone murmur, and as I sat up, I saw Landon standing next to Finn. They both had their arms crossed across their impressive chests. Finn ignored his cousin, taking a step away from him, almost seeming annoyed by his presence. I was going to have to get to the bottom of that feud when I had a free second to breathe.
“Thank you for rescuing me,” I told my best friend, who was still lying on my chest. Thank God I still had the snow bibs on to pad my chest, ‘cause Lord knew I didn’t have much else to cushion me there.
“I didn’t rescue you. Landon did,” she answered quietly enough so only I could hear.
Shock engulfed me for the second time today. Why was that no-show jerk taking such an interest in me? Was he being halfway decent to me because we were stuck here in Tahoe for the week and he didn’t want things to be awkward? Because he sure as hell wasn’t very cordial to me at school.
“You aren’t serious.”
Bethany didn’t say anything else, she just kept her head resting on me.
My eyes made their way to Landon’s. He was staring at me with that smoldering green gaze, but the smirk was gone from his face. He was serious, not breaking my stare but holding mine with an unspoken concern. His jaw ticked in concentration, stress. He almost looked angry. If I hadn’t been paying attention, I would have missed how his breathing sped up as I continued this game of stare with him. I’d won last night at the lodge right before he’d disappeared with the blonde. I was wondering if I could go 2-0 with him.
“You’re perfectly healthy, Miss Roberts.”
A voice broke me out of the stare, forcing me to look away.
Dammit!
I saw the kind face of a very cute guy wearing green medical scrubs. It was then I realized I was in the sterile environment of a medical facility.
“Where am I?” I asked without thinking.
“Parkview Hospital,” the cute doctor answered.
I gasped. “Hospital. Why am I in the hospital?”
“You’re not in the hospital. You’re at the hospital, in the ER,” Landon said sarcastically.
That made me angry. His tone was condescending. “Okay… so then why are you here, Landon?” I spit his name out like a curse.
Unfolding his arms and dropping them to his side, he turned on his heel and left the room, muttering, “Unbelievable,” under his breath. I’m sure he thought I didn’t hear him.
But I had.
Infuriating that one. Completely infuriating.
The shame and embarrassment was overwhelming. I kept telling myself to get over it… and Bethany was telling me to get over it, too… but I was having a hard time.
“You were just overwhelmed,” Bethany said, applying another coat of gloss to her already full lips. “Combined with the hangover, and the fact that you didn’t eat all day…”
“I don’t care,” I mumbled from under the pillow that was lying over my face. “I acted like a damn teenager. Who passes out at the sight of a bunny slope and gets taken to the ER?”
“You,” she chuckled, popping her lips together to spread the gloss, her face peeled to the mirror set into the wall above the makeshift desk and media center in our room.
“Exactly,” I whined.
“Landon was behind us, getting ready to ski when it happened,” she said.
I kept quiet, not saying anything. While I wished I’d just tire of hearing his name, I didn’t think I would. In fact, hearing his name shot a bolt of electricity through me. But I didn’t say anything.
“He pretty much carried you back to the lodge.”
Could this day get any worse?
“He yelled at us to call 9-1-1.” She paused, waiting for my reaction, but I kept my back on the bed, the pillow over my face, even though my heart was pounding out of my chest, waiting for the rest of the story.
“But, you know, I was already on that. I had the ‘9’ dialed before he even ordered us to call.”
I bit back a smile and let her continue.
“He was saying he was gonna carry you back to the lodge if the fuckin’ medics didn’t show up soon.” She lowered her voice to mimic him.
I yanked the pillow off my face and looked at my best friend, who was now sitting on my bed. “He said that? Seriously?”
She giggled. “Oh, he so did. Dramatic, that boy.”
“Go on.”
“That’s it. You woke up in the ER after that. Medics transported you to Parkview.”
“I’m gonna die.”
She screwed the lip gloss applicator back into the tube and tossed it into her makeup bag. “Nope, you’re gonna live. Thanks to Landon.”
I said nothing, just slapped the pillow back over my face.
Suddenly, the pillow was lifted and Bethany’s pretty face was staring down at me. “Stop sulking. It’s ugly. We have another party to go to.”
I groaned. “No. No parties. Hell no. I’m staying here and ordering room service or takeout.”
She chuckled. “We’re at Finn’s parents’ house, there is no room service. And there’s no takeout around here.”
Lifting my head and propping myself up on my elbows, I said, “How do you know?”
She giggled. “Well, Finn and I got super hungry last night,” she cleared her throat and expelled a fake cough, “and he said nobody delivers here. Too far out of town or something. So we made sandwiches.”
“I could eat a sandwich,” I said, my mouth watering at the thought of a roast beef and cheddar on sourdough piled with horseradish, tomatoes, and onion.
“No,” she said, standing over my open suitcase. “It’s a fancy cocktail-slash-dinner party downstairs.”
I watched her curiously huff in annoyance and go to her suitcase. She pulled out a little black piece of fabric and threw it on the bed. “Put that on.”
Slowly breaking her gaze, I shifted my eyes to the bed. Picking up the black garment, I gasped at the tiny black dress I held in my hand.
“Just put it on.”
I stared at her in horror. “I’m not wearing this!”
“Yes, you are.”
I took in her knee-length red dress and small strappy sandals. “You wear it. I’ll wear the red dress.” I pointed at it. Although that one wasn’t much better than the thing I held in my hands.
“Nope,” she said with amusement coloring her face. “This is my lucky red dress.”
“Doesn’t seem like you need any luck,” I murmured, standing and heading toward the bathroom.
“I heard that,” she called out as I shut the bathroom door.
“Your shoes are too small for me,” I mumbled in her ear as we walked down the staircase and across the expanse of
the large, white marble floors that gleamed under the ginormous crystal chandelier over our heads.
“Then you should have brought something other than boots and tennis shoes, dumbass,” she whispered back.
The sounds of laughter, talking, and utensils clinking was floating into our ears from behind two massive double doors. Bethany pulled one of the doors open like she owned the place and I resisted the urge to yank the dress down lower on my legs. I felt like my vagina would show if I sneezed or coughed or sat down.
Two long tables were set up with people dining and drinking. A small bar similar to the one in the lodge was set up at the back, two tuxedoed bartenders, a male and a female, were serving drinks with smiles on their faces.
A wave caught my attention. Finn’s hand was in the air, his eyes bright with excitement. He pointed to two saved empty seats beside him, near the end of one of the long tables. Bethany’s face lit up. Mine did too – in gratitude. I felt like the whole room was staring at my hooker dress.
I’d be lying if I said the dress was uncomfortable. The only real discomfort was from how it made me feel. The thing fit me like a second skin, cotton and Lycra hugging what little curves I had, the bottom hemmed in lace, which matched the capped lace sleeves at my shoulders. The plunging neckline should make any girl feel sexy, and the fact that I’d had to reach in and pull my boobs up to create some sort of cleavage was probably the most humiliating thing I’d done in private. Bethany had suggested she could to use her magic makeup skills by “silhouetting” them with her brushes and powders, but I’d told her absolutely not. She also informed me she had duct tape. I began to get offended. I honestly felt hot and sexy in the dress, but I also knew it wasn’t for everyone. You’re only young once, Bethany had reminded me.
My eyes betrayed me by scanning the room for Landon, but I didn’t see him. Oh well, I told myself. I’d had enough of his moody ass.
Immediately, an older man in a wait-staff uniform came over and asked if I’d like chicken or fish. I told him fish, and Bethany chose the chicken. He then poured us each a glass of red wine while another member of the wait-staff came behind him and filled our other glasses with water.