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Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to keep my balance, but with my head being so dizzy and these heels making my steps more uneven…
I walk to the bed in the middle of the room and sit on the edge before I fall down and embarrass myself.
Reminder to self…
Never drink again. Ever.
Blackness dots my vision, the room spinning completely out of control, and the last thing I can remember is wishing that Hudson was here to hold me.
* * *
Hudson
My phone ringsfor the third time on my nightstand. I fucking swear if this is Chaney calling me again in the middle of the night because he’s drunk and lost downtown, I’m going to lose my damn mind. All I want to do is sleep off the feeling of watching Caroline walk away. From me. Fromus.
Because it fucking sucks.
I glance at the glowing red numbers on the alarm clock, seeing that it’s after midnight, and shake my head as I reach one arm out for my phone.
“I swear,” I grumble, swiping across the screen, “Chaney, this better be life or fucking death.”
“Uh, hi… thisisn’tChaney.” A woman’s voice comes through the speaker, and I squint with one eye open at the screen, trying to make out the number, but fuck, I’m still half-asleep. “This is Caroline’s roommate, Tatum, and, uh… I think she needs you to come get her.”
I jackknife from the bed, my eyes flying open. “What’s wrong? Is she okay?”
I’m already climbing from the bed and pulling on my clothes at breakneck speed while I wait for her to respond.
“She had a little too much to drink tonight, and she’s kind of out of it. I’m worried and don’t think I can get her home by myself. I didn’t want to call her dad, and my boyfriend is out of town, so I didn’t know who else to call.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Obviously, it’s bad if I’m the one she’s calling after how Caroline and I left things.
Doesn’t matter because I’ll be there if my girl needs me, no matter fucking what. Whether she wants to be with me or not, I’ll always help her.
“Text me the address. I’m walking out the door,” I say, grabbing my wallet from the nightstand, then taking the stairs two at a time.
“Thank you for coming, Hudson,” she says. “I know things are… weird with you two right now, but she needs you. It’ll mean a lot to her that you came.”
“I’ll always come for her.Always.”
We end the call, and a few seconds later, a text pops up with the address, and I’m already in the car. I click the address and put it in my GPS and see that it’s only a few houses down from Caroline’s sorority house.
She’s still on sorority row, and that just makes my stomach twist in knots. So fucking close to home, and yet she feels so goddamn far away. Out of my reach.
I make the twenty-minute drive in ten, my hands aching from clenching around the steering wheel so tightly by the time I pull down the street. The entire road is lined with cars and drunk people walking around, and because of that, it takes me fucking ten minutes to find a spot to park.
“Where is this house?” I show a passerby douche in a blue polo and boat shoes, who drunkenly points to the house that’s side by side with another house that’s also filled with people. It seems like the entire street is partying, and all I want is to find my girl.
All that fucking matters is getting to her and making sure she’s okay.
I sprint toward the house, pushing my way through crowds of kids playing beer pong and doing keg stands in the front yard until I finally make it through the front door. Loud, pulsing music is playing inside. Pulling my phone out, I call the phone number that her roommate called from, and she answers on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Where are you? I’m here,” I grunt, trying to scan the crowd for Caroline to no avail.
“I’m heading back towards the room I left her resting in. I needed to grab her some water and a cool rag—I think she was about to be sick. Second door to the right on the second floor.”
