500 Days (38 page)

I made sure I was awake before Alex. I
wasn’t quite sure how she was going to feel in the morning or what
she would remember and I didn’t want to freak her out. I slipped
out of the bed, careful not to wake her and grabbed my boots on the
way out. Jaxson and Jacob were still sleeping so I slipped out the
front door. I pulled out my phone to call Colton to come get me,
but to my luck he was already there dropping off Declan. When she
saw me she charged at me. “You better not be giving her the slip so
help me god –”

“
Declan, relax. Nothing
happened. And I would not do that to Alex and you know
it.”

“
Then why are you
leaving?”

“
Because I’m not sure what
she’ll remember and I don’t want to freak her out when she wakes
up.” Declan crossed her arms, studying me. “You really think I
would try something with her brothers there?”

“
I guess not. You’re off
the hook this time but don’t think I won’t be keeping a close eye
on you.”

“
Declan, quit being so
overdramatic. You act like I’m some escaped convict. You and I both
know I would never do anything to hurt Alex…intentionally. For
Christ sake
,
I
think I’m falling in love with the girl.”

Declan took a giant step back, her lips
twitching upward in the corners. “What did you say?”

I did not mean to say that out loud. My
confession surprised me just as much as Declan. “Nothing,” I
grunted, walking away from them. I heard Declan giggle excitedly.
She tried to chase after me but Colton stopped her and dragged her
in the house.

Chapter 16

Alexis

I felt like I got smashed in the head with a
sledgehammer. I sat up slowly and tried to piece together what the
hell happened. How the hell did I even get home? I was wearing a
t-shirt and nothing else. Lucky was curled up on one of my pillows.
I threw on a pair of pants and sweatshirt and then grabbed Lucky so
I could feed him.

My kitchen looked like a bomb went off.
Empty containers, bottles, and trash were everywhere. I heard
snoring coming from the living room. I walked over and found Jacob
sleeping on the couch. Then I heard the door to Declan’s room open.
I spotted Jaxson coming down the hall. “Mornin’,” he smiled. I
looked back at Jacob, confused.

“
Okay, what the hell
happened last night?”

“
You don’t
remember?”

I forced my brain to focus but everything
was a blur. “No, I mean, I remember a lot of drinking. I know Reece
took me to the party but…how did I get home?”

“
Casper brought you home,”
Jaxson said, helping himself to my Captain Crunch.

“
What?” Please, oh dear
god, don’t let me have slept with him again. “Where is he now?”
Jaxson shrugged as he took a big spoonful of cereal. I stole the
bowl and box from him.

“
Hey,” he
whined.

“
Look at my kitchen. Clean
this up now and maybe I’ll think about letting you have some.” I
grabbed a new spoon from the drawer and ate the bowl of cereal
while Jaxson glared at me. “Get to work,” I pointed at the
mess.

Jaxson walked over to the couch to wake up
Jacob. He ripped the blanket out from underneath him causing Jacob
to fall to the floor with a loud thud. “What the hell?” Jacob
complained.

“
Get up and help me clean
up this mess.”

“
Why don’t we just leave
before Alex wakes up and she can do it?”

I took an empty beer can and threw it at
him. “I’m up, ass. Now get to work.” Jacob grumbled something and
then picked himself up off the floor. I sat at the counter
instructing them on how to properly clean up the mess.

“
You know you could help
instead of sitting on your ass,” Jacob carped.

“
I wasn’t the one who made
the mess.”

“
How do you know?” Jaxson
chimed in. “You said so yourself you don’t remember last
night.”

“
I could have amnesia and
still know it was you two who made this mess. I’m not stupid Jax.
Quit your bitching and finish up.” I picked up my bowl and carried
it into the living room to watch some TV while the boys worked. The
second I plopped down on the couch Declan walked through the
door.

“
Well good morning
sunshine. I didn’t expect you to be up this early. How ya feeling?”
She took a seat next to me on the couch.

“
Like shit,” I replied.
“You haven’t happened to talk to Casper this morning have
you?”

“
It just so happens that I
ran into him when he was leaving.”

“
Did he say anything?” I
asked nervously.

“
Why?” she asked
suspiciously.

“
Because I don’t remember
crap from last night.”

Declan tried to hide her smile. “What do you
want to know?”

“
I’m not sure if I want to
remember.”

“
I can promise you didn’t
do anything embarrassing aside from doing a strip tease for the
entire party.” I dropped my spoon in my bowl causing some of the
milk to splash over the sides. Declan started to giggle.

“
That’s not even
funny.”

“
A little,” she said. “But
you have nothing to worry about. You just got really drunk after
Reece left and Cas brought you home and put you to bed.” I raised a
brow at her. “He told me he swears he just spent the night to make
sure you were okay. And no hanky panky.” I rolled my eyes at her
choice of words.

“
He gave me the
slip?”

“
Now you know how it
feels.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “He said he didn’t want to freak
you out when you woke up in the morning and thought it would be
better if he left before you woke up.” I nodded my head, agreeing.
He was right. I would have flipped my shit if I found him in bed
with me. I looked down at my clothes again wondering how I got
undressed. I thought about Declan’s little joke about a strip tease
at the frat house. I knew she was kidding but I was also hoping
Casper didn’t get a private show.

I decided I would call him later and have
him give me a refresher course of last night. For now, I was going
to go back to bed. I got up and put my bowl in the sink. “This
kitchen better be spic and span when I wake up,” I warned the boys.
They both rolled their eyes at me. Lucky was helping them clean up
the mess by licking up the crumbs. I scooped him up and carried him
back to my room with me. I crawled back into bed needing to sleep
off this massive hangover. I turned off my phone to make sure I
would not be disturbed.

I felt the bed sink. I blinked my eyes a few
times to adjust to the bright sun shining through the window. When
my vision focused, I found Reece sitting on the edge of my bed. I
sat, pulling the covers close to me, surprised to see him. “Sorry,
didn’t mean to scare you. You looked so peaceful I didn’t want to
wake you right away.”

“
Oh,” I said, tucking a
piece of hair behind my ear.

“
Declan let me in,” he
said, clearly reading my confused expression. “I wanted to stop by
and see if you wanted to grab something to eat.”

“
I thought your dad was in
town?”

“
He is, but I already
spent all morning with him and now I want to go to dinner with
you,” he smiled, making me blush.

“
Okay, just give me a few
minutes to get dressed.” He leaned in to give me a kiss on the
cheek when I heard a small meow come from under the blanket. I
pulled my brows in tight, wondering what that was all about. I
lifted the covers back to reveal a very ticked off
Lucky.

“
Hey little guy,” Reece
said, reaching out to pet him.

Lucky hissed and swatted a paw at him.
“Lucky,” I chastised. He trotted over to me and rubbed his head on
my arm, purring, but kept his eyes on Reece.

“
It’s okay,” Reece said,
smiling. “I’ll wait in the living room until you’re ready.” I
smiled back at him and waited until Reece closed the door behind
him.

“
What is your deal?” I
asked Lucky, holding him out in front of me. “That wasn’t very
nice. No fair scaring off a good guy.” Lucky purred like crazy,
playfully pawing at me. I placed him in his cat bed and then
grabbed a sweater, jeans, and boots. I quickly got dressed and then
made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth. I tried to brush my
knotty hair, but gave up halfway when I almost broke the brush. I
did manage to get it into a messy braid on the side. It would have
to do.

Reece and I ended up having a lovely dinner.
He told me what he and his dad did all day and I told him about the
rest of the party – what I remembered. I left out the part about me
getting hammered. Reece dropped me off afterwards and then told me
he would call me tomorrow.

I later learned from Jaxson all of what I
consumed last night. I nearly passed out when he told me about the
joint I smoked. It’s not like I hadn’t ever took a few hits before,
but how could I yell at my brothers when I did the same thing? I
needed to start setting a better example.

Jaxson also informed me that Casper had one
of the designated drivers take us home and Jaxson was the one who
insisted Casper stay to keep an eye on me. By the end of the night
I pretty much remembered what happened. It all came back to me in
flashes throughout the day. I was the one who asked Casper to stay
with me and he was the one to help me get undressed, but in a
nonsexual way. And we slept. And that was it. I was relieved to say
the least. I told Jaxson he and Jacob got a pass for last night,
but I would not accept something like that happening again. He
agreed and promised he would make sure Jacob never touched the
stuff again, either.

I text Casper and thanked him for making
sure we got home okay and for taking care of me. He said he takes
partial fault for my condition since he was feeding me drinks and
shots all night. I laughed, letting him know it wasn’t all his
fault, but it would be a while before I drank again.

“
We need to talk,” Declan
said, taking a seat on the edge of my bed.

“
What’s up?” I asked,
placing my phone on my nightstand.

“
You went out with Reece
again tonight?”

“
Yeah, I did,” I
smiled.

“
And you slept with Casper
again the other day.”

I froze wondering how in the hell she could
know that. I tried to play it off but I knew Declan could see right
through me. “Who told you that?”

“
You just did.”

I opened my mouth to argue, but I had
nothing. “So what if I did?”

“
Look Alex, I’m all about
you doing your thing and having fun, but when it comes at the
expense of hurting someone’s feelings you need to think about what
you’re doing.”

“
Whose feelings am I
hurting?”
Besides possibly
mine
, I added to myself.

She sighed. I knew she
wasn’t telling me the whole story. “I think you need to decide what
you
,
or should I
say
who
you want.
It’s not fair to string Casper along for your pleasure and be
dating Reece at the same time.”

“
That’s not what I’m
doing.” She cocked her brow. “Casper and I are friends, who just
happen to have slept together on more than one
occasion.”

“
You hooked up
twice.”

I shied away from her, biting my lip. “Three
times, actually.”

She turned slowly, jaw dropped. “Jesus Alex,
when?”

“
You’re never going to
believe this, but Casper is Mr. New Year.”

“
What?” she exclaimed,
disbelieving.

I buried my head in my hands. “The night of
my birthday, when we first, well when I thought it was our first
time. He said something that triggered my memory. He called me
poison ivy. I thought it was just a coincidence, but there were
other things, similarities.”

“
Like what?” Declan asked,
hanging on to my every word.

“
His smell, the way he
touched me, and the way he…” I cleared my throat, not wanting to
have to confess too many details. Declan pulled back and held up
her hand, getting the hint. “I think he remembers too, but I’m not
a hundred percent.”

“
I can’t believe this
Alex! This is so great! Who would ever thought that you and Casper
–” I shook my head to stop her rant. “Why are you shaking your head
no?”

“
I think you’re getting
ahead of yourself here.”

“
But you just admitted
–”

“
That I slept with Casper
before. Nothing else.”

“
So you don’t like
him?”

I let out a long, deep breath. “I
just…there’s no point in admitting feelings because once you do
that, then it’s over. You can’t take it back. I’m not ready to risk
putting myself out there when I already know the end result.”
Declan reached over, placing a gentle hand on mine. “With Reece I
know what I’m getting myself into, but Casper, it’s too
unpredictable. He’s not the settle down type. He’s too much of a
loose cannon.”

“
Some may say the same
about you,” she said, tilting her head, brow raised. I narrowed my
eyes at her. “Whatever you decide, I’m with you.” Sensing my sudden
unease, she left it at that. “Just think about it,
okay?”