Down to Business (Business Series) (22 page)

As
I rode back to the apartment, I felt pathetic. I knew if it wasn’t for Vinny pushing Richie off me, I could have been re-experiencing that night that tarnished me so long ago. The fact that I was so willing to let it happen again made me feel even worse.

Once the taxi pulled up to the apartment building, the driver helped me out. My bottle of water rolled somewhere under the car and I mumbled for him not to get it. He stood there watching me, and I knew he was waiting for a tip. That’s when I realized that I had left my purse in Vinny’s dorm room. When I gave the driver my excuse about not having my purse, he called me a slut and sped out of the parking lot, squealing his tires.

I walked up the stairs and paused before the door, swaying. I didn’t have my keys. They were in my purse along with my cell phone.

“Fuck!” I kicked the apartment door and lost my balance. I fell to the ground and let out a miserable sob. Shivering, I pulled my knees to my chest and leaned back against the door, yanking Vinny’s jacket around me like a cocoon. My life had come to a pinnacle of shit. I took deep breaths, smelling his jacket that was a mix of his cologne with leather. I wished it was him holding me instead of his jacket. I closed my eyes and my mind wandered back to the strawberry lip-gloss moment and how good it felt to kiss him.

I was not sure how long I fell asleep for, but when I opened my eyes Vinny was kneeling before me, shaking me gently. “Autumn, open your eyes. Are you okay?”

I stared at him, wondering if I was hallucinating. “Vinny? What are you…doing here?”

“Jesus, you’re freezing,” he said, ignoring my question and rubbing his warm hand over my cheek.

“What are you doing here?” I repeated, nuzzling my cold cheek into his palm.

“I brought your purse…you left it in my dorm room.” He pressed the purse into my uncoordinated hands. “Have you been out here since you got home?”

“Yeah…I didn’t have my key or my cell,” I said, trembling.

He mumbled a curse, rummaged through my purse until he found my keys, then opened the door for me. He walked me through the dark apartment, to my bedroom and flipped on the light. I sat down on my bed while he pulled my shoes off. His jacket slid off my shoulders and I shivered. He went to my dresser and opened a couple drawers until he found something for me to change into. His choice was my father’s old faded Rolling Stones concert t-shirt and sweat pants. I barely wore that shirt since it was more of a keepsake, but I was too tired to care.

“Hold your arms up…”

I stared up at him, touched and saddened by his kindness. My heart ached as he helped me yank my beer-stained sweater over my head. The Rolling Stones t-shirt was two sizes too big and reached well below my waist.

“Do you sleep in your bra?” he asked.

“Sometimes…when I’m tired enough…” I said, reaching inside the shirt to slip the bra off and toss it onto the floor.  Afterward, I pulled down my pants and replaced them with the black sweat pants he chose. He pulled the comforter down on my bed and gave my pillow a slap, fluffing it.

I climbed into bed and let him tuck me in. He pulled an extra blanket over me that I had at the foot of the bed. 

“There,” he said with an accomplished sigh.

“You didn’t have to do this. I could have passed out on my bed alone.”

He sat down on the edge near my feet and looked over at me. “Those things you said tonight…did you mean them?”

I couldn’t remember what I said, let alone if I meant them. All I knew was I had a hollow ache in my heart because of him. “What part?”

“All of it. Especially the part about… me using you to make Vivian jealous and me feeling sorry for you.”

“Yeah, I meant it. You left me the moment she showed up and as for feeling sorry for me, you really didn’t have to bring me my purse, then undress me and get me into bed…you did it because you feel bad for me.”

“No.” He stood up with his back to me and raked his hands through his hair. “That’s not why I did it, Autumn. I don’t do things for you because I feel sorry for you.”

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. “I don’t feel like getting into another argument right now. I’m too tired.”

He turned around and frowned at me. I could tell from the look in his eyes, he was hurt and maybe wanted to say something important. I didn’t care, I didn’t want to hear another excuse, another lie. He would never feel the same way I did for him and I needed to get over it…and over him.

“Yeah, you’re right,” he mumbled, looking to his feet with a nod. “It’s late. You should sleep.”

Even as disappointed as I was in him, I still thought he was the most gorgeous guy I had ever met and there would never be another Vinny for me.

He stepped closer to the bed and looked down at me with a sad smile. I closed my eyes when his fingertips grazed lightly over the side of my face, pushing some hair away from my cheek. “I’m sorry I hurt you, Autumn.”

His words caused my throat to tighten and I gave him a weak smile. “I’ll be okay.”

He nodded. “I know you will… sleep tight.”

“You too,” I whispered.

He turned off my light and I heard the soft click of my door closing behind him. His footsteps carried down the hall, and moments later, the front door closed. I buried my face into my pillow and sobbed, letting all of my pent up tears and emotion flow out.

The next morning I woke to the sound of my phone ringing on my bedside table.  My head felt like a boulder had smashed it. I reached out to grab the phone off the nightstand, but instead I knocked it onto the floor. Groaning, I leaned over the side of my bed and squinted at the name lit up on the caller ID.

It was my mother.

I snatched the phone up and suffered the head throbbing aftermath of my hangover. I groaned in agony and waited for the pounding to stop before I answered the phone.

“Hi Mom…” I rasped. “Is everything okay?”

“No. Grandma’s test results came back. She’s—” her voice cracked, “I don’t want you to panic, but she has some intracranial hemorrhaging…”

“What?” My hung over brain fought to process her words. All I could comprehend was that hemorrhaging was bleeding.

“She has some minor bleeding in her brain from the fall and they have moved her to the ICU.”

Panic seized my heart and I sat up suddenly, making my head feel like it would explode. “Is she…ow! Going to be okay?”

“I hope so…” she said with a sniffle. “I feel so bad, Autumn. I should have been watching her.”

I slid out of bed, grabbed my jeans off the floor, and shoved one leg inside them. “Mom...I’m coming.”

“You don’t have to come. You need to focus on school and you just got that new job.”

“I don’t care. This is a family emergency and I’m coming. I’ll meet you at the hospital,” I hung up pulled my other leg into my jeans. My head pounded again and I cursed as I tripped over my backpack on my way to Lindy’s room. I threw open her bedroom door to find Tyler asleep, half-naked in his boxers.

“Tyler. Where’s Lindy?”

He lifted his head and squinted at me. “What?”

“Where
is
Lindy?” I demanded.

“I dunno…she was just here…”

“What do you mean you don’t know? Did she come home with you last—”

I paused as I heard gagging sounds coming from the bathroom down the hall. I hurried there to see Lindy kneeling before the toilet with her cheek resting on the seat. Her face was as white as a sheet of paper.

“Lindy? Are you okay?” I asked, frowning.

“No. I’m dying Auti…help me.”

“I can’t. I need someone to take me to Hamilton. My gram has a hemorrhage in her brain.”

She blinked twice at me, her lips pale and dry. “I have alcohol poisoning.”

“Did you hear what I just said? My grandma might die!”

She frowned at me, lifted her head, and spewed more vomit into the toilet. I gagged and closed my eyes, covering my ears.

She wiped at her lips with a wad of toilet paper and started to weep. “Oh my God, this sucks so bad…I think I need to go to the hospital…”

I grabbed my aching head in helpless frustration. What was I going to do? There was no way she could drive me. I sighed and fought the tears of despair that burned my eyes. There was only one other person I knew could ask for a ride. But after last night, I doubted he would want to. He was probably hung over. I’d just have to wait for Lindy to feel better and maybe we could leave in the afternoon.

I left Lindy in the bathroom and went back to my room. I tried to call my mother to let her know I might not be able to make it, but she didn’t answer. I left a short message on her voicemail and laid back down on my bed with a sigh. My headache was irritating, but at least I wasn’t throwing my guts up like Lindy.

My phone began to ring again and my heart leapt into my chest. I was so worried it was more bad news from my mother that I answered it without checking who it was. “Hello?”

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Vinny asked.

I paused, too surprised to answer right away. “I feel like shit.”

“Hung over?”

“A little…”

“I didn’t expect you to be up so early, I was going to leave you a voicemail.”

“I wouldn’t be up yet…but my mother called and—” I paused as my throat tightened. “My gram is in the ICU with a brain hemorrhage.”

“Jesus. Is she going to be okay?”

“We don’t know yet,” I said, as tears invaded my eyes.

“Are you going to go visit?”

“I want to…but Lindy is hung over and puking her guts out so I don’t have a ride.”

“I can take you.”

“What?” I sniffled.

“I’ll take you. Just let me get a quick shower and I’ll be right over, okay?”

“Vinny, you don’t have to.”

“I’ll be there in thirty minutes.”

“But—”

He hung up before I could argue anymore.

I pressed my phone against my heart and smiled through my tears. Vinny might have been many things, but today, he was my savior.

I went to the bathroom to check on Lindy, but she was gone. I figured she was back in bed and I didn’t want to disturb her, so I texted her my plan to go home with Vinny and told her I’d call her later. Afterwards I took some aspirin and a fast shower, then I threw on my Adelphi hoodie, jeans, and sneakers. By the time I was done getting ready, thirty minutes had passed.

I stepped out of the apartment under a sky the color of fresh cement and spotted Vinny idling in the parking lot. I hurried down stairs and got into his car just as the rain started to pelt the windshield. I glanced over at him and he leaned over, giving me a hug. I closed my eyes and squeezed him back.

“Are you okay?” he asked before letting me go.

“Yeah. Thanks for doing this for me.”

“I told you, it’s not a problem.”

He reversed out of the parking spot and turned on the windshield wipers before we headed out of the parking lot. He wore a plain white t-shirt with a grey hooded zip up jacket over it and jeans. He looked clean and refreshed, but the dark circles under his eyes were a dead giveaway that he was hung over too.

I put on my seat belt. “I’m really sorry about last night, Vinny.”

He shook his head.  “Don’t worry about it.”

I frowned at him. “Did anything happen after I left?”

He shifted gears. “It doesn’t matter. I’m just glad we got things cleared up between us.”

We did?
I wasn’t so sure.

I sat back in my seat and watched him change radio stations.

“How much did you have to drink last night anyway?” he asked.

“I had a cup of beer and three shots of tequila.”

He looked over at me in surprise. “You drank tequila?”

I rolled my eyes and looked over at him. “Yeah.”

He smirked. “You were completely wasted. Do you remember telling me off then puking in front of a crowd of people on the lawn?”

My cheeks burned. “Unfortunately.”

“Well, one thing is for sure,” he gave me an amused smirk, “everyone knows the freshman Autumn Malone.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. “Great.”

He pat my leg. “Don’t feel bad. You’re not the first freshmen to humiliate yourself at an Alpha Tau party.”

“You’re not helping.”

He laughed. “You should have seen me my freshmen year. I was wasted all the time, puking on myself, on peoples lawns, on my friends…in my car. It’s the reason I got this new car, because the old one was wrecked inside. The smell just wouldn’t go away. I called my old ride, The Barf Bucket.”

I looked over at him and laughed. “That’s disgusting.”

He laughed too. “I was building tolerance.  I never partied a lot in high school because I played football, so when I got to Adelphi I made up for it.”

“I had my first drink when I was in junior high, then I drank often after my parents divorced. I was so screwed up over it. My mom was always crying and I hated my dad because I knew he was the one who wanted the divorce. I needed an escape from the drama, so Lindy and I would sneak down to her basement where her Mom kept their liquor and we’d take shots of everything.” I laughed a little. “Sometimes we’d get so drunk we’d pass out. Lindy’s mom was a nurse, so she worked at night a lot and she’d come home in the morning and find us passed out on the sofas in the basement. We’d just tell her we were having a sleep over, and I can’t tell you how often we didn’t go to school due to hangovers. My mom believed my stomach bug story every time.”