A storm cloud lake?
My head was spinning.
Dean lightly tapped my cheek when my eyes fluttered shut again. It was then I realized he was cupping my face in his warm hands, keeping my head from rolling back as he furrowed his brow in concern.
“Eyes open, Lily,” he said gently.
He said my name.
Another voice drifted in from nearby. It took me a second to realize it belonged to Seb.
"If you knew what was good for you, you'd stay on the floor," he said. "Dean, I think you broke his jaw."
I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry or sleep until my tummy began to gurgle. "I think I'm going to be sick," I heard myself say.
"Do you think you can walk?" Dean asked.
I didn't have a lot of confidence in how well my legs would work, but I nodded drowsily anyway. Dean gently took me by the arms, his hands supporting my elbows as he steered me out of the booth. The second I rose to my feet, the room tipped and my head dropped forward to his solid chest.
“Sorry,” I muttered with my eyes shut.
“You’re okay,” he said, hands cupping my elbows. I doubted he heard my apology over the music.
While I was looking down, waiting for the throbbing in my head to stop, I saw the man who had spiked my drink sitting by our feet, slumped against the table leg and holding his face in agony.
Seeing him just made me feel worse.
Dean moved in behind me, holding my arms before he steered me through the crowd — steered because I was stumbling like a newborn horse. Every so often I dropped about an inch when my knees gave out, but Dean kept me upright.
I cupped a hand to my forehead. The room was spinning, the lights and music not helping, as everyone seemed to tower and sway around me. With every step forward, I seemed to take two steps back, stumbling into Dean's chest and apologizing when I trod on his foot more than once.
When we finally got through the front doors, I had barely any time to breathe in the night air before I found myself crouching over the gutter, hurling up my stomach contents. Dean’s hand was on my waist, keeping me steady in case I toppled headfirst into the street, while his other held my hair back.
His fingers brushed against my throat as he gently gathered my hair in one hand.
"At least she's getting out whatever he gave her," Seb said from nearby.
My throat felt raw as I vomited again.
"Seb. Do me a favor and grab her things. I'll take her back to her place," Dean said, rubbing his hand between my shoulder blades.
"No," I slurred as Seb's footsteps went back inside. "I can't leave. Roxy will—"
More vomit.
The last things I remembered were blurry glimpses of the inside of Dean's car and vomiting in the garden bed outside my apartment before I blacked out.
Chapter 13
Lily
Groggy and sluggish, I peeled my eyes open and blinked at the strips of sunlight streaming in through the gaps in the blinds. Horizontal blinds.
Why do I have blinds? Why is my window on the right side of my bed?
I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, causing the room to come into focus while my eyes adjusted to the light.
A window sat where my bathroom door usually was, the walls were a light gray instead of their usual cream color, and the sheets I was lying in between were navy blue and didn’t smell right. It wasn’t the familiar, sweet scent of the detergent I used, but something faintly woody. Masculine.
