“I don’t think it’s that serious.”However, it could be reasonably close.Rocco doesn’t strike me as the understanding type, not when it comes to his precious little girl and what’s best for her.He loosened the reins tonight, but now he’ll have a tighter grip on them than ever.
Which means she’ll be around the house all the time, acting like a nasty little brat.As much as I resent being nothing more than a servant to her, the thought of having to deal with her stomping around with a shitty attitude every day somehow seems worse.
Then again, who am I kidding?She won’t bear the brunt of this.I will.And Rocco will find a way to take it out on me.There’s no doubt in my mind he’ll make me wish I could go back to being a driver by the time he’s finished.I’ll look back on this disgusting event as a high point in comparison.
I can’t believe I’m about to do this.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.”I put her back on her feet, where she manages to stay upright without swaying.“I have an apartment four blocks away.Do you think you can make it four blocks?”
“Your apartment?”She lifts her head and blinks up at me.Clearly, her brain hasn’t caught up yet.
“I have a few of them here in town.”One of the last bits of my old life I’ve managed to keep a hold on.“I parked the car in the garage over there, planning on bringing it back over when you were ready to go home.”It was either that or pay some exorbitant amount to park somewhere else, and while I can afford it, the principle wouldn’t let me.Going out of my way at the last minute to cart her ass around was bad enough.
“I wanted more time with my friends.”There is so much misery in her slurred voice as we walk, with her tripping over her feet every third or fourth step.It forces me to slow my pace, which is the last thing I want to do.I’d like to get this over with—let her shower, wash the stench away, then come up with a plan for what happens next.My watch tells me it’s already past eleven.I doubt she’ll be sobered up by the time I get her home, especially since Rocco expects her on the road by midnight.
I started this night telling myself she deserved whatever was coming to her, but I didn’t think about the blowback that would land on me.
“Finally made some friends,” she mumbles, stumbling a little against me.“Guess that’s in the past.Everything’s ruined.”
It’s only when she sniffles that I realize she’s crying.“This is your first time getting drunk?”I ask.
Her head bobs.“Why do people like it?”
“It’s complicated.I don’t think people really like being drunk.But be honest with me.”I have to take her by the hand to lead her through an intersection before she wanders off in the wrong direction.“You liked it back there, when you were dancing.Didn’t you?”
I know she did, because I was watching.I went straight back to the club after parking the car and observed most of her evening without her noticing, along with three offuck only knowshow many shots she took.This girl is seriously lacking in basic self-preservation skills, but I can’t fault her for it, given how completely sheltered she’s been.
“That’s the fun part,” I conclude.We’re only two blocks away now, and thank God for that.I’m going to need to change my clothes while I’m there because I keep catching a whiff of something coming off me.I should give her the dry cleaning bill.But when I look down at her, it’s not easy to stay angry.
“I just wanted to have fun for once,” she admits.
“Your life’s not that bad,” I remind her.“You don’t have to do anything for yourself.You live in a beautiful house, you have everything you could ever want, and you don’t have to work for any of it.”
And she has her family’s love.My chest tightens along with my throat when the thought crosses my mind.I wouldn’t know what that’s like.I might have at one point, but I was too young to care.
“Come on,” I urge once we reach the corner building where my apartment is located.She’s still so out of it that the concept of a revolving door seems to confuse her, and that’s before I almost have to carry her across the lobby.How much coffee will she have to drink to snap her out of it, at least enough to keep Rocco from murdering me?I watched her take those shots.I was gleeful, even, imagining Rocco’s despair and Isabella’s tears when their precious drunken daughter was delivered at their doorstep.
Once again, I shot myself in the foot and now have to treat the wound.
She leans against me in the elevator, whimpering softly.“I just wanted to be normal for once.”
“I hate to break it to you, but you aren’t normal, and you never will be.”She clicks her tongue and sighs, and something about the sound makes me wish I had chosen better words.“Normal is boring, anyway.You want to be like one of those basic bitches you were with tonight?”
“Don’t call them that.”
“It’s the truth,” I insist.“They’re a dime a dozen.And they sure as fuck made themselves scarce the second that prick put his hands on you, didn’t they?”Stupid, careless children.She needs to be smarter about the people she spends time with.There is so much she needs to learn.
It’s not your job to teach her.
My jaw is tight, and my resolve is firm when the elevator doors silently slide open, and I help her into the hall.Mine is the corner apartment with windows lining both exterior walls, offering a breathtaking view once I open the door.
“Wow,” she breathes out after crossing the threshold, then covers her mouth with her hand again.
“Jesus Christ.”I push her along into the open kitchen, where she barely makes it to the sink before round two begins.I shudder to think how she would react to a car ride, as unsteady as she is.Good luck trying to explain vomit all over the back seat.The thought of driving with that stench in the car turns my stomach.
When she’s finished, and the evidence has been washed down the drain, it’s clear what needs to be done.“Here’s what’s happening,” I decide.“I’m going to show you to the shower, you’re going to wash up, then you’re putting on pajamas I’ll give you, and you’re going to bed.You’re not going home tonight.There’s no way.”
She raises her head slowly, blinking hard to bring me into focus.“No way.You want me to stay here with you?”
