I exhale and reach out to grab Ollie’s hand. “Baby, I had to meet with him. You need to realize that. I had to tell him to get away from you.”
“You’re rolling right now,” Oliver says, confirming he knows what I was already aware of. “Holy shit, Niko. He thinks molly is a ‘love drug.’”
“Can we stop talking about him? I’ve done molly enough to know that I’m about to have a good night, and I don’t care that he drugged me.”
“You’re going to care a lot tomorrow,” Oliver says quietly, looking away. “You’re going to care so much you might actually fucking kill the guy.”
“I don’t really want to think about tomorrow right now.”
“I’m going to keep you hydrated and I’m not leaving your side tonight. If you feel anything other than the effects of ecstasy, you need to let me know. The campus hospital is just across the street.”
“I know what I feel. After meeting with Callum today, he doesn’t want me dead. He wants me back, and it’s never going to happen.”
“I think Callum is the one who drugged you at that hockey game, too,” he says, and the sad look in his eyesmakes my heart squeeze in my chest. “I hate him. I hate him so fucking much.”
He’s right.
“Don’t waste your time hating him. I think he did it, too. And I should be mad about that, but why the fuck am I ever mad about anything?”
And that’s the drug talking, too, but I don’t give a damn.
“You’re staying by my side,” Oliver says. “What do you need right now?”
So protective of me.
Almost like he thinks I’m something worth caring about.
He’s been waiting for this winter formal for a long time, and all I want is to make sure he gets to have it.
“Right now I need to go out there and dance with you. Let’s go.”
We plunge back out into the shimmering ballroom and I feel like I’m fuckinghome. I keep my hand on Oliver at all times, touching the small of his back, then his hip, then his hand again.
The moment we’re out in the center of the ballroom dance floor, I wrap my arms around him and pull him tight, dancing with him.
“How are you feeling?” he asks me.
I kiss the side of his head. “You want to know a secret? I love that I was your first.”
He exhales against me, and I can feel it on the side of my face. “Because you liked taking something from me?”
“Giving something to you.”
“I wanted to get rid of my fucking virginity for so long. You were the perfect person to do it with.”
“I think you’re perfect, too.”
He gives me a disaffected look, like he thinks I’m only saying that because of the drug.
“Anybody else might make a big deal of my virginity, but you would just… claim it. Without a second thought.”
Of course I fucking wanted it.
Wanted it more than anything else I could ever possess.
It’s interesting that Oliver is being more honest with me right now, too. He doesn’t seem to realize that ecstasy isn’t like alcohol. I’m not just going to forget everything he’s saying, but he doesn’t know that. He’s using this as an opportunity to speak his mind.
“I gave it quite a lot of thought, Oliver.”
