I walk towards the farther end of the pool where less people are gathered and sip on my drink. I don’t think I’m going to be able to finish this one, though. I might have to pour it down the drain before Corbin gets back from smoking. It’s just too sweet, and it’s making me feel weird.
I’ve made up my mind that I’m going to dump it in the kitchen sink when Dimitri comes up beside me, scaring the hell out of me. I place my free hand against my chest. “Jeez, you s-s-scared me!”
“Give me your drink,privighetoare mica,” he says. It’s clearly a demand and not a request.
“G-g-get your own,” I say with a scrunched-up nose. I’m notsharing my drink with him. In fact, I’m not sharinganythingwith him.
“Now is not the time to be stubborn, Savina,” he chides.God, I hate how sexy my name sounds in his thick accent.“Give me the fucking drink,” he commands, his voice dark and dangerous.
“No, it’s m-m-mine,” I tell him before cradling it against my chest like I’m protecting it.
“You have two choices. Either dump it out on the ground right now or give it to me.”
No way he’s getting this drink that Corbin made for me. Just like everything else that’s been happening, why is it fair for him to drink tonight and not me? Feeling rebellious, I stare into his icy blue eyes as I shake my head in protest. And just to add insult to injury, I put the cup up to my mouth, ready to chug the entire thing right in front of him even if I don’t want it. But just as the plastic rim touches my lips, Dimitri suddenly pushes me, and then I’m falling backwards.
I’m expecting the jolt of hard ground below me, my body preparing for the blow. But the fall backwards doesn’t stop until the cold rush of water swallows me whole, sending my body and mind reeling. It takes me a moment to realize that Dimitri pushed me into the swimming pool!
I struggle to swim, drink forgotten and lost in the water surrounding me. It takes me a while to break through the surface and be able to take a breath since the dress I’m wearing is now plastered to my skin and fighting against me. My heels fall off during the whole ordeal, effectively sinking to the bottom of the pool.
Sputtering and desperately trying to tread water, I stare up at Dimitri, who stands at the edge with his arms crossed in front of his chest and a smirk on his face. He’s not even going to help me. Hell, he would probably love to see me drown. He pushed me in here after all.
After several minutes of struggling to keep my head above water and everyone around the pool just staring at me, I finally reach the ladder and manage to pull myself out. Water sluices down my skin asI step onto the concrete. My beige dress is wet and plastered to my body, revealing…everything. Covering myself as best I can with my trembling hands, I bite back a mortified groan as I push past a few classmates, who are now laughing at me, and run towards the parked cars in the driveway. I check my appearance in someone’s side mirror and am horrified to see mascara running down my face. The makeup I spent hours doing was appallingly undone the moment Dimitri pushed me in that pool.
I can’t go back inside and face even more humiliation, but I really have no way to get home. Corbin was going to drop me off later, but I’m too embarrassed to even ask him. I don’t want him or his friends to see me like this. And since I didn’t bring my purse or phone with me, because I didn’t think I’d be needing them, I’m completely and utterly screwed.
Wrapping my arms around myself and determined to walk myself home barefoot and soaking wet from head to toe, I begin stumbling away from the party.
I don’t get far, however, before a sleek, black car pulls up alongside me. The passenger’s side window rolls down, and I already know who it is before he speaks.
“Get in the car,privighetoare mica,” Dimitri says, and I can almost hear the amusement in his voice.
“N-n-no,” I tell him as I keep walking.
“I’m sorry if that sounded like a question,” he says in a deep growl.
I keep walking, ignoring him.
He scrubs his hand down his face and tries again. “We are five miles from your house,” he informs me.
“I don’t c-c-care. I’d rather walk f-f-five miles than s-s-spend a single s-second with you in that c-c-car!” I stop and yell at him through the open window.
Suddenly, the car speeds off, and I think to myself that he finally left me alone. But then I see him pull the car over just ahead and get out. I hear his heavy footsteps approaching, and Itip my chin, looking up at the moon and willing myself not to cry. Not that he would even be able to tell, because the water dripping from my hair and down my face would no doubt hide my tears.
“You can either get in my car on your own volition, or I can force you. Either way, you’re getting in,” Dimitri says, his tone deadly serious and not up for debate.
My head slowly tips down, and I meet his blue eyes, which look eerie in the moonlight. Dimitri is standing there dressed all in black like some kind of dark knight. A villain.My villain. He looks mad as hell, and I find it ironic. Shouldn’tIbe the one that’s pissed off? I mean, he did push me into a swimming pool in front of dozens of our classmates, after all.
I want to be angry, but I feel a myriad of other emotions all at once. I’m embarrassed, uncomfortable, confused, and ashamed. I’m a ball of emotions all wrapped in one. And as if the universe didn’t show enough signs that it hates me enough already, a sudden, painful spasm in my stomach hits me hard. The world around me feels like it’s spinning as a wave of nausea overcomes me, and I take a few steps backwards, stumbling. And then I’m doing the second most embarrassing thing to happen to me tonight. I bend over and begin throwing up right in front of Dimitri.
I expect him to be disgusted or to just drive off at this point. But instead, he walks over and tenderly gathers my hair from my face, holding it a safe distance away from the vomit spewing uncontrollably from my mouth. Tentatively, Dimitri gently runs a hand up and down my back, soothing me, and it makes me want to cry.How can he be so mean one minute and so nice the next?
“Get it all out. This is a good thing,” he says cryptically.
I don’t know what he means by that, and I don’t want to know. He’s an enigma wrapped inside a riddle wrapped inside a paradox. I just don’t think I’ll ever understand him or his motives, and it drives me insane.
After I have nothing left in my stomach and I’m done dry-heaving, I put my hand up, waving him away. It takes him a beat or two,but he actually listens, stepping away while I take a few moments to recover.
Tears fill my eyes as I stare down at my vomit at the side of the road. This was supposed to be a fun night. My first party with my first ever boyfriend. How did it all turn into such a disaster?
