Then nothing.
I don’t spend much time washing, just putting in the good old college try of hitting the hot spots with the bar of soap. It falls from my hand in a loud clatter the second I finish. I had the fleeting thought to ignore my hair, but the memory of puking in it last night is all the motivation I need to push through my exhaustion and reach for the shampoo.
I cry out in pain when my fingers push against a huge goose egg on the side of my head. The shampoo from my hands running down my face and into my eyes as I rinse it off just makes me cry out again.
“Shit, shit!”
I raise up, opening the shower door and jump out to grab a towel. When I’m standing in front of the mirror, I turn my head and move my thick hair out of the way. When I part my hair, I see the painful bump I had felt in the shower as well as a small cut in my scalp. That explains the headache, I guess.
I rush out of the bathroom and start searching for my phone. It takes me a few failed attempts, but I finally find it tossed behind the couch, just inside the front door. I fumble with the stupid thing before pressing the right prompts and holding it to the uninjured side of my face.
“Someone had better be dead,” Nikki grumbles in greeting.
“How did I get home last night?” I breathlessly ask.
“Ember?”
“Nikki!” I yell, closing my eyes when a pain shoots through my head. “How. Did. I. Get. Home.”
“Uh, you’re freaking me out, Em.”
“I’m freaking myself out!” I scream. This time, my head doesn’t just give a burst of pain. Now, I feel a joining wave of nausea.
“Levi dropped you off. Well, we dropped you off. After you got sick and passed out, I kind of went a little nuts and threatened to cut off his balls if he didn’t take you right home. I figured he was over it when we got to your house. Seth was pissed about how Levi was acting, but he got your door unlocked and Levi carried you in.”
“I don’t remember any of this,” I tell her. “Did you come in too? Or just Levi and Seth?”
“Seth made me stay in the car. I think he was worried about Levi going off the handle because I got a little lippy and wanted to keep me away from him. He just unlocked the door and came back to wait for Levi. You scared the shit out of me, though. I know you need your migraine meds and your bed when they get that bad. I just had to make him listen.”
“Did you take Bam with you?” I ask, still trying to figure out how I’m missing a huge chunk of last night.
“No, why would I take that beast with me?”
“I can’t find him. I can’t find him, and I don’t remember anything. On top of all that, I’ve done something to my head and I CAN’T FIND BAM!”
I hear her move around, the groaning of Seth complaining before she speaks. “I’m on the way.”
I hang up, drop to the couch, and look around my living room.
“What the hell is going on?” I ask the empty room.
I must have zoned out, or passed out is more like it, because the next thing I know, I have a frantic Nikki banging on the front door and screaming my name. By the time I was able to pull myself from the couch, she must have remembered she had a spare key and she was bursting into the door.
“Joe Jonas on a stick!” she screams, bringing a smile to my face. She loves using Jonas’s name in vain. “You scared the ever-loving shit out of me, Emberlyn Locke!”
I look up at her, hair wild and frizzy just sticking out in a million different directions, as she stares down at me. My head is still spinning, but I managed to sit and lean forward on the couch. My elbows propped on my knees and my head hanging between my legs.
“I found Bam,” she tells me, bending down so that she’s at eye level with me. “He’s limping a little but seems fine. He was tied to the back fence. Why would you tie him to the fence?”
“This makes no sense, Nik. You know I would never do that. I just woke up, and it’s like a whole chunk of my night is gone.”
She looks at me, worry flashing in her eyes. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“The ride home. I remember the ride home, throwing up, the car door hitting me …” I trail off and reach behind my head and feel another, smaller knot on the back of my head from where the door slammed me. “I have a bump from when he took off after I was sick, but where did I get this one?” I question her, feeling my eyes go wild as I push my head up, grabbing her hand and pushing it gently into my hair so she can feel the larger bump.
“Holy Madonna.” She gasps, reaching forward and poking around the injured skin. My head jerks away from her touch instantly. “Em, that didn’t happen when you were with me.”
I just look at her, and I can tell by the scared look in her eyes that we’re both thinking the same thing.
Levi.