Babydoll

Chapter Three- The Afterparty

A throbbing headache, Cartier awoke in unfamiliar clothes and a room as dark as night. Unsure as to where she had been or how she had gotten there, she began to feel the space around her before her fingertips met with the feeling of warm skin beside her. Pulling backwards she quickly came to understand that the figure beside her was not Jared and was instead, his notoriously dangerous and mysterious brother; a detail known via the strong scent of his cologne. With a bare back facing her and the lack of clothing upon her own body, Cartier feared the worst. 

Sliding from the luxurious sheets, she disappeared into the bathroom before awaking her bedfellow, only coming upon it after fumbling over a pair of thick boots, a set of books, and entering two closets instead of the bathroom itself. When finally finding solace in this bathroom, Cartier pulled herself to the mirror to find a horrible appearance looking back at her. Her once high ponytail was now half up and half down and the makeup that was once on her face was now on her hands and cheeks from having run down her face. But the worst detail had been the fact she was wearing Dominick's shirt and absolutely nothing else. 

"Are you alright, babydoll?" a voice made her jump in place as she quickly wiped off the excess makeup and allowed her hair to fall loose down her shoulders. Without a verbal answer, Dominick spoke again, this time, finding the door to open in consolation of a verbal answer. 

"What the hell happened last night?!" She questioned in an attempt to remain calm, but speaking with a deep frustration that broke through this try. 

"It is a pity you don't remember…" he ran his hand through his thick black hair before looking back at her. "You are quite a lot of fun after you have had a lot to drink…." He spoke to her before picking up her panties by the edge of his pointer finger. Turning crimson immediately, she brought them back into her own possession before growing angry at him. 

"What the f**k happened last night?! I came to Jared's family cabin and...started drinking…" while speaking these words, she began to relive the night before...

"This isn't sparkling water is it?" Cartier asked Jared before he denied it and poured the remaining contents of a Jack Daniel's bottle into her red solo cup. Tipping it towards her boyfriend, she then chugged the few ounces presented to her. A few mutual friends gathered around them cheered to this action as she then ventured towards the main living space of the cabin to join the party. 

The sound of Bebe Rexha's latest upbeat hit vibrating the space around them, Cartier pushed her way through the entire crowd before claiming a seat on the couch upon the far back wall. Adoring the photographs of Jared during his youth, alongside two other brothers who barely resembled him, she was interrupted by the sight of one of her supposed friends. 

“So who was the guy on the bike?” She asked, desperate to know the identity of her mystery rider. Usually a people pleaser, Cartier was frustrated with her ‘friends’ only coming to her to attain or deliver gossip. Because of this, she turned and looked to her peer before delivering a glare to her. 

“Don’t you have one of the Hilton’s sisters asses to kiss or is the Jenner sisters…” The target of her comment scoffed before lifting herself up from the couch, turning back to Cartier to speak the final word. 

“The only reason you are even popular is because you f**k Jared...Which from what I hear isn’t even that great…” Flicking her eyebrow to Cartier, she then turned on her five-thousand dollar pair of shoes before leaving Cartier to her comment. Although at the beginning of what would be a long intoxication, she was unable to understand if the words spoken had been genuinely spoken by Jared or created in defense of the response she made first. 

Unable to learn this at this exact moment, Cartier focused her attention on Jared who was across the party, his eyes focusing on her as she began to advance to him. Pulling his arm forward, she led him towards the bedroom before one of his friends commented on how she was ‘insatiable’. Misled in believing he was going to have s*x, Jared entered the private room they occupied as their own with his belt undone, before she turned to look at him in surprise. 

“What? We aren’t going to fu-”

“No!” She interrupted him before he could finish his question. 

“Then can I get back to McCormick and Danny?” He asked as he went to move her away from the door before she brought her hands to his chest and pushed him gently across the room. 

“Did you tell people I was bad in bed?” His eyes shifted to the side before meeting back with her own. “Why did you have to talk about it at all?!”

“We have waited for years and I had Danny telling me how Melanie gives him head before practice and McCormick getting handies before his shifts at the game store and I just-”

“Do you understand what that does to my reputation? That was a moment that should have stayed between us!” She spoke, brave with the alcohol having forced these words from their otherwise locked location. “It wasn’t exactly like it was something to brag about…” His eyes narrowed to her. “But I didn’t go tell everyone about it!”

“You’re just pissed off because you didn’t come!” Her eyes now glared at him as she responded; “I’m pissed off because my boyfriend of two years screwed me and left me to cry in the shower for over an hour to go hang out with his friends! You have this misconception in your mind that I’m going to be around for the next four years just because we go to the same college-”

“What are you saying?!” He asked angrily. “Do you want to dump me?”

“I just want some time.”

“Fine, take all the time you need because as far as I’m concerned, we’re done! McKinley Robinson has been wanting to get with me for the last three years and I turned her down for you!”

“Comparing me to the school w***e is not exactly doing anything to improve the point.” Cartier spoke while rolling her eyes. 

“What about Sarah Ryland?” Cartier froze, the name belonged to that of her closest friend. “She has been texting me for months, asking me if she thinks you and I will make it after high school. She has been sending me pictures of what I am missing out on and I did it for you!”

“Consider yourself free range then…”

“Good!” He yelled before moving past her, slamming the door behind him and leaving her to fathom the gravity of what had happened. She was now single, twenty four hours after giving her virtue to her now ex-boyfriend. Her heart broke and her stomach twisted into a thick knot, one she wished to undo by drowning herself in as much alcohol as she could consume. 

“So how exactly did I end up here with you, naked?” Cartier asked as Dominick played with his bottom lip before smirking to her. 

“You were in the backyard of the cabin, having stripped off all of your clothes and were skinny dipping.” Her mouth dropped open as she began to remember the night in fractured detail. 

“What are you doing?!” Dominick called to her as she removed every article of clothing and allowed the tepid water to soothe her aching skin. Turning with a large smirk upon her face, she began to sashay towards him, caring little for the fact she had been nude. “You are going to get yourself sick…” He spoke as she now stood before him, wrapped in the moonlight and dripping with the lake’s water falling from her tan skin. 

“Why don’t you join me?” She asked upon bringing her fingers to his jacket in an attempt to remove it from his body. But his hands took hold of her wrists before she was able to accomplish this task. 

“Have you found the sparkling water again?” he teased as she glared playfully at him. 

“No...this is from two shots of vodka, three beers, a few cocktails..and…” She trailed off before falling faint in his arms, the excitement having finally exhausted her. 

“I put you in my shirt, and put you to bed immediately….” He answered her as she looked curiously at him now standing before her in modern time. “You woke up sometime in the night crying about Jared and asking what you had done...You didn’t want to be alone and so I stayed with you…” She fought a smile from forming on her face from his words as she was able to recall these details as well. 

“Normally, a girl would say ‘thank you’...” He teased her as he moved away from her, her eyes following his every movement as the lights around her were now illuminated in the room, a detail she neglected to notice during her huffing. Her gaze outlined his physique-learning quickly that he took great care in his appearance, but also wore a few tattoos that were covered up before she was able to note what they had been. “We should get you some breakfast and then get you home...I’m sure your parents are missing you…” Her head hung low to this comment. 

“They can’t wait to be rid of me…” She confessed, not meaning to speak such a comment out loud but allowing Dominick yet another insight into her glass house of a life. 

“Then how about just breakfast?” She lost against the smile building upon her expression before nodding and following him to the kitchen, feeling excited to be in his presence yet again, as fate seemed to keep her here.