Chapter 2-3
1443 Words
“What happened to her?” Lexi asked, reaching her hand and placing it on Chyna’s forehead. A man was holding her limp in his arms. “Is she okay?”
Lexi didn’t even care who the guy was that was carrying her. She was so terrified that she was losing her best friend. How could she let one more terrible thing happen in her life? Hadn’t she suffered enough?
“Do you know this woman?” the man asked, his voice deep and husky.
“Of course I know her. She’s my best friend. What’s wrong with her?”
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. He nodded toward the exit.
Lexi didn’t even think twice. She bolted toward the door. All she could think about was Chyna’s safety. A wave of guilt washed over her as she thought about how she had let her wander off. Had she allowed this to happen? Somehow she couldn’t help thinking that this was partly her fault. What type of person let this happen?
As they reached the door, she felt a hand reach out and grasp her wrist. “There you are.”
Lexi recognized the man who she had been avoiding and nearly cursed a loud.
“Get your hands off me,” she cried.
“Oh come on, baby. Let’s go back to my place.”
She smacked his arm with her free hand, but he was too drunk to even notice.
“Stay the hell away from me,” she yelled, rearing back and kicking him full on in the shin with her high heel.
The guy stumbled backward a few steps directly into a large bouncer dressed head to toe in black.
“You stupid b***h,” the guy yelled.
“Sir, I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the bouncer commanded. He grabbed the obnoxiously drunk man by the shoulder and all but shoved him out the front door.
Lexi couldn’t even take time to consider what had happened because she was too worried about Chyna. She followed the man who was carrying Chyna out the front door of the bar. “Sorry about that. What’s going on?”
“Honestly, I think she’s been drugged. She’s still conscious. I think she needs some looking after and will be better in the morning.”
He set Chyna uneasily back on her feet. She took one step forward giving Lexi the faintest burst of energy and then slumped back into the man’s arms.
“Oh my God! She’s been drugged. Like roofied?” Lexi asked. “How could this happen?”
“Can we get her somewhere safe first?”
“Oh, you’re right. Hold on.”
She punched a number on her cell phone. Less than a minute later, Chyna’s town car was pulling around the corner. Her driver parked and hopped out anxious to see that his beautiful celebutante was all but dead. The two laid her down carefully in the backseat before diving in after her.
“I’m Adam. Sorry about your friend,” he said.
“Lexi. Do you know what happened?”
“I don’t know everything really. She was dancing with some guy. When I finally noticed something was off, he was dragging her out the backdoor. She wasn’t quite this bad then, but she was a mess for sure. I politely told him to back the f**k off or I’d deck him. He didn’t listen,” he explained calmly. “So, I decked him.”
“Wow!” she said. “How did you know she was drugged?”
“My girlfriend…uh, ex-girlfriend,” he said, sighing heavily. “It happened to her a couple months ago. Same signs.”
He shrugged it off as if it meant nothing, but Lexi could see the hurt take over his features. She knew that feeling and could empathize with his pain even if she didn’t know the whole situation.
“Wha…what happened with your girlfriend?” Lexi asked cautiously.
“She was fine. The next morning she had a killer headache, but other than that she was fine.”
“Oh, well, that’s reassuring,” Lexi said.
They fell into silence as the town car took them through the city traffic. Lexi gripped Chyna’s unresponsive hand in her own and prayed that Adam was right. Her friend would be all right by the morning and things would be back to the way they were supposed to be.
“Hey,” Adam said. “Try not to blame yourself.”
“Blame myself?” Lexi squeaked out.
“I did. It doesn’t help. It was a mistake, all right? Nothing you could have done.”
Lexi nodded knowing he was right. There was no way to know that sleaze ball was going to drug her friend. They had been out together a million and a half times and nothing like this had ever happened. What were the chances that tonight of all nights it would happen? That it would ever happen?
When they stopped in front of Chyna’s building, Bernard rushed forward to help them, but Adam insisted that he could handle it. Bernard looked at Lexi skeptically, wondering if it was appropriate to be leaving her with a perfect stranger. Under different circumstances it would have made Lexi laugh that Bernard was concerned about something like that since Chyna brought a whole lot of strangers back here. Tonight was not under different circumstances though.
Adam carried her up to her room and deposited her on the bed. He left the room allowing Lexi to change Chyna into more comfortable clothes. She then tucked her under the covers and left her there to sleep off whatever was in her system.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t take her to the hospital?” Lexi asked anxiously.
“I think she’ll be fine. If I was worried, then I would have already taken her there. I think she just needs to sleep it off,” Adam told her, standing in the middle of the living room rather comfortably.
Lexi was a bit surprised about this since most people who saw Chyna’s extravagance were either amazed or incredibly uncomfortable. “Is there any way we can repay you for what you did?”
“Absolutely not. I would have done the same for anyone,” he reassured her.
“Are you sure?”
“Look if you want to do something for me, then take my number and let me know how she’s doing in the morning. I’d feel like a real d**k if she was really hurt and I didn’t do anything about it,” he said, running his hand through his cropped brown hair.
Lexi smiled for the first time since she had found Chyna in the condition she was in. They exchanged numbers and Lexi showed him out the door.
“Thanks again,” she said before closing the door behind him.
She couldn’t believe the night that she was having, but it really put things in perspective. What if something had happened to her or what if their relationship faltered because of it? Isn’t that what Adam had alluded to in the car? He and his girlfriend had suffered because of this. It wasn’t worth it to wait around and hope that everything was going to be better when so much could come crashing down unexpectedly. She needed to take action.
Falling backward onto the leather sofa, Lexi kicked her heels off and then dug around in her purse for her cell phone. Finding the number she was looking for, she punched the dial button and waited. She didn’t care that it was almost three o’clock in the morning.
“Lexi?” Ramsey’s voice answered, clearly surprised to hear from her. She wasn’t sure where he was, but wherever it was had a lot of background noise.
“What are you doing on Saturday?”
“Hold on one second.” After a minute, Lexi heard the noise die down and his voice come back through the line. “What did you say?”
“What are you doing on Saturday?”
“Um…working probably. Why? What’s up?” he asked, his voice tentative but curious.
“I have to go to an engagement party, because Chyna’s dad is getting remarried. It’s a long story, but I’m supposed to bring a boyfriend, and…I don’t have one.” She heard his breath of relief through the line, which spurred her forward. “Will you go with me?”
Her stomach knotted all over again at the fact that she was actually asking him to do this for her.
“You want me be your boyfriend?” he asked skeptically. She was pretty sure he had never been asked that before.
“I want you to…go to the party as my boyfriend,” she amended.
“Just to the party?”
“You don’t have to. I just, uh…it’s for Chyna. She’s really beat up and she got roofied tonight.”
“What? Is she okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. She’s crashing right now, but I need to make this right for her.”
“I’ll get out of work and be at JFK as soon as I can Saturday,” he said immediately.
“Oh! Thank you,” she said, honestly grateful that she wouldn’t have to search for another guy to go with her.
“Hey Lexi…”
“Yeah?”
“It’s really good to hear from you.”
Lexi smiled to herself. “It’s good to hear from you too.”
“Even if you don’t have everything together, I’m really glad you called.”
Lexi couldn’t help but think how glad she was too.
- Writer
