Needing You (11 page)

I wake up screaming and covered in sweat to someone talking to me. What the hell? When I realized what was going on, Tucker is looking at me with a concerned look on his face. “Are you okay Harp? You were having a nightmare,” he says looking worriedly at me.

“I’m okay, sorry about that. I’ll be right back.” I head into the bathroom and turn the cold water on and splash it on my face. I look like a train wreck. Ugh, how attractive that has to look. After I get myself under control, I go back to the living room. 

“Are you okay Harp?” Tucker asked again. 

Of course I’m not okay, I am never okay when I have the nightmares but I won’t tell him that. “Yeah, I’m okay, it was just a bad dream,” I say.

“Come here. “ I go and sit beside him on the couch; he puts his arm around me and pulls me to him.  “Harp that wasn’t just a bad dream, you seemed scared shitless, but you are safe now,” he says as he’s pulling me tighter to the side of his body.

“I know, thanks,” is all I can squeak out. 

“How often do you have nightmares?” he asks sympathetically.

“A lot more often than I’d like,” I admit honestly.

Tucker doesn’t say anything, just hugs me a little tighter if that is even possible. Gosh, he smells good.  Before I know it, I fall asleep against Tucker.  I wake up and it takes me a second to realize where I am.  I am snuggled beside Tucker and our legs are intertwined. Oh shit! 

I slowly get my legs unraveled from Tucker’s and then stand up and head to the bathroom.  I relieve myself and then wash my hands and brush my teeth, no one likes morning breath.  I come out of the bathroom to a sleeping Tucker on my couch. I see it’s still early, so I decide to go and grab us some breakfast. I head into the bedroom, throw some other clothes on and grab my bag and head out the door.  I run down to the little café that’s across from campus and get us food and coffees.  I head back and when I enter my apartment Tucker is no longer on the couch, crap did I wake him? Did he leave? Then I hear the toilet flush and realize he’s still here. He comes out a few moments later and has a smile on his face.

“Good morning, I ran and got us breakfast!” I say with a smile on my face.

“Good morning, smells delicious,” he says. I hand him his coffee and then pull the food out. I grab silverware and head to the table to lay out the buffet of food.  I wasn’t sure what he liked so I got pancakes, French toast, eggs, and sides of bacon, sausage, and hash browns.  This way he has his choice. 

“What did you do buy one of everything?” he asks with a laugh.

“I wasn’t sure what you like,” I say, and he doesn’t stop laughing. “Oh shut up and just eat,” I say and that shuts him up. 

“Fine, what do you want to eat?” he asks being nice, like always.

“I’ll eat anything, go ahead and pick, you are my guest after all,” I say with a smile on my face.

“Okay, I’ll eat the pancakes then,” he says.  I hand him the pancakes with butter and syrup and then I go ahead and pick up the eggs and sausage with some hash browns. He reaches back and grabs some bacon with a big smile on his sexy lips.
Yum
.

We eat and have small talk.  I never had a guy spend the night before and though nothing happened it was nice to wake up to someone being there.  I can’t believe I was able to fall back asleep so easily.  But I hate the fact that Tucker had to witness one of my nightmares and I know him well enough to know he’s going to bring it up soon.

After we finish breakfast, I put the food we didn’t eat in the fridge and the rest in the trash.  We head into the living room to deal with the inevitable.  I can see the look on Tucker’s face to know he’s going to ask about the nightmares.

As I sit on the end of the couch, he starts, “Look Harp, I am not going to ask you about your nightmares, but I hope in time you can share with me what they are, we can deal with that in time.”

I feel dumbstruck right now, as much as I thought he was going to ask about it, he surprised me yet again.  “Thank you,” is all I can say.

I look at the time and realize I need to get ready for my first class which starts in twenty minutes.  Before I can say anything Tuck beats me to it, “I need to go home and get ready; I have class at 9 a.m. today.”

I smile and say, “Yeah me too.”  I walk Tucker to the door and before he leaves, “Tucker, thank you for yesterday and for last night.”

He smiles sweetly and says, “I had fun, we will do this again soon.” Then he places a kiss on my forehead and heads out the door.  What a sexy man!

I head inside and grab a quick shower, throw on some comfy clothes and head out to class. 

Chapter 13

The week flies and I hung out with Tucker a few times, but with classes resuming they are taking up all my time with homework and papers. I worked two shifts during the week and Tucker ended up working his jobs as well, so we haven’t had to talk about our pasts yet, which I am completely fine with.  I haven’t had any more nightmares thankfully, but I know they will come when I least expect them.

I don’t work until Saturday so Tucker mentioned about hanging out Friday after classes.  Other than that, we hung out a few times for lunch but that’s about it.  The professors packed on the homework after Spring break and it’s kicking my butt. I’m studying my ass off though so I still have good grades, but I cannot afford to let my grades slip.  I need my scholarship and I will make sure I get the grades I want. (Which of course are A’s).

Tomorrow is Friday and though I have some pain in the ass tests today in two of my classes, I am looking forward to the weekend.  I need a few days away from homework and classes.  The afternoon flies by but that’s because of my tests, before I knew it, I am heading out the door of my last class for the week.  I leave the classroom and see Tucker standing there waiting for me.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey, how was your test?” he asks walking towards me. He’s always a gentleman, at least to me! 

“Hard, but I’m pretty sure I passed it,” I say with a smile on my face.

“I’m sure you did, you’ve been studying for it all week,” he says with a little laugh. “You ready to go?”

“Sure!” I am so thankful this week is over.

We head out of the building to the parking lot and start to make our way toward my dorm building.  As we enter my dorm, Tuck turns and says, “So there is a party at my frat house tonight; we don’t have to go, but wanted to give you a choice if you didn’t want to stay in tonight,” he says a bit nervously. 

“Oh okay, well we can go if you want. I can’t say I have ever been to a frat party but it could be fun,” I say easily enough.  Okay so I am a little nervous about drunken college guys and groping hands, but Tucker will be there, so I know things will be okay. 

“We don’t have to go, I just wanted to let you know,” he said with a concerned look on his face.

The more I think about it, if we go then we don’t have to talk about our dreaded pasts. The party is looking more and more appealing by the minute.  “No we should go; it is your fraternity anyway.  You shouldn’t miss one of your own parties,” I say with a smile.

“Okay, but Harp whenever you want to leave you just say so and we’ll go alright? I know some of the guys can get pretty rowdy and out of hand,” he says looking at me with a concerned look.

“Sounds good, what time should we leave?” I ask because clearly I haven’t gotten a clue. 

“We have a while, we can get something to eat and hang out and then head over,” Tucker says sweetly.

So that’s what we do, we hang out at my dorm for a while then head out to grab some grub then head to the party.  It’s only going on 9 p.m. but dang if these people aren’t drunk already.  We walk into the crazy packed house and people are yelling in every direction and the music is pumping loud.

Tucker turns and asks, “Do you want something to drink?”

“Sure, I’ll just take a beer,” I say. Okay, so just because I don’t have friends doesn’t mean I haven’t drunk. I can hold my own pretty well. One of the things I was able to do at my parents’ house.  The house was always stocked, so drinking because my escape for a few years.

The look on Tucker’s face showed he was surprised by my choice, but he just shrugs and heads into what I assume is the kitchen.  I glance around and watch the slurring bunch of drunks around me that are trying to dance on the made up dance floor.  At least they are having fun right?  I just smile and say hi to the people that say hi to me.  Tucker returns a few minutes later with an unopened beer in his hand and when he hands it to me, “Harp, don’t take a drink from anyone unless it’s me,” he says with a serious look on his face.

“Okay,” I say. He pops the top off for me and I take a nice swig of it. Definitely had better, but I know it could be much worse.

“You’ve drank before?” Tucker says after I take my nice size sip.

“Yeah, hasn’t everyone?” I say slightly embarrassed. No need for him to think I’m a drunk or anything. I haven’t drank in quite a while, but that’s mainly because I don’t know anyone who could get it for me and I haven’t had the nerve to ask Eddie since I am underage. 

“You surprise me Harper Lane!” he says smiling.

Next thing I know, people are yelling Tuck’s name left and right and he is pulled in a bunch of different directions. I don’t know anyone at this party but that’s not surprising because I’m not friends with anyone. I decide to walk around and get another beer because I finished the first one a little too fast, but who cares, I’m here to have fun right?

As I head to the kitchen to get another beer, I see Tucker. I start to head in his direction but stop because he’s not alone. The perky brunette is hanging on his arm and whispering in his ear. She is showing a lot more skin than I ever would and she flaunts what she’s got. By looking at her, she looks like the type of girl that Tucker would date. Both are amazing good-looking people.  What was I thinking coming here with him?  I am just a plain Jane that’s messed up.  I decide I’ve seen enough when the brunette plants her lips right on Tucker’s lips. I make my way into the kitchen, grab a beer, pop the top and take a nice long sip, and then I grab another beer so I don’t have to make a trip back in here to get another one.  

The house is crazy loud and I see a door off the side that leads to the back of the house.  I decide I might as well get some fresh air. I head out and the backyard is packed full of more drunken college kids. Some are making out on the grass, others are passed out on the lawn and I also saw a girl puking her guts out, gross. I head in the opposite direction of the puking girl and see a fire going so I sit in one of the chairs surrounding the fire. There are not many people by the fire but it’s relaxing.

Next thing I hear is, “Hey there beautiful, how are you doing tonight?” I look over and see a clearly drunken idiot, but whatever, “I’m good thanks.” He sits right beside me almost falling off the lounge chair which had me almost spit my drink out, it’s absolutely hilarious.  Some people just cannot handle their alcohol.

He tried to have a conversation with me, but he’s clearly too drunk.  By the time I’m annoyed by the slurring stupidity of this guy, I already finished the two beers I had.  So I decide I might as well get another one. 

I head back inside and grab another beer, pop the top and take another swig.  The beer tastes much better now, thank goodness.  I don’t see Tucker anywhere but I’m not surprised, he’s probably off giving her exactly what she wants.  Okay so yeah I’m a little jealous, how can I not be?  But we aren’t anything but friends, so I can’t get mad. I have no right or claim to him. 

I head into the living room and see the amount of drunks on the dance floor has almost tripled.  I take a seat in the corner and watch the craziness that is going on before my eyes. That’s when a new guy comes and sits beside me.
Great, more drunken conversation.
 

“Hi, I’m Mark.” Mark holds his hand out to shake mine, so I shake his hand.

“I’m Harper.” Mark doesn’t appear to be drunk like the others.

“I haven’t seen you around here before, are you new here or visiting someone?”  He asks looking curious.

“I go here, I started in January,” I say. Then he stops and looks at me like he’s thinking.

“Wait, I know you from somewhere.”  Great, what a good pick up line, so not what I want to hear. Before I get the chance to say anything he starts in, “You work at PowerTrip’s right?” 

Ahh, so he saw me working now it makes sense. Not a pick up line good to know. “Yes I do work there.”

“I thought you looked familiar. Well welcome to the party tonight.  I’m in this fraternity and probably the only one that’s sober,” he says with a light laugh.

“Yeah I think you may be the only sober one by the looks of it,” I say with a slight laugh.

We have mindless conversation about this and that and then I ask, “Hey have you seen Tucker around?” 

He looks at me, “You’re not his type.” What the hell does that mean? Not his type? What?

“Excuse me?” I say with an irritated tone to my voice.

Mark looks at me, “No offense Harper, you seem like a nice girl but Tucker has a certain type of girl he goes for and though you are a beautiful girl, you’re not the type Tucker hangs out with for a night,” he says like it’s no big deal.

I am still dumbfounded at the words that are coming out of this guy’s mouth. So I know I am not the most gorgeous girl in the world and yes I have boobs and curves, but I never thought there was something wrong with me. Not in the looks department anyway. I don’t know what to say so I just shake my head and chug the rest of my beer.

I’ve been at this party for over two hours and have not seen or heard from Tucker. Wow, maybe he’s not such a great guy after all.  All of a sudden Mark hands me an unopened bottle of beer. I hadn’t even realized he disappeared.  I open the beer and down its contents.  It’s been a while since I’ve drank and I can say I am starting to feel something.

Mark turns away and comes back and sits beside me handing me two more beers. “I figured I better get you two since you cleared that last one pretty damn fast.” He has a stupid smile on his face and I want to knock it right off of him, but I would never do that.