I couldn’t quite wrap my head around anything the two of them were going on about. I felt so numb that I could not manage a single coherent thought until I registered the next few words out of Axel’s mouth.
“He should be along any minute now, I am sure he can explain his own life.”
“What do you mean any minute? Don’t you mean Sunday night?” OK, now I was pissed.
“No, he should be back from the airport with Heather any minute now. He went down to San Juan to take care of his grandmama and to bring Heather back.”
I could feel the blood starting to boil in my body and I felt my face turning the color of crimson.
“WHAT THE FUCK?! ” I screamed catching the entire party by surprise but I didn’t care. “Who the hell is Heather? You better talk Axel Eugene Mosby or so help me God I am going to tell everyone about that time Jennifer Flowers left you with blue balls and you decided it would be a good idea to.......”
Axel backed away from me a few feet and put his hands up in front of me as if trying to prevent me from kneeing him in the balls. Which I have to admit might make me feel a hell of a lot better.
“WHOA, WHOA WHOA” he loudly cautioned. “OK, don’t say another word. The last thing I need is for the guys to have that kind of ammunition to fire at me. Heather is Ford’s girl, from what I hear they have been going steady since junior year of high school, he proposed to her last Valentine’s day. All the guys participated in it, flowers, balloons, candles the whole shebang.”
I heard Angela utter an “Mm hmm” behind me. I could no longer control the tears I had been so desperately holding back.
“Oh shit” exclaimed Axel. I turned to follow in the direction his eyes were now pointing to find Ford hand in hand with a gorgeous raven haired beauty who I quickly figured out was Heather.
Almost as fast as I took notice of the couple Ford himself took notice of me. Our eyes locked and no matter how much I tried I could not look away from him. Each second we stared at one another caused my knees to grow weaker until finally they buckled and gave out. Luckily Axel was there to catch me, as soon as his arms pulled me back up again Ford was in front of me, leaving Heather standing alone in the doorway.
“Jemma” He reached out for my hand but I stepped away tripping over Axels size thirteen steel toed boot. Ford grabbed hold of both my arms and pulled me closer to him yanking me out of Axel’s grasp.
“That’ll be all, Axel.” He ordered.
“You gunna be alright Jemma?” Axel glared at me with a torn expression on his face. I knew he didn’t want to leave me alone with Ford but at the same time I knew he had no choice if he wanted to secure his spot for the next 4 years as a brother of one of the most prestigious fraternity’s on campus.
“I’m fine Axel; go do what you need to do.” I said never taking my eyes away from Ford. I felt Fords grip tighten around my arms, when I cried out in pain he let me go.
“Jemma I...”
“DON’T Ford!” I firmly barked. “Don’t say anything, you don’t need to. I get it, OK? It wasn’t as if we were dating, you are not my man or anything by any stretch of the word. We fucked, it was good, enough said, good luck on your engagement.” I said.
As I turned to walk away Ford grabbed both of my arms, pulled me around to face him then shoved his lips into mine. I gathered enough strength to push him off of me and slapped him with a force so hard he stumbled backward reaching his hand to rub the tender spot that was now reddened with my handprint.
My body started to shake and tremble, and then tiny noises I barely recognized as mine began to pour out of my mouth. The noises that started off as nothing but small whistles quickly turned into hysterical laughter. Before I knew it Axel and Brea were by my side. I heard Angela mumble something behind me that sounded kind of like “You son of a bitch!” as the two of them escorted me out of the party.
Axel drove Brea and me home, we had taken a Taxi just in case we had a few too many and since he was the designated driver for the evening he was able to excuse himself without incident. By the time we arrived back at the apartment the laughter had stopped and I had turned into more of a zombie than anything. My entire body had gone numb and there was pretty much not a single thought running through my head. It didn’t make any sense but I suddenly felt as if I had lost my entire family, Julian included, all over again. This must have been how Julian felt the night he saved me from Raz, after he realized who I was. It felt like I was drowning in all of the stagnant emotions of my past.
Brea and Axel both helped carry me up the stairs to my apartment. They had to talk my legs into moving because I couldn’t manage that on my own, they didn’t feel like a pair of limbs used to carry a human being, instead they felt like hot cheesy mashed potatoes.