Exotic

~ morning after pt. ii ~

Soft morning light peeked through the curtain and tickled at my throat, coaxing my eyes open. It immediately turned on me, burning my retinas and knocking me out of my cocoon amongst the couch pillows. I hit the floor like a sack of flour.

Hangover. It had been a while since I'd suffered one so all-encompassing. I groaned, pushing myself up like a seal and dragging myself back to my makeshift bed like a sun-deprived lizard. My legs bumped the coffee table, which rattled a glass that had been set there the night before. There was two aspirin next to it, still in their foil packaging. I would have thanked drunk Miles if I had ever known him to be so considerate.

Sitting on the floor, I downed the cure and focused on not throwing up my empty guts all over the carpet. My knees hit my chin as I folded myself up, and tried to work up the courage to face the day.

By the time Officer Bloom had sent us home, I'd been nearly falling over in exhaustion. She'd given us her number and several assurances of follow-ups and rapid turnarounds and results. Zsa Zsa's report had made an optimist out of her, it seemed. Reece and Aaron gave statements from the respective nights they'd witnessed the aftermath of Peter's violent temper. There had been more questions, and photographs; I had stood half-exposed in a bare grey room as my torso and aching jaw were documented, shivering and anxious. I'd swallowed down my nausea just long enough to get out to the street, and then I'd thrown up again next to the car.

"I can take him to my place," Aaron had said to Reece coldly. Zsa Zsa had also been giving my guardian a wide berth, expression flat and wary. There had been little time for introductions, but he knew all my stories.

Reece had ultimately left the decision up to me. Conflicted, I compromised by asking Aaron to drive me to my house. I'd phrased it like I needed to see Zsa Zsa home, but really, I was too tired to deal with any more conversation with Reece. However, I desperately wanted to sleep under my own roof, for familiarities sake. Aaron agreed in a heartbeat.

After Reece had driven away, the first thing I did was embrace Zsa Zsa. "You didn't have to come here."

"Of course I had to," he gripped me back with one arm, the other still occupied with his crutch. He pulled me, back, his face stricken with concern. "Babe, if I'd thought for a second he would lay a finger on you, I would have crawled to the station that night. I was such an idiot to think Saturday was a one-time thing for him. He could have..."

I shook my head, cutting him off. "Thank you. Thank you. I know you didn't want to, I wouldn't have asked you..."

"You wouldn't have had to," he reeled me back in for a hug. "Thank fuck you're okay. Fuck. If the police don't lock him up, I'm going to kill him myself."

I let myself be held. Zsa Zsa had been terse with Officer Bloom, terser still with the male officer who had joined her to take further notes. He'd been visibly uncomfortable stripping down to allow photos of his healing body. I'd held his hand through as much of it as they'd let me. Zsa Zsa'z recount of his experiences over the last few weeks with Peter had been hard to listen to; I could only imagine what it had been like for him to relive them. When the male officer had asked why Zsa Zsa hadn't reported his assault earlier, when officers had visited him in hospital, his jaw had set in a tense line; Aaron had answered for him.

"Because of being asked stupid, pejorative questions like that," he stated, glaring daggers into the man until he loosened his tie and coughed nervously. Officer Bloom had taken over from that point, and Zsa Zsa had been more responsive to her no-nonsense approach. She'd told us that she was confident they could make an arrest that night. While a trial would be long and drawn out, she could file temporary restraining orders for us both in the interim; a VRO for both of us that would bar Peter legally from setting foot near us, including our place of work and half a kilometre around it, effectively locking him out of the inner club district and Crescendo. His workplace would also be informed of what he was standing trial for.