Touch of Innocence

27

When they arrived back in Hadley's dorm room, Hazel was still asleep in the same position as she was when they left.

Clay was not waiting for her to wake up though. He wanted answers. He wanted her to explain her actions from the previous night.

"Hazel," he said as he stood next to her bed. She didn't wake up.

"Hazel!" He yelled, his loud voice reverberating throughout the room. Hazel flinched and turned around to look at Clay. She looked at him with her eyebrows pinched up, confused why he was yelling.

Her hair was a wild mess and the lipstick she wore coated her cheeks and chin. "What?" She asked groggily.

"Get up."

Her eyes connected with Clay's, and as quickly as possible in her sluggish state, she sat up from her bed and pulled her hair out of her face. His position as the prince in the royal family affected her, regardless of the fact that she was Hadley's best friend.

"Do you remember anything from last night?" Clay asked her as she slowly looked between him and Hadley.

Hazel thought back to the night before. She couldn't remember much. Her mind was in a haze. She knew she and Hadley had gone to a party. She'd gotten drunk and Hadley wanted to leave. That was all she could recall. The memories from the previous night stopped after Hadley told her she wanted to go home.

"We went to a party." Her voice was scratchy as she spoke.

"Do you know what happened at the party?" Hadley asked.

"I got drunk."

"Anything else?"

"No that's all I remember. Why? What happened? How did I get back here?" Hazel's mind was spinning. She wanted nothing more than to shut the lights off and go back to sleep. Instead, she was being interrogated for something she couldn't remember by her best friend and her boyfriend.

"You were acting weird last night, Hazel," her friend said.

"What was I doing?"

"You were dancing on top of the counter in front of all these guys. And then you jumped down and started kissing all of them and dancing on them."

"I did?" She asked, her eyebrows pulling up in confusion. That isn't something I would normally do, she thought to herself.

"Yes, you did," Clay confirmed. His eyes were angry as he looked at Hazel, and she knew she must've done something bad for him to be there, bearing down on her.

"What did I do?"

"You broke Hadley's fingers last night. She was trying to help you, and instead of accepting your good friend's help, you pushed her and she fell, breaking her fingers. Then you mocked her and told her to leave."

Hazel's face was already pale but grew whiter at Clay's words. She had broken Hadley's fingers. How? She'd never hurt someone before.

"Hadley... I'm sorry. I don't remember much from last night so I can't... I don't even know how to apologize."

Hadley wasn't sure how to feel about the situation. Hazel had been drunk and was not in the proper state of mind, but similarly, the way she acted was unacceptable. Hadley had never been violent when she was drunk. She'd never attacked Clay and spewed hurtful words to him.

"You should thank her," Clay said.

Hazel looked between them, confused. "For what?"

"After you broke her fingers and shouted at her to leave, she came back for you to make sure no one had tried to take advantage of you in your drunken state. She saved you from being raped."