Midori
woke up the next morning with a pounding headache. Her whole body was stiff and
she felt strange. When she rolled over to look at the clock-11:30- she realized
that she was completely naked under the sheets.
She bolted upright and
looked around the strange room. She knew where she was but how she got there
and, most importantly, who had been there with her, were what she needed to remember
the most. She thought and thought, but the memories wouldn't come to her and,
in her frustration, she began to cry.
She didn't hear the door
to her room open so the sound of A.J.'s voice startled her.
"Dori, baby, what's wrong?" He was leaning in her doorway,
concern etched all over his gorgeous face.
"I can't remember
anything from last night, A.J.!"
"Baby, you were so
tore up last night that I'm surprised you even managed to get up this
early."
"A.J., this is
serious. Don't you notice anything strange?"
"Well," he
asked, walking slowly over to the bed, "when did you get in the habit of
sleeping naked?" Sitting down beside her, he peeked under the sheet
playfully.
Midori just started
crying harder and A.J. finally realized the importance of what Midori was
trying to convey. "Do you mean that somebody...I mean, one of the
guys...Oh, God..." A.J. put his arms around her
and pulled her close as she continued sobbing into his neck.
"Baby, it'll be
okay. Umm, everybody was really drunk last night and..." A.J. was at a
total loss for words. There was no one in the house other than Midori, the
other guys, and him and for the life of him he just couldn't figure out why any
of the other guys would do this. Brian had Leighanne; Kevin's new girl-friend,
Tracey, was getting pretty steady. And from what A.J. could vaguely remember,
Nick, Howie, and Brian had stayed pretty sober the night before. Only Kevin,
Midori, and A.J. had drank past their limit.
"A.J., whoever did
this is gonna be laughing at me now because they'll know I can't remember this.
And I trusted the five of you more than anything.
"You can still trust
me, Dori. You know I wouldn't hurt you," A.J.
whispered into her hair.
"What I hate the
most about it," Dori continued between sniffles,
"is that I waited for nothing. I mean, I was a virgin until last night. I
wanted everything to be so special. I'll never get that back and I can't even
remember who I was with!"
"Shhh, I'm here.
We'll stick together from now on, okay? Everywhere I go, you go. And I'll
follow you around like a stalker. Everything will be fine," he whispered
in an effort to sound convincing. In his mind, though, he was fuming. He would
get to the bottom of this and find out exactly who had hurt Midori.
