Free Tipsy by Cambria Hebert Page B

spray rushed out into the space between us. The man
yelled, caught off guard, and slapped a hand over his eyes. I
sprayed him some more as he stumbled forward.
    I rushed past him, still holding on to
the hairspray, going for the stairs. I was NOT the kind of idiot
girl in the movies who ran farther into the house. I was headed for
the freaking front door.
    The man, now sputtering, turned and
grabbed the hem of my shirt and pulled me backward. I stumbled
forward and would have fallen right down the stairs, but he yanked
me away.
    My hands flew out to protect myself
from falling and the can of hairspray rolled down the
steps.
    “ Shit,” I grunted and I
rolled onto my back, twisting away from his grasp. He released me
but then reached down for me again.
    I screamed and struck out with my last
remaining weapon. A pink razor. Hey, if it could tame the hair on
my legs, then it could take out an attacker.
    I pushed the blade down on his hand and
pulled back the handle.
    “ Fuck!” he yelled, jerking
away.
    I fell back on the carpet, breathing
hard. He was hunched over his poor razored hand, and I drew my foot
back to kick him.
    “ Shit, Julie. It’s
me!”
    My foot paused in midair.
    The hall light flipped on.
    Blue stood over me with a look of
pained frustration on his face. I lay there stunned. He was the
last freaking person I expected to see. In fact, if asked to guess
who would be more likely to be in my home in the middle of the
night, Blue or a burglar, I would not have chosen Blue.
    Maybe I was a lot drunker than I
thought.
    “ Blue?” I asked
tentatively.
    His gaze dropped a little lower than my
face, and I realized I still had my foot raised in the air… and I
wasn’t wearing pants.
    Well, shit.
    I jumped to my feet quickly, letting
the oversized shirt fall to my knees.
    “ Is that a razor?” he asked,
blinking at the handle clutched in my hand.
    I nodded dumbly.
    He lifted his hand, which was bleeding
freely, and looked at it, then back at me. “You gouged my hand with
a pink razor,” he said, almost like he was talking to
himself.
    Then he blinked his eyes and wiped at
his face. “Did you spray me with hairspray?”
    “ What did you expect?” I
said irritably. “You broke into my house.”
    He sighed dramatically. “I needed to
see you.”
    Okay, those five little words
completely made my stomach turn over. Butterflies erupted and
caused my insides to tremble.
    Those feelings coupled with the
adrenaline, the alcohol, and the fear were not a good
combination.
    I slapped a hand over my mouth and
rushed back through my room and into the bathroom, where I fell to
my knees in front of the toilet and proceeded to hurl.
    Gah, throwing up was like the grossest
thing ever. And the sounds my body made… It was like a tiny alien
was crawling its way out of my body and torturing me in the
process.
    My back heaved and pain sliced through
my sides. My body was so desperate to get rid of everything that
was bothering it that my heaves were violent.
    I felt someone crouch behind me and
sweep my hair off my face. The cool air that brushed over my neck
felt blissful.
    “ It’s okay,” Blue whispered
rubbing his palm in slow circles across my back. My body relaxed
beneath his touch. I would have been angry at my body’s response if
I wasn’t feeling so lousy.
    After my stomach emptied its entire
contents and a cold sweat had broken out over my skin, I finally
stopped heaving. My body was utterly exhausted and I just wanted to
collapse. I sat back away from the toilet and my body slid toward
the floor.
    Blue was there and he lifted me up into
his arms and carried me gently into the bedroom and walked toward
the bed.
    “ What the hell happened to
your bed?” he asked, eyeballing the heap of covers in the
center.
    “ I was asleep when you broke
in,” I muttered.
    He shoved the blankets aside and laid
me down. “How much did you drink tonight?” he asked, gently pushing
a damp strand of hair off my cheek.
    I