The last thing he remembered about being at the party was a blur. He remembered being surrounded by faces from the silver screen, magazine covers, glamorous ads and the red carpet. Most of them didn’t know who he was, but they seemed to like what they saw, offering him all sorts of favors in exchange for something in return.
Vicky told him to play along, make friends, get along, you’ll be fine. So he did. The flirting was exhausting, but the drinking and the drugs helped him ignore it. He opened his mouth for most of what people threw around that night. That was the end of his memory.
He woke up in an unfamiliar room. It took him a moment to gain clarity, he realized it was already the next day and he was in someone’s bedroom. He jolted on the bed, his head felt like it had been crushed by a truck. He looked around, there were at least five naked people lying around, him being one of them.
“Fuck!” he stood up, wobbled to find something to wear. He counted seven people in that room, all in the nude. Three men, four women. He was on the bed with two women, Amber Stewart was one of them.
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” he found his pants, put them on, his phone was still in his pocket.
He rubbed his face, scratched his head and dialed Vicky.
“Rise and shine, sleepy head!” her voice lightly mocking him.
“What the fuck, Vick? What the hell happened last night?”
She laughed, “A lot … I assume … you really don’t remember agreeing to go back to Amber’s for a little party?”
“Shit!” he was looking for the door. “Why didn’t you stop me? What the fuck, Vick?” he finally got out of the fancy apartment, into the elevator and pressed the button to the lobby.
“Hey, I’m your manager, not your mom … anyways, you were a hot hit last night, I think everyone at the party knows who you are now … I’ll be sending out contracts for more jobs soon.”
“No more parties for me … I’m done with that … shit, I gotta call Charlie … she’s probably wondering where I am,” he pressed his forehead against the elevator door. He was going out of his mind.
“Calm down, Tom … it’s the way things are around here, you just need to get used to it … Charlie won’t hear it from me, I don’t think you should call her until you’re chilled and nice … look, I’m driving right now, talk to you later, ‘kay? Bye.”
His hands were shaking, his mind was racing, what the hell happened? It was the drugs. He didn’t remember any of it, how is that even possible? One of those drugs must’ve knocked him out completely, deleted the most important part of the night. He covered his face, tried to calm himself, he called a cab to go back to his flat and cleaned up.
When he arrived at his flat, he was too occupied with himself that he didn’t see Jeremy as he walked past him.
“Tom!” Jeremy called out.
It startled him, “Hey.” His face was drained of color.
“You okay man?” Jeremy noticed right away.
Tommy looked down, pretended to be looking at his lock and key. “Yeah … just tired.”
“You didn’t come home last night, working?”
He opened the lock to his door, “Yeah … you know how it is,” he lied. He cleared his throat, “Look … umm … I gotta hit the shower before Charlie comes … come by later? We’ll go get some lunch?”
Jeremy looked at him funny, but nodding, “Sure … later then.”
Tommy got in his flat and closed the door, he couldn’t worry about Jeremy’s suspicion of him, he’s got too much to worry about already.
When the water showered over him, he felt stinging pain on his back. He looked over his shoulder at the mirror, there were scratches all over his back. Lipstick stains around his crotch and his penis. “Fuck!” He rubbed himself with soap over and over again. He leaned his face on the glass door of his shower booth, “God … Charlie … I’m so sorry,” he whispered to himself. He had screwed up again. This time, he wasn’t sure Charlie would ever forgive him. If she ever finds out.
His phone rang right after he got out of the shower. It was Amber, the person who got him into the mess, the same person who probably knew what really happened.
“Left without saying goodbye?” she sounded like she had just woken up.
He could still see that dreadful bedroom with seven naked people piled over each other in his head, “What the fuck did you give me last night?”
“Whoaa … feisty much? A blow job is probably one of them … and a long hard cum,” she laughed with a sigh.
“No … damn it, Amber … I mean somebody spiked my drink or something … I can’t remember anything … not a thing!” he was half shouting. The image of her giving him a blowjob hurt his head.
“It was nothing you didn’t like, okay, Tom? You took pretty much anything last night … who knows what was what … too bad you don’t remember anything … it was a really good night, last night, … we should do it again.”
“No! I don’t remember agreeing to anything remotely close to what I woke up to this morning … last night was not consensual, okay? This ends here, Amber.”
She laughed at him, “Are you fucking kidding me? Nobody forced you to do anything, Tom, if you ask me, I think you enjoyed every bit of it,” she exhaled deeply, “I even have a video to prove it.”
It stopped him cold, “What?”
There was a knock on his door, it was Charlie.
“Yeah … and that’s why I know you liked it, Tom, and you will do it again … hell … you’ll be doing a lot of things you want to do,” she laughed again. “Talk to you later, Tom.”
He quickly put on his clothes, doubled it with a sweater, he could never show his body to Charlie, not with what happened, not with scratches on his back. He was going to blame it on the ‘flu’.
“Charlie!” he sounded surprised at the door. He gave her a peck on the lips, not his usual slobbery wet tongue kiss.
“You okay? What time did you come home last night? I called here and got no answer.”
Jeremy came out of his flat just in time for the conversation.
“I … didn’t feel very well, I took some advice and went to sleep,” he gave Jeremy a look to play along.
Jeremy kept quiet.
“Oh you poor thing … are you feeling better now?” Charlie cupped his face with both hands.
“No … not really … I don’t want to give you the bug … but we can get something to eat … are you hungry?”
“Yeah, sure … I just need to use the bathroom first, are you coming with us Jer?” Charlie asked.
“I’m pretty hungry … yeah, let’s go,” he replied.
As soon as Charlie disappeared into the flat, Tommy closed the door to talk to Jeremy in the hallway. “Don’t … not now, okay?” he stopped him from asking.
Jeremy shook his head, “You better have a good explanation, man.”
“Just stay with me today … please … I can’t be alone with her today,” Tommy whispered.
Jeremy stared into his eyes, and saw it, this was something much more serious than he expected.
**********
They barely talked to each other in the restaurant, they both seemed to be somewhere else. Jeremy tried to ignore the uncomfortable silence by telling them about how his night went. Charlie smiled and nodded along.
Tommy was lost in the wilderness of his thoughts. He was fidgeting on his seat, he barely ate his food, “I need to go to the toilet,” he excused himself.
“Did you see him come last night?” Charlie asked straight to Jeremy.
The question caught him off guard, “Not really … why?” he wasn’t entirely lying.
“Because his bed hadn’t been slept on when I went to the bathroom.”
“Oh …” his heart raced, he didn’t know how to respond to that.
“Maybe he slept on the couch,” she said again.
Jeremy nodded in agreement, “He could’ve.”
She raised an eyebrow and shrugged it off, her mind seemed to wander to a different place again.
“You okay? … you seemed distracted?” Jeremy asked.
“Yeah … I’m fine … it’s just …” she needed to tell someone about it, but Jeremy didn’t even know about the photographs. “Nothing …” she took a deep breath, “Would you stay with us? I’m just not feeling like myself today.”
“Sure,” he said. Might as well.