BROKEN AND SCREWED(Broken_Part One)(49)

CHAPTER TWELVE

My stomach was in knots the entire time in the plane, so when we landed in Vegas, I was barely able to stomach the idea of food. Angie and Justin suggested food, but I shook my head and they grabbed something on the way from a food cart. It didn’t take long to get our bags and then we were in the taxi and headed towards Marissa’s hotel. As we got closer to the Tropicana, my heart was pumping louder and louder. I couldn’t believe Angie or Justin hadn’t heard it.
When the taxi got to the hotel and we walked into the lobby, Marissa and Eric were waiting for us. She jumped up and down, waving her hand. As she lifted her arm each time, her white dress inched down a centimeter with each wave. As we started in their direction, she grabbed Eric’s hand and dragged him towards us. We were met halfway. Marissa kept bouncing up and down, hugging each of us. When all of us had been greeted, she repeated the process and repeated it again.
“You’re here! You’re here.” Marissa clapped. “Yay, yay!”
Eric looked green around his mouth. He held a hand to his stomach, but tried for a smile. “Hey, guys.”
Angie’s eyebrows went high. “And she’s drunk.”
Justin chuckled and clapped a hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Been drinking since you got here?”
He nodded, and gulped for breath. His cheeks swelled suddenly.
Justin’s laugh grew in volume. He swatted him once again. “Yep, sounds like Marissa’s influence has done its job. Good job.”
Eric jerked forward, clapped a hand over his mouth, paled, and then fled down a hallway.
“Honey!” Marissa followed after him, with clumsier movements.
“Hey!  What about us?”
“Oh.” She put the brakes on and skidded back. A key card was flung at us from her purse before she turned back around. “You’re all in room 5214, right next to us. You’re checked in and everything. I’ll come over in a bit.”
“All of us?”
A distracted wave was her response.            
Angie sighed in disgust. “I can’t believe she did that. We should’ve gotten a suite with three separate rooms. That would be less awkward then.”
“Uh…” Justin glanced at me from the corner of his eye. “Um, honey. We’ll be fine. It’s no problem.”
“No problem?” she seethed. “This is all Marissa’s fault. She called us at the last minute and demanded we all do this, and then she doesn’t think things through. Honey, we’re in Vegas and we can’t—”
Then she stopped and turned to me. Horrified.
The knots in my stomach had dropped like stones, but I swallowed my pride and shrugged. “It’s fine. I can get my own room somewhere.”
“Oh, my God. I am so sorry, Alex. I didn’t mean—” She balled up her fists and pressed them to her forehead. “None of this is going the right way. I can’t believe I said it like that. I’m really sorry, Alex. I really am. I’m mad at Marissa, not you, never you.”
But, I was the problem. And she knew that I knew that. A deep guilt started to settle in when Justin threw his arms around us both and pulled us tight. He squeezed us together and said in a cheerful tone, “No worries, Alex. Me and Ang can have daytime sex if you’re not around.”
“Justin!”
He grinned at me as he was swatted in the back of his head. “I prefer sex during the day anyway, so you’re kind of helping me out here.”
“Shut up, Justin.”
But he hugged us tighter and turned both of us towards the hallway. “Come on, ladies. Let’s go find our room.”