New York: Allie's War, Early Years

Like floating. Swimming through a golden ocean of light...

"Allie, come on," the voice coaxed. "I'm getting really hungry, baby...I want you to come downstairs with me."

I opened my eyes for longer that time.

A familiar face hung over mine. His blue eyes softened when I looked up at him. Smiling back, I rubbed my face, stretching a little. My arms hurt, like someone had been playing tug a war, using my body as the rope. It was hard not to want to go back to that other place. It felt so familiar, wherever it was, but it was slipping away from me already.

"What time is it?" I managed, stretching again.

"Ten," he said, glancing at the night table by the bed. He pulled the covers up, wrapping his arms around me. When I let my body go soft, he pulled me tighter against him. "...Aren't you hungry, baby?"

"A little."

"Want some coffee?"

I smiled. "Do you even need to ask?"

He caressed my hair out of my face, and I blinked up at him again, smiling more.

"Is it a problem that I don't remember coming back here last night?" I said.

He grinned a little. "I'm not surprised...you were pretty tanked, Allie-girl."

"Really?" I frowned, trying to remember. I remembered the shots with Cass, then not a lot after. "I didn't do anything too embarrassing, did I?"

"You mean other than leaving the club before my band started? Disappearing for like ten hours then being brought back here by that cop? Making us all go through interrogation because he was half-convinced you were on some kind of illegal drug?"

"What?" I opened my eyes, suddenly wide, wide awake. "What did I do?"

Jaden chuckled, kissing my face. "It's okay, baby. You needed to blow off some steam. You'll probably need to patch things up with Jon, though...he was pretty pissed."

I was still fighting to remember though, unable to believe I'd literally lost hours of my life, without so much as a flickering of helpful, if embarrassing, snippets.

I stared at my wrists, seeing the red marks around them, which were rapidly turning into bruises.

"A cop?" I said. "Was I in handcuffs?"

"Yeah," Jaden said, brushing my hair back again. "I don't think he roughed you up, though. He said you fought him, resisted arrest..." He smiled a little, shrugging. "He seemed all right. A little uptight, but it could have been a lot worse. He'd found you by the park. Thank goodness you at least remembered the name of our hotel, or we'd probably have gotten stuck picking you up at the drunk tank...assuming we even found you..."