Twice Bitten Read Free Page A

if I lay upon a lush feather bed. The voices echoed upon one another, soon joined by others that sounded alarmed. A cold grimy hand seized my throat, and that’s when I began to awaken, just before Peter spoke.
    “Where am I?” I uttered weakly, trying to raise my head. Somehow I had moved from the floor near our vanity mirror to Tyreen’s bunk bed, directly below mine. Someone had moved me…maybe Peter? But I did black out, so possibly I stumbled there myself.
    “You’re in our room, baby,” said Tyreen, gently. As soon as she spoke, my vision cleared. Her bright green eyes were aglow, perhaps from worry. It made me fear for what I looked like, and I suddenly remembered the miniature crimson rivers trickling down my neck. “It’s okay…it’s okay…Shush-h-h!” She blocked my hand from touching my neck. 
    “Babe, you’re going to be just fine,” added Peter.
    Tyreen deferred to his invasion into my personal space. If not for my disorientation, I wouldn’t have minded his closeness. He was dressed in his favorite tailored suit, and mine too, since it accentuated his powerful upper body. Traditional dark blue, with a burgundy tie. “Just relax, and lay back…. That’s it. Good girl.”
    Normally, I would bristle at that last remark. But, feeling as I did, I gave in and allowed him to baby me.
    “What happened?”
    My question was directed more to my roommate than my boyfriend, who was pulling a blanket up over my arms.
    “Peter found you lying on the floor, by the mirror. When you wouldn’t wake up, he called me on my cell phone,” she said, glancing over at Johnny, who nodded to confirm this.
    “Well, that’s not exactly how it went down, but pretty close,” Peter said, ignoring the sharp look Tyreen shot him. “After you said you were coming to the door, I waited. Then I heard something fall over in your room, and I thought you might’ve tripped on something. Maybe it was a chair or a table. Hell, it could’ve been the shoes you couldn’t find, for all I knew.”
    Honestly, this is one of the things I don’t care for about him…this need of his to over-analyze and over-explain. It can make him seem like an overbearing prick. I think if he’d pay more attention to the reactions of those around him more, he’d figure out when to shut up. Perhaps more of the qualities I do so love about Peter would shine through. More about that later.
    “What time is it, anyway?”
     “Seven-twenty,” said Johnny, his tone devoid of the compassion of his girl, and even more prick-ish than my guy. But at least he had the good sense to defer quickly once Tyreen glared at him, perturbed. No doubt when Peter called her, it ended up interrupting something going on. Something intimate, would be my guess. Both he and Tyreen were dressed in sweats and matching UT sweatshirts that were disheveled, and not what either had on an hour earlier when I last saw them. Besides, they both had that ‘FF’ look in their eyes.
    “You were out for at least an hour,” Tyreen added, still worried. She smiled compassionately at me. 
    I’ve rarely seen a smile that can light up a room like hers. Really, when both she and her man turn it on, they look like frigging movie stars. With her big green eyes, long braids, and soft ebony complexion, she could be Beyonce’s younger sister. She possesses the same husky voice and vivacious curves. Johnny’s chiseled face and ripped physique make him look like any of the young stud rappers these days—especially when he gets a serious look in his soft gray eyes. He’s got a great sense of humor, too…just not so much that night.
    “An hour spent squirming around for the most part,” said Peter, again with this obsessive need to clarify the specifics of what happened. This time, though, I detected sincere worry and compassion in his voice. “I was ready to call the paramedics, but Tyreen stopped me. It looks like she was right, because you did come out of whatever this