The Beautiful Monster

The first sensation that Alyssa could fully grasp was a heavy pounding feeling in her head. It thumped like her heart was trapped up there, but she knew that wasn\'t the case.

She couldn\'t fit both her brain and her heart in there. She had to be imagining things.

She slowly opened her eyes to stare up at a familiar ceiling. She was in her room. Where was she last?

She looked down to see shimmering jewels. Her top looked familiar. Memories soon started flooding back to her.

The crop top. The party. The music. The feeling of falling. Elias.

Alyssa shot up in her bed. Her head rang in protest, drawing a wince from her as she buried her hands in her face.

After a moment, she peered through her fingers to see that her room was dark besides the soft glow of her desk lamp. It looked like it was dark outside.

She didn\'t remember what happened after she felt weird at the party. She must\'ve passed out and somehow ended up in her room.

She didn\'t know how, though. Maybe Zoe somehow got her back here. The whole incident was strange, though. One minute, she felt fine. The next, she was falling out in the middle of the party.

All she knew that she was thirsty. She slowly swung herself out of bed, squeezing her eyes close as a headache pierced her.

She placed one foot down on the cold wood floor and then the other, but it felt different. It felt alive.

Alyssa yelped in surprise as she tripped over a body on her floor. She crashed to her knees and hurriedly crawled out of the way before looking back to see Elias pushing himself to his feet.

"Elias! What are you doing here?" she asked him. She then remembered that she had seen him at the party before she blacked out.

So, she hadn\'t imagined him. He had actually been there.

Elias rubbed his chest, where she must\'ve stepped on him.

"I brought you back to your dorm. I wanted to keep an eye on you, but I must\'ve dozed off," he explained as he dropped his hand from his black t-shirt.

He looked her up and down. "How are you feeling?"

"My head hurts," Alyssa replied as she crossed her arms over her chest. She suddenly felt shy in her outfit.

There was no need to since he already saw her passed out in it, but she still felt a little underdressed than normal. "What happened?"

Elias\' eyes seemed to darken as he narrowed them.

"Someone slipped something in your drink at the party," he said as he walked past her to her fridge.

He pulled out a bottle of water before walking into the bathroom. "Medicine in the cabinet?"

"Yes," Alyssa said. She hardly heard what he said. Her mind was racing. Someone drugged her?

Why would they do that? She felt her heart race as she thought of all the horrible possibilities that could\'ve happened instead of what actually did. Thankfully, she was back in her dorm unharmed.

Elias grabbed her a Tylenol and handed it and the water to her.

"I saw you collapse, so I took you here," he explained.

Alyssa nodded after swallowing the Tylenol and multiple sips of water. She was starting to feel a little better now, but she was still shocked.

She never expected this to happen to her. She knew that it happened from time-to-time, but why would someone want to drug her?

"How did you get me in here? We can\'t have guests after eleven," she asked him as she rushed to check her phone. It was almost three in the morning.

She would be in so much trouble if she was caught with a guest in her room.

"Don\'t worry about it. I took care of it. They knew you needed someone to watch over you," Elias assured her as he stepped close to her.

He gently placed his hand on her upper arm. "Are you sure you\'re okay?"

He actually seemed really concerned. It was strange but nice. On the outside, when he didn\'t smile, he didn\'t look like the most caring person on the planet.

He looked a little dark, nearly mean, but she was pretty sure that was because of his resting face.

It almost looked like a frown and a glare mixed together. But his smile could light up a room.

Alyssa smiled at him and nodded. She was glad that everything was okay now, thanks to him.

"Did you see Zoe? She must be worried sick," she sighed. Thankfully, she remembered that Zoe had put her drink down before even taking a sip.

Hopefully, she hadn\'t picked up another one after that. Someone was trying to drug girls at that party.

"I let her know that you\'ll be okay. I did advise her not to drink anything, though," Elias replied before frowning.

"Those frat boys are scum. They\'re lucky I don\'t know which one did this."

"I shouldn\'t have taken anything from them," Alyssa said with a shake of her head.

She should\'ve known better, but she had wanted the encouragement that the alcohol could give her.

Instead, it made her pass out in front of everyone. She hoped that she hadn\'t made a complete fool of herself.

Elias placed his other hand on her other arm, making her look directly at him.

"None of this is your fault, okay? They shouldn\'t be doing awful things like this. I\'ll get it taken care of," he promised her.

Alyssa gave him a confused look. She wondered how he was going to go about doing that.

The guy that handed her the drink could\'ve been the one to do this, but she wasn\'t sure. She didn\'t want to point any fingers until she was sure.

"Thank you for helping me out. Sorry if I ruined your night," she told him sheepishly.

She didn\'t think that a frat party was his type of scene, but there were still plenty of things to learn about him.

Maybe he was a party guy. She was fine with that unless he was also the type to drug people.