Chapter Twenty-Three

    Kat dozed off and on, her sleep restless. She’d no more fall asleep than the awful images of Sasha and Howie would jerk her awake, her breathing labored, her skin layered with a fine sheen of sweat.  She would glance over at Howie, make sure he was covered and resting peacefully before trying to fall asleep again.
   Just after dawn, she jerked awake again for the tenth time and sighed heavily.  Rubbing her eyes, she pushed off the covers and walked to the sink for a glass of water. She downed it quickly, swiped her mouth with the back of her hand and trudge back over to the chair and plopped down wearily. Her eyes sought out Howie and tears prickled the back of her eyes. His breathing was more normal and he was curled up on his side facing her, his arm hanging over the edge of the bed.
  “You just have to be okay. We have to be okay,” she whispered as twin tears slowly made their way down her cheeks. She brushed them away and took a deep breath before reaching for his hand once again. She closed her eyes and prayed that she would get some sleep. Minutes later, her eyes drooped closed for the final time. In her exhaustion, she slept dreamlessly for the next two hours.
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    His brown eyes fluttered opened and then slammed shut as the bright light streaming through the curtains hit them straight on and a soft moan of pain escaped his lips before he could stop it. His head felt fuzzy and left him feeling confused. He tried to lift his hand to wipe at his eyes, but was stopped by a gentle pressure holding onto him. Cautiously peering out of tiny slits he followed his arm to where his hand was firmly held by feminine fingers. He followed those fingers up the arm and found Kat, her head tilted at an odd angle, asleep.
   Gently, he tried to pry his hand loose without waking her up, but as his hand slid from her keeping her eyes flew open.
  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” he whispered softly.
“It’s all right,” she answered, wondering how much he remembered from the night before.
He studied her closely, and as his head slowly began to clear, he wondered why she was sleeping in a chair instead of the bed with him. A puzzled look swept across his face and he frowned as another thought crossed his mind. ‘When did Kat get here?’ He was disturbed to realize that he couldn’t remember.
“Howie?”
He turned his head towards her, his eyes searching. “When did you get here?” he asked.
“Last night, well actually really early this morning,” she answered.
“What time?”
“Around 2:30 or so.”
  He fell quite and Kat could tell he was trying to remember. Finally being able to stand the silence no longer Kat spoke, “What do you remember from last night?”
Howie shot her a confused look, but answered anyways. “After the concert, AJ, Marcus and I went down to the lounge. AJ wanted to play some pool and didn’t want to go alone. We grabbed our drinks, I got a Coke, I don’t remember what they had. We found a pool table and I sat down at a high-top table next to it and watched them play. AJ kept asking me if I wanted to play, but I was to keyed up. I couldn’t wait for you to get here.” He paused and his full lips turned down into a contemplative frown.
“What is it?” she asked, already knowing what he was remembering.
“Sasha, she came over to the table. She said she just wanted to say hello. I told her that she’d said Hello and to go away. She left, I finished my drink,” his voice trailed off for a second and then continued, “I finished my drink and… I can’t remember what happened after that. Why can’t I remember?” he asked, his eyes connecting with hers and holding her gaze.
  Kat squeezed her hands together in her lap and lowered her head. God she hated this. What she had to tell him was going to shake his world. No it was going to turn it upside down and she knew it.
“Kat,” Howie’s voice came out whisper soft and a tremor of fear echoed in the room.
  Slowly she lifted her head and reached for his hand. “All I can say for sure is what I witnessed and heard myself,” she began. After stopping and starting several times, she finally got the whole story out. Howie was so quiet, in fact the whole room was quiet. At some point Raul must have woke up, because even his snoring had ceased.
  “She, I mean,” Howie stuttered and then shook his head in disbelief. “She slipped something into my drink and then somehow brought me up to my room intending to… to rape me,” he cried out, his voice breaking on the last two words. “How did she get me up here?” asked quietly a minute later, his head bowed.
    “We assume that she met you outside of the lounge. AJ said you left the lounge on your own,” she answered softly as her heart broke for what he must be going through.
  He raised his head and stared at her, his eyes pleading with her, as tears coursed their way down his cheeks and dripped onto the floor. Kat reached out her hand and Howie grabbed onto it, holding on tightly as if she was his only lifeline. Kat moved quickly to sit beside him, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and pulling him into her. Kat heard the door close and assumed correctly that Raul had left them alone.
  “Come here,” she whispered as she laid down, pulling him along with her. When they were laying side be side, she reached down for the covers and pulled them up. Kat shifted her weight to her side and Howie scooted closer, laying his head on her chest. Kat held him to her and gently rocked him back and forth as they both cried.
She silently prayed that they would be able to get through this, that their love for each other would survive, but once again, a shiver danced across her spine and she knew that things had already begun to change. Howie was already beginning to pull away from her.

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