Chapter fifteen

Jason

"Shit."

Jason ran into the private room, now empty except for just two people. One passed out actor and another dozing drunken woman.

"Shit."

He ran over to Christiana and shook her awake. She groaned and waved him away.

“Five more minutes.” She said sleepily.

He breathed a sigh of relief.

“Christiana, if you don’t open your eyes right now I will be forced to open them for you.”

“But I’m sleepy.”

“That might be the case but you are not allowed to go to sleep, do you understand?”

Christiana reluctantly opened her eyes and groaned again when she saw Jason.

“I don’t want to drink anymore.” She said.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Jason said. “You shouldn’t have had anything to drink in the first place! What did you think you were doing not telling me that you had a concussion?”

“It’s barely a concussion, I was out for only a second.” She said, closing her eyes once more.

Jason slapped her hard around the cheek. “Wake up now!”

Christiana opened her eyes again. “Ow! That hurt!”

“Better a sore cheek than slipping into a coma.”

“I’m not slipping into a coma, I’ll wake up eventually.”

“Well, I’m not taking that chance, given that I’m the one who got you into this state.”

He pulled her up into a sitting position and poured her a glass of water with the jug he had brought in with him.

“Drink this.”

“I don’t want to-“

“I don’t care what you want right now, all I care about is keeping you alive. Now drink!”

Christiana let out yet another groan but opened her mouth to take the drink. Jason put the water to her lips and let her take a sip.

“Jesus, Christiana,” he said, “You just gave me a heart attack.”

“I highly doubt that,” she said. “Anyway, I told you I shouldn’t be drinking, remember?”

“You didn’t tell me why!”

“I’m fine!”

“And I intend to keep you that way.” Jason said. “Now get up.”

“Where am I going?”

“You’re coming to the bar with me, where you will sit on a stool in my constant watch while I work.” Jason said.

“But I don’t want to-“

“I said get up!”

Christiana tried to push Jason away, but he grabbed her by both armpits and lifted her up. She held on to him and shakily got onto her feet.

“I’m really not that bad,” Christiana said, “My head doesn’t even hurt anymore.”

“Let me have a look,” he said, checking the back of her head.

Dried blood had congealed some of her hair at the spot where she had obviously fallen but she didn’t seem to be bleeding anymore.

“You’re fine as far as I can tell, but then I’m no doctor.” Jason said. “I am, however, the king of looking after drunken people so come on.”

Christiana took one step forward but then stopped, her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she fell onto him.

“Christiana!” Jason yelled. “Wake up now!”

“Hmmmm?” She said.

He pulled her away from him and shook her like a rag doll.

“Now Christiana!”

Her eyes shot open again. “I’m fine!” She said in a knee jerk reaction to the sudden yelling.

Jason held her face in both hands and forced her to look him in the eyes. She reluctantly obliged although her eyes took a while to find his.

“I feel a little dizzy.” She said.

“I have no doubt.” Jason said. “We’re going to walk now and you’re going to do as I say. I’m going to take you to the bar and force you to drink lots of water and coffee and you are going to take it gratefully.”

“Where’s Connor?” Christiana asked.

“He’s busy with something and asked me to look after you.” Jason said. “The moment he told me that you had hit your head and passed out, I swear I thought my heart was going to escape my throat.”

“You don’t need to worry, you barely know me.”

“That may be, but that won’t stop me from feeling highly responsible should anything happen to you and I’m sure I’m not the only one who would blame me. Your boyfriend is very big and muscly and I’m pretty sure I would lose in a fight against him.”

She smiled and shook her head. “He’s not that bad, he’ll probably find it funny.”

“We’ll have to agree to disagree on that one, and anyway, you won’t be the one that has to live with him when you die.”

“Why are you living with my boyfriend?” Christiana asked, her eyes went wide. “Is he gay too?”

Jason smiled despite himself, “You would know that better than I do. Come on.”

Christiana pulled a reluctant expression and glanced back down to the pillowed mess where she had previously been, her eyes gazing longingly at where Adam was sleeping.

“How come he gets to sleep?”

“Because he’s famous. Move!”

Christiana started walking once more, Jason wrapped her arm around his shoulders and his own arm around her waist. She leant on him for the majority of the walk back to the bar but she did make the effort to walk herself.

He brought her round to his side of the bar and pulled a stool from underneath.

“Sit.” He said.

She plopped herself down on the stool, lost her balance and began to fall.

“Woopsy!” She called, laughing as she fell.

Jason grabbed her before she could go anywhere and adjusted her onto the stool so that she was balanced. She leaned onto the bar and propped her head up, sticking her hand under her chin.

“Why are you so serious?” She asked.

“It’s been a very serious day.” Jason said, pouring a pint of water and placing it in front of her. “Can you manage to drink that by yourself?”

She threw him a stern look. “I’m not an idiot."

She reached for the glass with one hand and then, after not being able to lift it, chose to use both hands. She brought it to her lips and took a sip.

“See?” She said, clearly pleased with herself. “I drink like a pro.”

“That you do.” Jason said shaking his head and turning on the coffee machine. It was the first time he had had to use it since he got here.

He made her a large cappuccino and placed it next to her pint or water.

“Did I tell you to stop drinking?” He said.

“Alright mum.” Christiana said, pouting and took a couple more sips of water.

“This doesn’t taste nearly as nice as the drinks you were making me before.” She said.

“Yes, but it is a lot better for you.” Jason retorted. “Drink some more.”

Christiana did as she was told. Jason breathed a huge sigh of relief, his moment of panic starting to edge away. One of his members of staff, Caroline came over with a tray of empty glasses, she eyed Christiana suspiciously.

“Is she okay?” She asked.

“She’s fine, I have it under control.”

“Michelle said that we’re not to have drunk people in the main bar area."

“I said it was fine Caroline!”

“But it was one of the main rules-“

“If Michelle has a problem with it then I’ll take the blame, how does that sound?” Jason snapped.

Caroline looked abashed and Jason immediately regretted snapping at her, she was only doing her job.

“Sorry, look, she’s been in an accident and I need to just make sure she’s okay.”

“What kind of accident?” She asked, her gaze turning back to Christiana, who was now waving the almost empty glass of water backwards and forwards, mesmerised by the liquid moving to and fro in the glass.

Jason felt his irritation stir up again, this woman asked far too many questions. He poured another pint of water and snatched the empty one from Christiana, putting the new glass in front of her.

“What can I do for you Caroline?” He asked, putting on his sweetest tone and matching it with a forced sweet smile.

Caroline tore her eyes away from Christiana and handed her new drinks order to Jason.

“The Vegas suite needs new drinks.”

Jason scanned the page, it was full of Group C occupants, the people from all the other groups appeared to have gone elsewhere.

“You can get the rest of these from now on.” He said, handing the order back.

“Are you sure?”

“Caroline, I swear, if you question one more of my orders, I will lose it.”

Caroline backed away, holding her hands up.

“Okay, okay,” she said, and walked off.

Jason sighed, he glanced over to Christiana who was making her way through the second glass. She seemed to be complying with him now so he took a chance to look over the rest of the room. It was empty. All drunken people had been escorted away. The only movement was people in packs moving to the large sliding door at the far end of the room. He felt his breath catch in his throat every time it opened, letting in the momentary chaotic noise from inside the room. The door was never opened wide enough or for long enough for him to catch a view of what was going on inside but he guessed from the noise that he was better off not knowing anyway. His mind flitted back to Mark, wondering if he was being selfish in asking for him to be transferred to this facility, it would have to be a dangerous transfer and he didn’t want to risk hurting him in the process. However, Michelle had appeared confident in the fact that this could be done with minimal risk so he decided to put that thought to one side and not dwell on it too much.

Another group of people rushed through the main hall from one of the private rooms, all looking efficient and business like. They reached the sliding door and once again opened it. Another round of screaming and banging entered the room which was all too soon cut off again as the door shut firmly behind them, throwing the room into silence once more.

“What was that?” Christiana asked, her attention drawn to the door.

“It’s another one of the private rooms,” Jason said, his answer already memorised from the list he’d been handed, “they’re watching an action movie.”

“It sounded loud.” Christiana said, still peering over at the door.

“We have the best entertainment system there is,” Jason said. “Built to sound almost like it’s happening for real.”

Christiana continued to look, her face a picture of curiosity.

“What have I said about not drinking?” Jason said, pointing at the half drunken pint of water.

“Sorry,” Christiana said and took a few more sips of water.

“Try some of the cappuccino if you feel up to it.”

Christiana gave the large mug a dubious look. “I might throw up if I drink that.”

“Good thing I have a bucket ready then.” Jason said.

Christiana let out a large overdramatic sigh and drank more of her water.

“I’ll try it in a second, I’ll just stick with water for now.”

Jason let it go and picked up a tray of glasses, fresh from the dishwasher.

“Jason?” Christiana said.

“Yes.”

“Thanks for not letting me die.”

Jason smiled. “You’re welcome.”