Stanton Box Set

“Yeah and I’m fucking Brittany Spears, asshole,” she replies.

“Get out!” I yell.

She fakes a smile. “If you want I can get the boys to hold you down while we do a cavity search. It’s your choice,” she sneers.

I am humiliated and drop my head again in shame. The male officer gives me a breath test and I blow into the tube. I’m going to fail. I’ve had a lot to drink.

The female officer takes a look at the reading on the machine and shakes her head. “Out celebrating that you got away with murder, were you?”

My eyes hold hers. I have never wanted to hit a woman so much in my life.

“Sorry to break up the party,” she sneers.

I step toward her.

“Get fucking dressed, asshole, before I taser your ass once more. If there’s one thing I love to do is taser motherfucking wife beaters like you.”

I narrow my eyes and undress in silence as their beady eyes watch me and they take my clothes and put them into a plastic bag.

“Watch?” she demands as she holds her hand out.

I remove my watch and pass it to her and they look at it together.

“How much did this watch cost?” she asks.

I glare at her. “More than your fucking house,” I sneer.

She narrows her eyes in disgust.

“You won’t be questioned tonight because you are over the legal limit,” the male officer replies. “Sleep it off. See you tomorrow.” He throws a blanket onto the plastic bedding and they both leave the room.

The door locks behind them with a deafening sound.

Natasha

Four weeks earlier

The distant sound of a buzzer bounces off the walls around me and I struggle to open my eyes. Shit, my head hurts. My hands instinctively clutch my temples as I fight my heavy eyelids. My vision is blurred and I continually blink to try and bring them into focus in the darkness. What the hell is going on? In my peripheral vision I see someone enter the room and attend to the thing making the buzzing noise. From what I can see it looks like a drip or something. I squint my eyes to try and see. Where the hell am I?

“Joshua,” I whisper through a gravelly throat. “Baby, what are you doing?”

No answer.

I frown. “Joshua.”

“Sshhh,” a male voice whispers.

My heart rate picks up—that’s not Joshua’s voice.

“Joshua?” I call, more desperate. I blink my eyes frantically as I try to see. “Who are you? Where am I?” I stammer.

I feel my arm being lifted and something being injected into the drip. “Oww,” I snap as I pull my arm from the grip.

“You are in the hospital, Natasha. Go back to sleep. Joshua is here,” the gentle voice coos.

Oh, relief fills me and I smile as I slip back into unconsciousness, my love is here. All is ok.

I wake to the dusting of sunlight kissing my face. It’s early morning and my eyes search the space I am in. Where am I? Distant foggy memories of the night before and a man in the room make me sit up instantly.