Rihanna

As soon as I recognize the woman standing in front of me, my heart practically stops in my chest and I feel myself already starting to launch into a panic attack. Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I grab onto the edge of the bar counter, wrapping my fingers tightly around the corners. I grasp desperately for words, trying to say something and maybe defuse the situation. Sorry. Say fucking sorry.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry.” My voice shakes with fear, not matter how much I fight to push it down. I dig my fingers into my palms inside of my pockets, trying to keep myself anywhere near calm. My jaw clenches up, heat spreads through my face, and my muscles tense, as the weight of the situation truly comes crashing down on my shoulders. Before I can get too lost in my own anxiety, I feel her hand on my arm, just above my elbow, pulling me back into reality.

“Don’t worry about it, sweetie.” Rihanna runs her nails up my arms, sending chills down my spine. I bite down on the inside of my cheek, trying to hold back the panic still growing in my chest. Somehow, her sugary-sweet demeanor only serves to make me more anxious. “Aw, you look nervous. Come on, let me buy you a drink.”

“No, I couldn-”

“I insist.” Before I get the chance to decline again, she waves Kris over. He makes eye contact with me for a moment, before turning his attention to the woman standing next to me. “Four shots of bourbon, please,” Rihanna says, putting multiple twenty dollar bills on the counter.

“You got it,” he responds, taking the bills, a look of surprised amusement on his face, before heading off to grab a bottle and shot glasses. He fills the four glasses at the point at the counter where he got them, before sliding them over towards us. Out of instinct, I pick up one of the glasses, not thinking about all the reasons that’s a bad idea.

“Cheers!” The sound of glass clinking rings in my ears and I down the shot quickly, trying to calm my nerves. The **** burns all the way down my throat, distracting me from my anxiety. “Isn’t that better?”

I nod, already reaching for the second shot, this time with intention. Without much more thought, we both do our next shots. Before I have time to say anything, Rihanna’s already ordered us both multiple more rounds of shots, wordlessly sliding my half over to me.

Over the course of the next hour, more and more **** starts flowing through my body. My worry quickly fades away and I stop paying much attention to the woman in front of me, in favor of a growing drunkenness. I lose count of how many shots I’ve taken, as my surroundings fade away from me.

The one thing that manages to get me back into reality is the feeling of a hand on my back and the sound of someone clearing their throat behind me. I turn around to see a very tall, very muscular, very angry man staring down at me, his hand still firmly on my shoulder. Without saying a word to me, he takes a swing at me, his fist connecing directly with my nose.

Pain shoots through me and my vision flashes white. The **** in my system slows me down and I don’t manage to do anything to defend myself, before Rihanna rushes to my defense. I watch groggily as she pulls out a tazer and threatens the man, saying something that’s incoherent to me, but still sounds far to enunciated and comprehensible for a drunk person.

The man almost immediately backs off, disappearing into the crowd that had gathered around the three of us. Despite my drunken state, unidentifiable alarm bells start ringing in my mind, trying to tell me to run.

Before I get the chance to figure out what’s wrong, Rihanna’s face on my cheek pulls me out of my thoughts. She turns my head towards her, concern covering her face.

“Are you alright,” she asks, looking me over.

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m just drunk... and tired.” My words slur together and I feel myself starting to zone out near the end of my sentence.

“Aw, baby. Come on, I’ll get you home.” The combination of ****, pain, and crushing tiredness weighs heavy on me, taking priority over any concern I’d had. I nod at her, just wanting to get in a bed, even if it isn’t my own. She puts her arm around me and starts leading me out of the bar, before putting her hand with a cloth in her palm over my mouth and nose.

Before I have time to say or do anything, I start getting lightheaded. Any worries, or thoughts at all, drain out of my head, as my body goes limp and everything around me goes dark.

I squint my eyes open and try to stretch my arms, when the feeling of something holding me back by my wrists pulls me furter awake. I look up to see my wrists tied to the headboard of the bed I’ve found myself on. My head sears with pain and my own body almost feels like it’s weighing down on itself. _Hangover. Goddamnit._

As I start trying to figure out what happened to me, the sound of footsteps coming towards the door sends a wave of panic through my body. I strain against the ropes holding me down, when the door opens and I see a familiar face. Rihanna walks over to the bed and sits down next to me, putting her hand on my stomach. I look up at her, my eyebrows pulling down and inward and my jaw tightening in fear.

“Good morning.” She slides her fingers under my shirt for a moment, before quickly putting them back on top of the fabric.

“Good morning,” I tentatively respond.

“How do you feel,” she asks, sliding her fingers up the middle of my torso and the side of my neck, before resting her hand on the side of my face.

“I- I’m fine. Just hungover. Really hungover.” I **** myself to be honest, praying that there’s some kind of strange misunderstanding that would make this whole thing okay.

“I think that’s a little bit more than a hangover.” I look at her in confusion and fear, as memories of our earlier encounter- her getting me drunk, the strange man attacking me for no reason, her putting a cloth over my face- flood through me. Rihanna smirks at me, before getting off of the bed again and walking towards the foot of it.

“Wait- What did you do to me?” I strain against my restraints again in a futile attempt to free myself.

“What do you think, doll? _Now, what am I going to do with you?”_