Pyromaniac

Chapter 6: Hungover

            If it wasn’t for the excruciating headache Estella’s head pounded with, this could have turned out to be a perfect morning. The sun was up and out, the sky was a pretty shade of blue, and fluffy white cumulus clouds embellished the world.

            Oh, yeah, and there was a guy sleeping next to her.

            The birds chirping were usually annoying enough in the morning, but with a full-on hangover going on, Estella felt like curling up into a ball and dying right there.

            “Shut up, stupid birds. Shut the hell up,” she mumbled, smacking her lips together a few times, trying to regain some sort of moisture, any kind of moisture, back in her mouth, but all she tasted was the alcohol from last night.

            Rolling over in hopes of finding sleep again, in hopes of escaping this terrible hangover, Estella did not find sleep. Instead, she found a tan body. A naked body. A man’s body.

            Shit.

            The last time Estella ever slept around like this was before she started dating Stephen. And now that he was gone, she supposed she was back to her old, slutty high school life. Fan-fucking-tastic.

            Almost afraid to see, she crinkled her eyebrows while rubbing her right temple with her index and middle fingers. And then her eyes courageously trailed up the boy’s abs, his pecs, his neck, his face…

            Jonah.

            “Hey,” he mumbled.

            Just kidding, he wasn’t sleeping.

            “Good Lord,” Estella muttered under her breath. What had she done? Had she actually slept with this guy? In hopes of this being some sort of mistake, Estella attempted to recall what she did last night.

            Bad idea. Terrible, awful idea.

            Not only did it make her feel like her head was being tumbled and tossed after falling into a ditch of cow shit, Estella also couldn’t retrace a single thing. All she remembered was Blair separating from her to get laid.

            “Holy fucking sh…!” A trail of loud curses jolted Estella back to reality as well as adding on weight to her headache. She mustered all her hate in one glare and directed it towards Jonah, who had just gotten a hold of the fact that he was waking up next to Estella Churchill. Jonah quickly realized yelling out loud was not a good idea and sank down, assuming a fetal position to calm his headache.

            “I think I’m gonna throw up,” he mumbled painfully, groaning all the while.

            Estella closed her eyes ruefully. This was not good.

            This was not good at all.

            “Wait, let me get this straight,” Mona interrupted, putting down her blue smoothie. “You slept with my roommate… and then in a panic, you ran out and dragged Jonah onto the bed next to her? To make it look like they slept together?”

            Sluggish and ashamed, Drew nodded, holding his head in his hands.

            Mona leaned back and slurped her smoothie for a few moments. Then she stretched her mouth in a thin line. “Wow, you’re fucked.”

            Drew had awoken in one of the hours just after midnight. The sky had been tar black when he opened his eyes. Admittedly, this was a situation he often found himself in. So, he slept around. But he realized that things were not the same as usual when he found Estella Churchill sleeping soundly next to him. Naked.