Duplicity (Luke Hemmings AU)

Fourteen

I woke up trashed and dizzy. My head was somehow resting on Katherine's thigh, my body draped over her leg. She was already awake, lying on her side, curled over her stomach with her head on my shoulder. I could see that she was in a lot of pain. Jimmy Eat World's "The Middle" was playing softly from her earbuds.Perhaps my music taste was rubbing off on her. I mustered up the strength to speak.

"Morning Kathy." I mumbled, stretching out my legs. My muscles felt sore and numb, stiffened by the horrid position I ended up sleeping in. My voice was scratchy and gruff, making me wrinkle my nose at myself.

"Kathy?" She groaned, rubbing her temple. It must have been a hangover, but that was inevitable from last night.

"Hey, you called me Rae, so Kathy it is." A hushed giggle bubbled over my lips. Kathy could really not suit her any less than it did. She was still in her dress, but I had managed to get myself back into my pony pajamas. If anyone was a Kathy, it was me.

"How did we get home?" Katherine asked.

"Well, I just walked home. You came home at three in the morning, Ashton drove you. I would know, because the sound of his engine woke me up." I threw my small pillow at her. I lived roughly five houses away from Ashton, it wouldn't have been so hard to walk.

"Oh." She replied softly. "I don't feel so good." The struggle of hangovers.

"I can still taste lime in my mouth." I complained, hoping she would get the hint and apologize. Last night was one big embarrassment, but a good one at that.

"Listen, Raelynn, I thought it would help you and Luke get together. I didn't realize it would make you as uncomfortable as it did. I'm sorry." She apologized, her eyelids squeezed shut. It must have been one hell of a hangover. "But before you say it didn't: I know it did. You spilt everything to me last night when I got home, in case you didn't remember."

"So you remember me telling you about it, but you don't remember how you got here?" I laughed, kicking my legs in the air. I regretfully lowered them back to the sheets when I remembered my muscles were incredibly sore. That was not my brightest moment.

"Yeah, cause you were all googly eyed and 'Luke said he would kiss me yay,' and I listened, even though I was clearly wasted." She smiled proudly.

"I was not googly eyed!" I argued.

"You just said you didn't remember anything about that conversation!"

"Well I know I wasn't googly eyed for a fact." I folded my arms, huffing like a child.

"Raelynn has a cru-ush!" Katherine sang. "You're so into him. You have it so bad."

"You got it, you got it bad. When you're on the phone, hang up and you call right back." I sang, not bothering to argue with her. I knew it wouldn't go anywhere, because quite honestly, she was right, and I knew it.

"Usher is hot." She sighed dreamily, probably picturing his completely ripped abs.

"Usher is too short for you." I pointed out.

"Not if he wears shoes with heels."

"That's so weird." I giggled, slapping Katherine's perfectly waxed legs. Mine were probably stubbly as I hadn't shaved in almost five days. I quickly moved my legs as far away from her as possible. I needed to save myself the embarrassment of being called out for my hair covered legs, not that I had a lot of dignity left at this point.

"The man probably has women who are six foot five crawling after him, I'm only like half an inch taller than him." She sighed, throwing her head back on the pillow. I decided not to remind her that she was in fact, more than half an inch taller than Usher, and instead, changed the subject over to more fathomable relationships.