Lonely and Tired

Nightmare

The pounding in my head rivalled one of Brooks's drum solos as I opened my eyes to the dim early morning light. A large bottle of pomegranate juice and a packet of Advil sat on the drawers beside the bed. As I swallowed a couple of painkillers I wondered in a detached way who'd put them there and where exactly I was. Cathy and the other girls had joined me in my misery and pounded back shots just as hard as I had, or it had felt like it at least. I groaned and buried my head back under the covers as flashbacks from the night before hit me.

Dancing on a table with Val and Meaghan as Cathy, Lacey and Kelly laughed hysterically and Zacky threw money at us while Matt, Johnny and Jeff tried in vain to drag us down.

Tearfully clutching the cheeks of Taipan's very understanding wife as I repeated over and over again how much Ryan would have loved her.

Earnestly telling Zacky how much I thought his birthday crown suited him and that maybe he should invest in one for everyday wear.

Cathy, Val and I being wrestled into the back of a car by a sweating and swearing Matt and Jeff as Meaghan, Zacky and Johnny danced down the street evading all attempts at capture by Brooks as Kelly and Lacey laughed.

I cringed as I remembered Matt confiscating my phone when I decided that the appropriate time to call Brian would be as I sat and cried in the back seat on our way home.

And the worst memory of all, Val holding back my hair as I lay in a garden bed beside her front door and vomited up most of what I'd drunk in lurid technicolour glory, as a sympathetic Cathy watched from the car.

I rolled over with a groan and found myself nose to nose with a make-up smeared Val.

Ah ha! I was at Matt and Val's, as Celine Dion once said, it was all coming back to me.

If it hadn't been so painful I might have giggled at the memory of Val clutching the bed head as Matt tried to drag her from the room while she insisted, "No! No Matthew. She needs me. She. Needs. Me!" Matt had rolled his eyes and released her saying, "Not sure how much help another drunk is going to be to her Val but I'll leave you to it." He flung the covers over us grumbling, "You're both lucky I don't film this shit and put it on Youtube. Gates has got nothing on the two of you..."

Matt might have talked a tough game but just before I drifted back off to sleep I remembered how the night before he put a bucket on either side of the bed and pressed a kiss to a snoring Val's forehead. The provider of the pomegranate juice and Advil was revealed.

When I woke, what seemed like hours later judging from the brightness of the room, Val was no longer beside me. I took a long swig of juice and reflected that the humiliation of hurling in the garden bed may just have worth it based on the lack of queasiness I felt. My head no longer ached thanks to the Advil I'd taken earlier so although there was no way I could describe myself as anything less than seedy I didn't feel like I'd had a one night stand with a Mack truck.

I peeled myself out of bed, washed my face and stripped off my party clothes, which would probably never be the same after I'd slept in them, and put on the cut off track pants and t-shirt that lay across the end of the bed. Once again I said thanks for Matt being an all-round good guy because the clothes that were swimming on me obviously belonged to him.

I found Val and Matt in the kitchen. Val flicked a hair band in my direction. "I think you need this." I wrestled my hair up on top of my head. Of course Val's messy bun was perfect and belonged on Instagram.

"Sorry about last night," I said to Matt who sat on a stool at the kitchen island reading a book and sipping on coffee.

"It's all good," he popped his dimples in my direction, "You have met my wife right? The one who occasionally decides to out party the rock stars?" Val slapped him with the back of her hand and stole his coffee mug.