Not The Same (sequel to "Abby Ultimate Dance Competition: Season of Love")

Chapter 23

The next morning, I woke up on Zack's couch, curled up next to him, still in my costume from the night before. Brianna and Hadley were lounging on each other on the love seat, completely knocked out. Jordyn was at the end of the couch, curled up on the arm rest, so I'm assuming Alex found a ride home. I looked around, and saw the light coming through the sliding glass door, realizing it was earlier in the morning. I checked my phone, saw it was 7:30, and saw I had a missed call from my mom from 1:00AM, and panicked. 

Mom: You're lucky Gina got home and found you all clocked out on the couch. Sweet dreams, be home by noon. 

Thank god. She must have been a little tipsy at least to be this cool about me not coming home, but I wasn't going to question it. I relaxed back into Zack's arms, but I accidentally woke him.

"Shhh, I'm sorry, go back to sleep." I stroked his head and he quickly complied, falling back into his sleep. I sat there for awhile, replaying the night's events in my head, and couldn't fall back asleep. I slowly stood up, and grabbed a trash bag we had left out, and continued to clean what we didn't finish last night. I slipped into Zack's room to grab my backpack and put my AirPods in, and put on my benefit playlist on Spotify. I threw some cans and bottles into a garbage bag, but most of the loose trash had been taken care of. I put my hand on the counter, and it was oddly sticky. I found a bottle of Clorox wipes, and began to scrub the counters down. Why would he call me a bitch? I was always so honest with him. I understand he was hurt, but his problem was with Zack, not with me.  I felt a hand lightly touch my shoulder, and I jumped, and paused my music. Gina was standing behind me, in a robe and her usual warm smile.

"Sorry sweetie, I didn't mean to spook you."

"No, no you're okay. I'm sorry I accidentally slept over, that was never the intention." I started to profusely apologize, but she cut me off.

"You have no need to apologize, Madison. Zack was still awake when I got back and told me everything. I'm sorry you had to deal with all of that, it was so unfair to you." She smiled sympathetically and I gave a small sign of agreement. "You five were watching movies when we got back, and you four had fallen asleep, and I felt so bad waking you, I texted all the moms to let them know."

"Thank you, I'm sorry if we ruined your morning." I apologized again and she brushed it off.

"You didn't, everyone else is still asleep and we had no plans today. You know you don't have to clean my kitchen, right?" She laughed and put her hand on the sticky counter, and made a disgusted face. "Oh, gross. Hand me one of those." She laughed and we continued to clean the counter. "So, be straight with me. How much did you all drink last night? You know I won't snitch, or yell, or be mad- unless you lie." She asked and I sighed, debating if I wanted to answer her question. She squinted and I broke within a second. 

"Okay, Hadley drank a few red solo cups worth of "Liquid Courage" and I think Bri had two, maybe two and a half of those, Jordyn had nothing to my knowledge, and Zack had two beers, which I had a few sips of, but I didn't like it." I confessed and she nodded slowly. "Please don't be mad!"

"Oh I'm not. But I will make Hadley and Brianna's hangovers hell this morning. "Liquid Courage" is never good, I'm surprised Bri had more than half of one." She chuckled and grabbed the blender from the cupboard, to which I cocked my head. "They'll probably have massive headaches, which that alone will make them never want to drink again. But this is just a little reinforcement." She snickered and I laughed along with her. "I'll be nice and make a hangover concoction though. It'll smell like shit though, just for fun." She sent me back to the couch to gently wake up Zack and Jordyn. I stroked Jordyn's frizzy blonde hair until she slowly sat up, and then I did the same thing to Zack, but on his cheek.