aftereffect | THE HANGOVER | p. w

| chapter eight |

My eyes widened as I remembered Alan could barely take care of himself. "Yeah, and maybe you could find its mom out there?" I said with hope, there had to be some woman walking around Vegas without her baby.

Phil waved his hand at us and sluggishly walked away, leaving Stu eyeing me suspiciously. "So you and Phil-" he started, and my stomach clenched, knowing he probably saw the two of us this morning.

He knows. I know he knows.

"So I'll go check the pool," I hurriedly say before turning and speed walking away. I wasn't about to have that conversation with him right now – or ever preferably.

Walking around the pool and cabanas, I did my best to concentrate on Doug, but I had a feeling he wasn't going to be here. I also looked out for any women or men trying to find a lost child... hope was still strong in me for that.

That hope dwindled the more I realized that we were stuck with a stranger's baby, and one of my best friends wasn't here. Where else could he have possibly gone?

Ordering some food and an orange juice, I carried them to the table where Alan and Phil were sitting. Sitting next to Alan and across from Phil, I forked a piece of strawberry and offered it to the blue-eyed man who shook his head.

Shrugging, I popped it into my mouth, gently slapping Alan's hand away from the bacon on the plate next to it as Stu walked up to the table. Rolling my eyes, I picked up a piece of bacon and fed it to Alan, who smiled and danced happily.

"I looked everywhere," Stu huffed as he sat down. "Gym, casino, front desk. Nobody's seen, Doug. He's not here. Any luck, Lexi?" I just shook my head, drinking my juice and eating my breakfast.

"He's fine. He's a grown man," Phil tells him in annoyance before grabbing my glass of juice and handing it to him. "Seriously, Stu, you gotta calm down. Here, have some juice.".

Stu immediately throws up on the floor seeing the juice to the couple's shock sitting beside us. "I can't have juice right now," the older man groans as I continue to eat my bacon and fruit. "How are you eating right now?" he questions me.

"She's young and can bounce back easier than we can," Phil jokes, watching as I happily smile at him from around a piece of bacon. He wasn't surprised he knew my eating habits. He's usually the one who brings me greasy food on or after a night out.

Taking a pen and napkin, Phil sighed. "Okay. All right. Let's just track this thing. What's the last thing we remember doing last night?" furrowing my eyebrows, I tried to remember the last thing I could think of before waking up.

"Well, the first thing was we were on the roof and were having those shots of Jäger," Alan answered distractedly as he played with the baby's hand and cooed at it. My mind was still hazy, but foggy memories of heavy breathing and moans were coming back to me.

Stu dry heaved as I patted his back, trying to get my mind away from Phil's naked body on top of mine, not that I could remember it, but my imagination was filling in gaps for me, and now I was suddenly wondering what was real or not.

I left the guys to sort out the details of what they could remember; I was of no use to them at this point. Sighing to myself, I offhandedly fed the baby some fruit when I saw it reaching forward and prayed that it wasn't allergic.

"Okay. We have up until 10 pm, so that gives us a 12-hour window where we could have lost him" I blinked slowly; that was a lot of hours, especially if we were drunk during them and knowing Doug could be anywhere in Vegas right now.

Fuck, what if he wasn't even in Vegas. I went to Cancun with some of my friends during spring break and ended up in a small village, hours away, waking up next to a small dog named Chorizo.

"What is this?" I turned to Alan, who was holding up something small and white with a confused expression.

"Oh, my God. That is my tooth," Stu gasped, snatching the small bone from Alan's hand in shock. "Why do you have that? What else is in your pockets?" I glanced down towards Alan's pants, wondering the same thing.

Phil brightened significantly. "This is a good thing. No. Check your pockets. Check your pockets. Do you have anything?" I gave him a pointed look as I sarcastically patted the clothes I had on, his shirt from yesterday, and a pair of jeans.

Not exactly the clothes I went out in last night.

"I have an ATM receipt from the Bellagio. Eleven-oh-five for $800! I am so fucked" I winced as Stu's tone got higher and louder as he read the receipt in his pocket. So my boy lost his tooth and took out more than his 'allotted allowance' last night.

He really was screwed when Melissa found out.

Alan takes out a small orange card with 'VIP' on it. "I have a valet ticket from Caesars. Looks like we got in at 5:15 am" the three of them talked while I leaned forward and picked up the card.

"Woah, who was the lucky guy Lexi?" Alan laughed, making me panic look towards Phil, who frowned at Alan, confused. "That's a nice ring you've got. I hope I was the best man" he laughed as all of our eyes focused on the ring that I hadn't even noticed until now.

Well, it was less of a ring and more of a plastic hoop wrapped around my finger. On my left hand. What the actual fuck. I let out a laugh waving the ring around. "Hey, I must have got one of those fake marriage things."

Stu blinked at me as I continued to laugh. "You know those are real, right Lexi?" I blinked as I glanced at each of the guys, not believing them as they all stared at me in disbelief.

"No, it's not. It's like an experience like going to Disney" my laughter was more nervous than humoured when I noticed that even Alan was stunned by my words, there was no way they would let you drunkenly get married, and it be legal.

"When you get married in Vegas, you're married everywhere, Alexandria," Phil said with a clenched jaw. I knew he was mad because he only used my full name when he was angry at me.

Anxiety swirled in my stomach when Stu and Alan backed up Phil's words, "Oh shit. Then they should tell you that or at least make sure you're sober when you get married!".

Stu winced at my tone and subtly glanced at Phil, who was rubbing his face. "I thought everyone knew that; it's pretty obvious" Alan chuckled, and I was quick to mock him with a sarcastic laugh.

"What am I gonna do? I can't be married. Who the hell did I marry?!" I exclaimed, starting to panic as Stu put his hand on my arm, trying to calm me down.

"Calm down, Lexi. I'm sure after we find Doug, we can get it annulled, right?" The older man soothed as he looked towards Phil for backup, but the blue-eyed man just stared at me with a pained expression with his bloodshot eyes, "Plus, what's so wrong with being married?".

I scoffed, pulling my arm away from him. "Oh please, Phil did nothing but shit on his marriage and still does. You want to propose to an absolute wench who doesn't deserve you, and now I'm married to a possible stranger!".

The two men I mentioned sat wide-eyed and unable to counter my words until Alan started to giggle again. "What if it was Doug, and that's why he's not here? I always thought I would be the first to marry you".

Scowling at Alan, I hissed, "Are you defective or something?" the two of us began to argue back and forth like children, which wasn't unusual for us. We'd been like bickering siblings since we met.

Alan opened his mouth again before he spotted something on Phil. "What's on your arm?" gazing towards where Alan was pointing, I noticed the yellow band around his wrist.

"What the fuck is that?" Leaning over the table to grab his arm, I realized it was a hospital band, so now we knew two things about last night. I gained a husband or wife, and Phil was in the emergency room.

Wonderful.