Keep Me In | DR3 | BOOK 1

35 - Best Interests

"You know Daniel and Alana," I squinted, gauging her reaction. Julia just looked back at me, confused. "They've been seeing each other."

"That fucking whore," Julia shook her head as she tilted it back, cursing. "She's always wanted what I had. What a dumb cun-"

"Julia, I'm so sorr-"

"No, you know what. Let's go drink that bottle of wine, and then we're going out."

--

"Lex. Lex."

"Hmmmph?" was all I could muster up to whoever was jabbing me in the shoulder.

"Oh, good. You're alive."

I cracked my eyes as the voice came through clearly, my vision blurring before being able to make out the person in my bed beside me.

"You stayed the night," I raised my head, cringing as the headache settled in. "Shit, how long did we stay out?"

Julia propped herself up with her elbow, turning to face me entirely. She had one of my large t-shirts on and a pair of my grey sweatpants. When had we arranged that? I looked down at myself, I was also wearing a large t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants. Ah, good. "I think we got back here close to 3:30. Your place was the closest to the bar, so we came back here together. Joce's husband picked her up here at some point..."

"And then we got cozy and went to bed," I nodded, remembering now at least how the end of the night went. "Right."

"I was going to call Nico to pick me up, but I figured he'd be asleep, and with the season starting in like a week I didn't want to bother him..." Julia explained. "I was also pretty plastered. How embarassing..."

"Aw, Julia don't worry about it. Part of me wishes Jocelyn stayed as well. I'm a cuddle-bug when I get wine drunk."

Julia laughed, clearly relieved to hear she hadn't been a bother, "I had so much fun last night, Lex. It really felt like old times."

"I think I had fun also, though if I'm being honest I don't really remember much after we finished off that bottle of wine at the restaurant."

"Oh god, that was such a big mistake. We should have just taken it home," Julias eyes widened.

"We didn't go home, though!" I exclaimed. "I just hope I didn't make a complete mockery of myself wherever we ended up."

"Definitely not, and if you did, whatever I was doing had to have been ten times worse. I swear, you were composed all night."

Julia and I propped some pillows behind us as we went through her phone, looking at all of the photos and videos we ended up taking last night. Though we looked like menaces to society, like we definitely should have gone home after the restaurant, we also looked like we really were having a good night out.

We returned back to the table, Jocelyn looking concerned at Julia who had tears welling in her eyes. "Oh darling, what did I miss."

"Nothing- just..." Julia stood as she poured the bottle dry into our three wine glasses. "Drink. And then we're leaving. We're going out."

"Uhhh, Julia slow down..." Jocelyn sat back warily. "I can't get fucked drunk. I have a race in a couple of days. If I get a wine-hangover I will have to sit the race out, they're that bad."

Julia turned to me as she shrugged, "Fair. More for us then."

I examined the floor of my room, I recognized Julia's dress and the remainder of her outfit as it had been strewn around the floor, presumably in our drunken effort to get comfy. Then up to Julia, who looked ridiculous with her eyeliner smudged in every which direction around her face. I absentmindedly touched my face, particularly my lash area, before I looked down at my fingertips. No black smudges. And where was my clothing? Did I put it away properly? How did I manage that?