PICS and IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

42. The Carousal

I can't believe I get to pay for drinking that much last night with a headache that feels like my head is being sawed open, and that too without even the benefit of drunk amnesia.

I fucking remember everything.

My bedsheet starts wrapping around me as I roll around on my bed thinking about my stupidity.

How will I face him now? And what if he'd told someone about it and the word had spread? - Ellie kissed Raylan last night.

Eventually I do fall off the bed and hit my head.

Good, maybe this will give me amnesia. Let's see if I remember last night...

God dammit I still do.

I sit up on the floor while my mom shouts from below to wake me up. I rest my head sideways on the mattress staring at my room door. I don't want to go to school today. Why did they even throw the party before a school day?

My head slides down the edge of the mattress and I fall flat on the floor again.

Surely a lot of kids will skip today because of last night. I could be one of them. No one will suspect my real reason.

"Oh, honey, Raylan's here!" My mom shouts from downstairs.

Eyes wide, lungs stopped, I lunge up from the floor. Fuck! Why the fuck is he here so early in the morning? Surely to torture me about last light.

The sheet still wrapped around me I run into the bathroom and close the door, just in time to hear my room door open.

"Ellie?" Raylan's voice says.

I wasn't even this scared of him when he ran after me with a bucket full of crabs to throw at me at the beach when we were twelve.

He knocks on the bathroom door. I wince. "Ellie," he says.

I go to the sink and open the tap. "What?" I ask, trying to sound half asleep and hungover.

"Open the door," he says.

This guy! I squeeze out toothpaste onto the brush and shove it into my mouth. "Let me brush my teeth in peace. What's the emergency? You lost a kitten?!"

"No. Now open the door!"

I take a deep breath. I can do it. This is the boy I blackmailed once. He's not that hard to fool. I vigorously brush my teeth for a second, then go over and open the door.

He's still in his pyjamas. His hair is disheveled. "What?" I tell him.

"What? That's it? You've nothing else to tell me?"

I narrow my eyes at him and continue to brush my teeth. "Like what?"

"Don't you fucking pretend you don't remember!" He says.

I lean over the door frame. "Remember what? You're making my headache worse."

I go back in and wash my mouth, and splash water over my face.

"At the kitchen in the resort," he says as if he wants to help me remember.

"What kitchen?" I say pumping face wash onto my palm and creating lather.

"Do you even remember getting drunk?" He says.

"No," I say lathering my face. Then I pause and look at him, "Did I fight with Frank? I know he was there."

"Forget about Frank!" Raylan says and I rub my lathered cheeks while staring at him. "You remember anything about me?" He says.

"I fought with you? What's new about that?" I tell him and bend down over the sink and rinse my face.

"You-" Raylan gets a call cutting him off. He takes it and listens. He groans. "I know I'm up. What about Victor? -okay -okay -Yeah, I'll be there soon," he says into the phone.

It's probably an early practice.

He ends the call and looks at me while I'm slathering face cream over my face. "You better fucking remember it by the time I see you in school," he says and leaves.

I peek out the bathroom to see him leave the room. Once the door is closed behind him, I put down my hands and breathe out relieved.

That was close.

Guess I've no choice but to go to school now. If I skip he'll know I remember.

I look around the bathroom and then down at my palms covered in face cream.

I should probably shower first.

---

While I'm eating lunch with my friends at the cafeteria, I'm attacked again. Raylan sits down next to me. His friends are also here.

"Remember yet?" He says.

I put down the spoon, sigh and look at Tony who's at the opposite. "Tony, what did I do to Raylan? Mom told me you dropped me home yesterday. Did I try to kill him or something?"

Tony's brows crease. Ah ha Raylan hadn't told anyone. Good boy.

Tony says, "I don't know. He found you drunk at the kitchen and asked me to take you home."

"So I wasn't strangling him or something when you found me?" I say.

Tony shakes his head.

I look at Raylan and he clenches his jaws.

"Whatever it was, leave her alone," Tess says, "She already went through a lot last night because of that jerk."

I don't want the boys to know what Frank did, but I forgot to mention that to my friends because of my head splitting hangover.

So Tess ends up telling them.

Raylan looks at me, a little angry, "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I told you I have a hangover, I don't remember that very well either. Whatever, Tess took care of him."

Raylan looks upset and goes quiet. I feel guilty to play the pity card on him. It's not fair, especially when I'm the one who started the kiss.

And in a way I'm also grateful to him. I would've woken up today and remembered that scare Frank put me through instead of the embarrassment of throwing myself at Raylan if it weren't for that kiss. It's true when I said I didn't remember what Frank did. Raylan had inadvertently made me forget that.

After all, it was a pretty good kiss. No, a great kiss even. I enjoyed it. And I'm going to keep that to myself for now.

End of chapter

A/N - I'll probably update Don't Pray to Me tomorrow :) See you then!