She Fears Love

Two | Morning After

Aleah

I didn't have a chance to fully wake up before I had the strong urge to run to the nearest bathroom and throw up everything from last night. Particularly all the alcohol I mixed and consumed. I never learned not to do that apparently.

Sitting up, I reached for a bedside lamp and squinted at the blinding light. The first thing I saw was a bright red bucket sitting on the floor. I quickly bent down to grip it before allowing myself to throw up into it, unable to hold it in any longer. Groaning, I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and silently praised the lord when I spotted a bathroom to the far left of the room.

I didn't waste any time in going in and washing my hands. I also took some of the stranger's toothpaste and used my finger to brush my teeth and tongue as best as I could. The rat's nest that was my hair was next, which I just quickly combed through with my fingers.

Satisfied with my decent appearance, I stepped back out, only to freeze a few steps forward.

A tall, lean guy was fixing the bed as he hummed to a random tune. He was wearing gray joggers and a black long sleeve that looked like it was a size too small, but I wasn't complaining. It showed off every dip of his muscles and every movement he did only accentuated them. His forearms were naked and free, with the sleeves of his shirt rolled up to his elbows. He looked like he used most of his time working out.

When he was done doing the bed, he grabbed the bucket as if it wasn't the least bit gross to him and turned around.

Like me, he froze when his gaze landed on me.

"Oh, shit," he chuckled nervously, "Sorry, were you planning to lay back down?"

I shook my head. "No, I'm actually leaving."

"Right," he hugged the bucket, and I couldn't stop the grimace that grew on my face. He of course noticed. "Are you okay?"

"You're... carrying my vomit like it's just a bucket of water."

He looked down at it, a slight but amused grimace on his own face. "I'm always the one who has to babysit my friends, so I'm used to it by now. I appreciate the fact that this seems to be purely liquid, unlike Ryan's. He always chooses to eat before falling asleep."

I didn't say anything else, I just watched as he set the bucket back down on a dresser and stretched his arms over his head as he yawned. My eyes trailed down to where his shirt lifted, gulping when his imprint caught my attention instead.

"Sorry," he pulled his shirt back down to cover his abs. "I'm really tired. Hardly slept last night."

I quickly averted my gaze back towards his face as I waved him off, "No worries. Sorry for taking your bed."

Shaking his head, he waved me off. "I offered it to you, don't apologize. Anyway, would you like me to drop you off at Jake's to get your car?"

I beamed in appreciation as I nodded, "You would do that?"

"Of course," he said as he went to grab the bucket of vomit again. "I'll just get rid of this and wait for you outside if you still need time to get ready."

"Thank you."

He nodded before walking back out of the room, and I sat at the edge of the bed, dropping my face into my hands.

Why did I always end up at a guy's house after a night of drinking? New Years resolution: stop being a whore. Or at least stop being too easy.

Once I felt I was sufficiently composed, I stepped out of the room and met him outside. He was waiting by his car, leaning back against the passenger door as he looked down at his phone. His ankles were crossed and his free hand was tucked under his armpit. When he saw me approach, he looked up and placed his phone into the pocket of his joggers. "Ready to go?"

I found myself nodding.

"Great. Let's go." He caught me off guard as he spun around and opened the door for me.

I tucked my hair behind my ear, settling into the seat and watching him go around the hood of his car to join me. Once inside, he handed me his phone and I just looked at him with a raised brow.

He nodded at the screen and when I looked down, I noticed his music app was open.

"You're letting me pick what we listen to?"

Nodding, he backed out of the driveway, checking his mirrors and blind spots. "It's only a ten minute drive, so make those three songs count."

Despite knowing he was expecting me to search and pick my own songs, I looked through his playlists instead. You can learn quite a bit about someone based on what they listen to. Sure, I wasn't planning on ever seeing him again. But I at least wanted to know the kind man who took care of me for a night a little bit.

Most of his playlists had songs I'd expect a man to listen to, but one playlist in particular caught my attention with just the title. Not because the title was weird or anything, but because it was the only title that only consisted of a single emoji.

A broken heart.

Before I could get curious and scroll through the songs, he stopped at a red light and looked over at me.

"You just lost us a song. Why are we still riding in silence?"

I quickly swiped past that specific playlist and tapped on a random one, making sure it was in shuffle before pressing play. When I immediately recognized the intro, I looked over at him and saw that he was staring at me too. We were both wearing intrigued expressions.

Kissin' On My Tattoos by August Alsina was playing over the speakers, and although I wasn't disappointed in the song, I wasn't expecting someone like him to listen to this genre of music. Then again, I really didn't know him all that well. He was just a nice guy that let me crash in his room while he took the couch like a husband in trouble.

"If I knew you'd look through my playlists, I would've opened YouTube instead," he spoke, a hint of pink on the tip of his ears as he kept his eyes on the road. "I purposely titled that playlist starting with a z so that none of my friends found it unless they scrolled all the way to the bottom. They never do."

I smiled, feeling a little sheepish. "If it makes you feel any better, I really just scrolled all the way to the bottom and tapped without looking." To avoid you seeing me looking at the heartbroken playlist. But I wasn't gonna tell him that.

"No worries, as long as you don't judge."

"Why would I-" before I could finish questioning why I would judge him at all, the next song started playing and quickly made me realize why he would think that. Naked by Lloyd.

Taking a moment to look at the title of the playlist I happened to pick, I couldn't help but laugh. "Zzz, fuck her to sleep?"

He shrugged as he took the last turn before getting to our destination. "I made that playlist when I was 17. You know how teenage boys are. I also had a girlfriend at the time, so it wasn't so random back then."

So he was single now.

"Kinda cute, kinda cringe I'm not gonna lie." I decided to poke a bit of fun at him.

"That's fair."

Curiosity got the best of me as I asked, "So you haven't used this playlist in how long?"

He thought about it for a moment, then simply replied with, "Years."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he sighed and looked around at all the cars. "So which one is yours?"

My eyes looked outside and I pointed at my car. "The black Honda over there."

Instead of letting me step out of my car so I could walk up to it, he drove up beside my car and unlocked the doors for me to step out. "Take care, Aleah."

"You too, Sebastian." When I saw the look of confusion on his face on how I knew his name, I laughed and said, "Nathan told me your name when he asked if I wanted a ride with you last night."

"Right. Bye."

"Buh-bye." I waved as I unlocked my car and got inside, watching him drive away once he made sure I was safely inside my car.