Resisting Unit 2

11: I Can't Drink, I'm Concussed

One dude is a little in front of me and I hear him from underwater.

"Yo Nick you ok? You need a minute?"

"Nah," I hear myself say, from underwater. His question didn't make sense to me, "I don't want to take your bed."

I get hit with intense dizziness as the stairs spin into a circle. I'm about to black out. Shit maybe I was drunk. Instinctively I hit the ground so I won't fall and hit my head.

"Shit no don't do that!" I hear.

My mind goes blank.

* * * *

I'm lying on the floor and I have a killer headache.

Ashan's on the phone in the background talking with someone. Jordan's face appears in my vision and he sounds extra fucking serious.

"Nick, jesus, where are we right now?"

My vision blurs and I squint one eye, "On the floor."

"Where on the floor," Jordan says urgently.

I rub my beating head, "On the floor next to the fucking wall."

"No shit," Ashan says also alarmed, "What's the location where do you think you are?"

"At the house bro, jeez. I'm not at fucking Oz."

Jordan looks visibly shaken, "You fell down the stairs dude. Like, all the way down the fucking stairs."

"Oh shit really?" I asked, I found that hilarious.

"Yes, we were talking about you loosing beer pong and then you just went backwards. Ashan and Nessa broke you're fall. We thought you broke you're fucking neck."

Now that he mentioned it my back was killing me. Jordan helps me sit up and lean against the couch. A girl comes out of the kitchen and sees me sitting there. Nessa.

"Oh thank god," she says, then comes over and whacks my arm, "Why would you roll into a ball?!"

I blink at her, "Stop drop and fucking roll baby."

"Do you remember what happened?" Ashan asks.

"Yes," My brain moved sluggishly. I didn't recognize this living room. "Yeah, I fell down the stairs."

"No before that," Ashan presses, "What'd we do tonight?" Everyone's alarmed faces broke me. Like I just fell off a building or something. I didn't mean to make them worry.

I press a hand to my head and I realize everyone's looking at me. My leg starts bouncing restlessly. Nessa puts her hand on my thigh.

"It's ok if you don't remember, we just want to know how bad it is."

I smell a bit of alchohol on his breath, "We were partying."

"Who's house did we party at?"

"If you're gonna quiz me ask a harder question," I laugh, "Our friends house that we always go to."

"What'd you do at the party?"

"Lost at beer pong was the highlight," I say.

My vision cleared up. There were vines and fleetwood mac records on the wall.

Nessa crosses her arms and looks me up and down, "Why'd you take your shirt off?"

"Why wouldn't I take my shirt off?" I say and gesture to myself.

Jordan hands me my shirt and I put it on, hating out vulnerable I felt on the floor. I resolved to get out. Ashan pulled me to my feet and I took a second for the edges of my vision to come back.

They kept looking at me and the silence was almost too suffocating. They didn't believe me. Everyone was still skeptical.

"Guys I'm fine. I took a shot and I wasn't supposed to, it hit me harder than I thought. I'm ok, I remember everything. Sorry to freak everyone out. Show's over."

They let me go. I made it to a bedroom without them hounding me and shut the door. I get on the bed with a dull headache and take a second to be still with my head in my hands.

The worst part? I made it all up. I barely remember anything from tonight.

I wasn't even sure we were in my living room. It looked different. I don't remember vines and records on our walls. And my room looked different. I didn't have that many pillows. I was too exhausted to think about that.

I'm just a really fucking good liar with a really good intuition. Connecting dots as I went.

A liar who was still fucking broken.

Before I knocked out I swear I see someone pad into the room and throw a blanket over me before going to the corner. I wonder why Jordan wanted to sit at my desk chair, but I didn't question it.