Wolven

4. french fries and fist fights

"I am... so... hungover."

"I tried to eat breakfast this morning and threw up everything in my stomach from this entire past week," Elsie responded to me from her bed.

Her hands hung over the side, her fingers intertwined with each other. The champagne color of pink paint on her nails was the only thing in her room that I could stare at that didn't pound against my vision. After having picked me up from Clay's house, Elsie brought me straight to her house. It was as far as she'd been able to drive without having to stop the car to vomit on the sidewalk.

At least the rug on her floor was fluffy and comfortable. It was the most ideal place to forget about the dozens of messages Ivy had sent me once I'd confirmed with her that I was still alive. I had another thing coming the moment I set foot through my own front door. Ivy wasn't nearly as merciful as Elsie's rug.

Part of me wished I had stayed in bed this morning just a bit longer.

"Jade," Elsie moaned.

"What?"

"Jade," she said again. Three more times she called my name and three more times I answered before I had to reach for the nearest thing on the floor (a loose notebook from her backpack) and chuck it up at her. "Ja- Sorry. Omigod. Don't throw things at me; I'm dying."

"What do you want?"

"I want to know about the sex."

I let out a groan, rolling from my back onto my stomach. I stared at the dust bunnies underneath her dresser. Clay's face began whirling around in my brain space, and I felt a slight rush zip through my body the more I thought of him, but I really couldn't remember anything farther back than realizing I was in bed with a stranger.

So I told her, "I don't remember the sex."

Elsie leaned over the bed just enough so I could see her glowering at me.

"You have sex with one of the weirdly antisocial but ridiculously attractive new kids and you don't remember it?"

"They're not antisocial, Elsie. They threw a whole party for the school," I pointed out, rolling onto my side to look up at her better. "Which is kind of weird that no police came to break it up, right? Like half the town was up in the neighborhood last night."

"Oh, there were police there," Elsie muttered. "I saw Sargent Roberts when Bax and I left. I don't know who he was talking to, but it certainly wasn't a teenager. Either way, Roberts was not doing his job too well. Are he and Alison's mom divorced or are they still a thing? Do you think he was cheating?"

She couldn't see it, but I left my answer at a shrug.

"I hate you," she said to the ceiling. I frowned up at her. "Did you hear me or are you dead?"

"Why do you hate me?"

"Because I'll never be as powerful a witch as you," she sighed dramatically, rolling back over so I could see her mocking expression.

"Witch," I snorted, returning her leer. "How am I a witch?"

"You just know how to manifest, Jade," Elsie said. Her tone implied it was the most obvious thing she'd ever said to me. "You go into a room and all the guys turn your way."

"They turn our way, dummy."

"You're the one who ends up in bed with them," Elsie shrugged. She flopped back onto her pillow. "I never get to fuck the hot ones."

"That's because you talk too much," I laughed.

We laid there in silence for a few moments. The sun shone right through her window and onto my lower back, and the warmth felt so good I was half-asleep when Elsie got out of bed and stepped on my shoulder.