Breathe Easy

Chapter 2

I heard a loud rap at the door in my sleep and thought it was apart of a dream, so I didn't budge. It was hard to differentiate reality from the dream world. And even if I wanted to move I simply couldn't. My body felt terribly heavy and achy, and there was this god-awful pulsating pound inside of my head. It felt like my brain was throbbing and eventually on the inevitable verge of exploding.

Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.

It wouldn't cease, and I figured I would've been better off if someone hit me upside the head with a sledgehammer to put me out of my misery.

Yeah, it was that bad.

Whenever I peeled my eyes open the slightest bit, to my surprise - and total dismay - Camila hovering over me with sheer terror glazing her doe eyes. I thought that was apart of a dream, too. She was calling my name in frantic gasps, her fingers trembling as they grazed from my cheekbones to my neck. I was dozing off again when she shook me out of my drunken stupor.

"Lauren..." She grabbed my cheeks and squeezed them together, gingerly shaking my head from side to side. Camila released a sigh of total relief when I groaned and clawed her hands away from my face. "You scared the living hell out of me. I thought you were dead or something. I swear to God you weren't breathing."

"Oh, man," I whined as a wave of profound embarrassment came crashing over me. "Why are you here? How did you get in? I'd rather you not see me like this."

The curtains had been pulled back, allowing the bright sun to shine through the cracks in the blinds. I was stunned by the light and groggily grabbed a pillow to bury my face in.

"That fuckin' sun. Lousy son of a bitch," I said vaguely, completely out of it as I made a vain attempt to sit up.

"Um, you gave me a key Saturday, remember? I knocked on the door first but you wouldn't answer. Dinah was really busy so she asked me to come over and check on you because you wouldn't answer your phone and she knew you drank a lot Saturday night," Camila stated casually.

"Oh yeah? Busy with what? She couldn't check on her own friend?"

"She's at work."

A few seconds later I heard her sigh. I hesitantly moved the pillow to the side to get a peek at her, grumbling an inaudible apology. Camila looked rather uncomfortable sitting on the edge of a couch next to her new roommate whom was too hungover to even fully understand what was going on at the moment. I may have been confused, but I sure as hell knew one thing; I was absolutely mortified.

She slowly rose to her feet and looked around, appearing overwhelmed by the mess I'd made. "By the looks of it, you really did drink a lot Saturday night. Dinah mentioned that this happens quite often..."

Swearing under my breath, I rubbed the sleep out of my eyes. "Why would she tell you that?" I mumbled, grimacing in agony. "And is it Tuesday already?"

"Don't feel ashamed or anything, alright?" Camila said softly. She gave my shoulder a long comforting rub, smiling warmly down at me. "It's not Tuesday yet, but it is Monday. Did you sleep through the whole day yesterday?"

"I'm afraid so. Wow, this sucks. I can't believe it..."

"You could have choked on your own vomit, Lauren. Come on, let's sit you up."

"But I don't wanna move."

I sat stiff while Camila helped me sit up straight, no longer protesting once I realized that she had to be all over me just to do so. She grunted, struggling to get me in a comfortable position. At one point, her chest came in contact with my face, so I pinched my eyes shut and pretended to be in pain, acting as if it didn't happen. I wasn't cooperating much, but she didn't seem to mind. She carefully placed a pillow behind my neck to keep my head leveled.