Pinky Swear

Chapter 9: Hung-over

I woke to the sound of a baby's loud wail and a headache too, surprisingly also very hungry. Ugh... My head hurt like hell, and it felt like it was going to fall off. And to make matters worse, that baby was really loud, increasing my headache.

Please don’t tell me Jaxon accidentally knocked up a girl, and now she’s here to ask him to take his responsibilities. I swear mum would kill him, and dad would use his body parts as experiments in his hospital.

I slid open my eyelids, but instead of seeing my familiar blue sheets and curtains, I woke up to red sheets and curtains. What the hell? What happened last night?

Grabbing my head between my hands, I tried to recall all that happened last night.

I recollected calling Alex to pick me up after helping Lauren out, and then we went to a party, then I got drunk, danced with total strangers before that blondie jerk tried to molest me. Okay, I remembered all that. But then what? The rest was just a blurry picture in my head, and thinking about it the more, was not helping with my headache. And that baby was still wailing really loud. Seriously, whose baby was that!

I do remember this room as being Alex’s, so I was safe. I had been here only once when I told her about Ryan and me.

I dragged myself out of bed and down the stairs to find out whose child was torturing me with its persistent crying.
A pacing Alex was in the kitchen with a baby in her arms balling its eyes out.

“Stop crying! I’ve already done all your mum asked me to do. What more do you want from me?” I swear Alex, too, was on the verge of tears.

“Uh...Alex?” She whipped her head around to me like she was surprised to see me in the kitchen with her.

“Oh, you're awake already.”

“Whose child is that?” I asked, observing the baby reduce her cries to take in who the intruder was.

“This is my cousin, Stephanie. She’s aunt Maya’s baby. Dropped her off this morning so she could go shopping with her new boyfriend.” She explained while the baby stared at me, with her big green eyes wide open in wonder, still trying to figure out who I was.

Alex always told me of her Aunt Maya’s adventures with different guys, even though she was thirty-three.

“Oh, I didn’t know she was married.”

“She isn’t.” Oh. Stephanie started to wail again, diverting our attention to her, and increasing my headache, again.

“What do you want from me?!” Alex was clearly frustrated.

“Just hand her over to me.” I wasn’t good with kids, but I had to try and shut this one up before she killed me with her insistent crying.

Taking her from Alex, I held her with one arm and laid her head on my shoulder before rubbing her back and whispering soothing words in her ear. To my surprise, she quietened down. I think she was drifting off to sleep as I heard her yawn. Guess she was just sleepy.

“Woah! How did you do that?” Alex stared amazed at me, and I shushed her while asking for Stephanie’s crib. She pointed to the living room, I walked over to it and lied her in it gently, so as not to wake her.

“My head hurts a lot.” I groaned as we both went back to the kitchen.

“Yeah, I left some aspirins on the nightstand, with a glass of water next to your phone. There’s also a new toothbrush on the sink in the bathroom.”

“Thanks a lot.”

“I’m making pancakes, want some?”

“Yeah.” I went back upstairs and saw the aspirins. After taking them, I scrolled through my phone and found nine missed calls on my phone. Six from mum, two from dad, and one from Anna. I still kept in touch with Anna, we chatted mostly on the phone.

I checked the time to see it was some minutes to twelve. How did I wake up so late? And why didn’t Alex wake me up early? Maybe it’s because it was Sunday and we weren’t going anywhere, but still...

I firstly dialed mum, and after five minutes, I managed to calm her down and assured her I was safe while also pleading with her to convince dad for me. Then I called Anna, and we chatted a little before I decided to go brush my teeth.

Checking myself in the bathroom mirror, I realized what a mess I was with my hair all over the place, and my eyes were red like I had cried all night. What the hell happened?!

I still couldn't recall much about last night, so I just shrugged and started brushing my teeth. When done, I went back downstairs to see Alex already done with the pancakes and piling her plate up with five medium pancakes before spreading syrup all over them.

“Uh...you’re eating all that?” I asked, wondering how she was going to finish it all. I only eat two.

“Yeah, you’re right, this might not do.” She sighed, making me shake my head at her. I wondered where all the food goes to as she wasn’t fat, but she wasn’t thin either. She just had curves in all the right places.

“Why didn’t you wake me up early?” I placed two medium-sized pancakes on my plate and proceeded to sit at the dining table as well.

“I did, you said to leave you alone.” I didn’t remember being woken up or saying that, so I must have been sleeptalking.

“So...wanna tell me why Adams was about to beat up McCoy to a pulp yesterday?” It was like something snapped in my head, and immediately, flashes of what happened last night flooded my mind as a sharp pain shot through my skull, making me cringe.

Oh my God! Ryan throwing blondie off me, me screaming at him not to boss me around, and then seeing that Jenny bitch cling to him, everything just came flooding my mind. I can’t believe all of that happened! I mean, why did Ryan help me if he hated me? And what had he meant when he said he told blondie to stay away from me?

“Sam, is everything alright?” I had suddenly lost my appetite, and wanted to just be alone. I pushed my plate away and looked at Alex while trying to conceal my emotions.

“I’m full, thanks for the breakfast.” I forced a smile at her.

“But you haven’t eaten much.” I had only eaten one medium pancake.

“I’m just not that hungry. I have to get going. My mum’s a little bit worried.” She stared suspiciously at me before shrugging and taking my last pancake.

“Just have a shower before you go, you stink. I think I have something of mine that you could fit in. I’ll be up shortly, just gotta finish this first.” She gestured to her pancakes, which she was almost done with.

“Thanks.” I went back up and took a quick shower. Immediately I came out, I saw Alex holding up a lemon green dress.

“It’s one of my old ones, it’s supposed to fit.” She had more hips than I did, so her normal clothes might be bigger for me.

I tried on the dress, and luckily, it was my size. I asked her for some makeup to conceal my red eyes, didn’t want mum to be suspicious. Alex couldn’t drop me off as she still had to take care of Stephanie, so I called a cab instead.

“Listen, we’ve been friends for like one week now...” Alex said all of a sudden and then paused, looking unsure.

“And...” I raised an eyebrow at her, unsure of where this was going to.

“I just want you to know that if you need to talk anytime, I’m here for you.” That sweet pumpkin. She acted all badass, but deep down, I knew she was a softie. I gratefully hugged her, taking her by surprise and then whispered a 'thank you' into her ear.

Getting home, I found mum and dad playing checkers, and after being interviewed about who Alex was, I bolted upstairs to my room before crashing on my bed.

Tomorrow was Monday. How was I going to face Ryan? Did I have to tell him thanks for saving me from blondie? Even though blondie wouldn’t have done anything to me since there were people around me, he still had somehow been harassing me, and Ryan kinda saved me, so I had to thank him, right?

Ugh...I was so not looking forward to tomorrow.

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