It was immediately clear that Toni was not at home based on the following three factors: She felt as though she was lying on a cloud, there was no tv in the background, and there was someone in bed with her.
She would have loved to enjoy these three things but she felt awful. Not only her mouth, but her entire body felt like the Sahara, completely void of any hydration, yet she was still sweating. In addition, her mouth tasted like sick, which did not help her roiling stomach, and her head felt like it was splitting down the middle.
What a way to waste a morning of potential comfort.
She fished her phone out of her pocket, which she had been lying on rather uncomfortably all night. 7:35, the little clock glared at her, the bright screen making her eyes water.
"Fuckkkk," Toni moaned, holding her head and sinking back under the covers.
"Good morning." She startled at the low voice that grumbled from beside her, forgetting about her unidentified bed partner.
Seeing her face, Toni immediately recognised the girl. It was beautiful Regan that she had met in science class. She was a little less concerned about the situation; there were worse people to wake up next to. So they must have slept together, right? She wished she remembered it. She decided to double check. "Did we...." She trailed off suddenly embarrassed that she might have been presumptuous.
Regan gave a small smirk, "Do you wish we had?"
A lightning bolt of pain jolted through her brain, reverberating through the rest of her body making her close her eyes for a moment. "I'm sorry Regan, If I felt about 75 percent better than I do now, I would love this game," Toni groaned, "But I really can't be assed this morning."
"No we didn't sleep together. I actually didn't even realise there was another person in this bed until this morning. How do you not suffocate completely under the covers like that?"
"I dunno... I'm a burrower I guess." What a weird thing to say Toni, what the fuck?
Luckily Regan gave a small chuckle making Toni feel like a bit less of a dork. With that confirmation, Toni very slowly slithered out of bed, nearly falling to the floor due to her lack of effort. Her mouth felt as though it hadn't produced saliva all night.
Regan arm flew out to grab her hand. "Where are you going?"
"I am gonna pass out if I don't get some water." She took in her surroundings for a moment. "Who's house are we in?"
Regan looked taken aback. "Wow... You must have been hammered." Toni looked at her expectantly. "Oh, right. You're at Andrew's. I actually think a certain homophobic, texan pageant queen put you to bed which was an amusing event to witness."
Toni dropped her head into her hands and shook her head in a misguided attempt to clear her brain of that humiliating statement. "Okay," she practically whimpered, and walked out in search of the kitchen.
Compared to the room reminiscent of a hotel that she had just stepped out of, the rest of a house resembled the sight of a bombing. Plastic cups littered the kitchen and dining room floor. She regretted her decision not to put her shoes back on and she attempted to avoid the minefield of sticky and wet patches on the floor.
She found what she desperately hoped was a clean cup, filled it with tap water and drained it. This was a very poor decision considering her raging hangover. The water immediately started coming back up so she rushed to the bathroom. On the way, just by the landing, she had a flashback of being sick there but someone had cleaned it up. Another thing the flashback revealed was that it was definitely Shelby Goodkind that had babysat her last night.
There was not time to dwell on that unfortunate circumstance now though. She raced to the bathroom, her cup of water rising in her throat.
"Shelby! Who is vomiting in my bathroom?" A male voice yelled from just outside the bathroom door.
Toni panted above the bowl, trying to quell her nausea in light of the very angry teenager on the other side of the door.
Footsteps came racing towards the door, but Toni couldn't even look up when she heard the door softly open and close again.
"Feeling a bit delicate today then?" An increasingly familiar southern voice drawled.
Toni couldn't even humour her with a response. She was too busy thinking that she was somehow going to have to drag herself to school today. At the very best she was still definitely not going to be on time.
She felt a hand on her back causing her to flinch from both pain and surprise. "I'm sorry for mocking you, are you okay?"
Toni rolled her eyes. "Obviously," She snapped sarcastically with an untimely gag.
The hand rubbed her back again. Toni reached around and slapped it away. "Fuck off Shelby."
"You're in MY boyfriends house!" Shelby huffed and continued stuttering in anger through her sentence, "Not to mention, I have been good to you even though you vomited on the floor, a- and the the bathroom just now. And don't think I didn't notice you sleeping in the bed with another girl. This is a Christian household Toni! Do you realise how disrespectful that is?"
"Oh, I'm sorry," Toni snarled as she stood up to wash out her mouth. "Sorry that the Christian household that just hosted a party for underage teenagers does not accept platonically, and unknowingly sleeping in the same bed as another drunk girl."
"Toni-" Shelby tried to interrupt but Toni wasn't done.
"I did not ask you to look after me last night, I've done it for myself my whole life. Also your whole homophobia thing? I would turn that down a notch if I were you, people are gonna think you're overcompensating." She knew Shelby could never be gay but she fully enjoyed watching the blonde girl's skin crawl at the insinuation.
The rage was bubbling up, and Toni was fully prepared for a fight, she could take Shelby. She could not, however, take Andrew. At least not in the state she was in. So she took a few deep breaths and started washing her teeth with her finger and some toothpaste she found by the sink.
Through the mirror Toni could see Shelby's thoughts racing a mile a minute. She looked on the verge of saying something but words never exited her mouth; she just stood there, shell-shocked.
"Better get ready for school..." Toni glanced over her shoulder, 'What's for breakfast?"
Shelby finally found her words. "Leave. You're so- I hate- Argh! You're infuriating! Please, just leave." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the bathroom leaving Toni with a mouthful of toothpaste and a smirk plastered onto her face. Toni - 1, Shelby - 0.
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Toni and Regan were set to be about an hour late once Toni located her bag and got dressed back up in the previous night's clothes. Regan didn't bring anything to the party so she was ready to leave in minutes. The pair managed to steal some cereal bars and sneak out of the house without encountering Andrew or Shelby again.
After eating Toni felt much better. Not fantastic, but well enough to take on the school day without passing out. It was ice cold outside so it was almost euphoric when Regan whipped out a set of car keys and offered her a ride. The designer coat that Fatin had lent her was not at all weather proof. Completely useless really.
Once they were in the car with the heating cranked all the way up. She took out her phone to check her messages.
There were a series of drunken texts making sure she was okay with Shelby from the night before. She couldn't quite piece together why she stayed at Andrew's when she had a designated driver. Why had they gone home without her? She carried on scrolling and found a message from Fatin that answered that question.
Fatin: Shelby offered to keep you for the night, Dot didn't want you being sick in her car. Hope you made it through the night, am suddenly doubting my decision to leave you with a girl who quotes Leviticus...
There was another text send a few minutes after the first one.
Fatin: Please text and tell me you're okay.
Apparently Toni had responded which seemed unlikely. So she read the message.
Toni: Hi! It's Shelby, Toni is fine. She is asleep don't worry I'm not performing an exorcism.
Underneath that was a picture of Toni curled up under the covers, out cold. She was equal parts annoyed that Shelby had used her phone, and embarrassed that she had been photographed in a drunken coma. With a frustrated grunt, Toni clicked her phone off and dropped into her lap dramatically.
"Everything okay?" Somehow, in all of her hating and thinking about Shelby, Toni had completely forgotten about the beautiful girl driving her to school who obviously liked her.
"Yeah, I just-" Toni picked up her phone again and opened it up to the picture of her sleeping, tilting the screen so Regan could see it without crashing the car.
The other girl laughed before looking back at the road, "You look cute!"
Toni blushed and squirmed in her seat, never good at taking compliments. Her abdomen clenched in pain at the movement which suddenly stirred a memory, "I know you won't remember any of this tomorrow but I'm here for you. I don't hate you."
It turns out that Shelby was probably one of the most confusing people Toni had ever met.