"Rise and shine, my beautiful toxic humans!" A voice shouted, abruptly waking me from my deep slumber.
I opened my eyes and immediately bolted upright in my bed - whose bed is this?
Looking around the room, I saw nothing that struck me as familiar. The walls were not pale yellow like my room was painted, instead, it was a deep red and there was a window right above the bed.
Sun streamed in and I felt my head starting to pound so hard I thought I was going to vomit. Turning to my right to look at the clock that hung above the closet, my heart stopped beating when I saw what was beside me.
More like who was beside me.
Attempting to flee from the bed, I got tangled in the blankets, landing on the floor and whacking my head on the nightstand.
"Aw fuck!" I yelled but regretted it immediately as I heard Nathan stirring awake in bed.
When he opened his eyes fully, he too bolted up and attempted to gather his surroundings. His eyes landed on me on the floor and he tilted his head. "What the hell are you doing on the floor?"
I opened my mouth to speak but the door swung open. Darian entered the room with a smug look on his face. "How hungover are you two?"
Nathan winced at his volume. "Dare, if you don't shut up, I'll eat you."
His brother rolled his eyes and gave me a strange look. "Why are you on the floor?"
I gave both Nathan and Darian an awkward smile. "I fell."
Neither of the two responded. After a minute or two of awkward silence, I looked at Darian. "We didn't... you know... Did we?"
Nathan looked down on the bed and didn't say a word, meanwhile, Darian let out a chuckle. "Oh God no. When you passed out, Audrey, Nathan brought you up here to sleep and Samara stayed with you guys to make sure that didn't happen."
Nathan let out a sigh of relief and I looked around the room to find Samara. "Well, where is she?"
"She woke up an hour ago and went on a Starbucks run," Darian said, now leaning on the door frame. "Do either of you guys remember anything from last night?"
Nathan and I exchanged a look and we both shook our heads as we let out a collective, "No."
My roommate let out a sigh. "Well, I'm not surprised. You guys probably should've died from alcohol poisoning with the amount you drank."
Suddenly, my stomach began to lurch and I bolted from the floor and stumbled down the hallway to the washroom. Slamming the door quickly, I began to get sick. Never was I ever going to drink again. So far, I've gained a massive hangover and a whole night gone from my memory.
"Princess," I heard Nathan's muffled voice through the door. "Are you okay?"
I groaned and leaned my head against the bathtub that was beside the toilet. It was cool against my skin, which helped the nauseousness subside. "I want to die."
Nathan let out a little chuckle and said, "I have some Advil if you want some."
Flushing the toilet, then rinsing out my mouth, I swung open the door. "That would be greatly appreciated."
When I opened the door, Nathan stood there with a glass of water and two Advil. He held both out for me and I took them graciously. "Thank you so much, Nate."
He gave me a bright, kind smile and nodded his head. As I took a sip of the water and swallowed the Advil, I felt his gaze on me. "What?"
Nathan scratched his head awkwardly and winced as he tried to form words. "Do you really not remember anything from last night?"
"No," I shook my head slowly. "Oh, God. Did I do anything embarrassing?"
Nathan let out a sigh and looked down at the floor, but quickly looked back up and gave me a tentative smile. "No, you didn't. You were perfect."
Without waiting for a reply, he walked away.
Placing the now empty glass on the bathroom counter, I quickly followed Nathan down the hallway. "Wait!"
"What?" Nathan snapped as he wheeled around to face me. There were bags under his hazel eyes and his hair was a complete bird's nest.
I wanted to say something, anything to make him feel better. He seemed off and I didn't like the thought of him being upset, especially if I were the cause of it. Tucking my hair behind my ear, I said, "Can we go to the gym today? Maybe you can finally teach me more about boxing? I know you probably feel like crap after last night... I know I do, but it was just a thought."
Nathan inspected my face, for what, I don't know. But after a few seconds of silence, he nodded his head. "Sounds like a plan."
***
An hour later, Nathan and I were at the gym. We were on the floor, or rather, I was on the floor while Nathan's knees sat on my feet so I couldn't move them while I did a million sit-ups he demanded I do. Pushing myself up, I high-fived Nathan as I did so. Instead of going back down, I sighed. "Why do I have to do this?"
Nathan smirked as he jerked his head, signalling me to keep going. "As I said, boxing is more than punching. If your core and your arms aren't strong, then your hits won't be and your opponent could take you down in a second."
I shuddered as I thought about Kieran, about how quickly he had pushed me to the floor in my nightmares. I came back up once again, high-fived Nathan. And went back down. "So, did you do boxing in high school?"
"Yes," he answered shortly. We high-fived again. "Alright, that's enough for now."
"Thank God," I sighed. Laying myself down on the floor so I could catch my breath.
Nathan laid beside me and shot me an impressed look. "Sixty sit-ups in one go is pretty impressive. I thought you didn't do sports."
"I was in competitive dance up until my senior year of high school," I waved him off. "My instructors were pure evil. Sit-ups, push-ups, forcing us into splits - evil, every single one of them."
"I bet you were cute in your little tutu," Nathan mused, more to himself than me.
I rolled my eyes as I fought back a laugh. "I didn't do ballet; I did contemporary and acro."
"So you're flexible?" he questioned, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.
Not bothering to hold back my laugh, I nodded my head. "Yeah, I guess. But I probably lost most of it since I haven't danced in years."
Nathan pushed himself upwards and I followed suit, knowing our break was soon going to be over. "Why'd you stop?"
"I don't know... I guess I just started to see it more like work than a hobby. I mean, I'd miss days of school going to competition after competition, and then I couldn't do extracurriculars because I'd always have practice," I shrugged. "After a while, it just became too much."
Nathan nodded his head. "Makes sense." He looked at the bag that hung in the middle of the room and then back at me. "Let's get you in your gloves."
I nodded my head eagerly. "Finally." We both stood up and he went rummaging through the box of gloves, trying to find the proper size for me. As he did so, I sat on the bench, swinging my legs back and forth. "Hey, do you think you can teach me that thing where you throw someone over your shoulder and like, slam them down on the ground?"
Nathan released a loud chuckle as he approached me. "Do you want me to teach you boxing or wrestling? Because what you're describing, princess, is not at all in boxing."
I shrugged. "Well, maybe we could make up our own version of boxing that includes it."
"You really want to know how to do it?" He asked, placing the gloves and wraps beside me.
I nodded my head with a grin. "It looks cool."
Nathan let out a defeated sigh and pulled the cushioned mat that was attached to the wall down and dragged it to the middle of the room. "Now, you do know, in order for me to teach you, I'm going to have to do it to you so you can understand what you're doing. Are you okay with that?"
I paused, biting my lip. I hadn't thought of that. Looking at Nathan and then the mat and back to Nathan. "Will it hurt?"
"Not at all," Nathan answered, his hazel eyes looking deeply into mine as if he were trying to assure me with just his eyes. "The mat will cushion your fall and I wouldn't be throwing you with all my force. You'll feel dizzy at most due to being upside down briefly. I promise."
"Alright," I said, standing up and dusting off my leggings and then tightening my ponytail. "Show me your ways, Mr. West."
Nathan chuckled and then placed his hands on my shoulders, gesturing me to do the same. Once my hands were placed on his shoulders, I felt the heat of his bare skin, seeing as he wasn't wearing a shirt. I barely had time to appreciate how close we were when the next thing I knew, I was being flipped over his shoulder and now was on my back, feeling the coolness of the mat seep into it. Nathan straddled me, his hands gripped around my wrists. "How are you feeling princess?"
"I-I-" I felt myself blush. I was upset before because I couldn't appreciate how close he and I were, but now, we were closer than ever and I couldn't get my thoughts straight. Blinking a few times, I answered stupidly with one word. "Dizzy."
"I bet you are," he laughed lightly. "But I mean are you good as in you're not thinking about..."
I scrunched my eyebrows in confusion but then quickly realized what he had meant. He thought him flipping me over his shoulders like that would cause me to think about Kieran. He thought I would be scared of him. I shook my head adamantly. "No, I'm not thinking about that at all. I was just thinking about how quickly you managed to do that."
Nathan let go of one of my wrists and touched my cheek. "You're blushing."
I quickly looked away from him. "I am not."
"Yes, you are," he argued, letting go of my other wrist and getting off me. Holding out a hand, he said, "But that's okay because you look cute when you blush. Now, how about I teach you how to do the flip and then we'll move onto the actual boxing? We can't stay too late, I have to help Darian with something tonight."
I tightened my ponytail once more and nodded my head curtly. "Fine."