Chapter 4: One shot turned into two shots...
One shot turned into two shots. Two shots turned into three shots. Three shots-
Okay, you get the picture. Bottom line was that I probably shouldn’t have been allowed to drink. Technically, I wasn’t, but no one physically stopped me from drinking.
Big mistake.
And as I looked around, taking in the state of Connor’s house, I wished someone had stopped all these crazy, hormone-driven teenagers from trashing it last night, but obviously, no one had gotten the memo.
There were sleeping kids everywhere – lying around the ground, slouching on the sofas, one was even sleeping under the pool table, but there was no sight of Connor himself.
It was a good thing he hadn’t seen his house in its current state yet. I figured he hadn’t, otherwise I’d probably be dead now because I’d totally ignored his no party rule and went ahead and threw one anyways, blindfolding him about it all.
What the hell happened last night anyways?
One thing was for sure, the house was a mess and I didn’t even know to begin to fix this. For a moment there, I entertained the idea of tracking down my heels, putting them on, and powerwalking (because running from the crime scene was too obvious) it out of here before Connor had the chance to bite my head off, but I decided to be valiant about this and face the consequences. Or in the other words, the punishment.
I did eventually find Hannah though, cozying up to some guy. She was asleep, her previously carefully coiffed dirty blond hair looked like a bird’s nest in the morning light, she had a bit of drool on her cheek, her red lipstick was smeared, and her mascara was running. Not to mention, she was shoeless for some reason. I shook my head at the familiarity of it all before I shook her awake.
“Wake up, Han,” I whispered, and then shook her more violently once she refused to open her eyes.
Her eyes fluttered open reluctantly before she focused her blurry gaze on me, but it took her quite some time to recognize my face. She frowned as I beckoned for her to get up and she then untangled herself from the guy that was sleeping next to her on the couch.
“What the hell happened?” she asked groggily, sitting up and frowning down at him, as if she couldn’t recognize him either.
“You tell me,” I said, shrugging as we both glanced around, stifling a groan. “You find the garbage bags, I’m going to find Connor,” I told her before I went off in search of the guy in question. My head was pounding, as if someone was drilling nails into my skull, but I knew that the best way to deal with a hangover was by ignoring it, so I promptly did just that.
I went upstairs where Connor’s room was and on my way there, I ran into a girl that was sneaking out of it. Her back was facing me, but when she turned around, trying to make her escape, she froze upon noticing me standing in the hallway just a couple of feet away. Her eyes grew wide, like a deer caught into headlights, but then she recovered, shrugged it off, flashed me an awkward and embarrassed smile and started walking again, adjusting her shirt on her way out.
I returned her smile, shook my head and then barged into Connor’s room without knocking.
He was awake, already up and about, in the process of buttoning up his shirt. His hair was dripping wet, as if he’d even taken a shower already whereas I personally looked like the term ‘hot mess’ was invented just for me.
He looked up when he heard me entering and I was amazed to see that he didn’t even look like he was suffering from a massive hangover (like the rest of us) at all.
Damn him.
“Who was that?” I asked, glancing back over my shoulder, referring to the girl that just tried to slip out of his room unnoticed before I caught her.
He shrugged flippantly at me, as if he didn’t know whom I was talking about (which, in his defense, he probably didn’t) before asking a question of his own. “How’s the house?”
“Trashed. It figures,” I admitted, shrugging, but I wasn’t actually surprised by this. After all, I did throw the party – it was bound to be a massive success, and also a massive disaster. The two of them went hand in hand.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Connor asked, giving me a bemused look before he shooed me away. “Start cleaning up. I’ll be right down.”
I sighed deeply, my shoulders slouching as I made my way back downstairs, walking as slowly as I could without dragging my feet, or crawling on my knees.
Hannah and Owen, Connor’s right hand man, were already kicking people out by the time I got downstairs.
Owen wordlessly handed me a black garbage bag, sporting the identical ‘I hate my life’ look on his face as I was, and we all started working in silence, wallowing in mutual misery.
“I feel like I might throw up,” Hannah groaned as she picked up a beer can off the ground and threw it in the garbage bag, making a face and I prayed to God she could stand the stench and hold herself together.
“Don’t talk to me about vomiting,” Owen moaned, putting a hand over his nose, as if he too had a hard time not gagging at the nasty smell.
“How about we don’t talk? Period?” I suggested, feeling nauseous.
“I second that,” Owen agreed readily with me and for a couple more minutes, we all stayed silent, enjoying the quiet, or trying not to think about puking, or blowing our brains out.
“Guys, can you just give me heads up if you see my shoes? I can’t find them anywhere,” Hannah said, sighing in defeat and as I looked down at her feet, I realized she was wearing Connor’s mom’s fluffy pink slippers. If I was able to, I would’ve grinned at this, but I didn’t have any strength in me to even smile because I was too busy fantasizing about the love affair my bed and I were going to have once I went home.
“Maybe somebody stole them,” Owen suggested, shrugging carelessly at which Hannah gasped and nearly dropped the garbage bag she was holding in one hand. I would’ve found her terrified expression comical if I had paid closer attention to it, but I already knew Hannah had a flair for the dramatics.
“Don’t even say that,” she said, blinking up at him and fighting back tears of despair and hopelessness. “Do you know how much-“
“Holy shit.”
We heard someone curse and instantly turned to seek out the source of the noise and the string of curses that followed. It was Connor, who looked very much like a fish out of water, standing in the middle of his living room that still looked like a bomb had gone off in it.
“Is that a condom?” he then asked, bewildered, as he eyed a used condom that was just lying there at his feet, one that no one had bothered to pick up and throw away just yet. No one wanted to approach the contaminated areas.
“Do you really want us to answer that?” Owen asked him, deadpanned, raising only one dark eyebrow at him and Connor glared at him briefly, but chose to ignore his quip.
“Never mind,” he said, then shook himself out of whatever trance he had fallen into. “Pick the pace up, guys. I just talked to my parents. They’re coming back later tonight,” he declared, looking pointedly at me and we didn’t hide our cries of pain.
“Awesome,” I said sarcastically, averting my gaze.
“Hey, party animal,” Connor came up to me and snapped his fingers in front of my face to catch my attention, “do I have to remind you this whole thing was your idea?” he asked, as if I needed any reminding whatsoever. Knowing him and how his brain worked, he’d rub this in my face until the day we died. We did have that trait in common – we all liked reminding our close ones for the mistakes they’d made in the past.
“Fine, fine, I know,” I assured him and only then did he back off.
“But I don’t regret it,” I informed them in all earnest, “guess whose number I got last night?” I asked them, smirking because I might’ve not remembered everything that went down last night, but that I’d always remember, even if I woke up one day with no recollection of who I was, or how I got there.
I did a little victory dance in my head. I would’ve started dancing for real, too, if only my fatigued body would’ve let me, but I wasn’t hearing the music.
“Who was it?” Connor asked, humoring me, barely listening to a word I was saying.
“Tyson Jones,” I told them, barely containing my glee because I didn’t want to look too desperate.
“The Tyson Jones? Did I hear you right? Don’t tell me that you mean Tyson Jones, the one who went to our school?” Owen wondered, surprise written all over his face whereas I nodded in confirmation.
He whistled under his breath before he high-fived me. “Nice work, playa,” he joked and I grinned back at him before taking a silly bow that made my friends laugh even harder.
“Don’t encourage her whoredom,” Connor warned him and my mouth fell open. The cheek of this guy.
My god.
“That’s such a sexist thing to say!” I protested, not caring that I raised my voice so much, I’d probably be able to break the glass doors now. “Not to mention,” I hastened to add, “very hypocrite of you. I just saw some random girl sneak out of your room and now you’re preaching me about morals and shit?” I asked with hands on my hips.
“Do you even know her name?” I wondered out loud to satiate my curiosity.
Judging by the dumbfounded look on Connor’s face and the fact that he failed to reply, I think I already got my answer.
“That’s what I thought,” I said with booming voice, making them flinch.
“Guys,” Hannah jumped in, trying to do some damage control just as Connor opened his mouth, ready to tell me off, most likely, “can you please not get into a fight right now? My head’s killing me and we don’t have enough time for that bullshit,” she explained helplessly, looking between me and that idiot ex-boyfriend of mine, Connor.
“Fine,” I said, releasing a sigh and caving in for her sake, “but I refuse to talk to that idiot until he apologizes,” I promised, pointing an accusing finger at Connor.
“We live together,” he exclaimed, bewildered.
“It doesn’t matter. That was not cool of you to say,” I admitted, annoyed that the curse of being a girl still followed me around like a dark cloud. If Owen had bragged to him about scoring some hot girl’s number, Connor would’ve slapped him on the back in approval, cheering him on for a job well done. But when it came to me…it was like I was supposed to stay a nun for all eternity.
Staying quiet, Connor refused to say the dreaded ‘sorry’, but when Owen jabbed him in the ribs and nodded towards me, I could see him starting to cave in. He couldn’t let me stay mad at him for long. He knew that, I knew that, we all knew that.
“Fine, I admit it – it was wrong of me to say this and I take it all back. I suck, okay?” he declared, throwing his hands up in the air in a very dramatic manner. Inwardly, I nodded my head in affirmative because yes, he did suck, and yes, we knew that, too. “But you suck, too, just so you know,” he said to me, trying to keep his serious face on, but I could tell he was about to crack and break into a grin.
Raising one eyebrow at him, I asked, “Is that your idea of an apology?”
Connor shrugged it off, but I wasn’t surprised in the least bit – he’d never been good at the expressing his feelings thing. “That’s the best I can do on such a short notice.”
“I’m disappointed,” I said dryly, trying to remain serious and not grin like a goon.
“If I had a penny for every time that you’ve said this to me…,” Connor’s voice trailed off as he failed to finish the sentence and he shook his head at me.
“You’d be a millionaire,” I finished for him before I backpedalled. “Oh, wait, you already are!” I laughed and Connor rolled his blue eyes at me exaggeratedly.
“I knew there was a reason why we’re still friends,” he deadpanned.
“Well, it’s not because of your charming personality, that’s for sure.”
***
“Okay, I’m officially un-friending you on Facebook, Connor,” I promised him with hands on my hips and a killer glare on my face. “How could you lie to us about your parents coming home tonight?” I asked him seriously, irritated as hell that I’d busted my ass off cleaning his house all day long, thinking that I couldn’t let his parents see what his son was really up to behind their backs.
And it definitely wasn’t doing his homework.
“I had to,” Connor insisted as his way of defense, which, honestly, sucked, “otherwise you guys would’ve never helped me clean it.”
True.
But that definitely didn’t justify him lying to our faces about it and being so blasé about it. I’d at least act like it bothered me.
I had scraped knees from cleaning the toilets and an uneasy stomach to go with that.
“Dude, that was so not cool,” I told him, shaking my head down at him, but Connor hardly looked remorseful. “You’re, like, the worst friend ever,” I informed him, but this too failed to get a reaction out of him as he was too busy surfing through the channels, looking for something to watch, like I wasn’t even in the room with him.
“Cool,” he said, probably having tuned me out a long time ago, like I guessed he had. “I think I’m going to order Chinese. You want anything?” he asked, finally acknowledging me as he glanced up at me, shooting me an expectant look.
I threw my hands up in the air, giving up on him.
“No,” I said crossly, “I’m going to my room,” I informed him, sticking my chin up and starting to walk away when his voice reached me.
“You don’t have a room,” he reminded me, a hint of a smile sneaking into his voice.
“Then I’ll go to your room and destroy your Wall of Fame,” I yelled at him over my shoulder, speaking of the wooden display in Connor’s room with all his athletic and academic achievements – every prize he ever won. Of course, I’d never actually go through with my threat and destroy it because I had my suspicions that it would hurt Carl, Connor’s father, more than it would him, but Connor didn’t know that.
Or maybe he did because he definitely didn’t care enough to get his ass off the couch and make sure I didn’t follow through with the threat.
Damn, I was definitely losing my edge with that guy.
I was just about to head back down to destroy him with a weapon of my choosing when I got an unexpected call that stopped me dead in my tracks.
A/N:Someone's going on a date in the next chapter, so stay tuned since that's all I can say for now! Thank you for reading and commenting, lovelies, your support lifts my mood, especially when I'm having such a crappy day...like today. :D Thanks again, babes! If I don't update before then, have a happy, happy Valentine's day! Love you all! xoxo