Days pass by quickly on this very slow Friday
I’d failed. I’d said – no, I had promised – George that I’d take him home, to sort things out with Kendal, and instead I was selfish. I had stayed and drank with Vincent until I could no longer use my senses properly and had a self inflicted a hangover. I realised this when I woke up in one of the bedrooms in Laura’s house in my underwear next to my boyfriend. He was fast asleep and I smiled before noticing that something heavy was crushing my leg.
When I looked down to see what it was that was crushing my leg, my smile dropped and a sickening feeling spread through my stomach. Matthew stirred behind me, when I tried to free myself from my leg, which was lying over mine. I knew I needed to get him off me. After struggling for a moment, he turned over, huffing in his sleep – at least he was a wriggler – and settled down facing the other way.
I placed my cold feet against the warmth skin of his back, and tried to push, but I was hitting against Vincent, and he grumbled. After a mean defeat, I cursed and turned again so I was facing my boyfriend. The covers were suffocating me, and being next to Matthew in only my underwear was making my skin crawl. I felt dirty and horrible. I wanted to go home and shower. I didn’t have my phone on me – I hadn’t brought it – and I didn’t want my mom worrying.
I had to get out of here and get home. I didn’t care about Vincent, but I thought to myself, I needed to get George and get him home so he could reconnect with Kendal and I could shower and get as far away from Matthew as I could.
Starting to panic, I tried to free myself from the covers from the middle of the bed, but both boys were gripping the edges, meaning I was limited to space. I wanted to get back, and get ready – get in the zone – for swimming later. I wanted my family to see me from the bleachers, and smile. I wanted to see their proud faces and know, even though I missed out on it in real life, I could bask in the glory in this world. And today, that was good enough for me.
I looked around the bedroom, trying to figure out what I was going to do. I couldn’t wait for the boys to wake up – they could be here all day for all I knew – and I didn’t have time for that. The curtains didn’t completely cover the window, and I looked out, noticing that the sun was still rising and it was still slightly dark outside. The walls were a light grey colour but the bedspread was a dark navy. This didn’t seem like a feminine bedroom, so it must have belonged to one of Laura’s brothers – unless this was just a spare room in their house.
Someone passed the room, and coughed. I wondered if that was Laura, or just another guest who’d crashed overnight. Either way, they only hovered for a moment, and then they were gone. Grumbling in frustration, I shook my head as I tried to think of a way to get out of this situation and then find my clothes. If my clothes weren’t in the room, I’d scream. I couldn’t’ go out without them, because if the person that had walked passed the door was only down the hallway, they would see it, and it would be embarrassing for me. It didn’t matter too much; I could do what I wanted in this parallel universe. I would die again tonight, and everything that happened today, wouldn’t exist when I woke up again. They wouldn’t remember anything because they’re not really here with me… they’re in their own world, without even realizing that the in-between exists.
Luckily, I noticed my clothes were lying over a chair tucked into the corner of the room by a lamp, which was off and looked dusty. Finding no other alternative, I put my feet against Vincent’s skin, which wasn’t so hot, and pushed him out of bed. He hit his head and I scrambled over to my clothes and chucked them on quickly. If he was going to scream and shout about his head, he might awake Matthew, and I wanted my clothes on for that.
Vincent grumbled as I pulled my top over me, and I rushed back over to him. The ideal situation now would be to get Vincent out of the house, find George, and get home without disturbing Matthew. I didn’t want him with me. He couldn’t come with us.
I roughly placed my finger over Vincent’s mouth as he sat up, shaking his head. “Don’t say a word,” I said.
Automatically, he pulled my hand away, and frowned hard. “What’re you doing? Did you kick me out of bed?”
“Shh!” I hissed. “Shut up, be quiet, will you?”
“Why?” he asked, this time far more quietly.
“I don’t want to wake Matthew – did you let him in here with us?” I didn’t give him time to answer the question, because I carried on. “Look, we need to go. We’re late, and I need to freshen up before we go to school. I don’t think either of us want a detention, I can’t afford one today.”
“I hit my head – did you push me out of bed? – it hurts!”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said quietly, “you’re hung over. You drank too much and I drank too much. Now we need to go.”
“Did you say Matthew was in here?”
“Yes?” I replied with a dry throat. “Why?” Did he not invite Matthew here? Did he not remember anything from last night? Had we all just innocently stumbled into bed, gotten too hot, and taken off clothes? Or had something happened – between the three of us? I dared to think, it freaked me out. “Vincent,” I said slowly. “Nothing happened, did it?”
Vincent shoved me away then stood up. He glanced over at his friend and then reached down to put his top on, at least he’d kept his bottoms on during the night. “No,” he said after a minute, helping me up. “I wouldn’t let anyone touch you.” Then he took my arm and pulled me out of the room, being careful to open and close the door quietly. “We need to find George,” I said, rushing down the hallway.
Vincent followed, shaking his head. “He left, last night.”
I stopped in my tracks and turned around, looking confused. “He did? How?”
“You asked him to go with you, but Laura said you weren’t driving. She didn’t want anything to happen to you – which is why she offered the room – I remember that. Some other boy was leaving, and hadn’t drunk at all, so he offered to take George. It’s fine, really. George is fine. He kept saying he wanted to go early, anyway. He needed to get to school.” To see Kendal, I hoped.
“Well then let’s get home, quickly, so I can go to school!”
-
I’d seen Vincent have a few hangovers in my time, but this one wasn’t so bad. I didn’t mind that he was napping on my bed when I got out of the shower, because he’d offered to fill my tank for me. I was happy with that, I could deal with him being a little bit grumpy. When I got out of the shower, wrapped in a towel, I had dashed across the hall to my room. Vincent looked up at me, and smiled slightly.
“Why don’t you take that towel off?”
“You wish,” I replied with a snort. “Are you going to shower?”
“No, I have track in a while. I’ll shower afterwards.”
I was about to reply when the door opened – without a knock. Although the towel covered me, I yelped and held it closer to my body, staring wide-eyed at my intruder. It was my sister. She stared at my flatly not bothered about the clothes – or lack of clothes – that I was wearing. Then her eyes flickered to Vincent, who’d sat up on the bed. His eyes looked tired and his hair was sticking up in all sorts of places.
“When did he get here?”
“What?” I asked, although I knew what, or rather who, she was referring too. “Vincent?” I grabbed my dressing gown and put it over my towel, before letting that fall to the floor. Then I picked it up and chucked it into my washing basket by the door.
“Yes,” Kendal replied. “He wasn’t here last night.”
“I know,” I said with a shrug. “But I went out after you left my room, to pick him up.”
“But you never came back,” she answered for me.
I frowned, moving in front of the bed. “How do you know that?”
“I was up in the middle of the night, Marisol. When I can’t sleep at night, it means all of the night. I couldn’t sleep, I kept waking up, and I woke up when I heard you and Vincent coming in this morning. Mom was already up, too, but she didn’t tell you off for being out all night. Why?”
“I told her I’d left at five thirty to go to the gym with Vincent, and then I’d brought him home with me to drive to school together.”
Kendal smiled knowingly. “You don’t go to the gym.”
“I have a meet today, Kendal,” I said with a glare, “she thinks I trained at the gym. OK?”
“Sure,” Kendal said, waving her hand around. “I’m off to school.”
“Are you getting the bus?” I asked, thinking about Matthew’s sleeping body in the bedroom of Laura’s house. Maybe he hadn’t woken up. I hoped he didn’t, I hope he’d miss school and get a detention.
“No.”
“No?” I replied, my throat dry.
“George is taking me in.”
“George?” I replied.
Kendal cleared her throat, edging back out of the room. “Stop repeating me. He sent me a message at around three, asking if he could drive me to school—”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“—because he said we needed to talk,” my sister continued, ignoring my interjection. “And we do need to talk, so I agreed to go with him.”
“Great!” I said, pushing her to she was standing out in the hallway again. “Well, go get ready. We’ve got to get to school, too, so I’ll see you in a while.”
“Bye,” my sister said suspiciously before walking off. Contently, I shut the door behind her and began to gather some clothes from my draws. I chucked my dressing gown on the floor and began to dress. After putting on my top, I reached for my trousers – but didn’t put them on. Vincent had shuffled to the edge of the bed and grabbed my hips. He kissed the top of my back, letting his lips trace against my soft skin. His breath was warm, and relaxed me. I closed my eyes as he turned me around, before pulling me down to the bed. He reached under the shirt I’d just put on and kissed along my rib cage and then my neck, and my lips. He pushed my hair out of the way and smiled as he looked into my eyes. “I love you, Marisol.”
“I love you, too.” I replied, pulling him closer to kiss me again.
I hadn’t managed to get home last night with George, but I had spoken to him and he’d obviously listened. I hadn’t failed; after all, George had listened to me. He was going to sort things out with Kendal. He was going to hold her, just like he needed too in real life. Maybe they’d reconcile in real life – because of the accident that had put me into this paradox universe, she’d probably called him crying, and he would have gone running to her because they love each other – and I was getting them to reunite here, too. If there was one thing I was doing right, this was it.