My eyelids seemed so fucking heavy when I forced them open, only to close them back instantly. The room was too bright. I groaned and stretched my limbs, wincing at the ache running through them. The fuck...? Had I been rolled over by a bus? My head was killing me and my muscles were sore. What was happening to me?
The events of the previous night came back to me, and I mumbled a curse. We'd stayed at the bar until we were basically thrown out, ordering shooters and trying all the cocktails they had on the menu. I vaguely remembered a heated debate about Star Wars versus Star Trek, ending up with Joseph and Brian making everyone in the bar vote for the best franchise.
Whimpering, I forced my eyes to open, batting them until they adapted to the intense light. Shit... Wasn't I supposed to feel this bad after I'd passed my thirties? Twenty-six was too young to be this wrecked by a hangover.
I rolled to the nightstand in search of my phone and froze when I realized this wasn't my room. This one was in red and orange tones, while my room was blue and yellow. What the fuck? Where was I?
Blankly staring at the wall in front of me, I tried to remember what had happened the night before.
It was absolutely certain I'd gone to my own room. I remembered Oli, Joseph, Mace, and I, stumbling in our floor's corridor, shushing each other to make sure we wouldn't wake people up and make a scene. Boss's orders.
But then, why the hell was I here? Next to my phone, I saw a couple of keycards and I grabbed them. The first one was my room's, and the second one was room 504. Shit, I remembered now. After putting myself to bed, a task quite hard given my inebriated state, I had stared at the keycard for a while.
Turned out drunk me didn't give a shit about Lex making amends. That bitch only wanted hot action. I couldn't blame her entirely. Slex was amazing, but what about resolve and not giving in too easily?
Suddenly, I remembered sending him a message. Oh, no... I grabbed my phone, dread invading me, and opened my messages to Lex as quickly as I could.
Utterly shocked, I stared at the five messages I'd sent him.
—————
Today • 01:34 AM
Goinh to the.secrt room 🍆💦👅🍑
👌👉
Wait no,..
👉👌
^that one
—————
With my face buried in the pillow, I let a scream of frustration come out of my mouth. Drunk Andy was a fucking idiot. I was never touching alcohol ever again.
Thinking I might have misread or imagined it, I dared to glance back at the screen. Nope, the very embarrassing messages, along with the emoji overkill, were still there. I was so pissed that my pounding headache became irrelevant. Holy shit, I hate myself.
What was even worse? The ridiculous emojis, or how he'd left me on "Read"? Well, I'd sent him the stupidest double-sensed emojis, followed by a hazardous combination of hands. I wanted to ghost myself, so I couldn't exactly blame him.
I rolled on my back and let out a tearless sob, staring at the white ceiling. How was I supposed to face him after this?
The phone vibrated in my hand and I grimaced, hoping this wasn't Lex. I never, ever wanted him to acknowledge those texts. To my relief, it was him indeed, but not to me. He'd just texted the group chat. "How's everyone doing?"
Only then did I notice the late hour, almost a quarter to ten. I had to get out of here if I didn't want to raise suspicions. When I sat up too fast, my head spun with intensity, but I fought through it, as well as sudden nausea, to get out of the bed. I'd fallen asleep entirely dressed, wearing my illicit smuggler outfit.
After a triple check of the room, making sure I wasn't leaving anything behind, I exited it. All the while I was hurriedly walking through the hotel, using the stairs rather than the elevators, I prayed I wouldn't cross anyone's path. Miraculously, I reached my room unbothered, and I leaned on the door with my eyes closed once I was safely inside.
My phone vibrated in my hand. It was Mace, answering Lex. "I think we made Hugh's credit card proud."
Soon after, more answers rolled in.
"Hell yeah, we did," Oliver answered.
"We were so wasted," Steven confirmed.
"I think Andy was the drunkest." It was Joseph, and his statement made me silently scold myself. Come on, girl, this tiny body has zero resistance to alcohol. You should know better...
"I really don't think so," Brian countered.
"Who's up for breakfast in 30 minutes?"
They all agreed to Mason's offer one by one, including Lex, and I forced myself to send "Ok". I would have to face the man eventually. It might as well be with other people who would help distract us from the awkwardness. I pushed myself off the door and went to my bag to take an ibuprofen.
"What the—"
My handbag was full of peanuts. There were hundreds of peanuts freely sitting in my bag. With my face frozen in confusion, I stared at the weird content for a moment. Last night had really been wild, hadn't it? Dismissing this unexplainable situation for now, I sent my hand in the peanuts to fish out my ibuprofen tablets.
I then headed to the bathroom for a quick shower, hoping the soothingly hot water would help me get better. It worked, and by the time I came out, I was already feeling more like myself. I picked today's outfit with little attention, going for my jeans, a blue sweater coupled with a black blazer, and my Doc Martens. I dried my hair the best I could with the towel, spread a knob of curling cream on it, and did my usual prayer so it wouldn't be a bad hair day. The prayer worked every once in a while.
When I reached the breakfast room, I instantly spotted them, thanks to Oliver's red hair. As I came closer, I saw the only ones missing were Brian and Steven. I filled a plate with whatever seemed edible at the moment, so not much, and sat with the group in one of the empty chairs.
"Hey, guys," I said, avoiding Lex's gaze at all costs. They greeted me back, and I took a bite of my English scone.
"So, last night was pretty wild, eh?" Oliver said, looking at me. I frowned, wondering why he was addressing me in particular. Understanding my confusion, he laughed. "How much of it do you remember?"
"Bits and pieces."
"Well, I don't remember everything, but I sure remember you clapping back at that dude who groped your ass," Mace declared with esteem in his voice. I stared at him blankly, trying to remember that moment. Nothing came back. "Queen shit right there. I never want to be yelled at in Spanish."
Oliver and Joseph nodded, and I finally dared to look at Lex. His darkened gaze was on me, and it was easy to guess that he was pissed. Well, today was going to suck.
"How much was the tab already?" Joseph signed.
"Hmm, I think it was 698.75 dollars," Oliver answered.
"Yeah, something like that. We were missing around thirty dollars when they stopped serving alcohol. That's when Andy thought of ordering the peanuts. Ten serves of them."
Oh, okay. That somehow explained the peanuts in my bag. "I, hmm... Maybe I went a little too hard on the tequila shots," I admitted, sheepishly looking at the guys.
"You certainly did," Lex muttered. I turned to him with a warning glare.
I didn't want him to talk to me right now. First, he'd been pissed at me last night for no reason. Second, he had been the one asking us to make Hugh pay up, so he couldn't blame me for my alcohol intake. Third, he'd ignored my drunken, pathetic attempt at sexting. Yes, I was ashamed of those texts, and I didn't want to talk about them, but he hadn't even taken the time to answer, which was quite insulting.
"How's your head?" he then asked, having the audacity to look like he actually cared when he'd treated me so poorly in the past few hours.
Because I was still a little drunk and feeling petty, and because I watched too many RuPaul shows, I gave him the first answer I came up with, "Hasn't had any complaints." I regretted the words the instant they came out of my mouth, but it was too late to back out.
Mace, who was sipping on his tea, was the first one to react. He spat his mouthful of tea back in his cup, trying his best to contain it from spilling out. "Oh no, girl... You didn't!" he laughed.
Lex took barely longer to react, but when he understood what I'd meant, his expression became dangerous. Clearly, he didn't like to be made fun of. Also, the joke hit harder than I expected, given the nature of our relationship. Then it was Oli who understood, and he snorted, in a failed attempt to hold back his laugh. Joseph hadn't caught it, and Mason kindly signed it for him, just like Brian had done the first time I'd met the gang.
Before we could dwell on it, my unknowing saviors arrived. Steven and Brian sat with their tray, and they instantly became the table's new concern. Both were wearing beanies, slipped on real low on their heads. What was that about?
"Hey, guys. Is everything all right?" Oliver asked.
"Peachy."
"What's with the hats?" Mace wondered.
The two of them looked at each other for an instant, hesitating. "It's a long story."
"We have time," Lex intervened, also intrigued.
"Well..." Brian started. "You know how there is the RGF, tomorrow afternoon?"
The RGF was the Robot Gladiator Fight. It was one of the highlights of the convention. I'd seen a few videos about it online. Basically, contestants came with fighting robots they'd programmed and built. It was a very nerdy fight to the death, with multiple rounds, and a grand finale. The last robot standing was crowned robot of the year, earning an article in a prestigious programming magazine, along with an interview of the team behind it.
We nodded, encouraging Brian to keep talking. "And you guys know how I am banned from going, because of that exploding robot incident, four years ago?"
We nodded again, having heard the story a few times. He'd participated with his old company, and the fighting machine he'd built had overheated, causing the lithium batteries to explode, provoking a mass panic and leaving a few people with bruises.
"Well, yesterday, after the bar, Steven and I thought maybe I could go if I disguised myself. So, we went out and bought some stuff so I could look different. Turns out you really shouldn't do this when drunk, because we thought bleaching my hair would be brilliant," he confessed. He looked so sheepish, so ashamed of himself, I took pity on him.
"Show us," Lex ordered. There wasn't one bit of compassion in his harsh command. Brian obeyed, and he removed his beanie.
We all stared in shock at his hair. It was horribly done. The whole thing was shades of reddish blond hair, with black patches he'd missed. I looked away, feeling a surge of laughter bubble up in my chest. My eyes met Mason's to my right, and I saw he was also fighting not to let his hilarity take control. Trying my hardest not to laugh, I buried my face in his shoulder.
"And you, why are you wearing one?" Lex continued, turning to Steven.
"Well, there was way too much of it, so I decided to give it a try," he apologized, removing his hat as well.
Without even looking at him, I exploded at the same time as Mace did, our hysterical fit of laughter filling the otherwise quiet room. I couldn't contain it. It was just unstoppable. Through tears of hilarity, I glimpsed at the odd pair, giggles spilling out of my mouth. Shit, it wasn't funny. They seemed to feel terrible about it, but I just couldn't stop myself. Every time I managed to calm down, I made the terrible mistake of looking at Mason, and it started all over again for both of us. He had the most contagious laugh ever.
Oliver seemed amused as well, but he wasn't laughing, just like Joseph. Lex was furious with the guys. The sharp line of his mouth was pinched, his brow was frowned, and his eyes were fixed on the multicolored heads of our colleagues.
"You can't do your presentation tomorrow like this," he noted, his voice barely containing his anger. Oh, shit, that was true. The presentation.
It stopped our fit of laughter at once, and we stared at the exchange with anguish.
"We can wear the hats," Brian proposed.
"No, you can't. Can you dye it back?"
"We checked on the box this morning. Nothing will hold until a week or so," explained Steven. "Maybe we could shave our heads?"
"You can't do the presentation with shaved heads either," Lex rejected, his frustration obvious. He pinched the bridge of his nose, struggling to contain himself. Shit. The situation was really bad. I could see he was thinking fast, to come up with a solution. We all remained silent, waiting for our boss to decide something.
After a moment, he seemed to find the answer, and he looked up at me. "Andrea, you'll have to present your app," he declared.
I blinked a few times, wondering if I'd heard that properly. "What?"
"You'll present the ASL recognition app tomorrow."
Shit. No. No, no, no. I wasn't ready. The app wasn't ready. I couldn't do it. I couldn't prepare a presentation for three hundred people so fast. And it was assuming I could even speak in front of so many people.
"Lex, no. Please," I begged.
"We don't have a choice," he insisted. "Cancelling at the last minute would be unprofessional and poorly received, and that's not even considering the missed opportunity."
I let the idea sink in, looking mindlessly in front of me, while Mace gently tapped my shoulder in a comforting way.
"I'll help you get ready this afternoon. We can't miss the opportunity, Andrea," he insisted, almost pleading. I could see he was sorry for the turn of events, but it was also clear he was cornered and had no other choice.
Shit, I didn't want to do the presentation, but I also didn't want to let him down. I couldn't tell if it was because he was my boss, or because of the intimacy we shared. But regardless of the source of my motivations, I didn't want to disappoint him.
I would do it. I would be strong, for his sake.
Slowly, I nodded, my eyes fixed on his.