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the first thing that registered in his head when he woke up was ouch.
a huge, huge ouch.
his head felt like it had been trampled by a carnival of dancing elephants, and the sun made his eyes feel like they were bleeding. as he became more and more awake, the only thing he could think was so that's how corpses feel.
he groaned deeply, burying his head inside his pillow.
so this is why you shouldn't drink.
no matter how much fun he had the night before, nothing was worth this terrible feeling. he actually, literally, felt dead.
and had he even have fun last night? he barely remembered anything- the only thing he knew for sure was that he had been a complete idiot. ugh, why would he do this? what had gone over him, what had made him think he should drink for the first time in his life while at a new town when he had work the next day?
shit. work the next day- which meant work today. now.
his mind was sluggish, and everything sorta' hurt, and all he wanted was to go back to sleep- but there was no choice. he got up slowly, wincing as his head protested.
from the bed- straight to the bathroom, but apparently his hungover body couldn't stand the walk because suddenly everything was spinning and he almost fell down. he grasped onto the bathroom counter tightly, so tightly that his fingers turned white, and took a few deep breaths before looking up, straight into the mirror.
he looked as bad as he felt. his hair looked like a bird had nested there, his eyes were sunken inside dark bags- and he had never been this pale.
so this must be how corpses look.
he groaned again, cursing at himself for doing something this dumb. his eyes dropped from the zombie-boy glaring at him through the mirror, and fell straight onto objects he hadn't seen before.
on the counter, right next to the sink, was a tall glass of water and two small, blue pills. a note was lying against the glass.
i thought you might need these.
will didn't recognize the handwriting and had no idea where the pills came from, but couldn't care one bit. he immediately swallowed the pill and took a large swing of the warm water. he didn't care- anything to get the headache to stop.
he stumbled into the shower, and as the cold water brought him back to life just a little bit his mind raced with hazy memories. nothing concrete: stairs, laughing- a lot of laughing.... jane and max holding him up- and that's basically it. he had zero idea what he might've done the night before-
and really, really didn't want to find out.
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"look who it is!"
will groaned again, covering his ears with his hands.
"please, no yelling. i think i'm dying."
max and jane laughed, coming to stand by his side. the restaurant was still pretty much empty, though opening hour was long past. will was super, super late- and once again, couldn't care less. lucky for him, neither did the girls.
"you are officially the most adorable drunk in history," max exclaimed, hugging him. her voice sounded to him like it was amplified by a thousand speakers, but he just winced silently.
"was i a complete idiot?" he asked, somewhere in his mind hoping for a no.
but the two girls glanced at each other, and then back at him.
"look," jane started, and exactly at the same time max added:
"you want a real answer?"
will let out an embarrassed whimper, burying his head inside his hands.
"aww, we're just kidding. you were very adorable." max said in an amused tone.
"ugh. i'm really sorry, guys." he said, but the girls just laughed.
"are you kidding? it was super funny. we had a blast." max responded.
"but you look like you're dead. how about you take the day off- i mean, what's left of it?" jane said, smiling slightly. but will shook his head.
"no, no. i'm all good, promise." he said, and jane shrugged.
"whatever you want, but you look pretty hungover. just- don't vomit on us, okay?"
"oh my god, last night i didn't- did i?" will called, horrified. had he puked on his friends?
jane hurried to shake her head.
"no, actually. compared to how drunk you were it's actually very surprising that you held it all in."
"our boy got tolerance!" max added with a huge grin, causing jane to erupt with laughter.
"yeah, but wow, what a lightweight you are."
"shut up," will begged as the two girls laughed.
"fine, laugh it up. i'm going to go attend the customer waiting outside, all by myself." he finally said, sticking his tongue out to the girls.
"don't you mean-" max struggled to be coherent between her laughs, "by my alone?"
and then they laughed even harder, and though will had no idea what they were referencing he blushed a deep red.
"haha," he said, and when the two girls didn't stop laughing he just turned around and headed outside- because there really was a customer waiting at one of the tables.
"welcome to the anchor, what can i get you?" he asked, not really focused on the boy in front of him but still distracted by the sound of their laughter.
"hey, will, it's nice to see you again!" the boy said- and that was enough to get will to finally turn to him. how did he know his name?
he was pretty sure he had never seen this guy before in his life- because he would remember him.
this boy was built like all the surfers out there, though unlike them his hair was brown. a nice, chestnut brown, just a little too long. his eyes were soft green, his smile warm and really sweet... very, very attractive.
unlike most people on the beach, this boy wasn't wearing a bathing suit. actually, he looked like the beach was the last place he should ever be in- he was wearing long black jeans, with a blue sweater and a beanie on his head. his legs were lying across the empty chair at the table, and his hands were aimlessly fidgeting with a small book on the table...
"oh, sorry, do i know you?" will asked, and the boy's grin widened.
"i mean, kinda'? we met last night, i work at the bookstore? my name is tyler green..." the boy tried, and that's when a half-realized, blurry memory of the night before hit, and his heart sank a little.
"oh, yeah, i remember your- umm, shape," will said, and the boy laughed. his laughter was warm and rolling, though short.
"to be honest, i'm shocked you even remember that," tyler said, and will turned even redder. why couldn't he stop blushing??
"ugh, i have no idea what happened but i'm going to apologize anyways-" he started, but tyler waved him off.
"no, no. you were... really cute, actually," he said, and now will was sure he turned so red it was almost black, "just wanted a book. i think there's no other teen in this stupid town who ever wanted that, especially when that drunk."
will laughed slightly, not sure what to say. what do you react to that?
"yeah, umm.. yeah." he said, "so, what can i get you to eat?"
to his surprise, the boy turned red this time.
"actually, i, uh, just came here to see you. i wanted to bring you this," he said, and slid the small book he had been fidgting with across the table. will picked it up- flowers for algernon.
" i felt so bad that we didn't have the book you wanted, but thought i'd bring you this. it's actually pretty good, and it also has a flower in the title?" tyler said, and will laughed again, kind of remembering what tyler was talking about but not enough to add anything.
"thanks," he said, sticking the book in his pocket, "that's really sweet."
and then the dreaded awkward silence came. will didn't know what to do- this cute boy, a boy who read and a boy who had seen him drunk, had come all this way just to give him a book? this wasn't something he was used to, nor had he expected.
"yeah, no problem," tyler said finally, "and maybe if you want.. we can go have a drink or something?"
wait. what?
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(𝐢 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐚 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐠𝐮𝐲𝐬 𝐢𝐤 ) 𝐉𝐔𝐋𝐘 𝟏𝟏𝐭𝐡. 𝟏𝟒𝟒𝟎 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐬.