by R. S Burnett
“You cheated” he laughs at me once the girl has jumped down from the table and rejoined her friends.
“You said I had to get eight people to do a body shot, not that I had to be one of them” I smile my most innocent smile at him.
“You wouldn’t have done it anyway would you?” he asks
“I only just met you, I can’t lick you when I don’t even know you” I shrug.
“I’m going to have to be more specific with the other two I can see”
“While you think of them I’m going to get another drink, when I come back I expect to see you fully clothed” I call over my shoulder as I sit on a bar stool waiting to place my order.
“What was that all about?” Matt asks slipping onto the stool next to me.
“I lost a bet” I glare at him “Don’t ask and I’m seriously going to kill you tomorrow, do you have any idea how drunk I’m going to have to get just so I can get through the next two things I have to do?”
“What have you got to do?” he asks grinning at me making me glare harder.
“I don’t even know yet!”
“Anyway Soph sent me over to ask if you’re going home with Andrew tonight”
“No!” I answer surprised that Sophie would even have to ask
“She said you’d say that so she wants to know if you want to stay in our room tonight”
“Why?” I ask frowning at him confused.
“Umm … well” he doesn’t finish the sentence just gestures with his head to our table, I look over and see Tucker whispering something in Mel’s ear making her giggle and bite her bottom lip.
“Oh … I know her … or I used to anyway. He wouldn’t bring her back to the room would he? I mean, he knows there’s only one bed”
“Can I have four shots of tequila, a jager bomb and a bottle of beer please?” I ask the bartender as soon as he stands in front of me.
“I’m not sure but you can stay in our room just in case” Matt says frowning at the drinks being placed in front of me “Who are they for?” he asks.
“Me” I say distractedly as I pay for the drinks.
“Brooke you are not going to drink all them and not be sick” he says unbelievably.
I don’t reply. Surely Tucker wouldn’t bring someone back to a room knowing that I’ll be in the bed too, first shot. He wouldn’t do anything with her after last night, this morning and this afternoon, second shot. Although he is all over her and has been since we got here, third shot. Maybe I didn’t drop my knickers quick enough, fourth shot. He’s probably laughing at me for everything I told him about the dream and stuff I wince and slam the now empty jager bomb glass down.
“No?” I ask Matt picking up my beer and taking a sip.
“Oh boy” is all he says and walks back to the table looking worried.
I shake my head at the mess that has quickly become my life tonight. I’ve lost a bet and now have to do three embarrassing things that – thanks to the four shots and jager bomb – quick thinking aren’t going to get me out of anymore, by a guy that I used to be friends with and both my friends are attracted to. The guy that I care about and am attracted to and have been intimate with, just a few hours ago is now getting it on with a girl I also used to be friends with. Oh and I have to share a hotel room with people who will be having sex no matter which room I stay in after I have met my dead dads best friend. Great.
Chapter Twelve
I wake up to an annoying song and thirty people hitting me in the head with hammers. I throw the pillow over my head but the noise doesn’t stop. I reluctantly lift my head off the pillow and search for the noise.
I find my phone on the floor next to the bed in my shoe.
“Hello?” I whisper into the phone.
“Where the hell are you” Sophie screams into the phone making me wince and hold it away from my ear.
“Shh … Umm I’m not sure hold on” I whisper to her then look around the room, I’m still in the hotel but my stuff isn’t here. “I’m in the hotel”
“Why are you whispering?” she asks not whispering.
“Head … hurts … dying” I groan and walk into the bathroom “oh fuck” I whisper as I take in my appearance, I look like death.
“What? What’s oh fuck?” Sophie screeches in my ear.
“If you say anything above a whisper from now on, I am hanging up on you” I warn in a whisper so it doesn’t have the desired effect.
“What room are you in Brooke?” she asks sounding worried now and talking a bit quieter thankfully.
“I don’t know hold on” I tell her and head to the door to check the number on the outside “four oh seven” I tell her.
“I’ll be there now”
“I’ll leave the door unlocked then because I’m getting in the shower” I say before she hangs up.
I let the water wash over me and stand under it for much longer than I need to, I don’t bother drying my hair when I get out but get dressed in the fresh clothes that Sophie has left on the toilet for me. I can hear an argument so I put my ear on the door and try to listen.
“What are you doing here?” “What do you mean what am I doing here, what is she doing here?” “I don’t know I haven’t spoken to her far from getting this room number yet” “Well why not?” “Where’s your friend?” “She went home” “I can’t believe you” “Hey, at least I came home last night” “Will you two stop it”
I lower myself to the floor and put my head in my knees trying to think what happened last night, I remember everything at the pub and getting to the club but nothing after that. Someone knocks the door above my head.
“Yeah” I call not lifting my head
“Are you okay Brooke?” Katie asks softly.
“I’m not sure” I answer honestly.
“Can I come in?”
“Sure” I shift out of the way as she slides in and closes the door behind her. She takes in my position on the floor and climbs down next to me.
“What happened last night?” she asks looking me over.
“I was hoping you could tell me” I whisper “I can remember as far as getting to the club and that’s it” I groan.
“You were only with us until two o’ clock then you disappeared … with Andrew”
I groan and reach for my phone holding it to my ear once I’ve dialled his number.
“Morning” he says happily
“What the hell happened last night?” I ask not bothering to greet him back.
“You drank a truck load” he laughs and I hold the phone away from my ear until it stops.
“I can’t remember anything”
“You didn’t do anything stupid, you could only just walk when we got to the club so I let you off the bet, you met Will and spent most of the night talking to him, you’re not meeting him today now, you told him were going to sleep all day instead”
I groan at that “How did I get here?”
“You asked me for a room of your own so you wouldn’t have to watch a live porno. We looked for your friends, well I did carrying you, we could only find the one that was with Mel and you didn’t want to say goodbye to them, so I got a taxi back to the hotel with you and got one of the barmaids to get you to your room. I left you in reception”
“I’m so sorry and embarrassed. Really, I am sorry”
“It’s not a problem, I had fun. Next time your in town give me a call. I’d definitely do it again, I haven’t laughed so much in ages” he chuckles.
“Will do” I grumble and hang up.
“Well?” Kate prompts
“He put me in a taxi, left me in reception and I got a new room, one of the barmaids brought me here”
Her whole body visibly relaxes
“How mad are they?” I ask nodding towards the room that I’m sure now holds all my friends.
“Pretty mad, Luke and I have been looking for you since nine this morning, Sophie started this morning at four when Tucker woke her and Matt up because you wasn’t in
your room or answering your phone. It’s now three”
“Oh god, lets get this over with” I sigh and stand up.
Katie opens the door and I follow her out not looking at anyone, as soon as the shouting starts I throw my hands over my ears.
“Where the hell have you been?” Matt.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Tucker.
“Don’t you answer your phone?” Luke.
“I’ve been so worried!” Sophie.
“Please don’t shout” I beg pathetically.
“Damn right were going to shout” Tucker shouts.
“Well you know what. Screw you all, it’s all of your faults that I’m in this position anyway!” I scream back at them.
“Oh really?” Tucker asks folding his arms over his chest and raising an eyebrow.
“You” I point to Sophie “Were begging me to have sex with him!”
“But…”
“You!” I point at Tucker “you ran off after lunch and ignored me for the whole night; you have a problem with something, fucking speak up and tell me”
“And you two!” I turn my glare on Matt and Luke “If you two were man enough to get you’re girlfriends yourself, instead of shoving me in front of some random guy, then I wouldn’t have had to do it and be in this position now would I”
I turn to face al of them “Now if you have all finished shouting, I’m going home and if any of you even think about lecturing or shouting at me once more I will get a train home alone”
“No I’ll drive you with Sophie, the boys can go in Matt’s car” Kate says from behind me.
“Fine” I nod and walk back to my original room to collect my things, wisely no one follows me and I meet them in the hotel lobby.
“We’ll follow you” Katie tells Luke and we all separate into the separate cars.
“Can we stop for coffee please?” I ask from my seat in the back.
“Of course” Kate smiles at me.
The car journey home is made in complete silence, Sophie falls asleep about ten minutes in and I relieve Kate of driving duties after half hour when I noticed she was struggling to keep her eyes open, which pretty much left me with just my thoughts to keep me company.
An hour into the drive my phone starts ringing so I pull over to answer it without checking who’s calling, the boys pull over ahead of me when they notice that I’ve stopped.
“Hello”
“Hi Brooke, just wanted to check to see how you are today, it’s Will”
“Oh hi, I’m feeling quite bad actually; sorry I heard I was a bit drunk last night” I wince imagining all the things that I could have done.
“Yeah just a little but you were fine, from what I heard you actually handled it quite well” he’s laughing much to my relief “Will you be coming down again?”
“I’m not sure, I guess I will at some point but I have exams and things coming up so it may not be for a while, I’ll definitely let you know though”
“Yeah, I’d like that” he sounds genuinely happy “Are you back home yet?”
The boys are making their way towards me now.
“No on the drive home, about an hour and half left”
“I’ll let you get back to it then, drive safe and say hey to your dad the next time you visit him okay?”
“Sure, bye Will”
“Why did you stop?” Matt asks opening my door.
“Phone” I hold my phone up and rest my head on the steering wheel.
“How long have they been out?” Luke asks gesturing to the girls.
“Soph went out about ten minutes in and Kate couldn’t keep her eyes open ten minutes later”
“Brooke, you can’t drive. You’re probably still drunk”
“Trust me I would not be feeling this bad if I was drunk” I grumble not bothering to lift my head.
“I’d like to drive with Soph” Matt says from behind Luke.
“I was going to say I wanted to sit with Kate” Luke sighs and the three boys just stare at each other.
“Well you two stay with your girls, I’ll drive Brooke back” Tucker grumbles obviously not happy with the situation.
“Fine” I give in and climb out of the car.
“Want me to drive so you can sleep?” I ask wearily knowing he can’t have had any sleep either.
“Nope, I said I’d drive you back so that’s what I’m going to do” he practically spits the words at me.
“Fine” I grumble back and settle into the passenger seat.
This journey home is just as silent as the one I just left. Things between us are awkward when I think to how we woke up yesterday morning and how we are now, it’s like a whole world has changed. I have no idea what exactly happened but if I could take it all back and cancel it out I would.
“How’s Andrew?” Tucker asks breaking the silence after about forty minutes, I look over at him but he’s staring ahead.
“How’s Mel?” I counter to which he just nods his head once and the silence descends on us once again.
We pull up in front of the dorms and I let out the breath I feel like I’ve been holding for the last twenty minutes. I reach for the door handle but Tucker clear his throat, I turn to look at him but, again he isn’t facing me.
“I slept with her” he says flatly.
I close my eyes and sit there for a moment, when I re-open them he’s still staring straight ahead, shaking my head I get out of the car.
“Sorry I fell asleep on you” Sophie says climbing out of Luke car.
“It’s fine, it’s my fault you were up so early” I shrug and grab my bag from the trunk.
“We’re going to JD’s, are you coming?” Luke calls to me from the driver side door of his car.
“Nope” I grab my keys and head to my car “I have somewhere to be” I don’t look back and settle into my car heading towards the graveyard to tell my dad about the trip.
Chapter Thirteen
When I get back to the dorm that night Sophie is sat at the kitchen table with her laptop she looks up at my entrance.
“Hey, there’s food here for you, I saved you some just incase you didn’t get a chance to eat”
“Thanks, but I’m going to grab something in a little”
I smile at her pouring myself a coffee from the fresh pot she’s made “Want one?”
“Thanks” I take the mug from her and then sit at the table opposite her.
“Was this weekend weird for you?”
“A little” I admit “It was strange as in there were something I could remember some things clearly, others like Andrew for instance I remembered bits, which is how I recognized him but then some things like Mel, I couldn’t remember her at all or Will for that matter”
“I’m sure it will come back but you’ve spent so long making sure you don’t remember them that you’ve buried them deep”
“I know, thanks for going with me though”
“No problem” she smiles but then frowns “It was weird between you and Tucker as well what was that about?”
“I don’t know, I guess you and everyone else was right when you warned me about him” I sigh rubbing my face with the palms of my hands.
“I’m sorry Brooke, Matt said that you took five shots when you found out about him and Mel and I saw you look away when they did their body shots, you told him didn’t you?”
“Yeah” I nod resting my head in my hands.
“Will you be okay?”
“I’m just sorry that we won’t be friends anymore” I admit looking up at her.
“You will” she looks determined but something in my expression makes her change her mind “won’t you?”
“I don’t think so” I smile sadly at her.
“I’m sorry”
“It’s fine, everyone was surprised it lasted this long, it had to end sooner or later right?” I smile at her.
Sophie goes to bed shortly after but I stay up for the first time ever, really trying to remember my childhood,
something I have never allowed myself to do before.
“Shit! Brooke!”
I snap my eyes open and lift my head up, Sophie is shaking me.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” I ask looking around for danger.
“Are you okay?” she asks searching my eyes.
“I’m fine why?
“You were screaming and hitting the table” she says slowly.
“Sorry for waking you” I grumble standing up and stretching.
“It’s fine, I thought you were going to hurt yourself”
“I’m going to go out for a bit, get some fresh air, if I don’t see you in the morning I’ll see you at lunch okay?”
“Sure” she says before I close the door after me.
Once I’m in my car I take a deep breath and rest my head on the steering wheel. I don’t remember the nightmare but I know it was a bad one because I’m shaking. I know from experience that there are only two things that will enable me to get back to sleep one is having Tucker stay with me and the other is to get so drunk that I pass out. Tucker isn’t an option so I start my car and head to the all nigh bar that isn’t far from here.
“Hey Luke” I say into the phone as soon as he answers.
“Whoa, why are you shouting?” he asks me, I didn’t realize I was.
“I’m not!”
“Where are you?” he asks me quietly.
“Why are you whispering?” I whisper back giggling slightly.
“Oh my god” I hear him groan and then I can hear voices in the background.
“Are you with Sophie? Let me talk to her” I demand
“Sophiiieeee” I sing into the phone
“Brooke?”
“Yeap” I hiccup “Come party”
“Who are you with?” she asks laughing
“The band, Dave found me last night … this morning … at the bar and brought me to Jacks house party, are you coming?”
“I’ll see you all tomorrow” I hear her say away from the phone and then hear keys jangling about “I’m on my way” she laughs and hangs up.
