At First Light

Chapter 2

Okay I definitely didn't think that this would get picked up anywhere :') You guys are amazing!
Here's chapter 2 of At First Light! Please leave a comment to let me know what you think —> I'm a bit torn between ending this in Part 3 or continuing it as a longer story!
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When you get up again, it's still dark. The curtains were drawn but the sun was not yet up. Your head was splitting - you weren't hungover, just dehydrated. You didn't remember making it all the way under the duvet but it was wrapped and tucked around you like a sushi roll - you probably pulled it around yourself when you were sleeping. You'd left your phone and much of your belongings outside the bathroom when you got back so you couldn't check the time but you were sure that it wasn't time yet for brunch.

You pulled the duvet off you. Your bathrobe was kept fairly in place for someone who slept in it all night. It wasn't chilly but maybe you were cold during the night. It was properly dark in the room but you sort of remembered where the bathroom was. Still, you didn't want to risk knocking over anything, you hadn't had a look at the room yet since all you did was shower and crash immediately. So, you reached around the walls, hoping to find a switch to turn the lights on and you found one right by the bedside.

Now you could see that the room wasn't too shabby - they had a television, a minibar, and a comfy chair. The lights were too bright for you who had been drunk the night before but there was no way to change the brightness of the room - it was a motel after all, not a 5-star hotel. Whatever, you just needed water anyways.

You turned to get up, not too quickly otherwise you would stumble back into bed again. It was next to the bed so you hadn't seen it but your legs kicked over a bottle of water as you tried to get up. Funny, you didn't remember putting this by your bed before you slept. Could you have gotten up before and grabbed some water?

The bottle was unopened with its seal still in place. Perhaps the previous lodger had left it behind? You didn't care, you needed to rehydrate your brain and you gulped it down. Immediately, you felt ten times better and a bit more alert. Still, you wanted to know what time it was so you managed to get up this time without knocking over anything and made your way to the bathroom.

You picked up your phone on the way; 15 messages, the notifications said. You couldn't be bothered and it was 4am in the morning. You went for a wee first before heading back to bed, this time taking your phone with you so you could reach for it first thing in the morning. Furthermore, you needed to set an alarm for brunch. You couldn't quite remember what Richy said but you thought it wouldn't be any earlier than 11am. So, you decided to set an alarm for 10am.

Funny, there was an alarm set already. Did you do that before taking a shower? You couldn't be sure but you definitely wanted to go back to sleep now and you pulled the covers over again.

The next time you got up, the light that escaped the curtains had started to fill the room so it wasn't as dark as before. You remembered where the switch was from earlier and flicked it on. This time, you didn't feel too bad. You were still dehydrated and you continued gulping down the water from before. Seriously, where did that come from?

Your phone buzzed; 20 new messages. You weren't too keen to answer them but wanted to make sure they weren't anything too urgent. The 15 messages from earlier were just drunken texts from the gang and nothing too important. 2 of the remaining messages were from work which were non-urgent and 2 from Phil asking if you needed company before brunch.

The last message was from a number you didn't recognise.

Hope you are okay.

You blinked, letting your eyes focus once again. You click on the chat and of course there wasn't any chat history because this number was not known to you. You leave the chat and returned to the view with the drop down of all your recent chats on your screen. Your eyes widen at Jake's old number. You had forgotten that you messaged him when you were so frustrated the night before. That panic was quickly followed again by that wave of sadness that did not disappear even after all your whiskeys and sleep.