I woke up the next morning with a fucking hangover to rival even the worst. The pounding in my head felt like a jack hammer, and my mouth felt like I'd swallowed half of the Sierra desert. Slowly, I blinked my eyes open to find my shoes and earrings still adorning my dehydrated body, and my legs dangling off of Fi's couch.
Something putrid hit my nostrils and I covered my mouth with my hand. What the fuck was that?! I pulled my hair up to my nose and took a good whiff, almost dying. Lovely. It looked like, in addition to finding my lost dignity, I'd have to find Fi a new couch. There was no way the supple suede cushions could have withstood such a stench-filled attack.
"Is everyone alive?" Rox croaked from somewhere down the hallway and I groaned in response.
"I second that!" Fi bellowed from her open bedroom door.
"Did Chantel ever make it home?" I sat up and watched the entire living room tilt on its axis. Fuck me. I was still drunk.
"I think she went home with that couple. What were their names again?"
"Ashley and Adam?" I offered.
"Allison and Anthony?" Rox said at the same time, and we all laughed until our heads pounded.
"Fuck. We'd not be good news for a Dateline special."
"Hopefully it won't come to that." I reached for my phone to check for a message from Chantel...and Bingo.
Made it back to my hotel. And fuck all I am hangover.
"She's fine." I informed the girls and typed out a text agreeing in full.
"What time do you have to leave today?" Fi asked, stumbling into her living room.
"I think three?" I rubbed my eyes and seriously contemplated lying back down, but didn't think I could stand the smell of the vomit so close to my nostrils again.
"That sucks." Fi sighed, joining me in the living room, and sidestepped my vomit laced body at the last minute. "You owe me a new couch."
"Yeah, I was just thinking the same thing..."
"Oh no. Did you barf again?" Rox asked, wandering out of the bathroom.
"What do you mean, 'again'?" I accepted the glass of water she held out to me.
"You don't remember us holding your hair back outside of McDonalds?"
"Fuck. I thought that was a dream." I smelled my hair again. Definitely not a dream.
"Nope. It was real." Fi eyed me across the living room. "So was the way you admitted loving Eli."
"Fuck." I held my head in my hands.
"Do you...still love him?" Rox's voice was small.
Yes.
"I don't know." I lied.
Both girls went quiet for a long moment, exchanging glances over my head.
"Look." Fi spoke up first. "You love Ethan. I know you do. But if there's still something going on with Eli, you need to end things. He doesn't deserve your heart playing double agent."
"Its not." I insisted, but they both didn't look swayed. "Last night I was just really drunk." The girls exchanged a look again. "Would you stop doing that?!"
"Just trying to keep it real, sis." Rox tossed her long curls over one shoulder.
"Look, I love Eli. I do. But I love him in the way that people love their first love. Where they can't totally let them go. The way I love Ethan is different. It's respectful and grown up and like I can see a future with him. Eli and I might've been fireworks red glare, but it wasn't sustainable. We were destined to burn out. Ethan and I are destined to shine."
YOU ARE READING
The Sweetest Summer
Romance**COMPLETE** Elijah West was everything, and I was just...Avery Adams. The tomboy, the girl next door, the friend zone occupant. The girl who somehow grew up while he was gone filming his television show. But this summer he's back, and the sparks a...
