Words & Whiskey

EDITED VERSION: Chapter Four

I woke up the next morning with a slight headache and my legs all tangled up in my blankets because I apparently also left my boots on. Groaning, I reached for the glass of water and the two Advil that mysteriously sat beside my laptop on my desk. Chugging the contents to the bottom of the glass, I put it back down beside my laptop. When I caught sight of my laptop, I felt as though I had forgotten something. Peering at my desk, I studied everything on it, from notebooks to pencils, to my phone. I paused when I saw my phone. Kieran and I had a fight last night before I went out.

Oh, crap. Kieran. I was supposed to Skype him when I got home.

Bolting from my bed, I removed my smeared makeup and powered on my laptop and went on Skype.

It took a couple of tries but I finally got Kieran to answer my calls. "Kieran, thank God. I'm so sorry. Last night was sort of hectic and once I got home, I passed right out."

Kieran didn't look amused. He sat in his computer chair, leaning back, playing with the rim of the baseball cap he was wearing, "So, you get mad at me for not talking to you because I was out partying, yet you did just that last night. How is that fair?"

"I wasn't partying, Kieran," I shook my head a little. "I was meeting Darian's brother. We barely had anything to drink."

Four beers were nothing to Kieran. But to me, I could get tipsy off of one. Not that Kieran didn't already know this.

Kieran leaned forward in his computer chair and his eyes narrowed. "If you were just meeting Darian's brother, why are you wearing that?"

I looked down and noticed I forgot to change out of my lace bodysuit that Kieran absolutely despised. I leaning back on my chair I pulled the hoodie that was on my bed and threw it on hastily. "I just want to look nice."

Kieran scratched his head with his cap. "So, looking nice equates to you look like a strippe-"

"Hey, Audrey?" Nathan swung open the door without knocking. His hazel eyes fell onto mine that was beginning to produce tears. "Are you-"

"Who is that?" My boyfriend demanded; his expression not very amused.

Nathan's eyes landed on Kieran's angry face that filled my computer screen. He mouthed, sorry, and left the room quietly.

I winced at his tone, "That would be Nathan, Darian's brother."

"Oh," was all Kieran responded with. "He spent the night?"

Taking a deep breath, I said, "Kieran? I have something I need to tell you."

My boyfriend stilled at my tone. Way to go, that was probably the most horrible way to start this conversation.

Staring at me intently, Kieran waited for me to continue. Tiredly running my hand through my tangled hair, I said, "Last night at dinner Nathan informed us he was having difficulties with the place he's living in. The owners want to move back in and he has no place to go."

"What does that have to do with you?" Kieran snapped instantly.

"Well," I began slowly. "You know we were going to get another roommate down the line, because of the extra room, but that room is now going to Nathan."
Kieran let out a breath, his jaw clenched tightly. "He better be gay too."

"He's not gay too, Kieran, it doesn't just run in the family," I snapped just like he had done moments before as if he would act like a child about this. We have been together for over a year and basically best friends since the ninth grade. I wouldn't leave him for just about anybody — especially if that somebody was Nathan.