Finding Home || bxb

7

"Hey," I greeted Mike and Carrie the next morning, or really it was afternoon because I'd been sleeping off my hangover. "This is Dahlia."

"Hi Mr and Mrs Colloway," she said.

"Oh please, Carrie and Mike will do. Lovely to meet you Dahlia. Such a pretty name," Carried said before turning to address me. "How are you feeling Alden? Charlie said you had a pretty bad hangover."

"Sorry about that. I hope I didn't wake you up when I came back last night." I was incredibly embarrassed about how I behaved the night before. I wish I'd been drunk enough to just forget it all but unfortunately, I seemed to remember most of it.

"No, it's okay," Carrie replied as she handed me and Dahlia a plate of food which we thanked her for.

"Happens to the best of us," Mike said from where he stood by the kettle making a cup of tea. "We were the same when we were younger."

"Probably worse," Carrie added making them both chuckle as they looked at each other with a knowing twinkle in their eyes. I wonder what kind of things these seemingly sensible couple got up to in their teenage years. It must have been wild considering how they were nowhere near as strict as many other foster parents I'd stayed with. I definitely wanted to hear one of the stories one day if they were willing to share.

When Dahlia and I had been left alone at the dining room table, I asked her to tell me everything that happened just to make sure that I was definitely remembering everything correctly. And to my disappointment, the events did unfold exactly as I remembered which means that was probably the worst way to end the night in front of my so-called crush.

"It was definitely one way to get someone you fancy to remember you," Dahlia chuckled shoving some mushrooms into her mouth from her plate.

"I hate my life," I groaned only partially joking. "He's never gonna talk to me again. In fact, I'm not sure I want him to. I think I'd rather literally talk to anyone else before I talk to him again."

"Well, that sucks cos I gave him your Instagram," Charlie said as he wandered into the room grabbing some food himself.

"What?!" I questioned loudly.

"Well, he asked for it before he left. Said he wanted to message you to check up on you. So, watch out for any DMs from him," Charlie explained.

"Roman Kingsley is gonna DM me after I basically had a drunk meltdown in front of him?"

"Yup. What was that all about anyway?" Charlie asked. I didn't know what to say because I wasn't ready to be completely honest with him. Despite him and I actually having grown somewhat close over the short time we'd known each other; I wasn't prepared to tell him how the sound of Roman's voice saying one little phrase triggered me into remembering a traumatic experience from my past. It wouldn't make sense to him.

Instead, I just shrugged and told him I didn't know. "I think I just had too much to drink." Dahlia looked at me knowing that wasn't the full story but smiling in her own subtle way to let me know everything was okay and that she was here for me. I was so glad to have her as a friend.

"Right, well honestly I had way too much as well. Helping you home sobered me up a little, but I definitely felt it this morning. Think I might take like a week or two break from drinking," Charlie said as he sat munching away at his food beside me at the table.

"I might have to join you there on that one. I had the worst headache this morning and my stomach felt so bad. I felt like something crawled up my ass and died," I said.

"You sure that wasn't Roman's doing?" he questioned raising his eyebrows in a suggestive gesture. "You know, before you had your breakdown and he realised you were nuts."