Watch Your Step

HUNGOVER

(Contains strong language and gruesome scenes)

AWFUL. If there's one word that can describe what I feel right now, it's awful—or even worse. I wake up with a start. What makes it worse on a Monday morning, waking up with my head ringing, my body roasting, and I can't do anything about it! Even with my eyes closed, I can see the white rays of the sun, causing my head to tilt to where I know it's darker. Squinting, the first thing presented to me is a prominent brown blotch on my blue bedsheets. Scattered with stuff which—I don't know—seems to be tiny food particles. It still looks fresh because it hasn't dried much, but the smell of it is overwhelming. Quite the opposite of fresh like an offspring smell of rotten eggs and wet socks. But I mean it's not that bad as I look at how trashed this room I'm in.

Let's see. Pros and Cons. A faint grimace props on my face. My clothes are outspread on the parquet floor like garbage. And the worst news is it totally stinks in here, to the point that I rather pluck all my nose hairs than smell another bit of it. But the good news is—well—I'm only beside the muddy smudge and not lying on top of it. Optimistically, that's all I can come up with, as a positive omen, for now. To change the subject, I can hardly press on to what happened before I passed out. What I can only remember is that I couldn't help but puke on my bed, dazed by drinking too much.

"None of that matters now," I survey as I try to get up as badly as I can. My parching lips and grumbling stomach crave cold water right now. However, going down the stairs is no easy task. Only if it's not zigzagging when I look at it. So, I have to grab almost everything before I finally clamber down. My body was—oh so weak— "weak as a stick," as Tommy, my nephew used to say.

A question of his whereabouts slipped through my mind. I'm supposed to babysit him this week, that's why I'm staying at my Auntie Carla and Uncle Bob's house. Meanwhile, I sag my foot to one of the flip-flops nearest to it. (I didn't bother to wear both) When I arrived at the landing, my eyes were half-closed. Each stride is like a matter of life and death. The last step is a relief, but a smaller step next to it—the first floor—is slightly elevated. Without noticing it, I almost dive headfirst to the fridge which catches me as hard as a cushion made of steel. The next thing I did was: 1) open the fridge; 2) grab a pitcher; 3) drown myself and wash my face. The icy cold water has never been so sweet and thirst-quenching.

Unsurprisingly, I gulp down all the water in the pitcher before I put it in the sink. It's as trashed as my room upstairs as if a tornado passed by because of the party last night. Those damn visitors ransacked this whole fucking place! "AND THEY TOOK ALL THE FOOD!"

ALLEVIATE. I search for something to eat and only find an overripe apple on the table. No thanks! I rather feel like a bag that only contains part beer and part water—which made me even more delirious. I know I have to excrete all those bizarre foods and liquor I ingested. Excavate it if I have to. My body tells me also. It's screaming to vomit my brains out!

As soon as I got back to my room, the water I drank erupted from my mouth like a raging geyser. Before I know it, I am puking all over the parquet floor of the hallway. Trickles of sour liquid pour from my mouth. Hundreds of needles prick my throat and tears sprout in the corner of my eyes. Two doors from my room, I only manage to refrain from spitting all my internal organs until I reach the third. It smells of urine and ammonia but I couldn't be more thankful there's a bathroom on the second floor. I gasped, noticing the mess I'd made. "How can all this stuff manage to fit inside me?"

As I wipe my mouth with the collar of my shirt, I inadvertently look at the mirror above the sink. My face glistening, eyes puffy and with the tousled hair, I'm barely recognizable as a girl—or a young person. I look like my Auntie Carla. Each time I revert to my bed, the foul stench only gets stronger. I wince at the thick and disgusting stale odor that fills my nostrils. Churning my belly and eventually making me scramble back to the sink.