FRIENDS ➳ jean kirstein

001. EPITOME OF NARCISSISM

Charlie - October 28, 2020
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Charlie really needed to make a mental note to stop sleeping on the floor of Eren's basement.

She felt cold, and her body ached all over. Eren's lap cushioned her head, but her bones did not appreciate her less than wise decision to fall asleep on the hard floor. Blurred memories of the night before came rushing back to her, and with the memories came the splitting headache. She was grateful for the dullness of the basement as she sat up, massaging her forehead in a futile effort to ease the pain.

Empty glass bottles littered the room, and Eren had foolishly left his pipe out on the coffee table. His mother knew that he drank, and while she wasn't thrilled about it, she found peace in knowing that he (supposedly) only drank in the safety of his own home. But if she was to find out that he smoked . . . well, Charlie would have preferred to not see Carla Jaeger's reaction to that.

Next to Charlie, Eren groaned loudly. The noise was filled with nothing but agony and it perfectly described how she was feeling as the sharp, throbbing pain beat inside her head. She somehow managed to find the will to drag herself across the floor and grab for her phone, which she had left abandoned on the coffee table. As she expected, her screen paid home to a seemingly endless stream of missed calls and unread text messages.

Charlie hadn't thought her alcohol-induced headache could get any worse. She was wrong. As soon as the harsh phone light met her eyes, a pain so great split her head that she was sure someone had driven a machete right through her skull. Ignoring the worried messages from her brother and missed calls from her mom, she clicked on the text she had received from Mikasa, in which she asked if Charlie could give her a ride to school or if she'd need to take the bus.

Charlie rubbed her eyes, which she soon found was a great mistake. It only made the already unbearable pain in her head even worse. If only she had some water, but the only drinks to be found were the last few sips of alcohol left in some of the bottles that were strewn about the floor.

Reading the time, Charlie found that it had just gone nine o'clock, meaning that school had already started. She cursed under her breath and sent a hasty apology to Mikasa before tossing her phone on the couch and turning to Eren, who was still sprawled on the floor and asleep. Grabbing him by the shoulders, Charlie began to shake him.

She had barely uttered the words, "Wake up," when his bleary eyes shot open. He blinked rapidly, then his eyes started to dance around—evidently, he was just as confused as she had been when she first woke, but realisation of his whereabouts quickly dawned on Eren's oily face and he summoned a great deal of effort to sit up and yawn.

Through eyes that were still slightly closed with drowsiness, Eren considered Charlie.

"You look terrible," he deadpanned.

However bad she looked, she was certain Eren didn't look any better. She couldn't remember how his shirt had gotten so wet, nor how it had not yet dried throughout the night. There was a burn mark on his jeans from when he had dropped a cigarette--Charlie remembered that very clearly. Eren's hair was never especially tidy, but now he looked like he had gone for three consecutive rides on an inverted rollercoaster.

Charlie touched her face, grimacing in disgust as she done so. Her skin was frying in oil. She couldn't possibly go home—if her mom was home, would give her a full-out interrogation, only to spend a further twenty minutes lecturing her for her misbehaviour, so she would have to make do with speedily getting ready at Eren's house.

She rolled her eyes at the thought. She had heard it all before. Whatever angered words her mom decided to spew at her, she was sure she had already heard them at least a thousand times.