The Opposition

Chapter 26: Carter

I wake up with a splitting headache and the worst case of cotton mouth I've ever experienced. I've only been drunk a few times in the past, so this sluggish feeling is foreign to me. A few moments after rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I realize that I'm still in my tux, which is restricting my arms as I try to stretch them above my head. I turn, expecting to find Sadie sleeping softly beside me, but, instead, I'm met with the image of Felix drooling onto a white pillow, his red hair falling onto his closed eyes. What the hell happened last night? I remember chasing after Felix, him telling me about his cheating asshole of an ex-boyfriend, and the smell of fruit punch liquor under my nose. After that, though, everything is a blur. Images of me stumbling around the hotel and sitting on the floor beside Sadie materialize in my brain, but everything after that is just blank.

The clock on the bedside table reads 6:00 AM. I wonder how late I was up last night. I really hope I didn't make a fool of myself. I flip around onto my stomach and groan into the pillow. I feel like shit. Felix stirs beside me, blinking his eyes and whining about the pounding in his head.

"What time is it?" He asks, pushing away the covers and stumbling out of the bed. He picks up his glasses off the bedside table, puts them on, and continues to rub his eyes from under the lenses.

"Late," I say. "We've got to go get breakfast and head out."

"Ugh, what did we do last night?"

"We got drunk," I sigh, finally getting out of bed.

Where is Sadie?

The thought suddenly hits me and soon I'm spinning around the room, seeing where she possibly could have gone. Where did she sleep? Please tell me I wasn't a drunk dick. When I see the bathroom door locked, I calm down slightly, and settle on the fact that she's probably taking a shower or something. I don't think I showered last night, so I decide to that when she comes out.

"Well I'm going to go to my room and get changed. Tell Sadie I say 'thanks' for taking care of us and stuff. I'll see you at breakfast in fifteen minutes?" Felix says, pulling on his loafers from last night.

"Yeah, no problem. See you."

While I wait for Sadie to get out of the bathroom, I down as many bottles of water I can. I don't feel too hungover, so I'm assuming that Sadie coerced me into going to bed at a reasonable enough time that allowed me to sleep off most of it. I can't even imagine Sadie taking care of me. While I cherish the moments that she is near me, she seems to feel the opposite. And that's when it hits me, like a dodgeball right to the face. "Kiss me." Fuck. I said that. My drunk ass asked Sadie to kiss me. I asked her to kiss me and she said "no." Oh my God. I'm such an idiot.

Finally, I hear the twist of the doorknob and out steps Sadie, wearing... Oh, fuck. I freeze as she waltzes toward her luggage, clearly not noticing my presence, in nothing but a black lace bra and matching underwear. I visibly swallow and make some sound deep in my throat that makes her jump up to face me.

"Oh, shit. Sorry. I didn't see you." She bends over to get her clothes out of her bag and I have to physically turn around because looking at her like that is giving me a lot of thoughts. Thoughts that I should not be having.

"Yeah, um, sorry. I just woke up. Felix left and is meeting us for breakfast. He said thanks for, you know, taking care of him last night."

She just nods, and begins pulling on a short plaid skirt and a white Fairridge button up. "It's fine. Just, next time, don't get drunk the day before we have debates."

I run a hand through my hair. "Yeah, of course. We were stupid. I'm sorry."

She shakes her head, "You're fine, Conners."