Honey Whiskey

Ashlyn

There's a bang that wakes me from my slumber and I look around. It takes me a second to remember where I am and whose bed I'm currently occupying. I know that sounds awful, but I fell asleep so quickly last night that I assumed everything that happened was a nightmare and I'm just now waking up for my first day of classes. It doesn't take me long to realize that I'm not that lucky and it's true that about 30 people saw me without a shirt on last night. Thankfully I was wearing a cute black laced bra, instead of my typical comfortable bra that Morgan likes to comment, "I swear, my 90-year-old grandmother has that same bra." every time she sees me in it. I shudder from the memory of last night and then I notice a weight across my stomach. I lift the blanket to find an arm wrapped around me and then I hear steady breathing from behind me.

 I turn as slowly as I can so I don't disturb whoever is sleeping next to me. Relief hits me like a bus when I see that it's James and not some random guy. Which is weird because I only met James yesterday, so technically he is a random guy in a sense... but I have a feeling he wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt me. What's that my mom always says to me? Oh, right. I'm "too trusting." I roll my eyes and reach down to grab ahold of his arm then lift it up enough for me to slip out from under. I'm successful and I'm giving myself props, I'm close to doing a victory fist pump in the air when I glance at his desk and see a clock in the corner of it. I feel like my eyes are about to bulge out of my head when I see the time. 11:30 AM!? I was hoping to have AT LEAST 10 applications into an array of places where I'd be okay with working during this semester. "Shit," I whisper. I'm not sure why my alarm didn't go off, but I need to find my phone and get out of here. I lift the blanket once more and see that my phone is tucked between the bed and an incredible set of abs with a small amount of hair that trails down below the waist of the pants...Is that a tattoo? FUCK. FOCUS ASHLYN! I scream at myself mentally. I grab onto my phone and gently pull it free. 15 new text messages, most are from Morgan and one from my mom. I feel my stomach drop at the fact mother dearest texted and I missed it. I click on her message first.

Mom: I hope you're taking your time away at college seriously. Don't want you to disappoint your father again.

I wish I could say that I'm shocked to have my mother speak to me in that way, but I'm not. It used to shake me to my core when it first started happening when I was 11, but now I have so many years of experience that I just brush it off, or I poke the bear for fun. Like I'm going to do now.

Me: I couldn't imagine disappointing my father! I wouldn't be able to live with myself. Thank you for the words of affirmation, sweet mother!

She reads it the second it's delivered and I see the three dots appear to indicate that she's typing but they vanish and that's that. I can't help but smirk at myself for driving her a tad crazy this morning. It's before she's had her prosecco at lunch, so I'm really playing with fire. I scroll down to Morgan's text and see that all of her texts are threatening to call 911 if I don't call her immediately. She has my location, so she knows that I was at the party house, or at least she thinks my phone was left here since I didn't respond. I decide I'll give her a call on my way to Beans and Tea. Now I just need to focus on getting out of this house without being seen. Talk about the ultimate walk of shame that I'm about to endure. Half of his roommates saw me without a shirt on last night so I'm sure it's going to be a bit awkward if I run into any of them. 

I'm able to sneak out of James's room without tripping or running into anything and I leave him to continue sleeping. My second victory of the day and it's not even noon! When I'm out in the hallway, I'm facing his door so I can make sure I close it as quietly as possible, and when I turn around I'm hit with a wall of muscle. I have to grab onto the arms of the individual I just body-checked to make sure I don't fall over and ruin my silent escape plan. Once I'm steady, I begin to apologize and then I look up to see who I ran into and I'm met with a pair of dark eyes that are the same pair I saw last night looking at me as if I was prey and they belong to Ryan. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually black because in this lighting, I can't see any shade of color and that is enough to send a chill up my spine. "I'm sorry, I didn't see you there." I try to smile to help my case, but my smile falters when Ryan's response is a growl. Hoookay, Ryan is not a morning person. Noted. In fear of running into another one of James' roommates, literally and figuratively, I practically run down the steps and I'm out the door within a minute. The second I step outside, I feel like the air is immediately lighter and I can finally breathe. To the cafe, I go.