Flawed (s.m.)

008.

 The sound of the morning birds awakened me. Groggily, I spread out all of my limbs in the most awkward form of stretching that could possibly imagined as an exhausted yawn escaped from my throat. I begin to take in my surroundings, quickly noticing that the soft sheets of the bed I was in didn't belong to me. On the side table, there appeared to be advil and water that someone had left for me, but to my surprise, the typical hangover symptoms weren't present. The walls were a calming, neutral tone with minimal artwork to accentuate the room. My eyes were drawn to a keyboard and recording equipment in the corner of the room, which led me to believe that I was in none other than Jack Johnson's room. I sat up on the edge of the bed, allowing my bare feet to come in contact with the cool carpet while I took a look at my attire. I was wearing one of Johnson's crewneck sweatshirts that was big enough to be confused with some sort of strange dress. After searching the room for my skinny jeans, I slipped them on and decided to remain in the warm comfort of the sweatshirt. I was wondering a multitude of things, but the one I seemed to be most worried about was where Shawn was. I would feel horrible if I ended up ditching him. I was supposed to be teaching him about good party experiences, but it's not like last night's events did a very good job of demonstrating that, anyway.

 I tiredly made my way to the door leading out of the bedroom with another stretch of my arms. Placing one of my small hands on the door knob, I gently twisted the handle and tried my best to stay as quiet as possible. I had no concept of time so far, and if it was too early in the morning, I didn't want to start my Saturday off by pissing off a bunch of over-nighters. When the door was finally wide open, my peripheral vision caught sight of someone laying on the ground in the hallway, right outside of the door. Instinctively, I snapped my head downwards to be sure that it wasn't yet another someone that I simply just did not want to deal with. Fortunately enough, it was Shawn. I let out a slight laugh under my breath as my eyes focused in on a clock, the time reading 10:32. I hoped that wasn't too early for Shawn as I comfortably sat down on his torso, causing him to jump a little bit. A fully-audible laugh fell from my lips.

 "What the hell?!" he exclaimed, jolting upwards so that I slid to his lap. I could already tell by the puffiness around his eyes that he was terribly hungover, which led me to question just how many drinks he had last night. 

 "Calm down, you spaz," I teased, looking up at him with sympathy. Hangovers were the absolute worst. After relaxing, he looked down at me with a slight smile.

 "So, how was last night?" he asked as if he hadn't been there at all. This was enough to make me laugh again.

 "Wait, you don't remember? Like, anything?" I questioned in response, and he shook his head no. In some twisted way, I was thankful for this. I completely remembered what I said while under the influence the previous night, and I regretted it so badly. All of my friends were going to treat me different now, and I really didn't want that from Shawn. We just met and we had a lot of fun together, and I didn't want my dumb life issues to get in the way of that. "It was great," I lied, flashing him a smile. "Thanks for coming with me."

 When he was about to reply, Gilinsky's voice cut in. "Um.. hey, Audrey.." he awkwardly greeted me. He knew that I wasn't going to be the happiest with him, and I could feel his nerves pulsating from the spot where I was sitting on the floor. Slowly, I pushed myself up and away from Shawn and strolled over to give Gilinsky a hug. I knew he was confused when he hesitated to wrap his arms around me.

 "Please don't say anything right now. Please. I'll explain later," I whispered, and he squeezed me tighter to let me know that he heard me loud and clear. I pulled away from his grasp, still a bit upset with him because of what happened, but I knew that I would discuss that with him later. The smell of coffee brewing drew me towards the bottom of the stairs and into the kitchen as I stepped over mounds of garbage and a few sleeping bodies.