Out of Left Field

Chapter 6 - Now or Never (Sloane)

Sloane

"The moms are here."

I was obviously hallucinating. A beer hangover hallucination. Those were things, right? They had to be because there's absolutely no fucking way I actually just heard those words leave Chris's lips.

You're being a little too loud for having consumed entirely too many cans of beer last night, dream Christopher. 

My alarm hadn't even gone off yet, there was no fucking way the moms were here.

"Did you hear me?"

Yes, dream hallucination Chris, I heard you. I'm choosing to stay cozy in my bed instead of falling for your tricks.

I pulled the plush comforter up to my chin, taking a slow breath to calm the queasiness in my stomach.

Before i could wake up enough to track Chris's movement, a pillow was picked up from the other side of my bed and smacked against the side of my head with enough force to reset my hazy brain. "Get up! The moms are here!"

"Ow, Chris! Jesus!" I yanked the pillow off of my head and lobbed it over at him before the reality of the situation set in. The moms are here. "Fuck!" I sat up, swaying slightly as my head spun. "Right now?" I looked over at Chris who stood in the doorway to my room, then scowled at the pillow I'd thrown which was about 5 feet away from him. It had clearly not gotten the message that the goal was to hit Chris.

"Yes. Right now," he replied, looking down at his phone. "I just got back from my run. They must've caught the elevator right after me. They're knocking."

"Fuck!" I shrieked, attempting to dig myself out of the mess of sheets and blankets surrounding me. Once I thought I was clear, I stumbled out of bed, cursing loudly when the flat sheet was still tangled around my ankle, making me trip and fall onto the hardwood.

Chris's hand slapped over his mouth, muffling a laugh as i picked myself up from the ground.

Thank god I wore clothes to bed last night.

"Fuck off. What are we gonna do?"

He frowned before walking over and grabbing my shoulders, twisting and pushing me towards the bathroom. "You're gonna brush your teeth before you greet our mothers because I can smell you from the living room."

I scoffed in protest, but also knew he was right. I had horrible morning breath.

"I'm gonna go open the door for our parents and we're gonna sell the fuck out of this relationship."

A part of me wanted to believe in the unwavering confidence in Chris's voice, but we hadn't talked about any of this yet. We hadn't gotten a ton of 'practice' as a couple and if our trip to Target was foreshadowing how the rest of the PR relationship would go, we were quite literally doomed from the start.

"Chris–"

He shoved me gently into the bathroom, reaching for the handle to pull the door shut. "For the love of Michelle and Barack, please brush your teeth. No one should be subjected to that this early in the morning."

I lifted my middle finger towards him as he smiled, wiggling his fingers at me in a wave before closing the door behind him.

Fuck.