You Got Yr. Cherry Bomb [ruby da cherry]

Competitive Eating Made Me Skinny

     Light seems so much brighter than normal when you're hungover. In my case, I was suffering the illest fucking hangover I've had all tour, so opening my eyes was nearly painful. And the light, normally blocked out from the bunk room being barely windowed, was all over. What the fuck? Then it clicked; I wasn't in the bus. Memories of last night's events quickly flashed through my mind once I broke fully out of my sleep. God fucking dammit.

     "Well, Julie is kind of a fat girl's name. All the Juliannas I knew..." I spoke under my breath, my voice hoarse. I wasn't mad about my insult to that skank, but I was mad about the scene I caused and the things I said to Oddy as he attempted to walk me to the bus. Maybe I could pass it off as just overdoing the alcohol. Yeah, that's good.

     Sitting up was like climbing a mountain, and when I did get up, my vision filled with static and it felt like my brain had come loose from the stem. I pressed my thumb and pointer finger to the corners of my eyes as I felt with my other hand for my phone. No doubt I'd have text notifications from a couple of the guys at least.

     When I grabbed my phone I opened my eyes and took my other hand down from my face. With a deep breath, I turned it on. I was right; 6 new messages. Max, Kev, Germ, Scott, and Ruby with 2 messages. Whatever.

     I responded to all but Ruby. I really didn't even read his, didn't open it to give him the satisfaction of knowing I saw that he texted me. Was I really mad at him, or embarrassed of myself? Eh, kinda both. He should have stuck up for me last night, and I stood by that even in my painful, morning-after sobriety. But how I handled it... yeah, drunk me needs to stop acting like a hormonal tween. Well, maybe I could fix that by healing my inner child or some shit. That would have to wait, though, until I had the time. For now, I'd just ignore him until I had to face him. Which would only be thirty minutes away, as stated by Scott from his text that he'd come get me at noon. We needed to be at the next venue by at least 3 PM, so we had time. I'm glad my little drunken tantrum didn't cause problems for everyone else. I did apologize to Scott when I texted him back, but he replied saying that he understood and didn't mind. God, I hoped that it was true and not just him trying to be nice.

     I only had thirty minutes, so showering was out of the question. With a pounding in my head, I picked up my clothes from the motel floor and pulled them on. I didn't want to be wearing last night's concert outfit, the gaps between where one item of clothing ends and the other begins being much too far apart for my liking during a hangover, but I had no other choice. Drunk me was too emotional to think of looking out for sober me. Obviously, since I ran away from everyone else and Ubered to the nearest motel after going off on my friend/crush that had an incident the night before. I only had my clothes, my phone, and my tiny little crossbody bag/fanny pack that I kept on me for the show. All it had in it was fuchsia earplugs, a pack of gum, and twist-up eyeliner. I walked over to the bathroom and saw the smeared mess on my face. Dear lord, who would want someone like that?

     In an attempt to shut my thoughts up, again, I turned on the cold water in the sink and rinsed off my face. I dirtied a few of the washcloths too, since just using my hands was not getting all of the leftover makeup off. After I managed to get myself clean, I drew on two new eyebrows to replace the old, smeared ones.

     My phone vibrated in my pocket shortly after I finished getting ready. "Yeah, Scott?"

     "Start comin' outside. We 'boutta pull up 'round the corner." The sounds of people in the background made my heart pound. Fuck, I have to face them after what happened last night. Especially Ruby. He probably hates me now. Not that it would ever have lasted, you know. This is just for the best.

     I squeezed my eyes shut to focus before answering. "Yeah, okay, see you in a second."

     Did this have to be so hard? I was tempted to read Oddy's messages as I walked outside, but I didn't. If it was something I would spiral over, I'd rather just stick to my already self-deprecating thoughts. No need to make them worse. The bus pulled up as I turned the corner, stopping three feet away from me. I opened the door as it unlocked and stepped inside, peeking my head into the driver's area to thank Scott.