Alternate Ending

hangover

"Eleanor! You made it!" My best friend, Margo, exclaims as she pulls me in for a hug. After classes today, I headed over to my best friend's house that was 30 minutes away from the city in order to celebrate her 18th birthday.

Long story short, Margo always promised she'd make her 18th birthday party a drinking party that would be (and I quote) "so much fun that the hangover I'd have the next morning would be one for the books."

What can you do though? It's a damn college party!

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." I smile and hand hand her a small bag with her gift in it. It was a special pandora bracelet I ordered tailored based on her personality and interest.

My mind drifts to the sound of loud booming music, a bunch of random people dancing, and a bevy of familiar people drinking and making conversation.

Holy shit, she invited my high school friends.

"How did you get a hold of them?" I say surprisingly, considering that I've never seen these people in years.

"It's called social media Eleanor. Now come! Let's have fun!" She says as she grabs my hand and dances her way to the kitchen.

I am most definitely made for parties like these. You know how there's always that one girl in the corner of the room sipping her drink to herself in those cliche chick flicks? Yeah, that girl is most definitely me. Being the lame person I am, I just sipped my drink and hummed to the song playing in the background. "Eleanor, what in the world are you doing here?" This voice was familiar to me.

Alex what the hell are you doing here?

"Alex?!"

"Hey! Zach mentioned you were staying out tonight. And alas, here you are!" He laughs, stretching his hand out as if to present my presence to the crowd.

"I have to admit, I think it's funny you're here... you know, at a drinking party." He jokes around, taking my drink and smelling it to see if it was actually alcoholic.

"Hm, this is an actual drink. Not some apple-juice cover-up. Impressive."

I rolled my eyes and retorted, "I'm not that boring Alex. I can have fun. What are you doing here? "

"A friend of mine was invited to this party and I decided to crash." He nonchalantly says.

"If you excuse me, that babe over there has been staring at me for a couple minutes now. See ya!" He winks at me and walks over to a girl near the bar. Oh Alex, you little flirt.

I notice from across the room Margo is by the DJ and she mouths the words, "Just for you." to me. What the heck? What could that possibly mean?

And once I heard the first few beats of the requested song I roll my eyes at Margo and make my way towards the dance floor. She knows me long enough to know that the song Shut Up and Dance by Walk the Moon is my party anthem.

"I know how much you love this song!" She yells, trying to talk to me over the loud music. I simply chug my drink down and danced to the song. A part of me feels that by the end of this song I will not recognise who I am anymore.

It was 4 minutes of solely belting out the lyrics to the song, dancing with random people, and drinking things that made me fall into a psychedelic spell that made me lose my sense of consciousness.

I will be in a shit load of trouble if I continue to drink. After what seemed like 3 songs, I've lost Margo in the crowd and I decided to head to the kitchen to get some water to help me make sense of my reality. My head was pounding, things were spinning all around me, and I was feeling completely noxious. Something tells me that I won't be waking up on the right side of the wrong bed tomorrow morning.

I checked my watch and it was 4 AM. Four freaking AM! Worry-filled thoughts rushed through my head, only to make my drunken headache even worse. Firstly, I tried to look for Margo in my drunken state but it had led me no where. The room was empty with a ton of beer cans and bottles scattered across the floor. By the looks of it, it might take days to clean this mess up. The last thing I remember from this night was trying to pick up my ringing phone but all went black before I could even pick it up.

This is why I should never drink.

***********

Zach's POV

It was only 4AM and I have managed to go over my daily late-night boxing practice routine. Thirsty, I headed over to the kitchen to whip up a protein smoothie but I am stopped by a call from Alex.

"What's up?"

"Um, hey. Uh, Zach. Hey." Alex attempts to say. It was obvious he was drunk, but it was no surprise. Of the three of us, Alex loved to drink and engage in one-night stands if you know what I mean. He was your typical bad-boy-player type and it had girls lining up for him, which continues to confuse me to this day.

"What is it now."

"It's Eleanor." My body stiffens at the sound of concern in his tone. Something was wrong and I did not like it.

"What happened?" Before I even know it I am headed for my car. Why am I even doing this?

"Uh, I remember she's drunk—- and she—- hold on babe I'm talking to my best friend here!" Alex trails off, obviously preoccupied with his conquest.

I roll my eyes at his remark. "Oh and I am not referring to you as my babe Maxston. That's inhumane." I chuckle at his stupid comment, but my mind focused on one thing at the moment. "Alex. Eleanor. Where is she?"

I have a terrible feeling about this. But my thoughts that were mingled with worry turned into humour as I pictured a drunken Eleanor in my head. The sight of her mumbling nonsense and making weird gestures somehow amused me. Imagine it. Eleanor Hastings, the adorable intellectual witty book nerd drunk. Focus Zachary. Eleanor could be in danger right now.

"It was a college party—- man that party was sick," He laughs and continues, "she's around that gas station near central park or something. 30 minutes from there." Alex mumbles to himself and slurs out a couple street names that I assumed were the address. Fortunately, it was enough information to process on to my GPS.

In a flash, I input the designated address and find my way headed to "save" Eleanor. After a few minutes of driving, I have come to several realisations.

What if she's okay and when I arrive it would be awkward?

What if I am too late and she had been already been abducted by sketchy people?

What if....

Damn you Zachary just shut up and drive. At the end of this situation, you have got to make sure she's okay.

Following my conscience I continue to drive.

The sudden urge to see if Eleanor was okay puzzled me. Such feeling never came over me like that. Am I dreaming?

It's the fact that she was willing to help take care of me after fights, which I may add, was one random ass offer but she just somehow said yes. And it's the fact that she cared for me as well, which is evident in the kindness in the tone of her voice when she talked to me... I always admired the way she laughed when I, Alex, or Zander would say something stupid... the way her eyes were glued to her review books with her brows furrowed when she was confused with a topic... and the way she smiled to herself when she found herself lost in her own world in reading novels day after day...

These concrete observations made me think real hard. Brushing my hands through my face I was confused with all these different thoughts in my head. What do they mean exactly?

After 30 minutes or so of driving, I have reached my destination. An uneasy feeling came about in my stomach, worried about what would have happened to her.

Then again the thought came to my mind, why do I care so much?