Dancing in the Rain

Chapter Nine: Shell-shocked

Chapter Nine: Shell-Shocked

Rob’s Point of View

When I awake, there’s a pounding in my head and a ringing in my ears. Where am I?

Everything is blurry as I sit up in bed, and my head feels like a hundred pound weight. Not to mention every other muscle in my body is incredibly stiff.

I sort of stumble out of bed, and everything’s whirling around me. I think I’m going to be sick.

I run down the hall to the bathroom and then proceed to basically puke my guts out in the sink.

Once I get that over and done with, I stumble down the hallway, trying to find Taylor’s room, but it’s kind of hard to concentrate with this bad of a headache. Luckily, she’s already up, and she comes out of her room and runs over to me.

“Rob! Are you...are you okay?”

“Uh...yeah...” I say, squinting and rubbing my head. “What happened last night?” Everything just seems like a blur.

She’s silent for a moment, and I realize how...exhausted she looks. There are dark circles under her eyes, which also look red from crying or something.

“Rob...” She embraces me in a hug, to my surprise. And then I remember.

It all comes rushing back, and I pull away. “Shit.” I say, eyes wide. “Taylor I’m...I’m so sorry...”

She shakes her head, and I’m not sure, but I think I can see tears in her eyes. “No, it wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I should have never let you go to that party--”

“I shouldn’t have gone to the stupid party!” I say, raising my voice. “I shouldn’t have gotten drunk...god, I’m an idiot.” I tilt my head back, looking at the ceiling.

“You’re not.” She says, but her voice is quiet and trembling.

“I don’t even want to go to school on Monday. It’s gonna be humiliating.”

She wipes her eyes, sniffing. “No, no. Don’t say that. We’re going to be...we’re gonna be fine.”

I shake my head and lean against the banister of the staircase. “I hope so. All I can think about now though is how shitty I feel.”

“Oh, yeah.” She says, looking up as if remembering something. “My grandma...she brought over some chicken and dumplings and coconut water. Apparently that helps.” She smiles a little and takes my arm. I follow her downstairs into the kitchen.

She hands me what looks like a water bottle and I nod in thanks, but I push it away and sit down at the mini-bar.

“I want to apologize.” I say, looking up at Taylor.

She sits down next to me, attentive. “Yeah?”

“I was kind of...well, you know, a jerk to you. I should have fixed it a while ago.”

She nods. “I forgive you.”

“I’m glad you do. And trust me, I’m never going anywhere without my homie ever again.” I say, nudging her. “Or drinking ever again,” I mutter the last part.

She grins, ruffling my hair and messing it up some more. If that’s even possible. I don’t even want to know how bad I look.

“Good. Anyways, on a lighter topic...what do you wanna do for the rest of the weekend?”

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Taylor’s Point of View

Ugh, Saturdays. I mean, you gotta love them, but when your bestfriend is too hungover to even get out of the house and all he wants to do is sleep the rest of the day and you’re stuck at home, bored as hell? Not that fun.