Heard it through the grapevine

Chapter 13

Ouch, was the first thought that came to mind when Helena opened her eyes the following morning. Her head was pounding and her mouth felt like a desert. I'm never drinking again, were the following words that came to mind. 

As she slowly sat up in her bed, she looked around the hotel room with a blurry vision. As she found nothing out of the ordinary apart from last night's clothes sprawled across the floor, she dumped herself back down in bed with a sigh. She didn't exactly remember getting home, but she remembered her and Lando leaving the bar, giggling and arguing about something random as they stumbled into a taxi. She assumed that was how she got home. 

She eventually made it out of bed and to the bathroom, but grimaced when saw her reflection in the mirror, a violent reminder of last night's level of intoxication. Her mascara was smudged under her eyes, and her blonde hair was a mess, sticking out in various directions. The bags under her eyes were also reaching a critical size, but it was just the look she was going to have to roll with today. She smiled at herself trying to show herself some kindness, but quickly wiped it off her face when she realised she looked like a pathetic dumb fool. Like i said, never drinking again.

After a quick shower and a generous amount of skincare, all she wanted to do was to crawl back into bed. But her hangover was currently making it very clear to her that she would soon feel worse if she did not eat something. The growl in her stomach could not be ignored, and she knew there was only one thing that would make her feel better right now. She had quickly texted Lando when she woke up, asking for signs of life, but he was yet to reply, probably still fast asleep. Looks like we're going to have to solo at breakfast.

By the time Helena made it to downstairs it was thankfully relatively empty in there in spite of it only being a little past 9am. She quickly spotted a table in an isolated nook and sat there eating her cereal while browsing Instagram and TikTok. The world around her could wait a bit.

"Well, you're a sight for sore eyes, aren't you." Someone suddenly spoke. She hadn't noticed someone come up to her, as she sat there in her own world for at least 10 minutes. The voice of someone standing close to her had startled her and almost made her drop her phone. But standing in front of her were none other than Pierre Gasly with a goofy smile on his face. Helena's face quickly went from shock to a scowl. 

He laughed. "Well, I'm happy to see you too," he said as he sat down on the chair in front of her. "Did you have a good evening? Sure looked like you did at least." 

Helena furrowed her eyebrows at him and looked up from her phone. "What's that supposed to mean?" 

Pierre threw up his hands in defense. "Nothing, nothing. Just seemed like you were having a good time." 

Helena continued to look at him suspiciously. "yeah, I did," was all she offered. "Did you?"  she asked him, as she took another spoonful of her pretty soggy cereal. He seemed way too chipper to have been drinking yesterday.

"Yeah it was fun. I left shortly after Lando and you were cut off." Helena almost spit out her food at the news of her and Lando's level of drunkness. She did not remember being cut off. "We were cut off?"  she said in disbelief, although her current hungover state made her realise that it perhaps was not difficult to believe that it had ended that way.

Pierre just chuckled at her curiously. "Yeah.. You don't remember? It was quite the show."

Helena cringed at the thought, and although she tried her hardest to remember the events of last night, she came to the conclusion that maybe it was for the best that she did not remember much of it. At least she wouldn't remember enough to be embarrassed. All she could recall was her and Lando laughing together at the bar, chatting up the waitress together. Besides that, not much was clear.