What the Heart Wants

Chapter Sixteen

I woke up in Sophie’s room with a pounding headache and the worst taste in my mouth.  How much did I have to drink last night? And how did I get here? Before I got the chance to answer that I felt the sick rising up my throat and immediately sprinted to the bathroom where I vomited everything I’d had to eat or drink for the past two days. I had the worst hangover. I wandered downstairs where I found an equally hungover looking Sophie sitting at the bar in the kitchen. She had a packet of paracetamol and a big glass of water next to her. I plopped down beside her and took two of the little paracetamol capsules and swallowed them down with a big gulp of her water. We didn’t speak at first but after my headache had dulled a bit I turned to look at her.

“You look like shit,” I laughed at her. Her hair was sticking out in all directions and she had mascara all around her eyes.

“Well you don’t look much better,” she joked back. I could just imagine my red lipstick all over my face and my smoky eyes from last night smudged everywhere. I didn’t even want to look in the mirror. “I feel awful. I don’t think I’m ever drinking again,” Sophie stated, pulling me out of my thoughts.

“Yea, me too. We should really eat something though,” I said while already making my way over to the fridge. I poured us both a glass of orange juice, put some bread in the toaster and cracked some eggs into the frying pan. I fried the eggs and they were ready in no time. I pulled out two plates from the cupboard and put one egg on each plate. The toast popped and I gave us each two slices. I gave Sophie one of the plates and kept the other for myself and got us both a knife and fork. We tucked in and it made me feel so much better. I didn’t realise how hungry I was!

“Mmm, you know how to take care of me so well,” Sophie said. I just laughed at her. I was always acting like a mother to her. It was just second nature to me now. I was always the responsible one. When everyone got drunk, I would stay sober and be the allocated driver. It was just how things worked. However, last night was an exception. I don’t even remember most of what happened…

“Hey Sophs? How did we get back here last night?” I couldn’t help myself, I had to ask.

“Oh jeez, I really don’t remember. I think someone walked us here? Maybe it was Brian?”

Great, so she didn’t know either. I thought about it for a minute and then some of the memories from last night came flooding back. I remembered Brian and I’s kind of fight and how he left pretty early. That wasn’t too good; I should really clear things up with him. I decided I should call him so quickly finished off my egg and toast and then trudged back upstairs to get my phone. It took me a while to find it seeing as my clothes were everywhere. Now that I thought about it, when did I get changed? All I had on was a really baggy t-shirt. I didn’t even have my underwear on! I eventually found my jacket in the corner of the hallway. How did it get there? I didn’t dwell on it too much and instead just pulled out my phone. I had two new texts. The first was from Brian:

Hey beautiful, I’m really sorry about last night. I don’t know what I was thinking. I hope you’re not too mad at me. Maybe we can meet up today and sort things out? –Brian xo

He was just so cute sometimes! I sent him a quick text back saying I’d meet him at a coffee shop in town in just over an hour. Hopefully that would give me enough time to sort myself out. I opened the second text and it was from and unknown number:

Hey Lucy, that was really fun last night. We should definitely do it again sometime. Call me ;) –Alex

My face immediately flushed as more memories of last night came rushing back. I had kissed Alex. I had cheated on Brian with his best friend. That was not good. And how did he even get my number? I started to write a reply but I thought better of it and decided just not to text back. I threw my phone onto Sophie’s bed and started looking around for the rest of my clothes.