Mortis

4.

I open my eyes and am greeted by a throbbing pain in my head along with the strong desire to throw up. My ribs ache terribly on the left side, making breathing painful. My face hurts by my jawline and my tongue feels as if I chewed off the right side.

"The fuck," I groan as I turn over in my bed to find a half-naked Kela snoring loudly. I nudge her but get no immediate response. I nudge her harder and she wakes up abruptly.

"The fuck?" She mumbles and opens her eyes. She stares at me with a confused look and looks around my room. Her eyes are smeared with last night's makeup and she's left red lipstick residue all over my pillow. To my dismay, drool stains accompany the lipstick stains. She looks down at herself in her underwear then looks back at me wide-eyed, "I'm so fucked."

"Why?" I ask trying to sit up with the sharp pain in my ribs. "You're not going to hell, I don't remember fondling you," I laugh to myself but immediately stop due to the pain.

She jumps to the side of my bed in a state of disarray. "I never went home." She searches frantically through my night stand and finds her phone. She searches through her text messages and immediately sighs in relief. "Okay, I'm not fucked. Thank God for drunken cautiousness and scheduled messages."

I gasp for breath sharply and wince as I finally sit up against my bed's backboard. "Kela," I say between breaths.

She looks up at me in her underwear with her small tits staring back at me with no shame. She continues to look through her phone. "What?" She asks with no interest.

"I feel like I got hit by a truck, everything hurts," I say against the throbbing in my mouth.

"It's called a hangover, sweetie," she says still glued to her phone.

"I know what a hangover is, my fucking body is falling apart," I say hoping to get her attention.

She looks up at me with those menacing eyes that are immediately changed to concern. "Hayden," she jumps back on the bed and kneels next to me, "you're jaw is black and blue."

"What about this?" I say opening my dry and sticky mouth to reveal my tongue.

She looks at it and winces, "You bit a small piece off the side. It's probably more painful than it looks." She laughs cynically and sticks her pierced tongue out at me.

I close my mouth and pull the sheets off my body. I'm in a t-shirt and underwear unlike the nearly naked and proud Kela. I pull my shirt up and cry out in pain as Kela's eyes go wide with shock. "Hayden...what the hell happened to you? You really are falling apart," she says in complete shock.

"How bad is it?" I ask growing tired of holding my shirt up.

"It's not too bad, but you have a hell of a bruise forming," she leans her hand out and gently strokes the lower area of my ribs. "Right there." I flinch at her gentle touch and groan in agitation.

I let my shirt fall back down and gasp for air. "I think it may be broken, Kela."

She stares at me and grabs my hands, "Was this...last night? When they fought?" She swallows hard and looks about my room.

I nod, "I told you what happen right? In the car?"

Kela nods, "I wasn't too drunk, I remember everything." She looks into my eyes sadly, "Ben's an asshole when he drinks. I'm sorry this happen, Hayden. Forced drunk kissing happens to us all eventually. Sucks it had to be Ben," she laughs to herself and gets off my bed. "I figured it was only a matter of time, though."

I look over at her as she walks over to her clothing bag in the corner of my room. "What is that supposed to mean?"

She rummages through her bag without turning to face me. "Oh come on, Hayden, don't play the fool. Ben's been after you since he first met you freshman year. Everyone knows it, including John. Apparently, as you stated, they had some sort of agreement about you? Perhaps, Ben grew tired of this honor-code and let himself get high on emotions, alcohol and cocaine. That combination can be deadly." She pulls out some sweats and pulls them over her thin body. "We can only assume that Ben lost control of his own feelings once he had you in his hands." She pulls her hair into a ponytail and grins at me, "One can only suppress their feelings for so long."