Self Service

Awakening

Priscilla woke up to the sun in her eyes and fell off the air mattress with a thud. She groaned, and Penelope came over with a glass of water. "Happy hangover." She grinned. Priscilla glared at her, but she damn sure took the water.

Priscilla sat there a moment, drinking the water and resting her head against the mattress. Meanwhile, her siblings were up and about.

"At least you can hold your liquor," Phoebe told her.

Priscilla flipped her sister off and finished the water. It wasn't the first time she'd been drunk, but she didn't normally wake up with a hangover. She was just glad she didn't wake up puking her brains out. She'd watched her roommate do that all through their freshman and sophomore years, and she just didn't understand how anyone could put themselves through that every Sunday morning.

She closed her eyes and stayed right where she was, breathing deeply. Her head was throbbing something horrible. Whatever her sister gave her, she'd be sure not to drink it again. Penelope was right. That was some strong shit.

Twenty minutes later, she was getting up and going for her overnight bag. She had sweat through her clothes and she didn't like that. It was time to get cleaned up.

"Keith can't see me from the shower can he?" she checked.

She didn't want to make things awkward if her sister's boyfriend saw her. She believed that if he saw her that he would do the gentlemanly thing and turn away, but it was better to avoid.

Penelope looked over at the shower and up at the window to her room. "Could if he was here. He went to run some errands. Go ahead."

Priscilla moved behind the brick wall and undressed, feeling the morning breeze against her warm skin as she turned the shower on and stepped in. Penelope brought a towel and set it beside her bag.

When Priscilla was out of the shower and got dressed, she discovered that her sister had breakfast on the table. Cheesecake pancakes, sausage patties, and hash brown patties with orange juice.

"What time is it?" Priscilla asked.

"11:25," Steven informed her.

Priscilla's eyes widened. She had never slept that late. She began to pace back and forth, walking the length of the patio a total of thirty times before Dion took her shoulder and walked her to sit down. Her leg shook as she picked up the fork. She was definitely going to need to go for a run when she got home.

"We're going to Japan with you," Rakeim told her. She choked on her pancakes.

"How do you know I'm going to Japan? And how do you invite yourselves on my trip?"

"We know everything, and you not leaving the country, better still the continent, alone," Jaheim told her.

Priscilla stared at him a moment. She had not told them that she was going to Tokyo. She didn't even know how they knew that she was going. She had made a spur of the moment decision the night before. "I'm grown."

"We don't care," they all said together.

Her siblings were not letting her leave the country alone. If she was going to Canada or Mexico, they would be with her. So the fact that she thought she would get to Asia without anyone else was laughable. She knew better.

"You don't have to take us to Japan. We'll still go. You can't stop us," Phoebe reminded her.

"Fine. You all are putting into a suite, and I am going to need a lot of alcohol."

"Keith is coming," Penelope said.

"How do you invite your boyfriend?" Dion asked.

"He can come," Priscilla decided. "I don't really care anymore. As long as the seven of you stay out of my way."