VICE

| HANGOVER |

Noah woke up the next day with a throbbing headache. It was even difficult to move his head in any direction. He needed to stay still for a few minutes to settle his rolling stomach.

He tried squinting his eyes but they just were not having the combination of the overly white room and the incoming sun rays, so he opted for closing them. He could barely feel his limbs this morning.

Usually, when he woke up, the first thing on his mind would be food. But his stomach was not cooperating this morning because at the thought of food, it started churning excruciatingly and he threw the sheets off himself, making a break for the bathroom.

He dropped onto the floor and hurled forcefully into the bowl, an abnormal amount of liquid leaving his body. Just what the fuck was going on with his body this morning?! He thought rhetorically. He sat there with his back against the wall ,trying to catch his breath and he was about to stand up and leave when his stomach decided to send everyone out of the pool again.

This time he hurled till his stomach started to feel sunken and hollow, like it had not held anything in there for ages. All his strength was gone and he could not even bring himself to stand up on his own two feet. So he just remained there, laying his head on the toilet seat, eyes closed, trying to will everything to stop spinning so fast.

When he finally caught a grip on his bearings, he stood up and went back to his room. This was the first time he was having a chance to examine the room properly, and it was quite a mess. There were a few beer cans scattered around on the floor amidst other trash and clothes. That is when it occurred to him. He had gone drinking last night. Oh no! Not the drinking again! He hoped Michael's parents were not home because they were going to chew him out.

Was this a hangover he was experiencing ? That could not be possible. Noah never got hangovers. He was the king of parties and all forms of reckless behavior. He was fairly certain his blood was at least seventy-five percent alcohol. If a mosquito came and sucked his blood ,that little guy would have been in a lot of trouble. Or maybe the months in rehab and all that crap they had fed him had brought that percentage back to an almost normal level.

His stomach started whirling again and he rushed back, using the walls as support and dropped to the toilet bowl, face first. Where the hell did that come from. He was sure he had thrown up part of his bodily fluids and part of his gut because there was close to nothing in his stomach.

That was not good. He opened the medicine cabinet that was just above the sink and downed a few Ibuprofen™ ,that should at least help him be able to hold his head upright.

He decided to go back to bed and sleep off this monstrosity of a headache. As he reached for the blankets before getting into bed, he noticed one single detail he had missed when looking around the room, and that was the person sleeping on the other side of the bed.

The person had their body turned away from him, but their long, dark brown hair was visible, spread all over the pillow like a mop. They had their face fairly covered so Noah could not really see who it was. Had he brought someone home from whatever hole he had been drinking himself to death ? And if so, why were they still here!

He always made it a point to let his one night stands know the 'no sleeping over' rule. If this was a one night stand, that would explain why he had woken up wearing only his briefs, and all the foreign clothes scattered all over his rug. Fuck! Whoever this was, they needed to leave..now! But he now needed coffee to calm his nerves first, because if this person was the hysterical type, that would cause his headache to worsen -he did not need that now, did he!