Capacity To Love

Hungover

"Come on Ariel...out you get." She unclipped my seatbelt and pulled me out of the seat. I groaned. Every sound had been enlarged, a war going on in my head with a thousand bombs were going off. She pulled me up, onto her and we stumbled backwards. 

"Now how the fuck am I supposed to get you inside. Am I supposed to ring the doorbell? Ariel?" She shook me gently and I groaned again. No way did I want my mother to see me like this. It would just solidify her bad impression of me. 

"Dump me..." I attempted to point over at the tree next to my bedroom door, my voice slow and my breath smelling strongly of alcohol. "over there." She sighed. 

"I'm not just going to leave you under a tree Ariel. We can just...we can just spend the night in the car. I'll text my mum." I felt my cheeks blush a deep red. I was just a huge burden on Angel's shoulders.

"Just go. I'm...fine"

"No you're not fine Ariel. You're really, really fucking drunk. Here, get back in." She dropped me back into the seat and lifted my legs in. I shut my eyes.

"Thanks." I murmured. She closed the car door gently and got into the drivers seat.

I heard her take out her phone, her fingers tapping the screen gently.

"Chase...?" I turned my head to look at her. She looked back at me, smiling.

"He's really sweet. I mean, even you must know that now." I grunted. "Well I think he is. Go on, go to sleep. We still have school tomorrow."

"Fuck...ok. Goodnight." I was asleep in a second. 

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There was light streaming onto my face, but from the wrong angle. I opened my eyes. I was lying in a bed, covered by white sheets and duvets. Angel's room. It was in a pretty white-walled room, decorated with pink furnishings. A huge leafy plant sat in the corner, next to a small bookcase and an expensive looking cream armchair, which at that moment was inhabited by Angel.

None of this really mattered at that moment though, because my head was throbbing with the most intense pain I'd ever felt.

"Ariel?" She ran over to the side of the bed "Thank God you're awake. Some people just die in their sleep after drinking you know. I got you food..." She paused, bent over my face and prised my eyes open with her fingers. "You have a fucking hangover, right? Eat." I groaned when I saw the Big Mac in her hand.

"What time is it?" I murmured. She sighed, retreated back half a step. 

"It's like 8 in the morning. We have half an hour until school. Hurry up and eat." She threw the burger onto the blankets.

"I can't go to school. Not like this. I have to take a shower" She pursed her lips and frowned.

"Eat. Then shower." I grabbed the burger, opened it, and took a bite. My mouth was instantly full of fat and grease. But I didn't have a choice, and it kind of tasted good to my hungover brain.

"How did you get me up here?" I grabbed a tissue off of her nightstand and wiped my fingers.

"It was kinda hard, my mum had to come and help me." I groaned

"Oh God, your mother helped your drunk friend up into your room? She must really hate me now." Angel grinned.

"Nah, she was good with it. Better to help you then just leave you in the car."

"Well, thank her for me." I tossed the wrapping into her bin from across the room and attempted to stand.

"Do you have towels? I need to take a shower." She nodded.

"Yeah, they're in there." She sat back down on the bed. I noticed the dark circles under her eyes.

"Didn't you sleep?"

"I couldn't. Too busy thinking about last night."

"What happened last night?"

"Chase happened. I got his number." She was smiling wildly.

"Good work. Ok, see you in a bit." I mooched over into her bathroom and closed the door behind me.

I slid down onto the ground. Obviously I was a mess. Chase was disgusted by me, so was Angel's mother, maybe so was Angel. No more parties. No more. I stood up and turned on the shower, barely noticing the tears dripping down my cheeks. I was numb. 

The walls of the bathroom were made of green marble, her shower to the right and bath against the furthest wall in front of me. To the right was the basin, heater and a cupboard. I stripped off and walked in, steam enveloping me. When, or if, I went back to school I would be dead. I could remember sticking my tongue at Bailey Patricks while I was being walked out by Chase. God she would really hate me now. I rubbed soapy sods of shampoo into my hair, hard, my eyes screwed shut just thinking of Chase Anderson leading me, a stupid drunk girl, out of a party. Why did it always have to be me?

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We were back in the car, my wet hair sticking to the back of my shirt - borrowed from Angel. Two days in a row I had worn normal clothes. 

"Are we gonna get a detention?"

"Nope, my mum covered for us." 

"Great." I looked over at Angel, her brow furrowed in concentration, looking out the window at the car in front of us speeding through a orange light. "So, have you talked to Chase recently?" She glanced over at me and smiled.

"What is all this about Chase? I thought you liked Matt?" I sighed, exasperated.

"For the goddamn thousandth time I do not like Matt Spedding. He likes me. Or... not. I don't know. But I don't like him." I grinned "Do you like Chase?" She shuffled around on her seat, still grinning like a mad person.

"I don't like...actually I don't know. He's super sweet and, like, really, really hot."

"Yeah, he is." We were approaching the school now, but there was no one outside. The bell had run long ago and we were running around an hour late.

"We have English right?"

"Yeah. Come on, run!" We grabbed our bags and sprinted across the lawn and into school.