Toast

Chapter Thirty Seven // Alcohol

- Amber's POV -

I woke up all of a sudden and instantly had shooting pains in my head, I groaned loudly and covered my face with my pillow. For a moment I had completely forgotten what had happened and how much I drank but it all came flooding back the longer I buried my face.

I sat up slowly and looked across the pitch black bedroom to see Effie still awake on her laptop, she was swaying from side to side with headphones on and loud instrumental music playing. I glanced at the clock on my bedside table and realised that it was 2:30am, why is she still awake?

I grabbed a fluffy cushion from the bottom of my bed and threw it across the room, it hit Effie on the head and she almost jumped out of her skin. I began to laugh loudly which made my headache ten times worse, Effie held her hand to her chest and stared at me in shock.

"Good morning to you too!" She shouted while shaking her head, I grinned and asked her why she was still awake at this time of the night.

"I'm a night owl, don't you know this?" Effie said while turning back to her laptop. All of the memories of the day before were finally restored in my head.. Drinking to impress a bunch of guys I didn't know, embarrassing myself in front of them and Elijah, getting too drunk and probably spilling my secrets. I got Effie's attention again to tell her some good news..

"Me and Jade both have feelings for each other, I know now that I am definitely bisexual.." I told her with a proud smile, Effie's face lit up and she began to dance around our bedroom while shouting and clapping. I told her to shut up because the whole building would be asleep at this time of night but she continued anyway.

"This calls for a celebration Amber! You figured out your sexuality!" Effie shouted while diving onto my bed, I sighed loudly and pushed her off so she fell onto the floor. How does she have this much energy?!

"I wonder who is going to make the first move.." Effie muttered while crossing her legs on the floor, I glanced down at her with a blank expression before sighing.

"Yeah about that.. I'm kind of afraid of the whole relationship and sex thing, Jade is the type of girl to get bored easily and then just leave. You know?" I explained to Effie with a frown on my face, for some reason Effie was holding back her laughter like she knew something I didn't. I stared at her weirdly as she held her breath and closed her eyes tightly.

"I know about your worries Amber.. You told me and Elijah very clearly when you were drunk" Effie explained, I put my head in my hands and had a strong urge to scream in anger at my drunk self. I know if I like Jade I should trust that she wouldn't do that to me but does she even want a relationship? Maybe she just wants to have a 'thing' with me, I am definitely not the type of girl who wants to have sex in the closets during school.

I feel ashamed for getting drunk with Elijah's friends because it really wasn't my intention, they all probably think I'm crazy now that they know all my deepest secrets that I spilled to them. I hate alcohol, I hate drugs, I hate cigarettes.. I don't do any of that stuff. I had a bad experience with all of that stuff in the past and I never wanted to become a person who would turn to them in sadness or pain.

When I was younger my dad would always go out on the weekends, he had a lot of friends and his favourite thing to do was spend time with them (not with his own children or wife I should add). Every Saturday night he would come home extremely drunk and he would attack my mum verbally, he told her she was a terrible mother and that me and my brothers weren't going to go far in life because she was uneducated and had a useless job. He would throw things around the kitchen in anger even though he was the terrible parent, my mum did everything for her children and she still does today. Me, Nick, Richard and Luke would sit at the top of the stairs and listen to him yelling foul language at her, we would hear our mum cry and beg him to stop because he could wake us up with his shouting. My older brother Luke would try to comfort us by saying that they were being silly and that everything would be better in the morning, most of the time dad forgot everything he had said the next day.

From then on I promised myself I would never drink or do drugs because I knew what it could do to others. I never wanted to turn into my awful dad who attacked the person he was suppose to love and protect.

I sighed to myself while thinking about the way my mum was treated, Effie was back at her laptop listening to music. My phone suddenly vibrated under my pillow, I grabbed it and was surprised to see a message from Jade.

"I know it's late and you won't be awake but I just wanted to let you know that I'm thinking about you. See you tomorrow;)"

I smiled widely at the message and brought my phone to my chest, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as I curled up and hid my grin from Effie. I decided not to tell Effie about my cute message from Jade because I knew she would probably just wind me up about it, instead I got up and grabbed a bottle of water from our mini fridge then decided to go back to sleep.

"Oh yeah, I need to tell you something" Effie whispered as I smothered myself in blankets, I turned to face her. Effie explained to me about Priya's situation at home and how her mother passed away when she was little and that she never got any answers on her death. She told me that they were going to see Priya's uncle after school for closure.

"You are incredible Effie! That's the sweetest thing you could possibly do, I'm proud of you. I hope Priya is alright" I told Effie, she thanked me for the support and then left me to get some rest. Maybe I was wrong about Priya being a heartless bully, they were my first impressions though.

I opened up Jade's message again and read it over a few times because it made me happy, for the first time I was excited to go to school just so I could see her. I glanced over at Effie again before getting out of bed and snatching her laptop from her hands, she stared at me in shock.

"It's time for bed! You're never going to get up if you sit here all night!" I shouted while setting the laptop on my desk at the other side of the room, Effie groaned like a spoilt child and began to get dressed into her pyjamas. I'm going to make a great mother someday (a bossy one of course).

"Good night Effie!" I said happily while getting back into bed again.

"Night Amber" Effie huffed.