Check, Please?

Chapter 4

I walked to the kitchen and pulled the vodka bottle full of water out of the fridge.  I sat on a stool along one side of the island and took off the cap of the bottle.  As I took a long swig of water from the bottle, I rubbed my sore neck and groaned. “Never again…” I mumbled.

“Huh? What?” Harry shot up from the couch, the blanket barely covering his legs and his hair standing up straight on the side of his face that he slept on. He looked around the apartment and at the sunlight streaming in the windows before rubbing his face with his hands and groaning too.

“I said ‘Never again’,” I repeated, taking another drink of water. “Never again will I allow myself to fall asleep on that couch.  You should have woken me up. My neck is killing me.”

“I fell asleep too!  If I knew it was going to be that uncomfortable I would have moved us.” Harry threw the blanket off of him and revealed his black boxers, not trying at all to hide his morning wood, and walked over to the refrigerator.  He grabbed a Jimmy Dean breakfast sandwich from the freezer and threw it into the microwave. While he waited for it to warm up, he took my water from me and began to down half of the bottle.

“Damn it, Harry, you know I hate that!” I whined, sticking my hand out for the bottle.  He tried not to spit out the water in his mouth as he chuckled and handed the bottle back to me.

“Sorry-“ he gurgled.  When the timer went off on the microwave, he grabbed his breakfast sandwich and stuffed half of it in his mouth.  “So what are we doing today?” He asked, crumbs falling out of his mouth.

I frowned in disapproval at his nasty open-mouthed chewing.  I’m pretty sure I was the only person who had ever seen Harry’s pig side.  He would fart and burp as loud, dirty, and smelly as he could when he was around me, but as soon as someone else was around he would stop.  Not even his own mother could begin to imagine some of the things I had seen.  I was pretty much used to it at this point, but I still made faces occasionally to let him know how repugnant he was being.  I shook my head. “I don’t know. What is it, Thursday?”

Harry thought for a moment and then nodded. “The 8th of September.”

I froze. “No, the 8th is next week.”

Harry’s face contorted and he began to chew more slowly. “I’m pretty sure it’s today…”

I shook my head. “No.  No, no, no today can’t be the 8th.” I slid off of the stool and sprinted down the hallway to my room.  I searched my bedside table for my phone when I saw that it wasn’t on the charger.  Remembering that it was in my purse from the night before, I snatched the bag up and tore through it until I felt the familiar technology in my fingers.  I pressed the home button, but the screen remained black.  I swore loudly and snatched up the end of my charger.  I waited impatiently for a few moments as the screen lit up and scanned the screen until my eyes landed on the date.

September 8th.

“SHIT HARRY-“ I screamed, dashing out of my room as I tore my hoodie over my head.  I dropped my underwear on the floor in the hall and jumped into the shower, drenching myself in the freezing water. I dumped shampoo on my head and began to violently lather up. “HARRY!” I screamed again.

“What is it? What’s today?” He poked his head into the curtain.

“My Wentz interview! It’s today! It’s at 10:30 and it’s freaking 9:56!  Please just go get my outfit out of my closet.  It’s in the very back – the black sweater with the new red skirt and my black heels-“

“With the strap?” Harry called from the hall.

“NO! The open-toed ones!” I didn’t waste my time with conditioner, but quickly ran a razor over my legs and under my arms, yelping when I cut myself.  I shut off the water and barely had the towel wrapped around my dripping body before I was in the hallway and running back to my room again. Harry was pulling my things from the closet.