Never My Intention

misery business.

Buzzing. Silence. More buzzing. More silence.

Although the initial buzz had broken my deep sleep, I kept my eyes closed, determined to fall back asleep. I sensed a headache coming on as I slowly gained consciousness; I blame all the alcohol from last night. Movement beside me immediately caused my eyes to open wide; Kells laid sound asleep beside me, his tattooed arm lazily resting across my waist.

"Shit," I muttered to myself. Gracefully, I checked the time on my phone, careful not to make any real sudden movements to wake the blonde beside me. 10:46 AM; I sighed. Right away, I noticed some social media alerts but they were quickly obviated as my eyes landed on a familiar name sitting in my unread messages - Taav.

It was nice seeing you last night. It should happen more often.

I stared at the text for a moment, unsure if I should respond to it or brush it altogether. Taav was a club promoter, therefore he was a well-known flirt; it honestly could've been sent by mistake or fueled by alcohol, so I decided to pay no mind to it. Drais wasn't his first club of the night and I was sure he had a few different Hailey's in his contact list so I decided to leave the message on read.

First thing was first, I needed to get out of this bed. I sighed, gently lifting his arm, relocating it beside his torso. Just as I had sat up and was about to slip out of bed, there was a high-pitched scream from down the hall. As the sound echoed through my eardrums, I glanced back to witness the covers fall off his tattooed chest as he quickly sat up, eyes wide with shock.

As our eyes finally met, my heart began to race; his hair was a tousled mess, which looked irresistibly well on him. Although his eyes were tired, they were weirdly alert at the same time. He seemed to take in my appearance before he sighed, resting his hand on the spot beside him which I had occupied overnight.

"Yo, come get ya girl!" One of the boys called for Kells. "I gotta take a piss and AJ is showering in the other bathroom."

He groaned, his head falling back on his pillow, which caused a laugh to escape my lips. His gaze landed on me again. "Did you..." he began just as an annoyed blonde emerged in the doorway.

I stood up quickly, creating as much space between us as possible. Pia's facial expression seemed to harden as her eyes fell on me, then the tattooed boy in bed. I heard Kells sigh as she continued to stroll in, her boots in hand. "Did you really leave me in the bathroom overnight?" Pia accused immediately, now ignoring my existence as I slowly inched toward the door; I took that as a sign to get the fuck out of there.

I slipped out of the room, not looking back once as I heard Kells' deep voice get louder than the hoarse whisper he had used on me just seconds prior. I quickly jogged to my room, bypassing Dre who was crossing the hall heading into a newly vacated bathroom. He was muttering something about taking a long shower, which I agreed sounded amazing right about now; I needed to clear my head as soon as possible.

When I opened my bedroom door, I heard a small commotion coming from the bathroom, which meant Ashleigh was up. I closed the bedroom door behind me as I began to strip off my pajama shorts. I began to scroll through my music library, settling on some good ol' John Mayer before I grabbed my towels and headed for the bathroom.

Ashleigh looked up as I walked in; her facial expression was a mixture of exhaustion and irritation. This was going to be a great morning.

"How do you feel?" I asked, glancing back at her as I started the shower, adjusting it to the perfect temperature. She gave me a bitter look before she began to wash her face.

"Like death," she answered. "Why didn't anyone stop me last night?"

I chuckled. "I tried numerous times. You were pretty persistent."