You're My Favorite Story

Part 4

The next morning I woke up feeling like death. For multiple reasons. But none of that mattered to my golden retriever, Heather, when she decided to lay on top of me at nine a.m. I groaned as I pushed her off of me, already feeling my head starting to pound. And this Autumn was why we never get drunk enough to have a hangover. I started recalling all the events from the night before and just buried my face in my pillow, smiling so hard that it would probably leave an impression on the pillow case. I honestly could have laid in bed all day and just drowned in all my giddy, warm, and fuzzy feelings, but I had an article to write that was due by the end of the day. I managed to get out of bed with some difficulty, and then I proceeded to feed Heather and let her outside. I grabbed my laptop from the living room on the way back to my room and set up my makeshift work station at my desk in the corner. I uploaded all the pictures from my camera and then picked a handful to go along with the article. I really had taken so many of Dan, like my goodness. Listening back to my recording from the interview yesterday proved to be more distracting than helpful. Every time I heard Dan's adorable laugh I had to pause the recording and just bury my face in my hands. There was no doubt, I really had gotten in over my head this time.

Writing and perfecting the article ended up taking most of the day. I kept taking breaks to watch different Bastille videos and also to listen to more of the band's music. I hadn't heard anything from Niall or Arabella yet, which was honestly surprising. She hadn't come home from her boyfriend's apartment all day. Just as I was wrapping up the final touches my phone buzzed. The screen lit up with a number I didn't recognize. More texts started coming in from the number and my hands were shaking as I picked up my phone. The first message read, "Hi Autumn, it's Dan! From Bastille. Will gave me your number haha". I did a little spin in my chair, giggling like a school girl all the while. The rest of the messages were him thanking me for hanging out last night, and also him apologizing for being a drunk idiot. He said he vaguely remembered falling asleep on me and he was sorry for that. He was hungover just like me and he said he hoped that I wasn't. But if I was, he said at least we were suffering together. He also told me he hoped my article was going well and that he couldn't wait to read the finished product. I messaged back and told him I was just about done with the article. I expressed my thanks for last night as well. Dan texted back and said he would leave me be to finish the article, but that I should text him once I was done if I wanted to. I assured him that I would and then focused my attention back on perfecting my piece.

The moment I had my article submitted, I was pulling out my phone to text Dan again. I felt a twinge of disappointment when I didn't get a response back. I had to remind myself that he was probably an extremely busy man and was most likely in the middle of something. Two hours later my phone finally lit up with a text. But it wasn't from Dan. It was from...Kyle? What in the world?? He had also gotten my number from Will and he wanted to know what I was doing tomorrow. I told him I just had class in the morning and then asked why he wanted to know. He asked me if there was any way I could make it to their concert in Portland tomorrow night. I reread the message a few times just to make sure I was understanding him right. I was about to text back that that just wasn't possible for me to do right now, when another message from him popped up. He said he understood that it probably seemed like a strange request, but that Dan had apparently been super mopey ever since last night. I quickly responded, suggesting that it was probably just because he was hungover and didn't feel well. Kyle replied, saying he's seen him hungover enough times to know the difference and that this was a whole new level of mopey. Even for Dan. He went on, telling me that I had made quite the impression on Dan and that the rest of the guys couldn't get him to shut up about me. I was honestly in shock reading all his messages about how miserable Dan had seemed since we'd parted ways. I was dying to see him again truth be told. But there was just no way that I could financially swing it. Not this soon. I was close to tearing up as I regretfully informed Kyle that I really wished that I could attend the concert tomorrow night, but that it just wasn't possible right now. I got a response from him ten minutes later with a screenshot of a flight confirmation that said, "See you tomorrow night."