pretty girl (Lauren/You- first person)

chapter twenty.

I woke up the next morning to an empty bed, which was disappointing. I furrowed my brow and rolled over to Lauren's side, looking for any evidence of where she could be. The bathroom door was open, so she wasn't in there. I scanned the room and noticed our door was cracked, so she had probably already gone downstairs. I lazily put my pajamas back on and made my way downstairs. As I got further down the steps, I could hear laughter and smell breakfast cooking. I rounded the corner to see everyone already huddled in the kitchen, coffee cups in everyone's hands except for Delilah's, who probably had juice in her My Little Pony cup.

"Morning Mama." My daughter came to me dressed in pajamas and a Tinkerbell dress, squeezing the life out of my legs as I patted her hair.

"Good morning bug, did you sleep good?" She only nodded in response as I started getting greetings from everyone else in the room. Lauren was slumped over the island, steadily sipping at her coffee as I made my way over to her.

"How you feeling pretty girl?" I smiled and cuddled her for just a moment.

"Like death. Coffee helps." She looked up at me with tired eyes. I pouted sympathetically before kissing her cheek.

"Did anyone get sick or anything last night?" I was met with various shakes of the head and barely coherent grunts, so I took that as a no. "You know what you need to fix that hangover right?" I gently bopped Lauren on the nose while I raised my eyebrow at her. She nodded her head but then motioned towards Delilah. Even though we smoked, I don't think there was ever a time she had seen either of us actually smoking, and we wanted to keep it that way.

"My stomach hurts so bad, I don't know if I can even eat." Madison groaned as she choked down a sip of coffee. "It's been so long since I've drank, my tolerance was completely wiped out." I nodded in understanding, remembering the first time I drank after having Delilah. It didn't end well, for me or for Anthony's favorite pair of Nike's.

"The food will help you though, all that grease from the sausage, and the biscuits, will help absorb all of that just sitting in your stomach." Ally spoke, as usual she was looking bright eyed and bushy tailed. Even when she did drink heavily, she bounced back so easily I was almost jealous.

"Ooh yeah, what are you guys making?" I sniffed the air with a silly smile while waiting for an answer. I looked over to see Normani and Dinah drinking coffee, one squeezing the bridge of her nose and the other rubbing her temple. Delilah was now sitting on the floor under mine and Lauren's legs, humming to herself.

"Biscuits and gravy. And sausage patties." Ally was the only one awake enough to answer me.

"No hashbrowns?" I pouted.

"If you want to chop the potatoes, I wasn't in the mood for all of that work." Ally laughed.

"No, look." I went to the freezer and pulled out a bag of frozen hashbrowns. "Get me a cookie sheet." Ally sighed in relief when she realized the only step needed was to bake the shredded potatoes.

I made another full pot of coffee which disappeared the moment it stopped brewing, with everyone refilling their mug and emptying in immediately. "Are you guys gonna be alright to go out with me next weekend?" I joked.

"One week is just enough recovery time." Normani spoke. "That's about how long it takes for me to stop riding the I'll never drink again wave." We all laughed at what she said and mumbled in agreement, no matter how much I tried I didn't bounce back from a night out like I did five or ten years ago.

"You guys never got a chance to tell me where you went." I prompted as Ally and I started setting the food in serving platters.

"That restaurant that always puts the crazy drink special board out on the sidewalk?" I nodded my head because I knew what restaurant Lauren was talking about. "Well, it started there." She had a blank look on her face.