Runaway Man

Chapter 37: Hangover

Chapter 37: Hangover

My eyes fluttered over to see a plain ceiling with my head feeling as if it was being continuously stabbed. I forced myself to sit up to examine blurry surroundings. The room's theme was blue and there was a wardrobe in the corner of the room, some ironed suits poking out of it.

Scrunching my nose with an unpleasant aftertaste in my mouth, I wondered where I was exactly and the events of last night. Certainly, this was not Diana's house and I felt sick thinking that anything could have happened because I woke up on this bed. I felt filthy. Violated, for some bizarre reason. Especially since I was in some random guy's baggy t-shirt and my underwear.

I pushed aside the annoying pain in my forehead (even though I was sure my head was going to burst) so that I could leave this mysterious room. 

When I entered the hallway, a familiar scent invaded my nose. Weirdly, every house had its own unique smell but it was impossible to smell your own. This smell was something I hadn't sniffed much before but it definitely wasn't completely alien to me. Relief filled my body as I realised that I must at least know who the owner of this house is.

At the bottom of the stairs, I squinted....

Joey.

"Joey!" I exclaimed. 

There were deep rings below his eyes and he floated up the stairs like a ghost, pulling me into a tight hug. His fingers ran through my partially knotted hair and like an idiot, I just stood there so that I could absorb the most recent happenings.

My words were quiet as he held me, "W-what's going on?" He pushed me slightly away from me and stared into my eyes. I couldn't register the expression in his, his guard was up like it was the majority of the time. Quickly, I broke away from our contact completely.

"Don't you remember what happened yesterday?" Joey raised an eyebrow at me. However, I couldn't remember much of what had happened. Obviously, I knew that it was another one of Diana's famous house parties and that I was being chased by some pervert.

I frowned, the events leaking back gradually.

That explained why I had a headache aka hangover. Diana must've spiked my drink, knowing that I wouldn't consume alcohol otherwise. I wanted to face palm myself then slaughter her for tricking me. Joey stood there next to me, a nervous laugh escaping his lips, and he grabbed hold of my wrist gently.

"You might as well stay for breakfast now," his voice cracked slightly, "We already have a guest over so there will be extra food anyway." Slowly, I nodded my head and hoped that I didn't look a complete mess. Well, I probably didn't seeing as Joey didn't peg it when he saw me. I wondered why he was being so nice to me... I liked it though but the whole idea of it seemed too good to be true. I would've pinched myself to check if I was dreaming if my head hadn't hurt as much as it did.

We went downstairs and into the dining room. There were plates of full English breakfasts on it, which practically made me drool. The bacon was cooked just right, the fried egg had a big yellow circle of yoke and the toast was light brown. My stomach was desperate for food so I took a seat on the end, wondering where everyone else was.

The door opened and I was certain that I was in the weirdest dream ever.

Why was Mr King here?                                                                           

He wore pyjama trousers a dirty white vest top and to make things worse, his blond hair was sloppily resting over his bright blue eyes. Quickly, I stared down at one of the slightly overcooked sausages on my plate. There was no way he wasn't going to notice me. This was going to be awkward.

 Why was I here?

I swore that I was radiating heat on that chair, either that or the heating had suddenly been turned up too high. The last time I had spoken to him properly had been forever ago, even in History lessons at school, I always tried my best to avoid him. He did the same to me. We kept our distance from each other after our last awkward interaction. Frowning, I dug my fork into the sausage that I'd been staring at for ages now.

Awkward was just in my nature.

There were footsteps nearby and I allowed myself to glance up briefly to a woman with bottle bleach blonde hair, an apron tied around her waist and a face that looked too artificial to be real. She smiled at me with pearly white teeth and I realised that she was Joey's mum. Before returning the grin, I forced down the lump in my throat.

Then, there was silence for a minute or two. The only thing that we could hear were the scrapes of cutlery against the dishes or the occasional slurp.

Joey's mother was the first to break the tension, "So, Florence, how do you know my son?" I licked my lips, avoiding eye contact with her and not even daring to look at Mr King. Instead, I allowed my eyes to dart over in Joey's direction, whom just tugged at his collar sheepishly.

Could I really say that it was at a house party? I mean, that was a legit answer but I wasn't sure what type of parent she was. Was she strict? Did he sneak around behind her back or was she carefree? I couldn't really say from school because that was a total lie and Mr King would seriously catch me out on it seeing as he teaches me. I knew that all three of them were staring at me, desperately waiting for an answer but I didn't know what to say. I didn’t even know why I was here or even why I was eating breakfast with them. Honestly, it was like one of those weirdest dreams that was simply illogical. 

But they wanted me to answer. I left them hanging for a reply.

Joey saved me, "We met through a friend." His mother raised her eyebrows and I frowned at this entire scandal. However, she seemed to buy it. Well, at least she didn't question it.

While the rest of the conversation seemed at ease, the air between me and Mr King remained painfully awkward, so awkward that I couldn't even look at him in the corner of my eyes. Hopefully, after I ate one of us would go home (preferably me) because I didn't know what else would happen if I were to sit here for much longer. Or at least I would find out why he was their guest and why I was here.

I couldn't even finish the food they had given me. Instead, I left the toast because I felt like I was choking and the bread just stuck to the back of my throat whenever I tried to consume any more. So, I excused myself from the table, claiming that I needed the bathroom. In a way, I did but I just played that card so I could escape.

Once I had finished, I opened the door to see Joey. His posture was completely straight (like usual) and he looked as if he really wanted to say something but wasn't sure whether or not he should. 

"What?"

He glanced down at me and I realised that his eyes were the exact same shade as Mr King's. I shivered just from the thought of it and Joey opened up his palm, dropping two pills onto my hand. By instinct, I raised my eyebrows at him, not completely trusting whatever it was.

"Paracetamol," he shrugged his shoulders and gave me a glass of water, "Your head must be pounding right now." Casually I nodded, surprised that he even knew or remembered that. I put them in my mouth and swallowed them with the aid of the water. I wanted to ask him what happened last night, why Mr King was here and the rest of the secrets that he hid from me.

"Joey, can I ask you something?" My heart was pounding like crazy, like I was going to ask him something really outrageous like if I could be his girlfriend. In reality, I wasn't, I couldn't even dare to. I was sure he had no clue on what I was going to ask him because the way he looked at me, he seemed taken aback by it and…. nervous? Whatever it was, it was now or never. I would use this time to get what I had wanted for a long while: one step at a time.

"Sure."

"What actually happened yesterday and why is my teacher here?”

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Cliff hanger but I am ill (on my first days of Summer -_-) so let me off. 

lol why is mr king here, why is she in joey's house, oooooo 

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