Unexpected

Chapter 8.

*Shoutout to jk_091 for the amazing cover! I will post the other two she made in the next chapters. She takes requests!

*Its always been a struggle for me to post my writing (hence the lack of basically any information on my profile) but if y'all like this story and leave any positive feedback, just know it absolutely means the world to me.

*The next few chapters might be kind of slow, but I promise it's building up to something better

"Charity."

A fuzzy, soft thing was tickling my nose, and there was something wet on my cheeks.

"Charity."

It wasn't an uncomfortable sensation at all, actually, and I was lying on something so soft and comfortable I saw no problem with just staying like this forever...

"CHARITY GRACE PAXTON, WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"

"Ah!"

I bolted upright, and Tucker jumped back quickly with a whimper.

"Sorry baby," I apologized to him.

Ariel stood in front of me, hair sticking up in every angle imaginable, makeup smeared under her eyes. Somehow, she still looked like a K-drama actress, even with rumpled clothes and what was sure to be a hangover. We were both still in the same clothes we'd worn to the party last night.

"What the hell happened?" She asked. "Why are you asleep on my floor?"

"It's your beanbag," I corrected. The Kims had a spare bedroom next to Ariel's room that basically belonged to me, but after I'd finally dragged Ariel upstairs the previous night, I'd been so exhausted and the beanbag looked so soft and inviting that I'd just collapsed.

Last night!

A blur of memories flashed through my mind like a high-speed montage.

"Shit," I breathed.

"Yeah. Shit." Ariel flopped down on her plush carpet and spread her arms out like she was about to make a snow angel.

"Did I hallucinate or did Brett Ashmore drive us to Whataburger?"

"You were pretty adamant about going."

She blinked. "I am never drinking again."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Ari."

"What else happened?"

Haltingly, I told her everything I remembered, omitting the part where I told Brett about my mom. Not that I didn't trust him to keep it a secret, but some part of me balked at the idea of facing him at math team practice on Monday after so dramatically dishing out my dirty laundry like that. Not to mention everything else that had happened...the flash of painful vulnerability in his eyes, the warm, solid comfort of his arms when he saved me from my attacker, the gentleness of his fingers in my hair.

Had I had some really weird, lucid dream or had all of that actually happened?

Ariel, for once, wasn't focusing on that.

"What the fuck?! Are you okay, Charity? Oh my God, I feel so awful; I should have gone with you to the bathroom--"

"Ariel. How could this possibly be your fault? Besides, I'm fine...thanks to. Thanks to...Brett."

Only then did her eyebrows slant up into an expression of the Ariel I loved and knew. "So he basically charged in and became your knight in shining armor?"