EUDEMONIA

1. Fireball

It all started with one too many shots of Fireball. I don't even like Fireball, but I was sad and I wanted to get drunk and it was the only liquor left at Tate's party. One shot led to another... and another... and that's how I woke up naked, in bed with the biggest migraine imaginable, the only trace of my one night stand being someone's boxers.

***

"Elias... get up...it's Monday..."

"Elias..."

"Elias! Get up! Now! You're going to be late!"

I startle awake, knowing not to try staying in bed past three warnings from my mom. Quickly, I hop out of bed and start grabbing all my things for the day: my notebook, the one pen I haven't lost yet, and my phone. My clothes thrown on, I grab my bag and run downstairs, grabbing my trusty instrument case for band practice later.

My twin sister is already eating and almost ready to go: she's somehow managing to eat cereal while gluing her fake lashes on. Meanwhile, my mom is fixing her morning coffee and my dad walks in and kisses her on the cheek. Seeing my sister reach for an eyeshadow palette in her bag, he looks at the clock and sighs, "On est pas prêts à partir...Lili, tu te grouillles s'il te plaît." My sister whips her head around at Dad and glares at him while I snort into my orange juice.

"I'm almost ready, Dad!" she whines. He goes to her and kisses her forehead, "Je sais, je te taquine." I know, I'm just messing with you. Lili rolls her eyes at him but can't help smiling.

My dad drives the two of us to school as his workplace is close to our high school, cracking cheesy french jokes the whole way there. Lili and I both understand French since our dad exclusively speaks in that language despite having lived for fifteen years in the Unites States.

I always enjoy mornings in my house: they've been like this since I can remember, the four of us harmoniously preparing ourselves for the day together. I was going to miss this when I went to college next year.

Unlike most teens, my sister and I have an amazing relationship with our parents and respect them unconditionally. Maybe this comes from the fact that the both of them adopted us, so we remain eternally grateful. No one could necessarily tell that we were adopted: Lili and I are biological twins, both with kinky hair, mocha skin and warm brown eyes. Dad is French, his parents immigrants from the Democratic Republic of Congo before he was born, and my mother is American. Having interracial parents is perfect for us as biracial children because it allowed Lili and I to be in an environnement that mirrors what we imagine our real parents would have been like.

The second I set foot outside the car, Lili rushes over to me, grabs me by the arm and drags me away from the car while blowing a quick kiss to Dad.

"Okay, Nina texted me last night and apparently someone got hammered out of their mind at Tate's party," she spews at me while dragging me to homeroom with her. Nina, Lili's best friend, can suck my dick because there is no way in hell that I'm sharing what happened two nights ago.

"Hmm, weird, I wonder who it was," I say, trying to end the conversation.

"I know it was you or she wouldn't have texted me about it with a broken heart emoji. You know she has a fat crush on you, and she was sad because apparently you hooked up with someone." Everyone and their pet dogs know that Nina has a crush on me. She isn't exactly subtle about it and has been asking me to every school school dance since freshman year. To her credit, I hadn't 'glown up' in freshman year yet and was still five-foot-two with glasses. Then, during the summer of junior year, I decided to try contacts because I kept breaking my classes by accident, and I guess I must have grown a lot or something because all of a sudden I was super popular with the girls. I was still the same guys, just a foot taller and without glasses which apparently made 'such a difference'. From what girls say, I guess I'm attractive, with curly hair and a sharp jawline and a decent sense of style for a high school boy. Before junior year, I was mildly popular, surfing in the middle of the social hierarchy, and now I was popular, known throughout the school for my looks and the fact that I was a part of Orchestra.

That might sound lame, but Orchestra at our school is a big thing. The word 'orchestra' for some reason carries the same weight as 'varsity football', making all those who participate in either The Orchestra or The Jazz Band or The Chorus (all three commonly grouped under Orchestra) really popular for some unknown reason.

In my case, my participation in Orchestra was more of a school vide joke because I play the triangle. But, being a part of one of the best after school music programs in the state looks good on college application and my mom insists I continue so here I am, a senior playing the triangle in the back of every recital. Despite all that, Nina had an ever lasting crush on me.

"Yep, wasn't me. I didn't hook up with anybody. Or get hammered." Please don't tell me you saw the snapchat video. Please don't tell me—

"Well snapchat begs to differ," she sasses back at me, pulling out her phone and showing me the video I've already seen four hundred times this weekend of me chugging a beer in ten seconds.

I stop her in the hallway against the lockers, the first bell ringing indicating that we have two minutes to haul our asses to homeroom.

"Listen, yes I got hammered, but I can't remember anything that happened. I might have hooked up with someone...," she wags her eyebrows at that, "But I don't know who it is. And I've asked Tate and Daria if they saw me go upstairs with anyone, but they didn't see anyone. Although—" The final bell cuts me off before I tell her about the boxers, and I quickly yank her arm and drag her into homeroom right before Mr. Langley closes the door.

Thank god for the bell, because the whole boxers situation was a mess I didn't even want to think about. Waking up in Tate's guest bedroom with unknown boxers and my naked self was the strangest thing to ever happen to me. Who had I slept with? I can't imagine I had slept with a guy... maybe they belonged to the girl I slept with? Lili had these pyjamas that kind of looked like boxers so maybe it was some girl's pyjamas and I was just too hungover to see properly? Maybe I had just gotten naked when I was drunk and someone threw boxers on the bed to fuck with me? Who knows.

A/N:

*Rupaul Voice* Hello hello hello! 

Welcome to my newest endeavor: this book. 

I hope I'm not throwing too much info at you, there's a whole lot of exposition for this book because I hate random characters with no background but I feel like I keep writing them in?

I split the first chapter in two because I felt like it would be too long.

And you will be introduced to the one night stand soon....

Happy reading!

quick note about the french: when there isn't a translation present in the text, it's because I felt like in the context you could understand the gist of it. Also if anyone tries to correct my french i will throw hands because I'm a native speaker so chances are I'm right and you're wrong :)