You and Tequila

Chapter Eleven

The amount of tormenting, excruciating, misery that's pounding horrifically in her temples is enough to make her wish for death.

"Emma."

Never in her twenty-three years on this planet has she ever suffered a hangover even close to this severity.

"Emma."

Her mouth is dry, like she ate an entire fucking bag of cotton balls, because yes, that's how intoxicated she was and she wouldn't even put it past herself at this point.

"What did you do?"

Her stomach does a backward flip that produces an acidic liquid to slosh in her gut and crawl up her chest in a threat to explode from her mouth in the most unladylike manner.

"Get up!"

Emma groans, she's pretty positive that someone is whispering in her ear. The voice sounds familiar and comforting, but no, fuck that, she's staying asleep to alleviate the pain crushing her skull.

"Emma!"

She forces every ounce of energy into peeling apart her eyelids, that might as well be super glued together. She accomplishes one eye, squinting through the blur of black and green before her.

"Get up, now! What the fuck did you do?"

Emma's freckled nose scrunches because she has no idea why her best friend is whisper-shouting at her? Or why the woman is squatting down beside her? Come to think of it, she has no idea where the hell she is...

Hotel door. Regina. Tequila. Piano.

"Holy shit," Emma gasps, her body moving from pure panic as she slides up in bed, remembering all too clearly how her lips felt roughly against Regina's.

She immediately glances down and sighs in relief when she finds her clothes in place. A little crumpled from her sleep, but all in the right places.

"Get up! You stupid foolish girl!"

Emma winces and peeks over her shoulder to find the other side of the bed empty. The last thing she remembers is Regina tucking her in, she has no clue if the other woman slept next to her or not.

"Fuck, what did you do, Ems?" Ruby sympathetically whines, her hand reaching out to tenderly cup Emma's cheek. Green eyes blink in confusion, still trying to piece together the previous night which is quickly becoming her own game of Clue. "Come on, we need to get out of here," her friend whispers, her hand sliding away from Emma's face to help pull her out of bed.

"What are you talking about?" Emma chokes out, her voice sore and utterly abused from the strong alcohol she obediently consumed.

"Wake up!"

Emma flinches again at the sound of Cora's shrill voice, angrily bouncing off the walls and assaulting her hungover temples. The sound that ricochets through the hotel room next, is a brutal crack that provokes Emma to stumble out of bed and shove Ruby right out of the way.

She stumbles, recklessly falling forward and catching herself with her hands before her face smacks the ground, but her feet keep moving. She's tumbling through the hotel room, ignoring her brain as it sloshes around in her skull with vengeance and the queasy sensation clawing at her gut.

She nearly collides into Jefferson's back, but she reaches out and clings to him to steady her balance. He's effectively blocking the view of the bathroom, but not the cruel words roaring from Cora's mouth.

"Emma," he sighs in disappointment and attempts to turn her away from the bathroom.

"Where's Regina? What's going on? Why are you all here?" Emma fires off each question, one more frantic than the previous.