There's No Way

Tequila

Not to toot my own horn, but my apartment smelled incredible. If the aroma's filling my nose were any indication, I had completely nailed this meal. Just as I had finished setting the food out on the counter, I heard a knock at my door.

"Perfect timing!" I exclaimed as I opened the door. He flashed me a huge grin, bottle of tequila in one hand and two shot glasses in the other. He must've seen me curiously eye the shot glasses considering he quickly shrugged.

"I didn't know if you would have some or not..." he explained as he walked through the doorway into my apartment.

"Oh please!" I dramatically exclaimed. "You think I'm some kind of rookie or something?" He laughed and followed me into the kitchen.

"Your place is really nice, it's very...you." I looked over to see his eyes sweeping my colorful and artistic apartment, landing on the piano in the corner and the guitar propped up next to it.

"Is that your nice way of saying that it's messy?" I jokingly inquired.

"No, no!" He laughed. "I just appreciate your authenticity," he said through a smile. We shared a brief moment of eye contact before he spoke up again. "Hey, didn't you promise me a cheer-up playlist?"

I excitedly nodded and hurried over to where my phone was plugged into the wall. Connecting to my Bluetooth speaker, I pressed play on the Spotify playlist I had made the day before. Immediately, "2002" by Anne-Marie started playing.

"Really?" Shawn jokingly rolled his eyes and looked over at me, as if questioning my music taste.

"What?! This song is 100% scientifically proven to cheer people up," I quipped. He smiled at me and shook his head.

"Alright, alright...I'll admit – it is pretty catchy," he laughed. I walked back around to the fridge and grabbed the slices of lime I had cut earlier that day as well as the salt from the cabinet, and set them down next to the bottle of tequila and shot glasses.

"Shall we?" I asked Shawn. He shrugged.

"Party has to start sometime, might as well be sooner rather than later." He poured us both a shot. We clinked our shot glasses together before quickly downing the smooth poison. He let out an impressed chuckle when he noticed my lack of reaction to the alcohol burning my throat.

"What? Didn't think I'd be able to handle it?" I questioned. He laughed and shook his head.

"Color me impressed, Cabello." He remarked.

A couple shots and a couple songs later, we found ourselves sitting at the bench of my piano as he tried to teach me how to play "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. I wasn't picking up on it as quickly as I typically would, but in all fairness the amount of alcohol we had consumed at that point had definitely made me a slow learner (and him a slow teacher).

"I think I'm too drunk for this," Shawn slurred as he looked up at me.

"I think maybe piano lessons should be a sober thing," I said as we both laughed at our current state of mind. We maintained eye contact for a brief moment before I finally got the courage to tell him what had happened in the grocery store earlier that day.

"I saw Carly today," I blurted out. He looked at me with an expression I couldn't quite read before letting out a low sigh and looking back down at the keys of the piano.

"Yeah? How's she doing?" He fiddled with the keys as he quietly mumbled.

"Well, she seemed okay – that is, until I kind of...told her off...?" I said cautiously. His face instantly lifted to mine as he looked at me in surprise.

"You did what?!" He asked, clearly excited by the thought of me shading his ex-fiancée. I gave him a play-by-play of everything that was said. As I finished my story, I sat there on the piano bench waiting for his reaction. To say I was scared would be a major understatement. Shawn was the kindest human I had ever met – would he be upset that I was rude to Carly? He sat there staring at me in disbelief before shaking his head and laughing.

"See? This is why you're my favorite," he finally said. I let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding in relief and started laughing with him.

"I never do stuff like that! It was such an adrenaline rush – I think I should be a bitch more often," I joked. Our laughter died down and suddenly his eyes were locked on mine. I held his gaze and suddenly got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that something was about to happen. I felt him start to lean towards me just slightly, but he stopped as soon as the song playing over the speakers switched. Suddenly "Toothbrush" by DNCE was echoing throughout my apartment.

"Come on, let's dance!" He stood up from the bench and grabbed my hand to help me up, too.

"Okay okay, but not before another shot!" I clumsily ran to the kitchen and poured us two more shots, which we quickly took before returning to the living room to continue our little dance party. We both haphazardly danced (if you could even call it that) while singing the lyrics at the top of our lungs, surely annoying the hell out of my neighbors.

Baby, you don't have to rush
You can leave a toothbrush at my place
We don't need to keep it hush
You can leave a toothbrush at my place, at my place

No need to question, next time we meet
I know you're coming home with me, home with me
Sweat like a sauna, break out the ice
I know you're gonna stay the night, stay the night

When you're standing there in your underwear
And my t-shirt from the night before
With your messed up hair, and your feet still bare
Would you mind closing the bedroom door?

Our little dance party must've been a pretty good one because that's the last thing I remember before waking up in my bed the next morning. The sunlight spilled through the sheer curtains that hung in my bedroom and I groaned at the unwelcome intrusion of light. In an effort to kill the pounding headache I had woken up with, I grabbed the bottle of water on my nightstand and opened the drawer to pull out the bottle of Advil that I keep in my nightstand specifically for hungover occasions like this one. I quickly swallowed two of the red pills before stretching my tired limbs. I felt my hand come in contact with something warm and quickly turned to see what it was.

My beautiful, tall, brown-haired friend was asleep next to me.

"Oh god, Cabello. What did you do?" I quietly whispered to myself.