Wedding Bells

05| under the influence

•Katherine•
I waved goodbye to my friends as they all settled down in a cab, all ready to go home. After countless rounds of flip cup, beer pong, never have I ever and other college drinking games, they were still pretty okay. We all had a pretty high tolerance from spending nearly every Saturday getting black out drunk during our college days. But I couldn't say the same for Jamie.

Three drinks into beer pong, he fell to the floor and started military crawling on my carpet. Me and my friends continued to play amongst ourselves while he slow danced with my white coat rack to up-beat dance music.

It was a very entertaining show but I was too busy being cut-throat competitive to be laughing at him, or worse, looking after him.

I closed the door behind me and walked towards Jamie who was now sprawled all over my staircase. I gently nudged his shoulder with the tip of my boot but it didn't change a thing.

I crouched down and shook his shoulders with all the strength I could muster. He got up with a jolt.

'Give me your phone,' I demanded, holding my hand out, 'I'll call your driver. I can't trust you to reach home in a cab.'

He crossed his arms and pouted, babbling about how he doesn't want to leave. I got a bottle of cold water and passed it to him- coaxing him to drink it all up. He barely finished 1/4th of the bottle before he started running around asking for the bathroom.

I practically pushed him all the way to the bathroom and shoved him inside.

'Don't even think of throwing up on my floor,' I scolded as his dinner came back up. I held my nose, closed the door and walked away. I wasn't his babysitter and I had no plans of pretending to be one.

I had just finished up with my night routine and was about to go to sleep when I heard a loud 'thud' followed by a few softer 'thumps'. I pushed the blanket off me and came out of the room to see an almost shirtless Jamie lying at the bottom of the stairs clutching onto my coatrack and holding it tight.

I walked down the staircase and gave him a hand. I lead him to the guest room on the ground floor, near the kitchen and gave him a pillow, fresh sheets and a blanket. I was walking out the door when I felt cloth hit the back of my head. I turned around to see Jamie's shirt on the floor and while he grinned.

'I have a question,' he asked. His words were slurred and I was in no mood to deal with this but he didn't bother waiting for a reply. 'Why did you bow to my parents? That's so weird. No one else does that. You're weird.'

'You did it,' I pointed out.

'My mother is Korean. That's why?' he raised his eyebrows as if he was asking a question then got off the bed and started walking towards me, swaying and swinging.

'I taught little kids English in Thailand, China, Taiwan and India for around two and a half years as a part of a volunteer program. Since everyone did it, I picked up on it,' I explained, pushing him towards the bed.

'I lied,' he confessed and just before I asked about what he put his forefinger on my forehead and smiled. 'You look pretty but I lied like a biiiiiiig liar and I was obsessed with Korean dramas during freshman year so I started bowing to elders and the habit sticked.'

'Stuck,' I corrected, trying my best to hold in a laugh, as he nodded. He was speaking slowly and softly, his words all garbled up and barely audible. I pushed his shoulders and he was, once again, lying down in bed. Before he could say or do something to stop me, I fast-walked out of there.
—
'Hey Siri, play my morning playlist,' I instructed as I turned on the stove and poured a little bit of oil onto the pan. I was wearing a long grey hoodie and black shorts underneath with my hair falling loosely on my shoulders. I poured the ready-made pancake batter once the pan was hot and started cooking.