Shuck Face (A Dylan O'Brien Story)

Chapter 43

"Chuck." My body was shaking. "Chuck!" I realized Wes was trying to shake me out of my thoughts. "CHUCK!"

"Jesus what?!"

Wes pulled his head back at my outburst. "You've been sitting here for 45 minutes and you haven't said a word."

"That's gotta be some sort of record." I looked for the person who made the smart remark to find Sharmy trying his best not to look worried.

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Where is everyone?" I stood up, brushing off my dress.

"They're hanging out in my room. Are you sure you're okay?"

I glanced over to Hartley and nodded. "My fiancé just left me but yes I'm peachy keen Mr. Bean."

I kicked off my heels and shuffled through my suitcase, grabbing some sandals and sliding them on my feet before grabbing my clutch.

"Who wants a drink? I sure as hell could use one." I walked over to the fridge searching for alcohol, but coming up empty. "Why is all the rum gone!"

"I don't think that's a good idea, Chuck."

I placed a hand on Wes' cheek, patting gently. "So concerned. It is so sweet. But I'm fine. I promise." I slammed the refrigerator door. "We planned to go out drinking. I'm just trying to keep my birthday celebration going! Let's go get drunk!"

I swayed a little and grabbed on to Sharmy's arm. I slid my arm through his, trying to look cute but really I didn't want to fall. He didn't move away though.

"Are you see you want to go out and drink? We can just hang out here and watch a movie and pig out on junk food or something."

"I appreciate it, Sharmy, but that's not much of a celebration to me. We're gonna go get crazy. First round's on me! Go gather up the hoard."

Hartley and Wes hesitated before finally leaving the room. I grabbed my phone from the counter and texted my driver.

Got a ride for 12 people?-Chuck

Be there in 15.-Jack

I grinned at my phone. Jack was awesome and always readily available. He doesn't have a family and he said he makes good money doing this so it doesn't bother him one bit. I made my way downstairs with Daniel and found the rest of our friends there waiting.

"I heard we were getting drunk!" T. Pose danced around in excitement.

"THANK YOU!" I pointed to him. "At least someone is on my level." Tyler and I started dancing like fools, me trying to hide my dizziness.

"We're just worried about you, Chuck. That's all."

I turned around to Ki Hong and stuck my tongue out.
"No negative Nancy's allowed tonight. So quit your worrying and have fun with me on my birthday. If you can't, then you can just stay here!"

I guess my tone was a little harsher than I thought because Axel hissed my name. "Jesus Charlie. You don't have to be such a bitch about it. We're your friends. Of course we're concerned."
I tried to hide my wincing at Axel's harsh tone.

"Alright, Alright. Let's all just calm down." Kaya's british accent sliced through the tension. "It is still Charlie's birthday and we can all go out and have a good time. We will just keep an eye on her and worry quietly." She chuckled and I smiled widely.

"Kaya is right! But I still want y'all to have fun. I can't be the only one." A black limo pulled up to the curb. "Oh! Jack is here with a limo. We're gonna be riding in style, ya'll!"

Despite the worries filling my friends minds, they all laughed at my country remark before following me out and piling into the limo Jack had obtained for us. I poured us all glasses of champagne and we toasted to what we all hoped would be a good rest of the night.

We joined the Pub Crawl outside Anvers, visiting about 4 different bars. The group was of about 20 people. Man I loved Paris. People were crazy as hell and loved to drink. I wore a Happy Birthday crown so people kept buying me shots. Not long after getting to the 2nd bar, our massive Crawl group just kept buying each other drinks and shots, the stress of the night melting away.

Finally by about 3am, the bars were closing and most of us were too drunk to even stand, so I called Jack. Within minutes, he picked us up and took us back to the hotel. Everyone tripped and stumbled into the elevators, giggling and shushing each other. Once on our floor, they all went to their respective rooms, except Daniel who wanted to make sure I made it to mine safely. I opened the door and invited him in, still stumbling all over the place. He helped me take off my shoes and lay down in bed. He pulled the covers over me, kissed me on the head, and stood up. I grabbed his hand.

"Please don't leave. I don't want to be alone."

"Are you sure?"

I nodded and he slipped his shoes off before crawling in the bed and wrapping his arm around me as I laid my head on his chest.

"Are you okay? Really? Considering you know." He asked quietly, twirling my hair in his fingers.

I sighed heavily. "I really fucked up. And I don't know how to fix it this time." My voice cracked so I cleared my throat.

His hand rubbed up and down my back. "Dylan loves you. He just needed to blow off steam."

"He went home, Sharmy." I sat up a little so I could look at him face to face. "He didn't just go out drinking in Paris. He was literally only in the country for maybe 2 hours. I've seen him just blow off steam. This was something different."

"Just get some rest. Call him when you wake up once you've sobered up and you've both had time to cool down. I'm sure everything will be fine."

I laid my head back down and stayed quiet for a minute as I started to drift out of consciousness. "I hope you're right." I mumbled as I finally let sleep take over.

I felt him tighten his arms around me before stilling.

"Sleep well, Charlie."