For the Empire - Inganno

Chapter 21

STELLA/CHARMAINE

Thud, Thud, Thud.

The pounding in my head is deafening.

Thud, Thud, Thud.

Okay, maybe, that's not my head.

"How is she?"

"Still sleeping."

"Do we need to call someone to check on her?"

"No. Don't be ridiculous, JP. I'll try to wake her, now go." I hear a door close.

I shouldn't hear padded footsteps sounds so clearly, but I do.

"Char? It's time to wake up, girl." I feel movement, is someone patting me? Nudging? I don't know; it hurts too much to think.

"Charmaine, wake up, girl. It's your birthday, and you don't want to spend it in bed all day. We've got things to do, places to see."

My eyes flutter open, but it hurts to blink and to keep them open. My eyelids feel like sandpaper against my eyes and the light shining in is trying to burn my eyes out of my skull; I squeeze them tightly.

The constant pounding is causing my head to split with each pulse, and there's a raging, burning feeling coming from my stomach. I swallow only to have a foul, acidic taste in my mouth. I hear myself groan, but the sound hurts my eyes; how is that possible?

"There we go. Up, up up."

"Sh! Please not so loud!" I beg. There's light laughter near me.

"What happened? Why do I feel like I want to die?"

I do. I, really, really do. Please, if it ends this misery, sign me up.

"Well, you, my friend, had an epic start to your birthday weekend. We danced, you kicked some scumbag's ass, we danced some more, you kicked ass a second time, and we drank and drank, you had a monumental, borderline indecent, make-out session in front of everyone, and then you hurled everywhere!"

"I took you to the bathroom only to have you pass out on the floor in the stall. I didn't realize you had locked the stall until I tried to get to you and the damn stalls were so low that I couldn't fit trying to crawl under the door.

Eventually, between Elena and I pulling at your arms or legs and nudging you with our feet, you came to enough to open the door. I just hope we don't end up on the internet!" Annalisa laughs again.

I feel the bed dip as she sits next to me. She pulls the towel on her head off. Her wet hair falls down her back. "Come on, if we want to do even half of the things I had planned, you need to get out of bed, like right now."

"What time is it?"

"Eight-thirty."

Eight-thirty, that's good; I didn't sleep in too late. Wait a sec... did she say make-out session?

Did JP and I kiss again...in front of everyone?

Images from last night flash in my mind, here and there. The music, dancing, the creep feeling me up, drinking, Victoria spitting on me. I vaguely remember hearing someone say I'm a good kisser, and I can remember feeling my skin tingling from their facial hair, like when JP kissed me...

"I kissed JP, again?" I groan. "In front of everyone? Why didn't you stop me? Obviously, I wasn't thinking clearly."

"Relax, Char. You made out with Vince. Wait, a minute, you just said you kissed JP again? What do you mean 'again'? Girl, you've got some explaining to do!"