It was one of those oppressive late summer days. One of those days that feels like one-hundred and ten degrees in the shade at seven in the morning. A day when you can't get cool even when you're naked in a bathtub overflowing with ice cubes. She groaned as she rolled gracelessly off of her liquid magma mattress and on to the mercifully cooler wood floor. Her respite from the heat was only temporary as the sweat beading her face caused her cheek to adhere itself to the floor's resin. She heaved an irritated sigh, and slowly pushed herself up to a seated position. As she sat up, her big toe gently brushed against the side of something smooth, which began rolling away from her extended foot with the discordant jangle of glass on wood. It took her a few moments before her hazy, heat-fogged brain registered the beer bottle for what it was.
Just as her brain had worked out "beer bottle," and had begun working on the next question of what it was doing in her room, she heard the vague morning sounds of someone using the bathroom. Under normal circumstances, she wouldn't have thought twice—given that she'd been living with the same roommate for three years. However, said roommate had managed to score some vacation time, and decided to take a much needed visit home to escape from the last of the summer's heat tyranny. As she continued straining her ears while she decided what to do about the curious intruder currently in her bathroom...brushing his teeth?...the empty beer bottle managed to roll back against her foot.
The mysterious beer bottle was really beginning to annoy her. She wasn't what you'd call a "neat freak," but the concept of trash going in trash cans always struck a cord with her; there was no way she would've left an empty beer bottle in her room. Especially not on her floor. She glared at the offending beverage container, noticing as she did that it wasn't even her brand. Her initial irritation suddenly gave way to fear as she thought back to the intruder in her apartment. "Oh God..." her mind desperately supplied. She thrust her hand frantically under the nearest pillow on her bed, flailing her arm about, hoping to find her cellphone. Finally, her nails clacked against her phone's hard candy shell casing. The phone slid easily out from under the downy protection of the pillow.
Just as her finger was poised to perform the obligatory finger-swipe unlocking ritual, a text message from her roommate illuminated the screen. "Glad to hear my boy found the apartment ok. Sounds like you had a..." In her somewhat alarmed state, it took her eyes a few minutes to register the start of the message as it flashed on her screen, and it took her brain a few minutes more to understand what the message meant: there wasn't an intruder in her place! She finished the unlocking motion she'd started before being startled, and opened up her roommate's complete text. "...great time last night! Sorry I missed it. He's one of my best friends, almost like a brother really, so I'm sure he won't give you any trouble this week. I'm not responsible if you two decide to play any more drinking games though. 0;-)"
She rubbed her eyes as she tried thinking back to what had gone down the previous night. Somewhere in the back of her mind there was the vague recollection of receiving a phone call asking for directions to the apartment. Two mixed six packs of quality imports and microbrews being skillfully Tetrised into the apartment's already overcrowded fridge. The quasi-awkward introductions, and the brilliant idea of playing a drinking game as an icebreaker.
Although the fractured recollection wasn't ideal, she decided it was enough for her to go on as she rocked on to her knees and gingerly pushed herself to stand up. She took a minute to steady herself before bouncing on the balls of her feet. It was an odd morning ritual, and she wasn't really that sure when or how she'd started doing it, but she found the bouncing helped wake her up, so she did it. After a few seconds of jiggling, she reached over stiffly to pick up the beer bottle and began walking out of her room. It was only when she was halfway down the hall that it occurred to her—she was only wearing what'd she gone to bed in: her standard super mini boxers, half unsnapped, and a tiny satin bra that barely came up high enough to cover her nipples. As the realization took its sweet time to sink in, she stood dumbly in the hallway debating what to do: go back to her room and change, or figure "fuck it, what was the big deal anyway?"
Luckily for her pride, her brain was leaning toward the fuck it option given that it was