I woke up with the familiar throbbing head and desperate urge to drink a bathtub of water without the energy to move from my bed, that I had come to associate with a successfully night.
I felt stirring next to me and opened my eyes to a nest of fiery hair. That was going to be a problem. What was her name again? Did I even get her name? Yes... I remembered Abby introducing us. Abby had been consistently introducing me to people since that strange night a few months ago.
I rolled to the side of the bed, battling the nausea that filled my mouth with salty water. I wouldn't need to remember her name if I got out of here before she woke up. I gently,
very gently
, untangled my legs from the covers and pressed them to the floor; testing how much weight I could push onto them before my body decided enough was enough.
My brain felt like it was trying to push through mud and each movement sent a pulse of agony piercing through it. Even so, I
gingerly
managed to find my feet and squinted through the darkness at a hallway past the foot of the bed. I shuffled, my gait somewhere between sneaking and stumbling, towards this beacon of freedom with what I hoped were my clothes bundled into my arms.
As I stepped into the hallway, my brain engaged enough to notice another open door to my left: a bathroom. Painfully slowly, I calculated my options. I could raid her medicine cabinet for painkillers, grab some water and purge myself of the contents of my stomach and then leave - probably feeling much better, or I could stumble out the door now without any risk of her waking up while I was preparing myself.
The necessity to take on a semblance of humanity won out and I ducked into the bathroom. Fortunately, it seemed to be exactly the same layout as my own one, letting my brain mostly proceed on autopilot for the task at hand.
By the time I was dressed and ready to bolt, things weren't looking so dire. My head still felt like someone was playing it like a drum, and my thoughts were still mired in the sticky residue of too much alcohol, but otherwise I was alive.
I looked in the mirror before leaving, having to lean slightly to see my entire self. My designer shirt had been damaged at some point the night before, leaving sharp creases in a web across the whole thing, even as it was pulled taut across my pecs, and was that a missing button? I didn't need to style my short brown hair too much; enough product had stayed in it to allow me to sweep it back with my hands to get that "effortless" look. In this light, with the web of blood vessels so prominent, my eyes somehow looked more green than blue.
I slipped out of the bathroom, steadier on my feet than when I entered. Before opening the front door, I took one last look at the ginger body in the bed. She was covered enough to leave something to the imagination, an imagination I had to engage as my memory of last night was fairly patchy, but from what I could see; I was impressed with myself. Her shoulders and chest were freckled, and her breasts looked full and thick, causing a deep memory to stir within me of a similar pair that belonged to my best friend's girlfriend. I shook my head to clear it and stepped out of the door.
Opposite me, I saw the lumbering form of one of my neighbours, staggering through the hallway in a similar state to myself. As if pulling my thoughts through honey, I turned back to the door I had stepped out of and looked at the number. Shit.
***
"You're such a dickhead," Jess laughed at me, throwing a pillow at my head. "So, what? You've just left her there?"
I nodded meekly, "Yeah... But at least Carl's there, right?"
After realising my error, I'd been too embarrassed to re-enter the room I shared with my best friend, and roommate, Carl. In my semi-cognizant state, I'd decided to walk the fifteen-ish minutes to Abby's place to get the info on my mystery guest. Depending on what I found out, I could return to her with a coffee from the local Costa, as if nothing had happened.
It turns out that Abby had not returned from her own night out and so only her flatmate, Jess, was in when I came calling. Jess, who was also my best friend's long-term girlfriend. Jess, who, even at this ungodly hour on a Sunday morning looked as if she hadn't, in fact, just woken up, but had actually just had a professional stylist do her hair and makeup.
She sat across from me, holding a steaming cup of coffee that mirrored my own, in grey jogging bottoms and an oversized tee-shirt that almost managed to hide the wonders within.
Almost
. Her long bleached blonde hair was tied back into a ponytail that hung down over her shoulder, contrasting with her lightly tanned skin and cool blue eyes.
"I still can't believe you brought a girl back while Carl was in!" Jess snapped. "I hope you didn't give him an eyeful."
I frowned. I couldn't really remember much about the night before. I don't remember Carl being there, and I didn't see him this morning... But I wasn't in the fittest state.
"It's nothing he hasn't seen before," I responded quietly.
"I'm not talking about you. I don't want my man looking at someone else in that situation without my approval!"
'
Without my approval
', this was a something new. Carl had been scared that he wasn't giving Jess the 'college experience', so Abby and I had tried to help by initiating a little bit of group sex one night. Nothing that could be considered cheating, just two couples having sex in the same room. It wasn't my fault that things had escalated slightly...
It did appear to help them. It also gave me an eternity of wanking material in seeing Jess, my personification of a sex goddess, doing what sex goddesses did. It also ignited an enviousness of Carl that I hadn't known was possible.
The Jess I had known from before that night would not have appended 'without my approval'.
"I didn't know he was there!" I protested. "He was as quiet as a mouse this morning; I didn't even notice him."
"Well, I'll be seeing him in a little while and I'll be able to tell whether he got an eyeful or not, don't you worry. So maybe you should get back to Nikki with an apology and breakfast," Jess said, standing suddenly.
Nikki! That was it! I knew it.
"Kicking me out, are you?"
"Actually, yes. I'll see you later," she grabbed the cup from my hands and inclined her head to the door.
"Fine!" I said, rising. "Thank Abby for me, would you."
I smiled down at her, expecting a retort, before realising that standing had brought us to within centimetres of one-another.
Jess stumbled backwards, "Yeah... Of course... Go on."
She didn't look up at me as I walked past her, and I noticed that her cheeks seemed to be pinker than usual.
"Bye then!" I called, stepping back out into the fresh air.
***
Fortunately, by the time I returned home; Carl was awake and managed to let me back in without Nikki even stirring. He grinned at me and shook his head as he left the room to let me deal with the mess I'd made. She was
extremely
grateful for the coffee and although she said she needed to leave in a hurry, made time to show her appreciation before she left.
No sooner had the door shut behind her, then it re-opened to my roommate's blank face, "Really? I've got things to do today, mate."
"What?" I grinned in response, pulling my trousers back up.
"You know what!" He said in a strained voice, before smiling. "Although I wouldn't have minded seeing her in the daylight..."
"You perv," I chuckled. "Oh... Err, don't let Jess know you saw anything. I don't know what she'll do to me if she finds out."
Carl's eyebrow raised and he tilted his head, "You don't think she'll do worse to me?"
"Nah, you're her boyfriend. She'll go easy on you..."
He just shook his head at that and went into the bathroom.
