Morning After Ch 01 2

Hi- this is my first submission. I will write more but please comment- feedback welcome! Sex will come but I'm not going to sacrifice at least some semblance of plot so I'm afraid you'll have to wait ;) subsequent sections will also be longer. E.

***

Cassie bit her lip and looked down at the paving slabs as she hurried across the quad. She knew where everybody was sitting- the kids she didn't know and was too shy to get to know, her friends, and the kids who she had known as a child but was too embarrassed to do more than acknowledge know. The problem was, she knew, a stupid one. She'd just turned eighteen, would be at university in a year, and yet she didn't have enough confidence to talk to the people that she'd walked to school with for seven years. She sighed, not glancing up in case they saw her looking, and made her way over to her group by the benches, Ella already calling out to her, asking for help with some work.

"Hey, you okay?" Ella rubbed her arm affectionately, pulling Cassie down to join her and offering her a crisp. "You look tired." Cassie snorted, relaxing into her friend. "You try doing nine months of work in two nights! I swear, if that teacher doesn't get better I'm going to write to the exam boards myself."

Ella interrupted her. "To tell them what? That you did all the work for that A* yourself? Come on, Cassie, nobody could hold you back if they tried!" Cassie started to protest, then giggled, dropping her bag on the floor and taking a long drink of water. Ella changed the subject. "So were you invited to Sam's party then?" Cassie looked around and saw the brown eyes of her best friend looking at her almost suspiciously.

"Yeah." She said slowly. She thought back, mentally scanning down the list she'd glanced at on facebook the night before. "And so was Jake, and Marcie, and Hannah?" She looked around, the three confirming what she'd said with brief nods. Cassie squeezed Ella's hand. "I'm sure that its just 'cause we have English together. And I are friends, I guess. Trust me, you should be glad you aren't coming, everybody from primary school will be there- everybody popular. This is going to be so awkward!" She pulled a face, laughing at the expression on Ella's.

"Cass, only you could be reluctant about a party, and especially a party like that!" Ella pretended to swat her on the head before joining a separate conversation. Cassie rolled her eyes as she heard the familiar sound of her friends debating chemistry, and focussed instead on her friend. They had been almost inseparable since they were seven. At that time they could still be mistaken for twins, the blonde hair, the blue eyes, the fair skin... But time had given Ella the height and skinny grace of a dancer, and the easy charm and confidence that comes with beauty, whereas Cassie, looking down at herself, saw only a short and definitely less elegant figure, topped with a mess of dirty blonde curls. It wasn't that she was plump, exactly, it was that she had enough curve for the two of them, and as Ella tried to point out, the clothing just hid these, as Cassie had hoped, rather than showing off her figure.

***

As Sam wolf whistled, Cassie blushed. The blue dress had been a present that she had bought herself but never had the courage to wear. With three-quarter length sleeves and a light material which clung to her curves even where she was sure it should float, the dress was perfect. She plucked at the material, trying to disguise the curve of her belly and waist, balancing on the heels with all the ease that anybody trained by Ella should, and handing Sam a card with a kiss to the cheek. He already smelled of alcohol. His hand brushed the back of her dress and she jumped out of the way, spying Hannah in a corner with Jake and a couple of beers, one of which he waved at her.

"God, I'm so glad you're here already!" Cassie sighed, trying to move into the shadows. Jake and Hannah were both staring at her. Hannah's dress was modest to the point of suffocating above the waist, but her long legs seemed to be completely bare, and Cassie could see at least three guys eyeing her up.

"You look fantastic!" Hannah smiled. "You should show off those curves more often- you look hot!" Hannah bumped her hip against Cassie's and they giggled again. Cassie never bothered to tell Hannah how good she looked; she didn't need telling, and anyway, Jake would tell her whatever. The party began to heat up pretty quickly. Girls showing more skin than Cassie would ever dare to brushed past her to grab more vodka, often muttering the odd greeting and smirking at her. Boys smiled at her, eyes wondering quickly down to her ample chest, before she turned away, blushing. At one point Sam came over with a friend that Cassie could have remembered the name of without the beers but to her dismay she found that the only thing that the boy could talk intelligently about was FIFA, pop music and himself. She excused herself quickly, but it was only after quite a lot of alcohol and the disappearance of her friends that Cassie stopped believing that everybody was laughing at the fuller figured girl in blue. And by that time both her shyness and her memory had gone.

***

There was a point behind her eyes that was throbbing and her head felt emptier and heavier than usual. Cassie opened her eyes, a blur of orange searing her vision as she stretched out her limbs, realising for the first time that she was in a completely unfamiliar bed.

"Fuck!" It was the first time in her life that Cassie had sworn out loud, but the dizziness as she sat up combined with the realisation that she had no idea where she was broke down her self control. Grabbing the duvet with her fingers, she looked around wildly, noting random objects- a poster of an unfamiliar band, festival tickets, a pile of textbooks on a desk, a model of the solar system, rotating slowly and serenely above her. The bed was warm, the covers rumpled on the other side of the mattress. With a lurch Cassie stumbled out of bed, her head clearing slightly as she got her bearings, and caught sight of herself in the wardrobe mirror. She let out a little cry. Where were her clothes? She was still wearing the bra and knickers, both dark blue and thankfully pretty, to match the dress, but how had her dress disappeared? Adding that to the list of questions to ask the first person she saw, Cassie opened the wardrobe and grabbed a t shirt. She grimaced, looking around in slight fear as her fears were confirmed. This room definitely belonged to a guy. The t shirt was worn and clung to her curves, but in the absence of her dress Cassie felt that she had little choice as she padded down the hall, pausing by a row of framed portraits.

"You are... Sam's brother?" Cassie turned, the reflection of his face in the glass of his family photo having given him away. Her mouth opened a little in shock. He was so much hotter than she'd remembered! Not hugely tall but she could tell that his shoulders, his abs, his stomach were all well muscled... Blushing she met his eyes, dark under dark hair, she tried to pull the shirt down over her thighs and muttered "I- what- um- what happened?"

He laughed lightly, his eyes seeming to take in everything about her- the bed hair, the confusion, the way her breasts pressed against his t shirt. "I'd have thought that was pretty obvious, don't you?"

Cassie gasped. How had she not thought of that before? Her hand moved automatically down to her knickers, to the heat between them, pressing through the t shirt, eyes desperate and her breath audible, panicked.

"No!" He moved forward and grabbed her arm, shocked. "Not that! I'm sorry, I- nothing like that happened at all!" He dropped her arm, placing his around her shoulders and squeezing. "Look, you had a bit too much to drink and some guys were getting, well, pretty close to you. I brought you back to my flat, hung up your dress and put you to bed." His eyes pleaded with her to believe him, and since she felt as untouched as she had the night before, she did, tears filling her eyes as she nodded, face down.

"I- I'm sorry I thought that. It was stupid of me." She looked up at him again, noting for the fist time the rumpled and damp hair, the kindness and depth to his eyes that made her want to blush yet again. He pulled her into a closer hug, accepting her apology, and she leaned into him, needing the support on a day of such confusion. Finally he pulled away, looking down at her, his large hands on her shoulders, smoothing the hair out of the way. He grinned, happy as a child again, although she knew that he had to be a few years older than her.

"So. Are you going to remind me of your name?"