Rachel
'Ugh,' I groaned as I blinked my eyes against the glaring morning light that pierced its way through the crack in the window shades. My head must have been replaced with a thorn bush during the night for how it ached in so many places. Every nerve seemed like a dagger stabbing into me.
Gingerly, I lifted myself up on my arm, trying to swallow away the horrid taste in my mouth. What did I drink again last night? Tequila, I think. Yes. Susan had a bottle. That wasn't the taste of tequila in my mouth, though. Tasted more like beer or scotch or like I spent the night licking a dirty oven clean.
'Ugh,' I groaned again, sitting upright; ready to run to the bathroom if I needed to.
I sat motionless as the minutes ticked by. The feeling of unease in my stomach slowly faded but I remained still. What happened last night? There were patches in my memory. I could remember everything up until we started doing shots. But wait, I remember we finished the tequila off. We were making jokes about how it wasn't even the end of semester yet. What did we do shots with?
I stared at the sheets bunched up in my lap, tracing the shadows the sun cast with my eyes. We... we... hmm. We did shots with some of the others there. Maybe we were drinking their stuff. Whatever it was, it- that's right! They brought Bacardi 151. One of the guys was bragging about how strong it was. Fitting that I can't remember what happened after that.
I clumsily pulled my legs out from under the sheets and stepped out of bed, bracing myself for a sudden turn of my stomach. Thankfully, it never came.
I looked down at myself. I was still wearing the same t-shirt and jeans from last night. I pulled the neck of my shirt open. No bra, though. The logic of drunk people. I must have taken my shirt off to remove my bra, but still decided to wear the same clothes to bed.
I looked around my room. It wasn't... the tidiest, but there was a certain order to it. Either way, surely my bra would be on top of whatever pile I chose to place it in. Or... not. Where was it?
I opened my wardrobe and looked inside. It wasn't with my other bras. It was the one that I was thinking of, right? Yeah, I was positive. The black one with the... you know, the fancy bits. All right, it was my sexy bra. I really liked that one. I better not have lost it.
I stepped back from wardrobe and surveyed my room once more. Did I hook up with a guy? I can't remember, and surely I'd remember that.
I felt that queasiness return to my stomach. It would explain where my bra went, probably still at Susan's house. I crouched down by my nightstand and fished out my birth control pills. Please tell me I remembered to take it yesterday. What day is it...? Uh, Sunday! Yeah. Okay, I did. Thank god. I breathed a sigh of relief. The worry fading from my stomach.
I popped today's pill out and stumbled to my room's door. My flatmate, Alex, was nibbling on some toast at the table.
'Morning,' he grunted. He sounded as bad as I felt.
'Hey,' I rasped. 'How are you feeling?'
'Like death, you?'
'Same.' I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. 'What time did we get back last night?'
'Probably around one,' he said. A smile breaking his tired demeanour. 'You were pretty out of it.'
I popped the pill into my mouth and took a sip of water. Blegh. I hated how water tasted after a night of drinking. It was like drinking a glass full of the taste in my mouth.
'Yeah, I don't remember much of the night.' I took another sip, grimacing again. 'Did you happen to see if I was hanging out with anyone last night?'
He thought for a moment. 'Besides Susan and the others?'
'Yeah.'
'Not sure, sorry. I was with the guys most of the night. The only time I saw you was when we did shots.'
'Hmm.'
'Why did you want to know?'
I rubbed my forehead with my thumb, clenching my eyelids shut.
'It doesn't matter. I think I'll go lay back down for a bit. My head's killing me.'
'Okay,' he said, returning to his toast. 'Feel better.'
I shuffled back to my room, clutching my glass of water tightly to my chest. Hopefully a nap would make me feel better.
*
The next morning was far better to wake up to. It had been well after the sun set the previous night before I had emerged from my room once more. My plan of napping away the hangover hadn't gone so well, but thankfully some greasy takeaway food for dinner did help. After napping the whole day I doubted that I would even get a wink of sleep that night, but the moment my head hit the pillow I was out again.
I sat up and stretched, looking at the alarm clock on the nightstand. I had uni in an hour. I ran my hand over my chest, trying to ease out any stiff muscles. When my hand reached my boob I stopped. I cupped my hand around it, kneading the flesh beneath my fingers. It was sore. I tested the other one. Same again.
I pulled the neck of my t-shirt open and looked at them. There were no bruises or anything that I missed yesterday. Why were they so sore?
The mysteries of drunken Rachel, I thought, hopping out of bed. Maybe I fell over at the party, or when Alex was leading me back to our apartment. But my boobs weren't that big. They were only a small 32b size. They weren't going to break my fall. I would surely have a bruised chin if that were the case.
I grabbed some clothes while running a brush through my long hair. I opened my wardrobe to grab a bra. That's right. I was still missing the one from the party. If I saw Susan today, I'd have to ask her if she found it. I grabbed a plain white one and put it on before throwing a white blouse over the top of it. I looked in the mirror at myself as I pulled my jeans on. I did wish at times that I had more of an ass. I barely filled these jeans out at all.
After a few more passes through my hair with the brush, I grabbed a quick breakfast and headed out.
The lecture hall was filled by the time I arrived. There were hardly any seats left, but I managed to find a spare one near the front just as the lecture began.
I pulled my glasses out of my bag as the lecturer launched into the minutia that was property law. Everything we had learnt in this class so far felt like it had sailed straight over my head. That's the problem with law, there's so much to each facet that you need a whole class on every one, but at the end you might not even specialise in that field. From what I'd learnt so far, property law didn't sound like it was for me. But I still had to get through this.
'Now, for those of you paying attention, you'll note that this will be very pertinent for your upcoming essay,' the lecturer said.
That's right, the essay. I hadn't even started on it yet. I had foolishly thought that I could get a few words written on it on Sunday, but that obviously never happened. I let out a yawn as I copied his words into my notebook. Why was I still tired? I had spent the last 24 hours mostly sleeping. I had probably slept too much and it was having the opposite effect. I could just go grab a coffee before my next lecture.
I leant back from my notebook to watch the lecturer. As I did I felt my bra pinch against my back. Ow! I reached behind my back, pretending to scratch an imaginary itch as I check what had caused that. My bra strap was digging into my back. Now that I thought about it, it felt tight around the front, too. I tried flexing my shoulder blades to try and ease it out, but nothing worked. It was just too tight. What was going on? I had worn the same bra size since I was fifteen. Could my bra have shrunk in the wash or something?
I'd have to go to the bathroom after class and see what I could do to fix it. But until then I'd just have to deal with it and try not to miss anything important. My biggest concern right now should be my essay, not my bra.
*