Susannah's head was pounding when she woke, every one of her heart beats a stab of pain in her temples. Her eyes were closed but they still hurt. Her face hurt. Her stomach hurt. She had gotten a minor concussion once playing soccer, and wondered briefly, as her senses slowly returned to her, if she had again sustained some sort of injury. Then it came back to her. "Olive," she muttered in a quiet curse, feeling her dry mouth twinge in pain as she spoke.
When she opened her eyes, the real shock began. Her vision was a little hazy, but she could clearly tell that she wasn't in her own hotel room. Her stomach plummeted inside her. What had she done last night?! But sitting on a chair at the foot of the bed was Mary, her pledge mother. "There's our party girl," Mary said soothingly as Susannah stirred.
Sunlight was streaming in through a sliding glass door that led to a balcony overlooking the beach. "What time is it?" Susannah asked.
"Almost eleven," Mary responded as she stood and walked over to the bed. Mary pressed an object into Susannah's hand, which Susannah eventually recognized as her cell phone. "You need ANYTHING at all, even help walking back to your room, you call me, okay?"
Susannah was confused. "Okay," she responded softly, even the sound of her own voice causing her ears to pound.
Even more confusingly, Mary turned away and began to walk towards the door. "He's a really great guy," Mary said as she moved towards the door of the room. "He stayed up with you all night, and wouldn't let anyone move you. That's why I'm trusting him with you, because he'll be nice and respectful, right?"
"Absolutely," came a male voice next to her. Susannah looked over and for the first time realized that Ben was sitting on the bed next to her.
Susannah was bundled under the bed covers and felt like she was still wearing her outfit from the night before. As she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, Susannah noticed that Ben had changed into a shirt and shorts and looked like he had taken a shower. "You watched over me last night?" she asked with a smile.
Ben frowned and looked down at his hands. "Yes, but there's something you need to know. Our friends guessed we might want some time alone to talk, which is why they left us alone here." He hesitated.
"What happened?" Susannah asked, still confused. "Did we hook up or something while we were drunk?"
Ben looked into her blue eyes again briefly, his face a mask of worry and concern. He hesitated again, and then deflected by saying, "No, but why were you with that guy in the car anyway?"
"That's what I came here to tell you," Susannah said, trying to sit up. Her head swam when she moved, so she just lay back down. She started her story from the point where she had tried to get out of the limo, pausing occasionally because it hurt her brain to try to recall her memories of the previous night. At one point, she went back and explained about how Olive had encouraged the girls to take so many shots. Then she went back to Olive in the limo, the boy cumming on her foot, and her stumbling out of the limo. "I tried to chase after you to explain," Susannah pleaded, "but I couldn't find you so I came here."
Ben was quiet again, and Susannah just let him sit in his silence for a moment. Finally, he began, "There's something you should know." Then out came his story, spilling from his lips in an unending stream of words. He spoke rapidly, wanting to get it all out because he was afraid he would lose his courage somewhere in the telling. He shared how hurt and angry and broken he had felt when he saw Susannah draped around a stranger the night before. He talked about taking shots and dancing with Kelly, and by that time Susannah knew where the story was heading. She felt a cold queasiness in her stomach as he spoke, something she could not attribute to her hangover. He shared everything about what had happened in Kelly's room the night before, ending with his walk back and discovering Susannah in his room. Finally, he said, "I promised I would be completely honest with you, and I intend to honor that promise even if it means you never want to speak to me again after this."
Susannah was stunned, her eyes filling with tears. Her head still swimming a bit, she reached for a glass of water on the nearby night stand and drank deeply. Then she told her own story, coming clean completely about what had happened in the limo the night before.
A heavy, ominous silence hung in the room when they were done speaking. For a moment, neither said a word, and both avoided looking at each other. Susannah looked out the glass door to the bright sunshine and beautiful ocean beyond, while her tears began to fall.
Finally, Ben said, "Maybe we were just never meant to be together."
"No!" Susannah said sharply and defiantly. She looked into his eyes, and when their blue eyes met, they could see the tears welling up in each other. "That can't be the answer because I love you."
"What?!" Ben coughed, completely unprepared for her response.
"This is a stupid way to say it and a stupid place for me to tell you, but I will never forgive myself if I don't. I love you, Ben. In all the shit last night and all the crap I had to take, it was the one thing I was sure of. It was the reason I ran after you and came all the way here to find you. I've never said it to any other boy before, but I know it with absolute certainty and clarity. I love you."
"All this stuff that happens to us..." Ben began quietly.
But Susannah wasn't hearing any of that from him. "... is just life and shit," she said, interrupting his thought. "Shit happens, and I don't know why it happens so much to me. I don't understand why shit happens to good people just as much as it happens to bad. And I don't know why it happens so much to you. Maybe it's because I just take it all and I let it happen, but I'm telling you I'm done with that. Last night I finally realized what really matters to me, and it's that you make me happy and I LIKE you and I LIKE being with you. That's all I care about. So maybe you don't feel the same way, or maybe all this crap is just too hard for you. Or maybe I've done too many stupid things for you to forgive it all. But I think that the only thing that should matter is how you feel."
"If we're good for each other, then why do we always end up here, in some disaster?" he responded. "I've never cared about someone the way I care about you, Susannah. But why can't we just have a normal relationship and be with each other?"
"Look at the way we met, Ben!" she replied. "Nothing about our relationship has been normal, starting from the first night I met you. But what I'm saying to you now is, I have a lot of regrets. I regret what happened that night we met, but I DON'T regret meeting you. I DON'T regret anything I've done with you, because I can look inside myself now and see that I truly enjoyed my time with you. Yesterday and last night, I realized that all that matters is how two people feel about each other, and you can work out the rest. And I love you."
She paused, looking at him uncertainly. Even with her hair a mess, bags under her eyes, her pale hangover face completely devoid of color, he knew his answer. And the fact that he could look inside himself and see it so clearly, even now when she would probably be embarrassed for any other boy to see her, told him that he knew it was true. "I love you too." He bent down and kissed her softly on her warm forehead.
She beamed up at him but said teasingly, "No kiss on the lips?"
"You threw up a couple of times last night, it was a little gross," he retorted, and then they were both laughing. Susannah tried to reach up and grab his shirt, but he darted away from her hand, saying, "I love you, but let's go a little slow on the kissing after barfing."
She shot him a dirty look and he responded by leaning down to draw her body up into his arms. He held her tightly in his strong embrace, their heads nestled against each other. It felt so right to Ben, to be holding her small, soft body in his arms. Despite the pounding hangover, Susannah felt a contented happiness.