Chapter Four: Bruises, Pictures, and Random Bedrooms

When I woke up I had a bruise the size of a softball on my hip, a pounding headache, and I was in a room I didn’t recognize. Oh my, what did I do last night?

I curled up under the covers, I was in a tiny bed with an old faded quilt, and scrutinized my surroundings. The walls were bare except for posters of bands I didn’t recognize for music I would never listen to. The room was fairly neat, except for a few things lying here and there. A pair of boxers lay on top of the laundry basket.

Oh my god. I started to hyperventilate. Sure, I wasn’t naïve, I already figured it was a guys room, but seeing the proof kind of pushed me over the edge. Breath in. Breath out.

I was gagging over the trashcan so conveniently parked beside the bed when the pictures first caught my eye. They had been behind me, tacked on the wall behind the bed so they hadn’t originally been in my line of vision, but they were almost impossible to miss. They were literally hundreds spread out almost end-to-end across the entire wall. Some were digital prints, but still others were old-fashioned photos of people, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects like chairs or telephones.

I didn’t get a chance to give any a closer look when I heard a noise behind me. I forgot the gagging and literally jumped almost falling off the bed, probably looking like an idiot. Picking up the first thing I could find-a coffee mug-and prepared to defend myself with it, somehow.

It would only work out for me that it would be Troy, the one guy who somehow kept surprising-except not in a good way this time. “You?” I half whispered half screamed, which is completely possible. It was only then I noticed what I was wearing, a baggy tee shirt to my knees that matched one of the posters and short boxers. Go figure I would only notice this now. So here I was wearing something I had no recollection of getting into, standing in some foreign bed in some foreign room (which apparently was Troy’s), brandishing a coffee mug at Troy who was standing at the door with a very unsurprised and very amused look on his face. It just pissed me off all the more.

“Meagan, I can explain everything,” he calmly held up his hands, and took a step forward.

“Stay back you, you freak!” I waved the mug threateningly, not that I exactly had any idea how I was prepared to defend my honor with a coffee mug, throwing it at his head was out due to my terrible aim.

“Meg, nothing happened.”

“That’s what they all say!” I was screaming now, but he didn’t bat an eyelash, though he did raise his eyebrow.

“They? Do you normally end up in guys rooms and not remember how you got there?” He was smiling now, or at least the sides of his lips were twitching in amusement.

I blushed, so not meaning that the way it sounded. “What do you take me for,” I interrupted myself when I saw he was kidding, and awkwardly put down the coffee mug, “So how did I end up here?”

“Do you normally scream and ask questions later?”

“I think I have a right to considering I don’t remember how I came about wearing these,” I plucked at the shirt.

He snorted and sat down on a chair beside the bed, “You did that all yourself, I assure you. You needed something else to wear when you got done-throwing up.”

I shrugged, trying to find a reason to stay mad. I had every right to be mad, but something about him made my anger slowly slip away. “So what exactly happened?”

“What’s the last thing you remember?”

I scrunched up my face trying to remember, but I had to stop because of the pounding headache. Had I had the headache the entire time? “I convinced Lynne to come with me to Courtney’s party, I wanted to go but not by myself.”

“Well, you showed up, and we talked for a little about art, that girl you were with, Lynne you said? She went off into the corner where all the food was looking very out of place I might add. Then this kid came up and you got this really pissed off look on your face and you took off.”

I nodded; it had to have been Doug if I had wanted to get away that bad. He was the only one who would ever put me in a very bad mood.

“Then next I saw you, you were babbling about how your friend had to go and how you were going to need a ride somewhere. But by then you’d had a few beers.”

“A few?”

“A few meaning about five.”

I grimaced. That accounted for my headache and memory loss, I never drank-ever. Then I had another worried flash, “So Lynne left?”

“Yeah, you told her something about wanting to stay, I think this was before you started to drink.”

I sighed, a little less worried. Lynne hated parties in that nature, and if she’d known what had happened it would only cause an unnecessary fight.

“You were really disoriented, and in all honesty I was worried about you. I mean you actually suggested dancing around this bonfire they were having and saying something about screaming. You actually started to run around it and I guess you didn’t see the huge metal can that was sitting next to it.”

Memory, check. Bruise, check. Hangover? Double check.

“ So I asked if you wanted to crash at my place. You said shouted a few things and I helped you into my truck and we wound up here.”

“Um, Troy, what exactly was it that I shouted?” I asked nervously, not sure I wanted to hear the answer. A natural born blabbermouth only grows worse if alcohol gets in the mix. There were a number of embarrassing things I could have spewed, how cute his butt was, how I kept dreaming about him-

“You screamed,” Troy smiled, “Take me home baby Troy so we can make out all night long.”

Or that apparently. “Oh my god,” I covered my face with my hands. How embarrassing. In front of Troy. What had been running through my mind when I was shouting out those things? Apparently how much I wanted to make out with him. All nightlong.

He laughed, and I buried my face under the covers. “Don’t worry, I know you were very, very out of it.”

I nodded, not sure if I was upset or glad that he blew it off as a mindless drunken spiel. I decided to play it cool. “So how did I end up in this?” My face was turning redder, rivaling a tomato. Way to play it cool, Meagan.

“You threw up, and kind of got it all over yourself, and well-my truck.”

I gasped, “Oh my god I’m so sorry.” Redder.

“It’s ok, it wasn’t that much, but I gave you clothes to change into while you slept it off. Feeling better?”

Oh yeah, pounding headache, complete memory loss, threw up in your truck. Oh yeah, much better. “Yeah, I guess I should get going,” I didn’t move though, I didn’t really want to. Troy took care of me when I was a mess and once I left everything would go back to being the same, or completely different. “What’s with the photos?”

“Hobby, my mother got me into it.” He crossed to the largest one, hanging over the bed. “That’s her,” he pointed at the gorgeous woman holding a smiling boy on a beach. The waves were huge in the background, and wind was whipping the woman’s hair everywhere, but it gave off the feeling of peace.

“Wow, she’s pretty,” I murmured, unable to take my eyes off the photo.

“Yeah, she passed away when I was nine,” he said smiling at the photo sadly. This is how I sort of remember her, honor her memory and what not.” He sat on the bed.

I looked at him, “It still sucks.”

“Yeah.”

We sat in silence for a little, listening to the sounds drifting from outside. I got up and grabbed the stuff around me. “I guess I’ll see you at school Troy. Thanks for everything.”

“No problem, and Meagan?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For not saying I’m sorry, when I told you about my mom.”

I smiled at him, “No problem,” I turned and left.

I staggered into my house and checked the clock. Oh man. One in the afternoon already? Where did all the time go? I saw my mom fixing lunch in the corner of the room.

“Hey honey, did you have a good time at Lynne’s?”

Oh right, my alibi. “Yeah it was really interesting, but I’m pretty tired. I’ll see you later.”

She nodded, turning her back to me and turning her attention towards the salad. She was on this new no carb diet that some celebrity swore it worked miracles for her. So now all her meals consisted of rabbit food. Forget ice cream-that had sugar so it was bad. Forget bread-all them useless carbs. Forget normal people food-that just makes you fat. She was trying to convince me to join her, despite the fact that I was rail thin and liked my carbs and sugar too much to stop eating it.

Not bothering to turn on my light or change clothes I flopped into my bed and was out like a light. But somehow there was something I knew I was forgetting in all this, and it was the last thing I thought.

Ok I must admit, this chapter was really fun to write. I’ve always wanted to do one about some person’s wild need to find out just what they did when drunk. Actually some of this is based off real life. At my friend’s party, I did suggest we dance like wild people around a bonfire and it was like 10pm? So I started and the smoke blocked my view and I slammed hard into a metal pit and got a huge bruise on my hip, however I was completely sober at the time, that’s just me I guess. Crazy enough by myself. But please review and I’ll get the next chapter out soon!