Sober up

Background color
Font
Font size
Line height

I stirred awake as my bed shifted from the lump beside me.

'I feel like shit.' A voice croaked.

I looked over at what looked like a pile a blankets with a face. Her white blonde her was pointing out in all directions and her skin looked translucent.
'You look like shit.' I concluded.

'Thanks, I really needed that.'

I heard a soft knocking on my door and Lindsay strolled in.
'Wow you two don't look so hot.'

I didn't know whether I should be offended or not because she was insinuating that I looked as rough as Taliah and I wasn't even hungover.

'I'll give you a ride to go and get the car if you like.'

We took up the offer and got up to get changed when Lindsay said she'd make us some breakfast. I quickly had a shower and changed into an oversized grey T-shirt that came down to just above my knees and shoved some cycle shorts underneath just in case the top rode up.

After attacking my hair with a brush, I finally managed to get out most of the knots and surprisingly it had still held the curls from last night. I washed my face not caring with any makeup and left my hair down.

That's as far as I got to when a waft of food met my nostrils. I jogged down the stairs to have a bacon sandwich shoved in my face.

'Lindsay have I ever told you how much I love you?'
I took a seat at one of the bar stools and took a bite of heaven.

'I'd believe you more if you weren't look at the sandwich the whole time you said that.'
She replied chuckling.

It was at that point that Taliah shuffled into the room looking worse for wear. Her hair was shoved into a bun and a pair of sunglasses covered her eyes. She grunted a hello and took a huge bite of her sandwich.

Five minutes later it was like I had a whole different person with me. She'd practically licked the plate clean and kept her eyes down until she'd finish. When she did though she was all smiles and chattiness like she normally was.

'Is my daughter back in the room now or do we still have the devil with us?' Lindsay joked.

'Ha. ha. You know I get hangry when I'm hungover.'

'You're right. I should've learnt by now not to make a conversation with you before food.'

After we'd all finished eating, we got into Lindsay's Range Rover and she dropped us off at Natalie's house.

We were so close, but sadly before we could escape to Taliah's car the front door swung open and Natalie gave us both her attempt at an evil smile which was quite good seeing as she looked rough as hell.

'Thank god you're both here. I need your help with a crisis.'

Taliah looked over at me and I shrugged my shoulders. We followed Natalie into the house to find a shit tip waiting for us.

'What the hell happened?' I asked eyes wide.
It definitely did not look like this when I had left. Beer bottles and red plastic cups were littered everywhere. My shoes kept on sticking to the floor and although Natalie had thought to move most of the furniture and ornaments, one missed vase seemed to have been caught in the firing line. Of course no one had thought to clean up the mess.

'See that's the crisis. Please please please help me clear this up. There's no way in hell I can tidy this all up by myself before my parents get home.'

'You have got to be kidding. The three of us can't do all of this.'
To be fair Taliah had a point. Natalie's house was massive and if all of the rooms looked like this it would take an army.

'I haven't been able to get a hold of anyone else. Please, I'm begging you! You contributed so you have to help. Plus, I'll feed and water you.'

I could feel myself cracking the longer I looked at Natalie's puppy dog face.
It seemed to be working on Taliah as well as a few seconds later I heard a groan from my side.
'Fine you win but only if you order a pizza.'

'Taliah we literally just ate.' God knows how this girl stays so slim. Her metabolism must be insane for all she eats.

'Yeah but by the time a pizza gets here I'll be hungry again.'

Natalie was just so happy we were staying that she didn't even care that it was the free food that won us over.

She quickly got on the phone and order some food then handed us both bin bags.
I looked over at the sound system that I recognised from last night and got an idea.

'Ok, I think I know how to make this less painful. Natalie we're going to need some tunes.'

'Oh, that I can do.'

Soon enough Ariana Grande was singing her little heart out in every room as we filled up bin bags with rubbish.

It took a while but after we'd bagged up all the crap the damage didn't look too bad. All it needed now was a good clean. It was at this point though that the three of us were starting to go a little stir crazy.

Our bellies were full of pizza and the music was pumping. It was literally like we were at our own private concert. We were dancing on tables and the three of us singing at the tops of our voices.

At one-point Natalie and I were dancing on the dining table. Natalie using a mop as her dance partner, me using a cleaning spray bottle as my microphone and Taliah recording a video of us on my phone. By the end of it we were all cackling on the floor.

'Jesus I should've just cancelled the party and done this all evening.' Natalie said once she'd calmed down.

'I don't know, you were on the prowl for a guy last night or don't you remember?' Taliah replied rolling over onto her stomach.
'I don't think Evie's forgotten you hitting on her. Good thing her twins were taped into that dress with how you fell on top of her.'

We both laughed at Natalie's expense who didn't look embarrassed at all and just shrugged her shoulders.
'Hey, at least I'm honest.'

'So, did you hook up with anyone?' I asked nudging her.

She nodded and covered her face with her hands.
'Adam and I made out.'

I thought back to the day I met Natalie and remembered a good-looking guy who had been winding her up. I vaguely remembered her calling him Adam.

'And this is a problem because?' I asked after Taliah nodded in understanding with Natalie.

'He's my ex. We dated on and off for a year. We finally managed to get back on track as friends but we've started hooking up again more recently.'

'Ah I see. Do you not want to be with him?'

'No it's not that it's just....I don't know, he's so hard to read. One minute we're getting on so well and he's really opening up to me. Then the next minute he's completely pulling away and treating me like one of the guys. I never know where I stand with him. I guess it's easier for me to just put it down to friends with benefits.'

No matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise I could tell she was upset. She clearly really liked the guy and from what I saw the other day he liked her too but what did I know?

'Oh well. One thing I'm certain about is my new favourite pairing.' She covered up her sullen face with a devilish smile.

'You talking about Taliah and the guy she was playing tonsil tennis with?' I asked hopefully.

'Nope not that.' She rolled her eyes at me. 'Although the poor dude clearly doesn't realise he doesn't stand a chance with you but that's beside the point. I want to know about my best guy friend and favourite British girl.'

'There's nothing to tell. We talked for a while and then looked after a shitfaced pair.'

Natalie ignored my dig at Taliah and carried on.
'That's not what I heard. I was told by one of my sources that you put that bitch Amber in her place.'

So that's her name. She looked like an Amber (sorry to any nice Amber's out there).

'Oh thank god! That girl was getting embarrassing. There's a reason she was given the nickname boomerang. No matter how hard you throw her she keeps on coming back.'
I couldn't help laughing at Taliah's input.

'I made her look like a dumbass yes but why was she here if you don't like her?'

Natalie turned up her nose in disgust.
'Trust me I didn't invite her. One of the idiot guys she been stringing along must've done. I was going to kick her out but then I heard what you'd said to her so I thought you'd already done better than I could.'
She shrugged her shoulders at me as a phone started beeping.

'You've been tagged in some pictures.'
Taliah passed me my phone as it started buzzing.

I admitted to the girls last night that I didn't have an Instagram account and quicker than I could blink Jennifer had stollen my phone from my hand and made me an account. She followed all the important people for me i.e. herself, Zara, Taliah and Zac Efron because I mean, come on, who needs to give a reason? I'd been surprised by how quickly the followers had come in.

I looked at the notifications and saw that all three girls had tagged me in pictures Lindsay had taken for us. I liked them all and reposted a few tagging them all in. I then noticed the most recent upload of mine.
'Taliah!'

The video she'd taken of me and Natalie messing around was up on my profile for the world to see. It already had hundreds of views and likes but the worst part was she'd titled it 'who wished they'd been invited to this morning after party?'

I turned the volume up and we all started laughing hysterically again.
'I sound like a screeching cat but Eve you actually have quite a nice voice.'
Taliah agreed.

'Well my mum was a singer.'

'I didn't know that.' Taliah said and she pulled herself into a sitting position.

'Yeah, years ago but she stopped when my sister and I were born.'

She was an amazing singer actually. She'd showed me videos of her before when she was working in the west end and her voice had blown me away. When my dad got more into politics and his job started taking up a lot of his time my mum stopped singing as much to be by his side. She'd always planned on getting back into it but I guess time got away from her and then she never got the chance to.

'Ok well enough sitting around.' Natalie stood up and clapped her hands at us. I think she was forgetting how earlier she had been begging us to stay and help her. Now it was all bossiness and clapping.

Surprisingly we actually did as we were told and got back to hovering. It didn't take too long and when we were done the house looked sparkling.

After that we spent a couple of hours watching films in the basement where I'd been the previous night, then Taliah and I headed home.

By the time I'd finished all the homework I needed to get done I was exhausted. It was only 9pm but I could hardly keep my eyes open. I just hoped I'd worked up enough of a sweat today to earn a good night's sleep.

A girl can wish.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net