About Last Night

“Lynn”

I lifted my heavy eyelids opened to find Kadie standing in front of me. Feeling like an old timey vampire I hissed as the light from the open curtain hit my eyes. I quickly covered my face with my blanket.

“Lynn?”

I responded by groaning. My head felt weighed down by a ton of bricks and my body like it'd been shattered into a million pieces and unevenly placed back together.

“Are you okay?” Kadie asked as she sat down on the bed next to me. “You ran out pretty early last night.”

It took me a minute to process what Kadie was saying. I couldn't remember anything that had happened the night before.

“What are you talking about?” I managed to say in a very unattractively groggy voice. I cleared my throat, but it didn't seem to help. “Where were we last night?”

“You don't remember?” I heard Kadie's voice walking from one end of the room to the other. The shadows from beneath the blanket were darkened. I peeked out and realized she closed the curtains so I could uncover my face. “The post-gig party for Daniel and his band.”

The sheer mention of Daniel's name replenished my memories. It hit me like a train. “Oh, fuck.” I whispered out loud, grabbing my head from the painful memory. “That actually happened?”

Kadie smiled and sat on her bed, staring at me. She had no idea how much of an epically disastrous night I had. “What'd I miss?”

I tried to lean myself up on my elbow, but only fell back down. I mumbled to myself as I attempted to sit up once again. I propped up a pillow and leaned against the headboard. I was winded like I'd just ran a marathon. Kadie noticed my dewy complexion and leaned over to grab her purse. She pulled out some medicine and handed it to me.

“The last thing I remember is going back to the trailer. Daniel lost his phone and I was trying to help him find it. Turns out Eli had it, and Daniel had came back to tell me. I figured that was my moment to make a move.”

“Oh my God!” Kadie squealed excitedly. “You never mentioned anything happened last night!”

“Yeah, well...” I rolled my eyes. “That's because nothing happened. I tried to kiss him and he pushed me away. Kadie, he literally pushed me away.”

The excitement on Kadie's face vanished into a look of mortify. The way, I'm sure, I looked like last night. “What the hell, Lynn? You're kidding!” I scrunched my face in pain and shook my head. “But...but...bu-”

“I know.” I cut Kadie off, who was obviously at a loss of words. “I thought he was into me too.”

She covered her mouth as she gasped, having a late reaction. “Did he say why he acted like he was?”

“No, but I'm guessing I'm not his type. Apparently he's 'in love' with Lauren.” I dramatically air quoted the words. “So much for having a rebound hook up.”

“He's into Lauren?” She asked as if it were the craziest thing she'd heard. “huh” She rubbed her chin and stared off for a brief second. She spoke again, this time sounding like everything made sense, “he's into Lauren. Maybe that's why he was being a little extra friendly with you.”

“I don't know” I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the headboard. “Wait, why aren't you as miserable as I am right now?”

“Oh” Kadie sat upright and perky. “That's because I stopped drinking in the afternoon and loaded up on carbs at the post-gig party. You on the other hand...” She tilted her chin down and gave me a look, “continued to drink through out the night.” Her face lit up with a sudden realization. “Now it makes sense”

I used every muscle in my body to carry myself into the shower and freshen up. It helped along with the medicine Kadie had given me.

It was day 2 of the festival. The boys didn't have a show that day, so we were planning on attending as regular festival-goers. I threw on a pair of jean shorts, a tank, and my biggest pair of sunglasses and met Kadie and the girls in the hotel's garden.

“Oh, well, look who it is!” Kate shouted as I walked in. I cringed at the volume of her voice.

“How are you feeling, party animal?” Lauren asked with a smile on her face. She gestured for me to come sit next to her. I was reluctant, especially after knowing how Daniel felt about her, but it was the only seat at the table available. “Did you sleep off the alcohol?”

I groaned as I sat down. “I'd be better if the sun wasn't out.” The girls laughed. But, something told me it was more of a sympathetic laugh at my low tolerance level.

One by one the boys started showing up. Eventually everyone was there except for Jebrone, Tom, and Daniel. I was praying for some miracle that Daniel wouldn't show up. That he would be so busy with whatever it was he was doing that he wouldn't have time to come by and eat breakfast.

Wishful thinking.

But, of course, he showed up. He walked in smiling greeting everyone and then eventually turning his beaming smile into a half smirk when he saw Lauren and I sitting together.

“What's wrong?” Lauren asked out loud. I imagined face-palming myself repeatedly.

Daniel was caught off guard for a brief second, but then managed to smile again. “Nothing!” He quickly changed the subject as he walked away. “What's for breakfast?”

“Where do you think you're going, mister?” Lauren called out for him again. He slowly turned around looking back at her, confused. “Grab a chair and come sit here!”

“Oh” I said while I quickly got up, “he can just sit in my chair, I'll go sit by Will and Kadie.” I pointed to an empty seat.

“No, no, no, you're staying here. We need to catch up on last night.” For fuck's sake, Lauren. I felt my face turn red as I slowly sat back down. This is turning out to be more mortifying than last night.

Daniel's face was just as red as mine. He grabbed a chair and sat, with a bit of a distance, next to me.

Lauren went on and on about something. I wasn't too sure since my main focus was on an escape plan.

I looked up to see Kadie fully enjoying my predicament. Finally feeling some sort of sympathy, although I'm sure it was because of my death stare, she called out for me. “Hey Lynn, can you come here real quick?” She got up from her chair and walked away from the table.

Before I could get up Lauren stopped me again. “Wait, before you go. Let's take a quick selfie.” If this is all I had to do to get out of this situation, God damn it, I was going to do it without any complaints. I leaned in towards Lauren as she angled her camera towards us. “Oh, Dan, you too! Get in.” I had a vivid imagery of my body exploding into a million pieces. Why was this happening?

Daniel hesitated, but of course, Lauren nagged at him until he eventually leaned in. His face just barely making it into the screen. “Come on, Dan, get in a little closer.” He slowly inched forward. So close I could feel the heat of embarrassment steaming from his face. 

I awkwardly smiled, as I thought of the irony. I was in between the two people who obviously loved each other. All I wanted to do was inch out of the picture slowly until it was just them too.

She finally took the picture and looked at it. “Wow, you two should really stay out of the sun. Didn't realize how bad your sunburn was.” She tilted the camera to us letting us approve the picture. And she was right, Daniel and I were both flaming red.

“Oh gosh, you can just crop me out.” I quickly got up from my chair and ran towards Kadie.

“Lauren totally knows” Kadie whispered to me as we walked back into the hotel. “I heard Carly, Kate and Will talking about it.”

I stopped in my tracks. “Knows about what?”

“About last night.”