Mickey
A modern Musketeers story by Deana
In the Musketeers UK group on facebook, they came up with a 'Saturday Story' idea where we post a story every Saturday based on a certain theme. This was the first one we did, and we had to build a story around this group of words:
beach, nightclub, omnipotent, earring, extraction, diplomat, birthday, chocolate, towel, taser, fever, wine, kiss, moonlight, coffee, mobile phone, naughty, clock, key, goldfish, ballad, lavender, taxi, headache, embracing, delicious, mirror, memorizing, universal, shower, spice, and computer.
This was the first time I ever wrote modern Musketeers, and I managed to fit in every single required word!
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A knock on the door abruptly woke Aramis, who was surprised to feel pain lacing through his head. He winced and ignored the knock, until it came again.
"Aramis?" he heard. "You up?"
With a soft moan, Aramis opened his eyes and looked at the clock on his nightstand. It was nine in the morning, and he abruptly remembered where he was.
"Aramis?" came the voice again. "You in there?"
"Yes," he called, wincing when it increased the pain. He slowly pulled himself out of the bed and crossed to the door of his hotel room, opening it and blinking at the person who stood in the hall.
Porthos frowned at the state of his friend. "You look like crap! What's wrong?"
Aramis sighed. "I have a headache."
"Why?" Porthos asked, coming into the room. "You didn't drink much at the nightclub last night."
Aramis sighed and rubbed one eye. "I dunno why; it's throbbing like I got hit with a taser."
"How would you know what it feels like to be tasered?" Porthos asked.
Aramis shrugged. "I imagine this is what it feels like. I think I need a brain extraction!"
Porthos placed a hand on Aramis' forehead. "No fever. Maybe you should stay here and rest instead of coming to the beach."
Aramis almost shook his head, but stopped himself in time. "After how perfectly we planned this vacation for the four of us? No, I'm coming."
Porthos nodded. "You gonna take a shower first?"
Aramis sighed, not feeling up to it. "Why shower before getting covered with sand?"
Porthos nodded. "True." He watched as Aramis slowly moved away to get dressed. "Anything I can do?"
"Grab me a towel to bring," Aramis said as he opened his drawer to find his swimming trunks. "And my mobile phone. And my door key."
Porthos obeyed. "Wanna bring your computer?" he asked, gesturing to Aramis' laptop.
"No," Aramis said. He went into the bathroom and looked into the mirror, finding that he did look like crap. It took him longer than usual to get ready, but he eventually succeeded and came out of the bathroom.
Porthos could see the pain in his eyes. "You sure you don't wanna stay here?"
Aramis wasn't sure at all, but he said, "I'll be fine. I can either lie on my bed or lie on a beach; it makes no difference."
Porthos opened the door for him and they headed to the hotel dining room, finding Athos and d'Artagnan waiting for them.
"You don't look normal," was how d'Artagnan greeted Aramis.
"I've been tellin' him that for years!" Porthos said.
"Headache," Aramis told them.
"How much wine did you have last night?" a surprised Athos asked.
"Only two glasses," Aramis told him.
"So it's not from that, then," said d'Artagnan.
The waitress came then and took their order, filling their mugs with coffee. Everyone took a sip before Aramis suddenly spoke.
"I think I know what's causing my headache," he said.
Everyone looked at him.
"Did anyone see the girl that I was talking to last night at the club?"
All three of them nodded.
"The way the lights were glinting off her humongous earrings, there's no way someone wouldn't notice her," Porthos said.
"Was she naughty?" d'Artagnan asked.
"She was strange," Aramis replied. "Told me that she was a diplomat's daughter, it was her birthday, and she wanted to kiss me under the moonlight."
"Why is that strange?" Athos asked.
Aramis frowned. "Because it was the first thing she said…she hadn't even told me her name yet."
D'Artagnan chuckled.
"She smelled like lavender," Aramis said. "And I think…I think she put a unique spice in my drink."
Everyone frowned.
"Are you saying that she slipped you a mickey?" Porthos asked.
Aramis nodded. "I remember placing my glass down but it wasn't where I thought when I went to take it again. She pointed it out and I picked it up, but didn't drink it right away. I eventually got away from her, and then I drank it."
The others were astonished at the notion but their conversation was interrupted by the waitress returning with their food.
"Should you see a doctor?" Athos asked.
"No reason," Aramis answered. "I feel fine otherwise."
The others were glad at that, and dug into their breakfast.
"Delicious!" D'Artagnan said at the end. "I can't wait to see how supper in this place tastes!"
As they all rose from the table, Athos said to Aramis, "Are you sure you wouldn't rather stay here?"
"No," Aramis said. "This is our vacation and I'm coming."
Ten minutes later, they were getting out of their rented SUV and carrying their stuff onto the beach.
"Too bad there's nothing we can do to get rid of your headache," said Porthos.
"Only God is omnipotent," Aramis told him.
"This bright sun likely isn't going to help you, you know," Athos commented as he laid a blanket on the sand.
"If you want to go back to the hotel at some point, let me know and I'll call a taxi and take you back," said Porthos.
"Thanks, but I'm sure I'll be fine," Aramis replied, squinting and shielding his eyes from the glare. A pair of sunglasses suddenly appeared before his face and he took them from Athos. "Oh, thank you," he said, putting them on.
Everyone sat on the blanket and Porthos brought up a playlist on his phone. The ballad, 'I Want to know what Love is' was the first song to play, and it reminded Aramis of the woman who'd drugged his drink. She certainly needed to know instead of slipping mickeys into people's drinks!
With a sigh, Aramis lay down on the blanket and closed his eyes. Shade suddenly blocked out the sunlight, and he opened his eyes to find Porthos situating the umbrella they'd brought to cover him.
"You good?" Porthos asked. At Aramis' nod, he said. "K, I'm goin' in the water. Bye!" With that, he ran off.
Aramis closed his eyes, and a few minutes later, d'Artagnan spoke again.
"Aramis?"
"Mmm?"
"Are you awake?"
"No, I'm talking in my sleep."
D'Artagnan chuckled. "Someone has their eye on you."
Aramis looked at him. "What do you mean?"
"There's a girl staring at you as if she's memorizing your face."
Aramis followed his gaze and was relieved to see that it wasn't the woman from the nightclub. She looked away, embarrassed at being caught.
"Want some?" he suddenly heard.
Aramis was surprised to see d'Artagnan holding out a package of Goldfish crackers. "You're already hungry again?" he asked, leaning up on an elbow.
D'Artagnan shrugged. "Well I figured, ocean: fish, you know. This should be a universal snack for the beach!"
Aramis chuckled and took a few before sitting up and grabbing a bottle of water from the cooler. He drank half the bottle and lay down again, and the next thing he heard was crinkling. He opened his eyes to find the others eating the sandwiches they'd brought. "Lunchtime already?" he asked.
"Yup," said Porthos, mouth full as he took a swig of chocolate milk.
"How's your headache?" Athos asked.
"A lot better," Aramis realized. He sat up and sighed with relief when the pain didn't increase.
D'Artagnan handed him his sandwich and he ate it and finished his bottle of water. The pain went away even more, and he started to feel like himself again. "Porthos, where's your earring?" he suddenly asked.
"Good, you're back!" Porthos said. "I left it at the hotel just in case it got lost here." He then patted the blanket. "Lie down, get rid of the rest of that headache so we can have more fun tonight."
Aramis made a face. "Not the nightclub."
"I was thinking more of watching 'The Force Awakens' again," Porthos said. "I brought the DVD and bags of popcorn!"
Everyone agreed to his idea, and Aramis dozed off again. When he later woke, his headache was almost gone and they eventually went back to the hotel. Supper was as delicious as d'Artagnan hoped, and they all assembled in Aramis' room to watch the movie.
Porthos plopped down on the couch beside Aramis and handed him a bag of popcorn. "How's your head?"
"It's fine," Aramis said.
Porthos threw an arm around his shoulders, half-embracing him. "Good." He tossed bags of popcorn to d'Artagnan and Athos and hit 'play' on the remote.
As the Star Wars music began, d'Artagnan suddenly said, "Not long ago in a nightclub not far away, a crazy lady slipped Aramis a mickey and his friends made sure he never lived it down…" He ducked when a pillow flew towards his head, and looked towards Aramis with a, "Ha!" that was cut off when a second pillow smacked him right in the face.
"And Aramis made sure that d'Artagnan never lived that down!" Aramis exclaimed.
THE END
I hope you all read my note at the beginning, which explains the oddness of this story, lol!