Her head excruciatingly throbbed with a headache from hell. The frat party last night had been exactly what she needed to forget about Nick. Boy did it ever make her forget; tossing back shot after shot had proven to be a successful way to rid her mind of the good for nothing ex-boyfriend who cheated on her with her so called friend. Gail groaned as she pushed her arm out of her comfortably warm fortress and onto the 'Off' button of the alarm that blared on the desk beside her, telling her that class starts in an hour.
Making a mental note to never again drink so heavily on a school night, she began to slowly stretch her tired and sore limbs. She rolled onto her back and was suddenly met with a sharp pain on her lower body. It felt as if she had fallen down a flight of stairs, landing ass first on every single step on the way. "What the fuck?"
Trying not to put pressure on the hurting area, she rose from her bed and made her way to the large mirror behind her bedroom door. "What the fuck!?"
Rather than being a terrible bruise as she had thought it may be, Gail's eyes came across intricately shaped black ink, spelling what seemed to be someone's name. "No, no, no, no. Who the fuck is Holly Stewart!?"
Panic began to set in after trying to wrack her brain for what happened the night before. There was nothing she could remember. Hell, she couldn't even remember whose party it had been or how she got back to her dorm room. Quickly, she grabbed her phone from the shelf beside her and speedily searched through her contacts. No Holly Stewart. Settling for the only other person who would be able to help, she put the phone to her ear and waited for the other line to be answered.
"Gail, why are you calling me at 8 a.m.? You know my class doesn't start until 1:30 today" the woman grumbled.
"Traci, I don't care about your excessive amount of sleep. I care about the damn tattoo that I got last night!" Gail replied, her voice in dismay. She examined herself a few more seconds in the mirror before moving to put her books into her bag.
"You got a tattoo last night?" the woman asked.
"Yes Traci, of someone's name! And it's on my ass!" Gail practically yelled. She reasoned that this was all Traci's fault. It had been her bright idea to take her out to change her glowering and self-pitying mood. "Did I talk to anyone named Holly last night?" she asked, her voice pleading for an answer.
"The name doesn't ring a bell. I remember you practically sucking face with a brunette, so that may be her, but I don't specifically remember any names. What are you going to do?"
Letting out a defeated sigh, Gail responded "I have no idea. I don't have the money right now to get it covered and I need to get ready, so I can't send out a search party. Thanks anyway, I'll talk to you later."
Gail placed her empty mug in the sink and took her leather jacket off of the coat rack. After putting on her combat boots, she grabbed her book bag off of the counter, tossing her right arm through the strap and made her way out of her dorm, into the hallway. Aside from one girl leaning into someone's doorway, the entire floor was empty.
"Come on we're going to be late!" the girl said, her voice raised as her fist pounded on the door.
Gail tried not to pay any attention to the raucous as she fiddled with her keys to find the one that locked the door,
"Come on Hols, hurry up!" the girl persisted to taunt. "Holly. Rose. Stewart. Open this damn door or else I swear I will break it down with my foot!"
Her breath caught in her lungs. She heard right, didn't she? A few doors down lived the mysterious brunette who Gail had apparently gotten chummy with the night before. Finding the right key, she quickly slid it in the keyhole and locked the door before making her way towards the girl.
Seeing her approach, the redhead straightened up from her slouching posture and gave her an apologetic look. "I'm sorry about the noise. We have a double date and I know she was unwilling to go but now she's actually being a pain in my ass and not getting out of bed." The girl's green eyes studied her carefully before continuing. "You look kind of familiar…Were you at that party last night?"
She didn't know where to begin. Any way she approached this would seem awkward. On the plus side, at least this girl recognized her. "Yeah, um, I was. Uh, did you say your friend's name is Holly? Holly Stewart?"
The look on the girl's face turned from apologetic to curious. "Yes, why do you – oh my gosh! Now I remember you!" she practically shouted once again. "You're the blonde that Holly kept making out with the whole night! Oh boy, I'm sorry. She's not usually so clingy."
Her cheeks flushed and she was sure that the girl in front of her could see the pinkish tinge set in on her pale face. "Apparently anyway. I don't remember much. Actually, I don't really remember anything to be honest, but um, I'm in a predicament and I –"
The door swung open as Gail was mid-sentence and a gorgeous brunette with wavy hair and olive skin stood with wide eyes when she noticed her friend had been talking to a beautiful blonde. Her hand reached up to fix her already correctly placed glasses and she shifted her weight nervously from one foot to another. "Oh. Hey."
"Way to go Gail" she congratulated blonde looked impressively at the woman in front of her. "Hi."
"Hey" the brunette repeated.
Gail smiled, a light chuckle coming from her soft voice. "You said that already."
"Sorry to interrupt this little love-fest thing you guys have going on right now but Holly we really have to go." Being reminded of the friend's presence, Gail frowned, averting her gaze from Holly and looking down timidly at her shoes.
"Um, okay" Gail began to panic once again, this time not wanting the other woman to leave so quickly. She took Holly by the shoulders and lightly pushed her backwards, guiding them both back into the brunette's dorm. Looking flustered she tried to explain, "Look, I just um, really need to talk to Holly for a minute, so uh, she'll be out soon." Once inside the room, she spun around and locked the door.
The taller woman looked confused, yet she had a curious grin on her face.
"Listen, I know this is going to sound weird, and since I don't remember anything, I don't know you, but you were at that party last night and long story short I now have your name tattooed on my ass."
"Wait, you're Gail?" she asked. Before hearing the answer, the brunette walked to the counter to grab a piece of paper and brought it back to Gail. "I saw this after I woke up. I don't remember a thing about last night either" the woman admitted.
Slowly, Gail began to unfold the paper. Scrawled in what seemed to be her own horrific handwriting, the paper stated:
On the badass evening of October 13th, the awesome and amazing, Gail (secretly Abigail) Arizona Peck, now hereby declares her perfectly-rounded pale ass property of one very beautiful and nerdy Holly Rose Stewart. In no way is this declaration negotiable. She owns it. No take backs. This is a certificate of ownership that will never be void. Nerds rule.
"I have to say, it gave me quite a laugh, but I guess now it more serious than I had thought. I didn't think it was meant to be taken literally…I uh, do you really have it tattooed on you?" she questioned.
Bravely, the blonde turned around and pulled down part of her clothing, revealing the dark, cursive letters on her pale skin.
"Oh boy. Um, I'm sorry?" This time, due to the quick glimpse of Gail's backside, it was the brunette whose skin flushed pink.
Not surprisingly, the blonde took an interested in the woman standing in front of her. No wonder she was apparently all over her last night; she was absolutely gorgeous. Gladly, she realized that she may be able to change this into a more pleasant situation. "How about after you're done suffering through that double date you can show me you're sorry by heading out for a pitiful coffee with me?"
The grin was back on the brunette's face and it nearly made Gail's heart stop. "I'd like that. After all, I guess I need to pay you for my recent purchase" she joked.
Gail giggled at her response and internally cursed herself for allowing such a girlish moment to break through her tough girl façade. Her hand reached for the door and unlocked it before slowly walking backwards out into the hall. "I'm 5 doors down that way" she pointed. "Room 15. Knock at my door around 3:30?" she smiled.
Holly chuckled when the blonde nearly tripped over her friend on the way out. "3:30" she confirmed, watching Gail turn around and make her way down the hall.
Gail hit the button for the elevator and stepped inside the opening doors. Who knows, maybe she won't have to cover it up after all.