"Damaged Soul"

"Chapter 3: The Bottle Hits Back"

Awareness came slowly, and when it did it was unwelcome. The moment Adelle was conscious enough to acknowledge the dull ache in her skull, it blossomed into a full-on hangover headache. Despite not having a digestive system, she felt queasy. The obnoxious beeping she heard from somewhere seemingly a long way off certainly didn't help. What was it? It should be familiar, but its nature and the reason for its noise weren't coming to her. Maybe if she ignored it and tried to go back to sleep it would go away.

She lay where she had fallen the night before, face-down on the couch. The fuzzy cushion protected her tender eye-sockets from the morning light, and it felt oddly good against her dry teeth. She didn't need to breathe, so she decided that this was a good place to spend the rest of the day. She was just drifting off when she felt a hand grip her shoulder, giving her a rough jiggle. "Snzzz...mrrblx..."

"Oh, no you don't."

Another jiggle. Pain lanced through Adelle's skull like a knife, and she peeked up at her tormentor with one eye-socket before immediately regretting it. Moaning, she buried her face in the cushion again. "Go away, Chad..."

The blue rabbit shook her again, sounding amused and almost sympathetic. "I know, I know. Hangovers suck. Come on, your alarm is going crazy. Don't you have to work today?"

Ah, of course. That's what that noise was. "Myeah...what time is it?"

"6:15. Come on, I have Nice Cream to sell, you have birds to scare, and Burgerpants is pissed off because of the early wake-up call." Chad sounded annoyingly chipper this morning.

The three of them shared a tiny run-down house, and had managed to turn it into something resembling a home. The only reason they were able to pay for it was because of the value that gold had on the surface. They hadn't known each other before leaving the Underground, but they were all in a similar boat. None of them was particularly well-off, but when they pooled their resources they were able to make a down payment on a crappy little house, and it took their combined income to pay the bills. They weren't friends, exactly (at least, they hadn't started off as such), but they all got along okay, and Chad seemed to have his eye on Burgerpants.

Speaking of which, the brown cat-monster peeked his head out of his room and called out, "C'mon, Adey, I didn't have to get up for another two hours!"

"M'sorry, I'll turn it off now...Ow."she clutched her aching skull as she got to her feet and shuffled off to her room to turn off the alarm.

She knew Burgerpants well enough to know that he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep after being woken up, so she decided to make it up to him by making breakfast for the three of them. Well, two, because Chad said that had to leave early and said he would get a breakfast sandwich on his way to work. So, that only left Burgerpants.

Adelle knew that 'Burgerpants' was only a nickname, and an unwanted one at that, but the poor cat was so used to hearing it that he didn't always realize people were talking to him when they used his true name. So, whether he liked it or not, it seemed the nickname had stuck, permanently.

Adelle was wearing a pair of dark sunglasses, held on by an elastic band because she didn't have any ears to keep them in place. As she got a carton of eggs and a package of bacon out of the fridge, she was only dimly aware that Chad was speaking to someone at the front door. "Another Jehovah's Witness? Just tell 'em we're not interested; lather, rinse, repeat."

"Nooo," Chad sounded uncertain as he stepped aside to let someone in. "I think he's a friend of yours."

"Who?" Adelle asked without turning to look, whisking about half a dozen eggs in a large bowl.

"GOOD MORNING!"

Adelle nearly dropped the bowl. She let go of the whisk and cradled her forehead. "Not so loud, please!"

"OH, SORRY," Papyrus sort of whisper-yelled, which wasn't much better, and he seemed oblivious to the look of shock she was giving him. "LAST NIGHT, YOU SEEMED PRETTY TIRED. AND I REALIZED, WE FORGOT TO EXCHANGE NUMBERS!"

Looking him up and down, Adelle could see that he was wearing the same outfit he'd had on the night before. So was she, really. Had he been... "Papyrus, were you standing outside of our door all night?"

He nodded, seeming pleased with himself. His smile faltered a little when she set aside the bowl of eggs and got in his personal space, looking angry. Why was she angry?

"I think we need to have a discussion about boundaries. I don't know what you want from me, but standing outside of someone's house all night, just to exchange phone numbers, is not okay! Why would you do that? That borders on harassment, and besides, don't you need to sleep?"

Papyrus pressed his index fingers together, looking for all the world like a scolded child. "I...I'M SORRY. I JUST THOUGHT...I WON'T DO IT AGAIN. I'LL GO NOW..."

A vague memory of the night before caused Adelle to feel guilty. Papyrus was a bit of an oddball, but he had been nice to her, and had even walked her home when she was too drunk to walk a straight line, just to make sure she was okay. And now, here she was, giving him a scolding that was way out of proportion to the offense. She had a feeling that if anyone else had stood outside someone's door all night, they would have some kind of creepy motive to do so, but Papyrus just seemed to want to be her friend. And she had hurt his feelings.

As he turned to leave, almost looking like he was going to cry, Adelle reached out and lightly gripped his humerus to stop him. "Wait a minute..." She sighed, rubbing her forehead as he halted uncertainly. "I...I just...it's not that big a deal. I have a headache, and it's making me a little crabby. I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"NO, YOU'RE RIGHT. I WASN'T THINKING. I WAS JUST HOPING WE COULD BE FRIENDS. WE HAVEN'T SEEN ANOTHER SKELETON IN FOREVER. I JUST THOUGHT..."

Adelle wanted him to go, but not like this. What did she want? She didn't want friends. She had two roommates, and sometimes even that was suffocating. She heard the door shut as Chad left for work, and she was mildly embarrassed that he had witnessed this. She interrupted Papyrus, unconsciously fingering the pendant she was wearing. "Would you like some breakfast?"

Papyrus immediately brightened. "DO YOU HAVE SPAGHETTI?"

"Spaghetti?" Adelle raised a brow ridge, shaking her head. "Not for breakfast. You like bacon and eggs?"

Papyrus nodded, masking his disappointment.

Burgerpants came in, wearing his fast food uniform, and began rifling through the fridge. He popped open an energy drink and took a long swig, sighing as he felt himself beginning to wake up. On the side of the can, there was a large green 'M'. Nodding an acknowledgement to Papyrus, he gripped Adelle's chin between a thumb and forefinger. "You look like hell, Adey."

"Likewise. You should lay off the Monsters," she replied, pouring the eggs into a pan while the bacon cooked on a tray in the oven.

"WHAT?" Papyrus asked, confused, until he saw the word 'Monster' printed on the can. "THOSE THINGS ARE SUPER BAD FOR YOU."

"Yeah, so is being overworked to the point of a nervous breakdown," Burgerpants said, cheerfully enough. He waved the can in Adelle's face. "Come on, why don't you have one?"

"No, thanks. He's right about those things."

"Booze isn't much better, girlie. You can have one of mine, get rid of your hangover." he guzzled more of his energy drink, his hands beginning to jitter and shake as the caffeine kicked in. "It'll help you through the day," he coaxed before sing-songing, "They're yummy..."

Adelle shook her head, stirring the eggs as they cooked. "M'worried about you, Burger."

"I'm more worried about you, sis," Burgerpants said seriously, all traces of levity gone from his demeanor.

She stiffened. "Please, don't call me that."

The cat looked down, gave her an apologetic pat on the shoulder, and began to insert bread slices into the toaster.

Papyrus watched them, uncharacteristically quiet. Something was up with her, and Burgerpants knew what it was. Unable to simply sit there and do nothing, Papyrus got to his feet and cleared his nonexistent throat. "I'LL SET THE TABLE, IF YOU TELL ME WHERE THE PLATES ARE.