Old, New, Borrowed, Blue

Part 64: In Which Ally Forgets

Allison Jones woke up the morning after Lovi's bachelorette party with a blinding headache, wearing an unfamiliar pajama set, and with an arm wrapped around her from behind. Needless to say, it was not how she expected to wake and, therefore, she couldn't be blamed when her first instinct was to shriek and shove the bed's other occupant away as hard as she could.

She only realized this may not have been the best response when she heard a thud from the floor and then Arthur's voice rise in a series of creative curses.

Oops.

"Artie?"

"Bloody hell. Ow…" his voice came from the floor on the opposite side of the bed.

Oops. She hurriedly rolled over and looked over the bedside to see Arthur rubbing at his head, legs tangled in a set of sheets, expression a mixture of tired and extremely annoyed.

"What the bloody hell was that for?" he grumbled, continuing to rub at the back of his head.

"You surprised me!" she defended herself. "What are you doing here?"

"I was sleeping. Bloody… I almost cracked my head open on that nightstand! You need to look before you shove people!"

"Sorry." Ally rose to her knees, wincing slightly as the movement jostled her aching head. Jeez, it felt like somebody was jackhammering on top of her skull. She cast her mind back and remembered all those drinks at Lovi's house. Well, that would do it.

Arthur continued to grumble to himself, apparently not in too much of a hurry to rise to his feet. Ally took the chance to look around the unfamiliar room. It was a bedroom, obviously, but definitely not one she'd ever been in before. It looked kind of like a hotel room, but a nice hotel room with pictures of landscapes hanging on the wall and a modern-looking chandelier hanging from the ceiling. The bed was at least a Queen, which made it kind of impressive that she'd managed to push Arthur all the way off the edge.

There was a glass of water sitting on the nightstand and beside it, a little bottle of pills. She picked this up. Ibuprofen. Thank goodness.

"Hey, Artie, you need an ibuprofen?"

His head popped up beside the bed. He was scowling at her now. "What do you think? After getting my head almost smashed open, do you think I need an aspirin?"

She considered. "Probably."

He groaned and his head disappeared again. Ally shook a couple pills into her palm and took them with a gulp of water from the glass. Then she shook out another two and scooted herself to Arthur's side of the bed.

He was lying on his back on the floor now, staring up at the ceiling. He rolled his eyes when she looked down at him but pulled himself to a seated position and took the proffered glass of water and pills. Downing both in a matter of seconds.

"So…" Ally drawled out after a few moments of silence. "Do you remember what happened yesterday?" Because she sure didn't. Last thing she clearly remembered was bouncing in the bouncy house with Feli; everything after that was a blur. She wasn't even entirely sure where she was right now…

"Yes. Git."

But, apparently, her grumpy boyfriend wasn't in the mood to elaborate. He just kept rubbing at his head and scowling.

So, she looked around the room again. Then, glanced down at herself and the unfamiliar pajamas. They were a set of light purple shorts and tank top made from some kind of silky material, which she began to rub between her fingers. Definitely not something she'd ever owned. "What happened to my clothes?"

"You puked all over them," Arthur answered bluntly.

Oh. Ew. She wrinkled her nose and released the fabric.

"Your sister helped you take a shower, don't worry. And Francis found that for you to wear. Don't ask me why he had it." He finally stood, still frowning, and crossed the room to a desk, where an electric kettle was resting next to a stack of mugs and packets of what she assumed were tea. He turned it on, then leaned back against the desk and stared at her.

It was a little weird. It was like he was waiting for her to say something, but she had no idea what he was expecting her to say.

So, she just went with the first thing that came to mind. "So, where are we? Did Francis pay for a hotel?"

"No, this is Francis's parents' house."

"Oh…" Now that she thought about it, she vaguely remembered somebody saying something about going to Francis's house so they could crash the bachelor's party.

Well, now she felt rather disappointed that she couldn't remember anything, because that sounded like it would've been hilarious.

She remained quiet as the water in the kettle began to boil and Arthur removed it from its place, carefully pouring water into two of the mugs. He ripped open two of the packets and dropped a tea bag into each.

"Don't forget the sugar!"

Arthur threw a dirty look over his shoulder, but still reached out to grab a handful of smaller packets.

See, even when he was annoyed at her, he could still be a good boyfriend.

Although, not so nice that he didn't just dump all the sugar packets into her lap when he walked back over to her. He set her mug on the nightstand, then leaned against the wall and watched her with that odd, expectant expression again.

She decided to just ignore it for now. Tea wasn't one of her favorite things, but she could tolerate it with enough sugar. Coffee was better, but it didn't look like there was any kind of coffee machine in here, which was a definite oversight. She should bring it up to Francis at some point.

"So," Arthur said, after they'd been standing/sitting there in silence for what felt like an awkward amount of time. "Aren't you going to ask about anything else?"

Ally thought. "Did anybody get pushed into the pool?"

Arthur gave her a look, but then answered. "…Yes, but that was before you came. Heracles and Sadiq were arguing about something, and Heracles pushed Sadiq in the pool. Not that it really matters."

Hmm, that wasn't as exciting as she'd hoped. "What about after we showed up? What'd we do?"

Arthur took a sip of his tea—his non-sugary, gross tea—and then said, "We played a stupid drinking game until you got sick. Then Mattie and I had to help you get cleaned up and put you to bed."

"What game? Who won?" Man, she didn't remember that at all.

"One of those stupid 'tell all your secrets' games. It was moronic and pointless, and I don't think 'winning' is really a part of those types of games."

Sigh. Artie could be so un-fun sometimes. It sounded like whatever they'd played had probably been really funny, but she couldn't remember anything about it. Ally pouted, then looked down at her tea and took a tentative sip. Yuck… She had no clue how Arthur could drink this stuff without sugar. She immediately began to tear open the little packets, pouring one after the other into the beverage until you could practically smell the sweetness coming off it.

Arthur made a noise of disgust, but Ally just ignored him and took another sip. Yep, perfect.

"Is that all you wanted to ask about? It was a stupid party. Antonio spent half of it hiding in the bathroom upstairs."

"Really?" She tipped her head to the side. "Why?" It was his party, after all. Then she thought, "You weren't a jerk to him again, were you?"

"Me?! I've never done anything to that git!"

Yeah, that was a total lie. Artie and Antonio had never gotten along for as long as she'd known both of them. She didn't really get why, since she'd never had any issues with Antonio. But that was Arthur for you.

"All I did was go up and tell him to stop hiding like a coward when Francis and everyone else was looking for him."

"And you did it in a jerky way, didn't you?"

Arthur's frown deepened and he crossed his arms over his chest, but he didn't deny it.

What was she supposed to do with him? Artie could be adorable and sweet, but he also had a bit of a tendency to be a jerk sometimes. With most people, it didn't really matter. He was always a complete gentleman with Mattie and her mom, after all. And he and Francis just happened to have their own language that was 90% insults. And Ally honestly didn't mind when Arthur acted grumpy around her, because it was usually a result of him feeling shy, which was cute, or because she'd genuinely done something dumb, and then she kind of deserved it.

With Antonio, though… For one thing, the guy was about to get married, so Arthur shouldn't be being a jerk to him now. And for another thing, she was pretty sure Antonio could take Artie on in a fight. He spent all his time working on a farm, after all.

"Anyway, that doesn't matter," Arthur said. He was still standing with his arms crossed over his chest, but he looked less annoyed now. He actually was sending her a look that read more like curiosity than anything else… What was he curious about, though? "Do you really not remember anything else from last night?"

"Why? Is there something else I should remember?"

She was a little surprised to see his face grow red at her question. Surprised and slightly concerned. Had she done something else besides puke all over herself last night?

"No, no, of course not. I just wondered."

Hmm, he was definitely acting suspiciously. Now Ally was the one who was curious.

"C'mon, Artie. If something else happened, you have to tell me. You can't just keep it a secret."

Arthur blushed even harder. "You're the one who said it. It's not my fault if you drank too much and can't remember anything."

Geez, what had she said? She tried desperately to remember anything, but last night was a total blur. She could've said anything to anybody.

"Artie~ You gotta tell me~"

He shook his head and then began to walk across the room, toward the door. "You should get dressed. There's clothing in the dresser. Something in there should fit you."

Hey! There was no way he was leaving like this! Ally hurriedly jumped out of bed—maybe too hurriedly and maybe she was still a little bit drunk, because her balance was not nearly as good as normal. She managed to get her foot tangled up in the sheets and before she knew it, she was laid out flat on the floor with a new ache in her chin to join the hangover headache.

"Ow~!"

"Allison!" Arthur was suddenly kneeling right beside her, expression filled with concern. He reached out and grabbed her shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Owwie… That hurt a lot. She'd managed to bite the inside of her cheek in the fall and now she could taste blood.

"Idiot. You need to be more careful." His words were harsh, but his hand moved to take hers and he was gentle as he helped her sit up. He watched as she immediately rubbed at her chin and cheek. "I can get you some ice."

"No, I'm fine." Mostly. She still wasn't letting him get away before he answered her question, even if she had almost knocked her own teeth out. "So, what'd I say?"

He groaned. "Al…"

"I'm not gonna stop bugging you until you tell me."

"I don't see why I should. It's not my fault you got so drunk you can't even remember your idiotic proposal speech."

Her what?

Arthur had been watching her closely and now rolled his eyes, sighing with obvious exasperation. "Yes, you got drunk enough that you proposed… In front of everyone, of course, just to make it worse. I'm just glad Francis was drunk enough that he's bound to have forgotten, too."

"I proposed? Like marriage-proposed? To you?"

Probably shouldn't have added that last part, as now Arthur just looked annoyed. "Yes, to me. Was there someone else you were hoping to propose to?"

"No," duh. "I wasn't really planning on proposing to anyone, though." She suddenly thought—and again spoke without thinking. "What'd you say?"

The blush returned, even pinker than before, and he looked for a moment like he wasn't sure what to say. That look quickly disappeared, though, and he returned to scowling. "I told you that you were a git. What else would I say? Like I said, I'm just lucky Francis was too drunk to remember anything, but your sister and half of the other people there weren't so lucky."

"Oh…" Why'd she feel disappointed right now? It wasn't like she actually wanted to ask Arthur to marry her. For one thing, she felt way too young to even be thinking about marriage. For another thing, marriage was way too big a step. Yeah, they'd been dating for a while now, but not that long. Not long enough to be thinking about getting married. "Well, Mattie might not say anything. She probably felt just as embarrassed as us."

Yeah, she doubted she'd be so lucky. Mattie probably wouldn't say anything in front of Arthur, but there was no way her twin was going to let her live this down.

"And everybody definitely knew I wasn't serious. I mean," she felt too embarrassed right now to really think through what she was saying before she said it, "they know there's no way I'd just come out and actually propose to you."

Wrong thing to say, which she knew as soon as it was out of her mouth. She could feel Arthur tense beside her and then quickly rise to his feet. "Of course they all know that, just like they know I'd never accept your proposal."

Ouch… He didn't have to say it so vehemently. It wasn't like she was opposed to the idea of maybe someday getting married. Just… Not now, or anytime in the foreseeable future.

And she should probably say something to that effect, but Arthur looked really annoyed right now and she couldn't really think of anything to say that wouldn't just piss him off more. So she just sat there on the floor, feeling really uncomfortable, while he stood and looked down at her for a few seconds and then sighed and rolled his eyes.

"Like I said, there's clothes in the dresser. I'll be downstairs. I need to call Alcide and see if he's ready to bring the car over."

Ally nodded and watched as he left the room.

Then sighed and leaned back until she was laying on the floor.

Why did dating have to be so difficult?

A/N: Oh, Ally… My dear, sweet Ally.

Hope y'all enjoyed this chapter. I wrote it instead of working on my essay that's due at the end of the week. Because when I am most creative is when I am procrastinating on unfun writing. (Think nice thoughts at me, because this essay is terrible and I hate it.)

So, Halloween's coming up and I realized… I've only written like one Pleasantville Halloween story. Which just seems wrong. So if anybody has any requests or thoughts on what to write on, feel free to share.