Victoria could still taste the vodka at the back of her mouth. She could smell it to. Her overwhelming need to vomit awoke her at exactly 7.38am. That, and the small human beside her in bed kicking her shins as she wriggled to get comfy. Jemima had crawled into Victoria's bed at 4am to escape Quaxo's snoring. He had hijacked her own bed due to his inability to hold a drink. Victoria sat up, rubbing her forehead to try and subside the pounding she felt behind her eyes and took a swig of water that rested upon her bedside table. She felt horrendous. More than horrendous – she was pretty sure she was dead.
The night overall had been a success and she had danced for at least 4 hours straight with Bomba and Pouncival. Her feet were sorer than they would be after a day of dancing at work. She couldn't, however, get the sour memory of Plato out of her head. The way he looked at her just before he fled after Cassandra. He looked angry with her. Like it was her fault his girlfriend was a psychopath or something. The woman obviously had some issues – who else would pick on a girl 3 years her junior just because she felt insecure about her relationship with her boyfriend? Victoria had never even spoken to Cassandra before a week ago and now she was her arch nemesis. All because of some guy who Victoria now realised she barely even knew.
Regardless of their proximity – his apartment being 3 floors down – they had never really… talked. Well not properly anyway. They'd spoken about the weather and about music and stuff but the more she thought about it, the more Victoria realised that she didn't know anything about him. She didn't know his favourite colour or where he grew up or if he had any brothers and sisters. This was an integral part of being in love with someone, she thought. And it was pretty clear now that she had confused love with infatuation.
"No, please don't cut off my hair…" Jemima was writhing in the bed next to her, mumbling in her sleep – a very concerned expression on her face. As to not wake her, Victoria shimmied down to the end of the bed and hopped off onto the wooden floor with a creak.
In the living room, Cettie sat on the sofa, surrounded by blankets and eating a watermelon that she had cut in half straight from the rind with a dessert spoon. She gave her a weak smile as she entered.
"You look as shit as I feel." Cettie announced.
"Thank you. You also look shit." Victoria slumped onto the sofa next to her.
"Goodness me! Her majesty swore! Alert the papers! Notify the townspeople!" Cettie cried, a chunk of watermelon still in her mouth.
Victoria winced. "Not so loud. I feel like my head could fall off my body at any moment."
"Watermelon?" Cettie offered her a sizeable pink block on her spoon. Victoria wouldn't usually have taken up this offer but it looked so juicy and refreshing that she found herself letting Cettie feed her like a baby. After a moment, Cettie began to giggle. "This feels weird."
"Shut up and give me more." Victoria frowned at her.
Just then the phone began to ring, which was a rare occurrence in their flat.
"No one ever calls our home phone." Cettie set aside her watermelon onto Victoria's lap and gave her the spoon in order to search for the phone. After 7 rings, Cettie, still wrapped in blankets, answered. "Hello?"
Victoria took another chunk out of the large fruit on her lap and began to chew.
"Vic, it's for you." Cettie held out the phone to her. Victoria looked back at her in panic as she struggled to chomp on the contents of her mouth. She shook her head violently at Cettie who kept holding out the phone to her anyway.
"Hello?" She finally said, her mouth still full.
"Is this Victoria?" Asked a voice at the end of the line.
"Indeed it is." She swallowed her last piece of watermelon.
"This is Grizabella – from the dance school?"
"Oh my gosh, Grizabella, hello, hi, hello. How can I help you?" She was not prepared to be talking to her boss whilst hung over and choking on watermelon.
"Darling, I believe it's how I can help you. After much discussion, we have decided to offer you the role of Odette in Swan Lake."
Victoria almost dropped the phone."What?"
"Your audition was successful, darling." Victoria could hear her slurping her tea on the other end.
"No way! Oh wow – I mean yes please. I didn't mean no, I meant - Are you sure?" Victoria began to mime the words 'I got the part' to Cettie who was giving her a quizzical look.
"I'm glad to hear you accept. I'll make sure Bombalurina tells you more about it on Monday when you return to work. Now I have to go and call some people about costumes."
Victoria bit her lip. "Thank you so much. Sorry, Grizabella, I was just wondering about Cassandra?"
"What do you mean, dear?"
"Well, I was so certain that she would get the part."
"And she would have, if it were not for you, Victoria. You showed us something fresh."
"Well, thank you again." Victoria smiled.
"I'll see you soon, Victoria. Congratulations." And with that, the phone still pressed to her ear, the line went dead and she was gone.
"Oh my god." Victoria dropped the phone on the sofa as the news sunk in. She got the principal role. She had got the biggest part in the show. "I got Odette!" Victoria's hangover seemed to subside as she began screaming and dancing around the room. She waved her arms in the air and jumped up onto the sofa, making it squeak. Cettie joined her, watermelon still in her hand as they then moved to Victoria's room where Jemima still lay snoring.
"Jemi, wake up!" Victoria shook her small friend vigorously by the shoulders whilst Cettie began jumping on the bed like a child.
She grunted in response. "What is it? Can't you see I'm busy dying here?"
"I got Odette! Grizabella just called me and I got Odette!" Victoria shook Jemima again and this time she opened her eyes.
"Oh my god, Vic, that's amazing!" She smiled, sitting up quickly and wincing immediately. "Please note that I am happy for you but I will not be participating in this celebratory dance thing you two have going on right now. Someone make me a cup of tea and then I'll consider it." Jemima gave Victoria a hug that Cettie joined in on before going to boil the kettle.
Victoria had forgotten all about Plato as she ran down the apartment block stairs down to tell her friends about the news.
"Ouch. Fuck." Plato said as Victoria bolted into him in the hallway outside his apartment.
"Oh god, I'm sorry!" She steadied herself as she regained her footing after impact. "Actually I'm glad you're here, guess what? I got Odette! Grizabella just called me." She smiled.
"That's great, Vic." He smiled down at her for a moment before getting out his phone.
"You seem really happy about it." She joked.
"Yeah, well Cassandra won't be too happy about this, I should break it to her easily." He shrugged and punched in a number on his phone.
"Oh." She frowned. The events from the night before came flooding back to her. "How is the ice queen doing?"
"You know, it really wasn't cool what you did last night. You can't just hit people because you're mad at them, Vic."
Victoria's frown deepened. She had honestly thought that Plato would apologise to her for Cassandra's behaviour, but instead he was getting angry at her because of it. She knew that hitting her was wrong and it was so obviously unlike her – she was clearly inhibited - but it's not like she wasn't provoked. It's like he was blind to Cassandra being evil to everyone around her.
"You did hear what she said to me, right?" Victoria questioned.
"Yeah, she gets all crazy like that sometimes. She's actually really insecure – I thought you would have understood that, given your circumstances."
"My circumstances?" Victoria found it hard to believe that Cassandra was in any way insecure.
"You know… Because you're so… You know."
"No I don't know, Plato. Please enlighten me." She had never felt this pissed off. She usually would let all this slide and resign to staring into Plato's eyes whilst he spoke to someone else but not this time. Now she was Odette and he was just some guy who used too much aftershave.
"You're shy, Vic. You avoid talking to anyone and you… I don't know… You seem to fawn over me a lot. I never mentioned it until now because we're friends. It just gets on Cassie's nerves."
Cassie? This was all too much. She felt so stupid. Of course he knew she liked him. And of course the feelings were never reciprocated. She knew she should get out of there but she couldn't. Her feet stayed glued to the floor and her blood felt hot in her veins like she might explode at any moment.
"Well, I'm sorry Cassie had to deal with that. And I'm sorry that I liked you, it must have been so hard to deal with seeing as you never once told me to stop fawning because you had a girlfriend. I bet you hated the attention, right? Must have been just awful." The words fell out of her mouth at rapid speed before she had the time to stop herself. Plato's eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if he had something to say before snapping it shut.
"Hey, Vic!" Pouncival opened the door to the flat and stepped into the hallway. "I thought I heard your voice. I'm surprised you're up so early - it's only midday. Also I believe that you have kidnapped our roommate."
Victoria's eyes snapped to her friends. His scruffy hair looked dishevelled but soft and his toothy smile seemed brighter than ever. He looked handsome.
"I got Odette. I came down here to tell you." Victoria was still riding off her adrenaline fuelled outburst but the sight of him was calming her down.
"That's amazing! I feel so proud, my friend is gunna be a star!" He walked to her and gave her a tight hug, leaving his arm slung over her shoulder as he turned to Plato. "How cool is that, Plato?"
But Plato, bright red, put his phone to his ear and stalked down the hallway and round the corner, out of sight.
"What's his problem?" Pouncival asked.
"Relationship problems." She rolled her eyes. "Hey, do you want to go and get some coffee with me?"
"Oh, sure. Yeah. I'd like that." His smile seemed to get even toothier. And even more handsome.
"Cool, let's go, Mr Grin." She winked at him.
"Hey, shut it, you."
"Has anyone ever told you you're about 70% tooth?" She giggled and he bumped her in the arm, laughing his familiar boisterous laugh.