This is mainly just a filler chapter, but hopefully it's as enjoyable.

Clare

I woke up the next morning to a soft bed. A small dent gave away the person laying next to me. I immediately opened my eyes and was greeted with a light pink wall with purple decorations adorning it. Alli's room. I rolled over slowly and saw the dark haired girl with her eyes shut and her mouth slightly ajar. Noticing I was in her pajamas, I smiled. In the past, it had always been me who was taking care of Alli after a party, but it was nice to know that she did the same for me.

I tried sitting up so I could use the restroom, but a pounding feeling occupied my head. Great. A hangover. I put my head back down and sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose with my thumb and index finger. The pain wasn't subsiding, so I involuntarily let out a groan. It was loud enough to wake the sleeping beauty next to me.

"Ugh, Clare, what a pleasant wakeup call.," Alli groaned out. I could tell she was slightly hungover too. I mumbled a quiet apology and she dismissed it. "It's fine. I'll go get some Advil.," She said as she stretched and left the room.

A minute later, she came back upstairs with a pill bottle and two glasses of water. I sat up as she handed me a glass and shook out two pills. Swallowing the pills, I urged them to be instantly be effective.

"I'm going to take a short shower, you can rest for a moment, then you can hop in, alright?" Alli said when she finished her dose. I gave her a thumbs up and slowly leaned back to rest my head on a pillow. As soon as I heard the water start running, I shut my eyes and rested for a few minutes.

"You can go get ready. I'll make some pancakes. Are you feeling any better?" Alli asked as she put her hand against my forehead. I gave a quick smile to assure her I was fine and walked into the bathroom while she headed down the stairs.

After having a quick shower and brushing my teeth with my old toothbrush that resided in her bathroom, I threw on a pair of Alli's sweatpants and a hoodie. We borrowed each others comfy clothes a lot, so she'd be fine with it and I'd return them in a few days.

Heading down the stairs, I happily noticed my headache had lightened up a considerable amount. I wasn't one hundred percent, but I'd take whatever I could get.

"Want milk or orange juice?" Alli asked as I took a seat at the table.

"Um, milk's fine, thanks. Need help?" I offered as Alli poured me my glass of milk and tended to the pancakes on the stove.

"I've got it, Clare. You had a rough night last night.," she sympathetically told me as she flipped a pancake over and sat down across from me.

"You remember it? I just have odd parts floating around my brain." I told her as I took a sip of milk. "Care to fill me in?"

"Well, you surely remember your encounter with Eli and his girlfriend, right?"

"Yes, Alli. I do recall that. Then you forced me into going to the club with you." I playfully accused her and ignored her when she tried to interrupt, defending herself. "Then we started drinking. Then I can vaguely recall dancing with people. And for some reason I remember talking to Eli?" I questioned her towards the end.

"Your memory is about as clear as mine. I think we danced with some younger boys. Then we ran into Adam and Eli and they took us home. I mainly just remember you being so drunk that Eli had to carry you in. Then when they left, I think I changed you into pajamas. That was some hard work right there." Alli laughed as she stood up to cater to the pancakes.

"Oh, crap. Do you remember anything I said to him?" I frantically asked, not sure if I'd rather have her tell me or have her not remember.

"Sorry, hun, but nope. I don't remember a single word you two exchanged." She retorted as she piled the pancakes on a plate and set it on the table so we could start eating.

"Great." I sighed as I lathered a pancake with butter and syrup. If neither of us could remember what was said between me and Eli, then there was a pretty good chance that he didn't remember either, but then again, this was Eli we were dealing with, who for some unknown reason, seemed to have a clearer memory after a night out than most. I groaned and buried my face in my hands.

"I'm sure it'll be fine. Let's just finish eating, then maybe we can watch some movies." Alli tried to soothe me.

"That sounds like a good plan." I smiled at her as I shoved a fork-full of pancake in my mouth.

Eli

I woke up to a painful jab in my side. My eyes flew open and spotted Adam kicking me. I was on the smaller couch in his basement and he was hovering above me.

"Dude, it's noon. Your phone alarm went off like five times." Adam said as he handed me my phone.

I blinked a few times, trying to will my mind alert. It was already noon. I was supposed to go shopping with Cassie and my mom in an hour. "Shit. Thanks, man." I told Adam as I stood up and searched for my shoes. "I really have to go, but we still on for video games tomorrow?"

"Yeah, yeah, no problem. You better show up tomorrow!" He called out as I headed out the basement door. The sun met my eyes and I shielded my face. The brightness wasn't helping the small headache that was present.

The previous night, I had left my mom's car at Adam's house, planning that I'd spend the night here. I drove home and burst the the door. I shot up the stairs and ran for the shower, quickly trying to make myself look presentable.

After I dried off, I threw on some jeans and an old shirt. Heading downstairs, I thought of how peculiar it was that I hadn't seen Cassie when I entered the house, or up in my room. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I called her name out, only to have her emerge from the downstairs bathroom seconds after her name echoed through the hall.

"Well, hey. Look who it is. Thanks for abandoning me last night." her cold words floated through the air.

"Sorry, Cassie, but I wasn't exactly happy with what happened yesterday evening." I told her as I noticed her hand reach for her back pocket.

"Eli, how many times have I told you, cut it with the Cassie shit. It's Cas. And where the hell were you?! You didn't respond to any of my messages." She angrily spat at as she stayed rooted in the same spot, with her hand holding onto something in her back pocket.

"I was hanging out with Adam, okay?" I told her, avoiding all the details I could. It wasn't that I thought she'd be mad, I just didn't think she needed to know everything. She let out a small puff of air before relaxing her stance and giving me a small smile.

"Alright, whatever. All is well." She approached me, giving me a peck on my cheek. She walked past me and sat on the couch, pulling out the object she was gripping from her pocket.

"What is that?" I asked her, walking closer to view whatever she was holding.

"Eli, stop acting so naive. It's not like you haven't seen one before." she smirked and rolled her eyes at me. I watched her hands as they absently toyed with the object. My eyes widened. It was a blunt. And I knew it was filled with weed. I wasn't necessarily surprised, I knew it was a habit of hers. I just hated it whenever she even brought it out around me. She wasn't aware of my bad experiences with it in high school, so she never really understood why I never participated in smoking with her. But the fact that she had the audacity to even bring it into my house, with my parents, was shocking.

"Cas, seriously. Not in here. Put it away." I sternly told her, receiving a chuckle from her.

"Eli, whats the big deal. It never bothered you that much before." she groaned to me.

"Look, in high school, I had some really bad run-ins with drugs. I don't want to go into details. But here's the deal, if Cece or Bullfrog catches you with that, they aren't going to be very remorseful as they kick you out." In all honesty, they wouldn't do that. But they'd be pissed. She'd be better off getting kicked out. I'm pretty positive my parents used to be druggies. Perhaps they were until my bad collision with drugs. But since those shudder-worthy memories, they had a strict policy about drugs.

"Just one puff?" Cassie begged me. I shook my head at her. "What about if I go in the backyard?" She asked eagerly.

"Fine. If you really want to." I sighed in disappointment as she skipped out the back door and found a spot by some bushes.

I was suddenly exhausted. Shopping wasn't going to be on the agenda for today. I went up to go find Cece, telling her that we should go next week instead. I found her on her bed, talking with somebody on the phone.

"Oh. Thank you so much, sweetie! It'll be great, I promise!" she excitedly screamed in the phone. Her conversation kept continuing for a while, so I sat on the opposite side of the bed and waited for her to finish.

Clare

Alli and I had decided on watching weird indie movies on netflix. We were in the middle of a grotesque scene when my phone started vibrating. I picked it up and looked at the caller id. Confusion took over as I answered. Why was Cece calling me?

"Hello?" I answered with a questioning tone. Alli looked at me oddly and let the movie continue, we weren't that interested in it.

"Hello Clare! I was calling to see if perhaps you were looking for a hob this summer?" She asked me with a chirpy voice.

"Um, not particularly, but a job would be nice." I answered her, confusion laced in my voice.

"Well, we're a few hands short down at the station, so I was wondering if you'd want to help us out this summer? It'd be great because we know you're responsible and you're familiar with the studio." she told me, hopefulness etched in her voice.

"Um, I suppose I could. Yeah, that'd be nice." I started out indifferently, but decided I needed to do something productive.

"Oh. Thank you so much, sweetie! It'll be great, I promise!" She cheered as I heard a creaking in the background. "Can you start tomorrow? It's fine if you can't." She continued on with the same cheerful tone.

"Uh, yeah, I guess I could." I agreed. I had never really worked at the station before, but when I dated Eli, we ended up spending a good deal of time hanging around with Bullfrog, messing around with all the knobs and switches.

"Oh, this is so great! I've missed you so much, dear! Can't wait to see you. You can come around noon, okay? See you later!" She stated before the line went dead.

Alli looked at me expectantly. "I have a job at Bullfrog's radio station." I told her simply and shrugged. She smiled at me and nudged my arm playfully as we both turned our attention back to the movie.

Eli

Cece finally hung up the phone. "What was that all about?" I asked, but I already knew it was anew employee.

"Since you decided you were too cool to work at the station, I found somebody else who's happy to help." Cece said smiling at me.

I ignored her, not really caring about what was going on with new employees. "So, change of plans. Instead of going shopping today, we're going to go next week, is that cool with you?" I asked her, hoping she wouldn't try to argue for us going today.

"Oh yeah, that's fine." She shrugged it off, still in a happy mood from whoever she had hired.

I hopped off the bed and headed back into my room, putting on some music and relaxing on my bed. Within minutes, Cassie was snuggled up right against me, reeking of marijuana. But at the moment, I didn't care. I put my arm around her and we drifted off into a nap.