Chapter 3: Hangover:

A/N: I have to publish something, or I'm going to lose all drive to write, and while this chapter is shorter than I'd like, it's still something.

I woke up with a throbbing headache, like none I'd ever had before. Then again, I normally didn't have headaches in the first place, so being my worst wasn't saying as much as it might.

"What happened?" I asked no one in particular, "Did I hit myself on the head with a hammer?"

"No, but you got hammered. You drank four or so servings of vodka from a wine glass." Johnathan replied, "And proceeded to throw up all over me, and then fell unconscious."

"I'm sorry." I said, feeling like a complete and total ass.

"It's fine, I was going to do my laundry today anyway." He replied, laughing.

"So, what all did I do that was incredibly stupid while I was drunk?" I asked, dreading the inevitable answer.

"Not much." He said, to my immense surprise and relief. And then, I realized he had answered 'not much' instead of 'nothing'.

"Not much?" I asked, "Just spill the beans, what did I do?"

"To be honest, I think all involved would be better off if they just forgot." He replied cryptically.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I asked, simultaneously enraged and puzzled.

"It means 'you probably don't have to know, and you really don't want to know'" Johnathan replied, just as cryptically as before.

"What, did I get rejected or something?" I asked, now simply puzzled, as I could tell Johnathan wasn't having any fun hiding this from me.

"Not quite." Johnathan replied.

"So whoever it is said yes?" I asked, now frantic.

"No."

"Then what the hell hap-"

"She refused to answer, presumably because she knew you were drunk."

"Oh. You'd only hide that from me if it hurt the other person, and if I knew them." I said, with a sudden rush of inspiration, and a surprising one at that, considering my headache. The logic in it was that if it was better for 'all involved' that means EVERYBODY got hurt, and that I would be able to hurt the other person by bringing it up again. On top of that, only someone who liked me, and probably only someone who liked me a lot, would refuse to answer, because they didn't want to say 'no'.

"Not answering that." Johnathan answered, putting his head in his hands, "You really don't want to know, and it will probably hurt her if you bring it up again... But I have this feeling you'll want to apologize."

"God, I feel like such an ass." I said, laughing, "You were right, I didn't want to know, and I didn't need to know. "

My inspiration gave me a logical path to follow to the answer: I'd asked Kari out, or at least tried to tell her how I felt about her. And obviously, she'd not answered. She didn't want to hurt my feelings... Or, perhaps, she hadn't wanted it to be that way when I'd asked her out. Maybe she'd envisioned it as something more romantic, or perhaps simply more clearly intended.

Or, perhaps she had simply not wanted to trap me in a relationship I didn't want. I honestly couldn't be certain, but, no matter the reason, I'd done harm to her, and I'd made myself look like an ass.

"See? Trust me next time." Johnathan said, laughing.

"Shut up, man. Now, it's gonna be so awkward, and..."

"No, YOU shut up. Listen to you whine! It's gonna be so awkward, and...." He imitated, "Why is it going to be awkward?"

"Because I screwed up." I admitted, thinking he was trying to make me take responsibility for my actions.

"No. Because you ARE screwing up." He replied, "It doesn't HAVE to be awkward. Forget about it."

"But, I really do like her, and now she knows, and -"

"Then, you know, try telling her how you feel, now that you're sober."

"But, what if-"

"T.K Takashi. A coward! Who'd of thought it? You're supposed to be the hero of two worlds! You know, courage in abundance, willing to die for the cause! But, in reality? You're such a coward, you can't even ask the girl you like, and have liked for a while now, out." He said, laughing.

I instantly caught on to the fact that I was being egged on. Even so, he had me now, and I felt the need to justify myself; I was no coward.

"For your information." I began, with as much voice as I could manage, considering how dried up my throat was, "I wasn't even aloud to ask Kari out until yesterday, so 'liking her for a long time' doesn't exactly matter, and she's likely the person I'll be staying with after I leave your apartment, so making things awkward between us is NOT high on my priority list."

"Which is a great justification, I'm sure. And you might able to fool someone who didn't know you terribly well with it. But the real question is, can you fool yourself? Anyway, I have to leave, I have to go to the dry cleaner" Johnathan replied, pissing me off no end. I mean, it wasn't as if I stood to gain anything by avoiding asking the girl out. Or did I? Was I really being a coward? I'd never seen myself that way, but that didn't mean it wasn't an accurate picture of me.

In fact, I really didn't stand anything to gain by NOT asking Kari out, so not doing so was sort of cowardly. Then again, I hadn't really had the opportunity up until yesterday, and I had done so yesterday, although I had no intention of doing so. Maybe Johnathan had been replying to my tone, with which I had implied that I had no intention of telling the girl how I felt, an implication I had not really intended to make.

"I am NEVER drinking again." I muttered to myself. I mean, this hangover was hellish, and really, I'd not really wanted to drink in the first place, it had just been a reaction to doing something I'd been told not to.

I finally sat up, and then realized that I had no clothes other than the clothes on my back. Sure, I had my wallet with me, with all 10,000 yen ( aprx. $100) I'd saved over the last couple years by not spending 100 yen from my allowance and thus keeping it with me without alerting my mother I was doing so, but planned to keep it for emergencies. Then again, my plans including a catastrophic oversight was an emergency, although one that disheartened me slightly.