DISCLAIMER: I do not own these characters.

Eight

Brenda knew she was going to have one of the worst hangovers of her life before she even moved or opened her eyes. What day was it? What time was it? She opened an eye to glance at the clock on the nightstand. There was no clock. She didn't want to move but she had no other choice. She propped herself up on her elbows and pushed past the pillows to look at the opposite nightstand. No clock. She did have a clock in her room, right?

She laid her head back down and closed her eyes. The room was going to start spinning any second as her head pounded. Judging from how tired she was and the angle of the sun trying to peak through the shades, she was guessing it was still pretty early.

Wait. She opened her eyes again and looked at the shades. Dark floor length curtains. She slowly sat up, wrapping the sheet around her body. Dark sheets and comforter. Where was she?

"Oh God," she muttered to herself laying her head on her knees and groaned. She needed to get out of there fast. Where were her clothes?

She pulled the sheet out of the bed, wrapped around her body and scanned the room. How she was moving this quickly with her head hurting so bad was beyond her. She walked into the bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet. A minute later she was scooping water into her mouth to swallow four little pills and prayed the pain would slowly start to go away immediately.

She found a pile of some of her clothes, jeans, bra and panties. No shirt and no cell phone. She needed a ride. Shit. That meant she was going to have to walk downstairs without a shirt on. She was brave, right?

Brenda quickly dressed with what she had and slowly made her way towards the stairs. It was silent, almost creepy. She quickly padded downstairs and found her shirt lying over the chair. She pulled it on quickly and walked over to the phone dialing a number by heart.

"Hey Reggie," she whispered. "Can you come pick me up right now? Harborview Towers. And if you say a word to Ned …" she trailed off before hanging up the phone. Where was her cell phone? And her shoes? She walked over to the couch and started lifting cushions. She shoes were by the fireplace. She slid into them before lifting the next cushion.

"Looking for this?" his voice called walking out of the kitchen. Brenda looked up immediately, eyes wide, as Jason entered the room.

"Thanks," she said taking it out of his hand as soon as he was close enough. "I have to go," she said quickly grabbing her jacket off the desk.

"Brenda," he started.

"I have to go," she interrupted before pulling open the door and walking out of the penthouse. She pushed the elevator button five times before it finally opened and she got inside. The ride down was the longest.

She had to wait another five minutes for the car to finally show up before she could fully escape from the nightmare. Ned was going to kill her.