this one is long so gimme your thoughts. I'm really proud of how it turned out.
A few hours later my eyes dragged open to see a pair of icy blue ones staring back at me. "Wakey wakey, egga and bacy." Phil whispered while gently shaking my arm. He was about an inch from my face and was so close I worried my morning breath was going to murder him.
"Wha-?" My morning confusion made it impossible for me to understand a thing Phil was saying. The pounding in my head had grown to the point where I could barely hear myself think and the room had begun to spin, making me feel slightly nauseated. "Why are you waking me?" I had to swallow and cough a few times before I could speak properly, realising how dry my mouth was and how badly I needed water.
"It's five in the afternoon." Phil spoke softly, probably able to tell that I looked and felt like shit. "My aunt is coming over for dinner in a couple of hours so I thought I'd wake you." I nodded without saying anything and closed my eyes again, the light stinging my aching eyes. "Are you feeling ok?" Phil asked after a few moments of silence.
"Yeah," I said sleepily. "Feel crappy though. Do I look crappy?" I heard no reply from Phil for a moment so I opened my eyes to see a warm smile I hadn't seen before slowly surface on his face. "You-uh, you look nice. Pretty." He said, turning slightly red before standing and making his way to the door. Turning his head back he said, "ill come back in half an hour and wake you up again, if you want." He smiled again and left, shutting the door behind him.
I lay in bed for a few minutes before I could no longer stand the taste of my own breath. I dragged myself out and to the door, probably looking like the undead and certainly smelling like it. I instantly went to the shower, the steam from the water slowly fogging up the mirrors as I stripped off and stepped in, the hot water soaking my pale skin and chocolate brown hair. I stood there for a few moments, my stupidity and self loathing punching me in the face while hot tears ran down my cheeks and dripped off my chin, mixing with the warm, soapy shower water.
After I washed myself and dried my hair I threw on some nice clothes, makeup and jewellery for even if I felt like shit I could at least look nice. I pulled my door open and trudged out and into the kitchen, swallowing whatever aspirin and antibiotics I could find before braving my friends, the room still spinning slightly. "Look who finally left their pit." Tasha said with a grin. "I thought you hibernating!" She laughed as I fell heavily into a chair, faking a smile as I could begin to feel the effects of the drugs.
"I don't mind if you wanted to stay in bed. It's only my aunt, not like the queen or Sarah Michelle Gellar or anything." Phil giggled and smiled warmly at me.
"Nah I'm good, I had to get up anyway." I grinned back at him, the headache beginning to fade. I caught Dan's eyes as I turned and surprisingly it wasn't as awkward as I thought it'd be. It was still awkward, but not as much as I expected. It was silent for a moment but Dan spoke up. "Hey, Meg." He tried. "I left the balcony door wide open last night."
"Were you drunk?" I faked.
"Yeah, very."
"Me too."
"Were you out last night?" Tasha asked me.
"No, why?" I responded, without a second thought.
"Oh, well it's just that when I went to bed you were no where around. You weren't in our room or anything." She looked at me suspiciously with worry clear on her face.
"Um well, I might have been." Guilt washed over me and made me wince. I hated lying to my cousin, I loved her and despised having to keep things from her.
"That drunk, huh?" Phil asked sympathetically. I nodded just as a rhythmic knock sounded from the from door, making us all jump.
"I'll get it!" Phil called. "Meg she's weird about where sit and will probably chuck you out of there so could you please sit by Dan?"
"Okay, Monica!" I called him from Friends as I moved by Dan, the awkwardness growing.
Phil swung the door open to his aunt who entered and sat in the seat I had previously been in. She made herself comfortable and introduced herself to me and Tasha, who had never met her before.
For a while we all had innocent conversations until Agnes, Phil's aunt, asked a very awkward question. "So, Megan." She began. "Are you and Dan dating?" Me and Dan shared a worried, wide eyed look and started wildly shaking our heads, repeating that we are just friends and nothing more. "Oh, sorry. Stupid question." She apologised with a small shake of her round head. "A better question would be, are you and Dan open about your relationship." Again we shared a worried look. "And by relationship I mean sexual relationship or encounter. And by your reactions I'm guessing no." Wow she was really open.
By now all eyes in the room were on us. Tasha and Phil's eyes burned holes through us, making us feel as if we wanted to sink though all nine floors of the flat and disappear. "Nothing's going on between us!" I said slightly too quickly. Dan turned to me and began whispering suggestions of what to say in my ear which weren't taken as helpfully as intended. "Dan!" I squirmed away from him slightly. "Do you really think your lips in my ear is helping?!" We both turned a deep shade of crimson, not knowing what to say or how to make this situation any better. Or trying to think of any possible way it could get worse. Well you never know, a half lama half lion with rabies could climb up the side of the building, smash the glass window and slowly maul us to pieces, although I'd prefer that then to be in this situation right now.
"Look." Dan began confidentially. "No one had sex last night." The awkward silence that came after was horrific before Agnes finally said. "Daniel, I never said anything happened last night."
The next few minutes that followed were the worst in a long time. There was squirming, glaring, awkwardness and I could barely bring myself to make eye contact with anyone in the room, but obviously that was unavoidable. Agnes looked very awkward as she sipped her tea, realising she should never have said anything and looking in any direction but the four of us. Tasha's eyes stared through me, disappointment filling them like invisible salty tears as she flickered between me and Dan, unsure of who she was more upset with but the worst of all of them was Phil. There was no anger or disappointment in his stare but pain, shock and betrayal and it broke me inside.
This went of for a few minutes before Agnes decided she had outstayed her welcome and stood from her chair, discarding her empty mug on the arm of the chair. "Well it's getting late... I should be going." Phil showed her to the door silently, without even thanking her for coming and clicked the door shut after she left, quietly sitting down again. The second Phil sat back in the cushioned one person sofa seat Tasha exploded. "You two slept together?!" She stood to emphasise her anger, her hair falling out of the messy bun it had previously been tied in. "I'm not even pissed off at that, just surprised but you didn't even tell us! Do you know how that makes me feel?" Me and Dan sunk down in our seats, like children who were being scolded for doing something wrong. "Why did this happen?" She asked, her cold, blue eyes glaring into us.
We couldn't bring ourselves to tell Tasha the real reason, that the plan went miserably wrong and that Dan was supposed to sleep with Tasha, not me. "We got really, really drunk." I eventually said. No one said anything for a minute, the feeling of stupidity blinding me until a small voice said, "are you two together now then?" I looked over at the source of the question to see Phil's blue eyes staring strongly at Dan.
"I actually have no idea." Dan said without even a shake in his voice. "We haven't actually talked about that yet."
I flipped my head round and glared at Dan. "We were gonna talk about that?!"
"Well, uh you know.. If you want to." He squirmed uncomfortably under my eyes.
"We'll talk about this later." I stood and moved quickly to the door, grabbing my coat and hat, avoiding the eye contact of those around me and slamming the door shut behind me.