The Hardest Part of Today is a Hangover.

I took a large breath of the cool night air, letting it run through my body and refresh every cell I had just killed in the past few hours. My mind tingled from the crispness and made me smile as I lit up a cigarette—a habit I had picked up heavily after Oli left—and took a large puff, resting against the banister of the back porch.

I was the only person outside, which was a nice change from the loud, booming music and the cheers and chants echoing from the kitchen—usually from a contest of some sort, which I usually participated in, but on a night like this—a night where I was thinking way too much for my own good—I didn’t have the will to chug and entire boot full of beer. It just wasn’t in me at this moment.

Taking another puff of my cigarette I sighed, dropping my head onto the banister.

What has come over you, Annabelle? I groaned inside my head, blowing the fallen hair from my face and stomping out my cigarette. At that same moment the sliding glass door swung open and Caitlin—or Caity. Whatever you want to call her—came running through the door, grabbing my arm.

“We need to leave,” she mumbled hastily.

I laughed. “Caitlin, the night’s just getting started.” Did she really think I was going to leave this early? Hell no! I was shocked that she wanted to leave so early, but she had to wake up early tomorrow to deliver the mail, so it might make a little since…

But the fact that she was in such a rush made me slightly confused.

“No, no. I’ll tell you when we get in the car. Just- Just come on!” she yelled as she pulled me towards the steps of the back porch.

“Anna! You better get your skinny little ass over here!” Erin’s voice rang through the air, making my head snap back so fast I almost gave myself whiplash. “I know you’re not trying to leave when we just got here, love. That’s a little early for you,” she laughed, making her way towards me.

I sighed. “Erin, what are you doing here? You know this environment is bad for the baby.”

Even if I was acting like an idiot I still had a little bit of mind left—I still had a little bit of my conscious left, too, but that rarely reared its’ ugly head. Erin showing up was just the icing on the cake of my shitty week coming to an end and another shitty one starting…because, in all honesty, I already knew who she had showed up with and why, exactly, she had showed up—to prove her point.

And that point that I was too far gone to come back.

I knew that, Caitlin knew that, Erin and Adam knew that, but I knew Oli would deny it with every ounce of his being. That’s just Oli for you—always trying to make something work when nobody else was willing to commit their time.

“Oh, hush, Anna. You know whose inside and you know he’s looking for you,” she spat at me, disgusted.

Did I mention that I had pissed her off royally in the past months? Oh, well, I did. I pissed her off back from no return, probably—she was never going to be the same with me again. My partying was too out of hand for her and Adam, I guess. Or maybe that was just the deal with the record store and something else was pissing them off, but I had pissed them off either way.

“I don’t want to see him,” I whispered helplessly.

I really, really didn’t. Seeing him would only make things even more complicated than before and things, actually, were quite complicated. I, of course, made them that complicated, but my mind was rattled. I was free, I guess you could say.

“He wants to see you,” she whispered back, a hurt look on her face. “He wants to see you so bad, Anna. Just give him that. Please.”

I sighed and looked at Caitlin, who was picking at her nails, bored out of her mind and obviously not paying attention to a single word we were saying. The drugs have obviously kicked in a little earlier than expected.

“No, Erin,” I sighed, grabbing Caitlin’s hand and walking down the steps. “Tell him I’m glad he made it back, though!” I shouted behind me, making my way around the corner of the house, the wet grass sloshing under my feet.

And, the next thing I knew, Caitlin was on the ground, laughing her ass off because her foot got stuck in a hole. She was absolutely beside herself, which made me forget my previous problems and try and get her out of the hole.

This is why I keep her as a best friend—she’s so fucking entertaining.