Like Chocolate Stars and the Sun

I woke up the next morning and groaned. My head felt like something insanely big and heavy, something along the lines of an elephant, was sat on top of it and just opening my eyes made it feel even worse. When I finally managed to open my eyes for more then two seconds at a time I noticed the sunlight was already blaring in through the windows. I honest felt like I had been asleep for two minutes, not however long I actually had been asleep.

I tried sitting up, but I guess I tried too early and too fast, because as soon as I sat upright my stomach heaved and I was forced to rest my head on the pillow once again.

As my head found it’s was to the soft pillow I noticed that the pillowcases had a strange scent that was nothing like the flowery scent of the fabric conditioner my mother used. Now I actually realised that the room I was in was not my own like I thought it had been, but in fact someone else's. I scrunched my eyebrows together and tried to remember something, anything, from the night before. The one thing I could definitely remember was spending a lot of time in the bathroom ... my stomach churned at the thought of being sick so I quickly shook the thought from my head. I heard door hinges squeak and then some light footsteps crossing from one side of the room to the other.

“Frankie?” Jesse's voice rung out through the quiet room. I considered sitting up to let him know I was awake, but the queasy feeling in my stomach was telling me to stay exactly where I was. So instead I groaned quietly and closed my eyes.

“I want to sleep.” I mumbled into the soft pillowcase. The light didn’t hurt my eyes half as much when they were shut.

“So you have finally surfaced?” I didn’t need my eyes open to tell he was grinning.

“Shut up!” I groaned and opened my eyes again, squinting in the bright sunlight.

“Aww, does someone have a hangover?” He asked as I felt the bed dip as he sat down. I glared at him, but Jesse just seemed to find it hilariously funny.

“How have you managed to come out of this unscathed?” I asked groggily and brushed my hair out of my eyes. Again he laughed.

“I know when to stop.” He stated simply. If I hadn’t have been almost throwing up, I would have hit him there and then.

“Did no one think to tell me I had gone overboard slightly?” I asked him as I carefully sat up. I took a deep breath to try and calm the churning of my stomach as I did so.

“Brandon did try,” Jesse pointed out as I searched through my blurry memories of the previous night. Sure enough I could remember my brother mentioning I had over done it slightly. This time I closed my eyes for a different reason, not because I felt tired or ill, but because I was quite embarrassed about myself. Because that’s never happened before.

“I'm actually never drinking again.” I sighed and looked over at the clock on the wall closest to the door. It read one forty five, in the afternoon.

“Is it really that late?” I asked and rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Jesse nodded.

“Yeah, don't worry about going home any time soon.” Jesse said sarcastically. I scowled at him, and then remembered I was not in my own bedroom.

“Can I just ask why I am here?”

“You drunk a little too much, did some stupid things and then threw up in my bathroom. So I just let you sleep here.” Jesse shrugged. “Plus I don't think your mom would have been happy about coming home absolutely smashed.”

“Two things,” I replied, “How am I going to explain this to my mum, and second what stupid things did I do?” I asked him curiously.

“Well your mom thinks you had a bad Chinese,” Jesse grinned, he looked quite pleased with himself for coming up with the idea. “I thought I would keep it simple, so it doesn't clash with the whole movie night thing. She just told me to let you sleep till you were better.” Jesse shrugged and looked out of the window, purposely avoiding my second question.

“Thanks for that,” I smiled gratefully. As long as my mother didn't find out I had been drinking, I might make it out of this year alive. “But you didn't answer my second question.”

“There was a second question?” He replied innocently. I glared at him.

“Don’t keep things from me Jesse.” I simply stated.

“You might be mad.” He stood up from the end of his bed and walked round so he was leaning against the window ledge.

“Try me.”

“Well you know about the drinking part right?” Jesse explained quietly. “Well that led onto you kind of, sort of;” he sighed “throwing yourself on Tyler...”

“Define throwing myself on him.” I asked quietly, even though I could see exactly where this was going to be heading.

“Erm... well. You kind of started making out with him, but you seemed to be doing most of the work.” Jesse cringed, most likely at his horrible descriptive abilities.

“And you let me?” I asked, still a little shocked.

“I pulled you off him,” Jesse held up his hands. “And I made sure that when you threw up that none of it ended up in your hair. I think did my bit.”

“I suppose,” Again I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. “God I've screwed up big time!” I groaned and put my head in my hands.

“Frankie, relax.” Jesse's voice sounded even more soothing then usual while my eyes were closed. “Most people wont even remember last night, you have no idea how many beer bottles and beer cans I have had to throw away. The trash can outside is almost overflowing. Plus, there is no guarantee anyone actually saw anything you did...”

“You did,” I pointed out. “So someone else will have done as well. And knowing my wonderful luck, it will not be a nice person.”

Jesse moved over towards where I was sat and perched on the side of the bed. I shuffled over so he could sit down without almost falling off the bed.

“Just take anything anyone says with a pinch of salt.” Jesse told me as he placed his arm casually round my shoulders. “Believe me, I've known some of these people for most of my life, they will only bother if they know it gets to you.”

“You mean Stacey?” I asked. Jesse laughed and rubbed my arms. I hadn't realised how cold my arms actually were until I could feel Jesse trying to warm me up.

“Your freezing.” He whispered in my ear. I opened my mouth to argue but I shivered involuntarily, weather it was because I actually was cold I'm not quite sure, so I just clamped my mouth shut.

“I wasn't until you started rubbing my arm.” I laughed. The two of us sat in silence for a few minutes before Jesse abruptly stopped rubbing my arm and stood up from his seat on the bed.

“I'm going to let you get changed then.” He walked over to the door and smiled.

“If I have to.” I sighed. “Though I am quite comfy here.” Jesse rolled his eyes at me and shut the door. I sat still under the warm covers and waited for a few minutes, half expecting him to burst back in randomly. But after who knows how long passed I peeled back the covers and climbed out of the bed.

I wondered what I was going to get changed into, all I had on me was the clothes I had worn the night before, and there was no way I would be putting those back on. So I stood in the middle of the room, in a shirt that was five times too big for me and my tights from the night before and tapped my foot, scanning the room for any clothes that were mine. Then I noticed some jeans on the floor close to Jesse's wardrobes. I reached down to pick them up and found a complete change of clothes underneath. I figured my mother must have sent my brother round with them, or dropped them off herself.

I quickly got changed and pulled the thin sweater over my head my mother had decided to throw into the change of clothes for me. Which was a really great thing, because whenever I have been ill I seem to loose all body heat. Although I was not 'ill' as such, I had thrown up a lot the night before – so it kind of counted.

“You ready to act sick?” Brandon was sat at the counter in the middle of Jesse's kitchen when I walked in after getting changed. He looked over at me with a mock sympathetic look on his face. I crossed my arms and glared at him.

“I think I may had made a miraculous recovery.” I smiled at him. He rolled his eyes at me and stood up from his seat.

“That's a relief, because you were never any good at acting.” My brother put his arm around my shoulders and smirked. I'm pretty sure I heard Jesse laugh as well, though he tried to disguise it with a cough. I looked up at my brother with a glare and jerked my shoulders from under his arm. I never liked people resting their arms on my shoulders, because it made me feel smaller then I already am.

- - -

Once I was home my mother started fussing over me. Despite insisting I was feeling a lot better, she still felt the need to check on me every hour to make sure I was still alive. Which I was, because nothing was seriously wrong with me. Its not like I had a really bad life threatening illness, just a headache due to drinking more then I should have the night before.

But of course I couldn't tell my mum that.

Halfway through the afternoon I heard a car pull up outside of the house. I glanced out of the window to see if I recognized the car, expecting it to be one of my parents friends that only visited at the weekends, to be greeted with a car that I had not wanted to see.

The bitch was back.

I slowly made my way to the top of the stairs and sat down on the top step, peering through the gaps in the banister. The familiar blonde who owned the pink Volkswagen beetle parked on the drive was stood in the hallway talking to my brother.

I sighed and got up from the step I had been sat on. I suppose I couldn't stop my brother being friends with Stacey, no matter how much I hated her. Also, I was going to try and not let her get to me. Despite how hard that was going to be.

I walked down the stairs slowly and went into the kitchen, my mother must have heard me coming down the stairs because as soon as I set foot in the kitchen she was once again fussing over my well being.

"Francesca you really should try and sleep, it will make you feel better." My mum sighed as I searched for a glass in the cupboards. I turned around to face my mum and smiled gratefully. She meant well, but there was no real need for it. But of course I couldn't tell her that exactly.

"Honestly Mum, I'm feeling a lot better now." I sighed lightly and began pouring myself some water. "Plus I think I slept enough last night to keep me from being tired for another week."

"If you start feeling sick at anytime, just let me know." My mum smiled and then turned her head towards the direction of the living room, where I guessed my brother and the evil one were, "Are you friends with this Stacey?"

I fought back the need to laugh.

"Not exactly friends, no." I explained. "We've had a fair share of ... disagreements."

"Oh really?" My mother asked, she sounded almost ... surprised. "She seems like a lovely girl. And its not like you to dislike someone Francesca."

"I never said I didn't like her Mum," I replied. I wasn't exactly lying, those words had never left my mouth - not today at least. "I don't think we are on the same wave length, that's all."

After making a poorly improvised excuse to escape from the kitchen I quietly walked into the living room, purely out of curiosity. Though I must not have been quiet enough to stay inconspicuous, as as soon as I set one foot in the room Brandon turned round to look over in my direction.

“Hey Frankie.” He smiled, though I could see something in his expression that was confused to why I had even come downstairs. I didn't even know myself why I had decided to come downstairs, apart from getting a drink - but I could have gotten a drink from the tap upstairs.

"Francesca," Stacey beamed in a sickly sweet voice. "Are you feeling any better?"

"I was," I replied, mocking her sickly sweet – and may i just add totally fake – voice. Stacey's eyes narrowed, but she quickly recovered and raised her hand to point at my glass.

"I hope that's only water Francesca," Stacey was trying to sneak some form of fake concern into her voice as she spoke. Now it was my turn to narrow my eyes.

"What do you mean?" I asked, she was planning something and I knew it wouldn't be good.

"Just don't over do it like last night." She smiled falsely and turned back around. My eyes went wide and I looked over at my brother. He just shook his head and mouthed the words "Just leave it.". Then my brother turned around as well, so I stormed out of the room. I knew she was planning something, but something as petty as bringing up the fact I ended up a little on the drunk side the night before was being almost, well childish. Was she really so bored that she wanted to wreck my relationship with my parents as well?

For once in my whole life, I couldn't wait for the weekend to be over.

And that's saying something...