The Last Goodbye

Patrick woke up the next morning with the worse migraine he had ever felt before. He couldn’t remember much from the night before, including how he had ended up in his bedroom, but he definitely could feel pain in his stomach when he crawled out of bed, though he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how he had gotten a bruise on his stomach.

He made his way to the bathroom, feeling as if he was going to throw up everything he had drank the night before, which probably wouldn’t have been a bad idea at this point. He wondered what had caused him to drink so much, and soon he remembered that Delaney had gone out with Adam, even after she had made it clear that she didn’t want to date anyone she worked with.

Patrick groaned as he made his way down the stairs towards the kitchen, knowing he needed to get something in his stomach. He had grabbed some aspirin while he was in the bathroom, but the pills were not taking effect nearly quick enough.

He walked into the kitchen and was surprised to see Delaney sitting in there. He couldn’t remember her saying anything about a date with the girls today, but then again, he couldn’t remember much from the previous day. “Wow,” Delaney breathed when she saw Patrick’s appearance as he stepped inside.

“You can say it,” Patrick muttered. “I look like hell, I know,” he told her.

“That may be the understatement of the year,” she said with a small laugh before she saw the glare he was shooting her way and her smile quickly faded. “What happened to you last night?” she asked, a little scared for the answer she was about to receive.

“I drank an entire bottle of vodka and got trashed,” he replied, and Delaney’s eyes went wide.

“Why’d you do that?” she asked quietly, already knowing the answer.

“Because you went on a date with Burish,” he answered, knowing there was no reason to lie to her. She already knew he was upset that she had chosen to go out with him. “How’d that go by the way?” he asked, really wanting to know.

Delaney looked at him for a moment, trying to figure out if he was asking to be friendly or if he truly cared. “Horrible,” she replied honestly, and she could have sworn that she saw a small smile creep across Patrick’s face.

“What happened?” Patrick inquired, and Delaney went into what exactly had happened the night before. “You know, if you would have chosen me, I never would have flirted with the waitress,” he told her as he sat down at the kitchen table across from her, gingerly holding his stomach as he seated himself.

“What’s wrong?” Delaney asked, noticing the grimace on his face.

“You know, I have no idea,” he told her. “I just woke up and I have a bruise on my stomach, and it hurts,” he explained.

“You don’t remember doing anything?” she inquired and he shook his head. “Probably bumped into something when you were drunk,” she said with a smile and Patrick nodded his head, knowing she was probably right.

***

Adam opened the front door of the house, still trying to figure out how he could get away and not have to face either Patrick or Delaney today, something that was impossible. Before leaving his apartment that morning, he had contemplated faking sick, calling in and saying he was just too sick to come in for the day. But, he figured if it hadn’t worked in middle school, it wasn’t going to happen today. Besides, he was going to have to face those two eventually. Why not today?

As he shut the door behind him, he heard someone say his name, and he whipped his head around to see Raylene standing there. “Hey,” he smiled at her as she looked him over. “What are you doing?” he asked, as she continued to look him up and down.

“I’m just checking for any bruising or anything,” she replied, and Adam looked at her curiously. “Make sure you and Pat didn’t get into a fight or anything last night,” she clarified, and Adam started laughing. “I’d appreciate if you didn’t laugh at me right now,” she told him.

“I’m sorry, it’s just funny that you think that if Kaner and I got into a fight that he’d ever get a punch on me. Have you seen Kaner?” he questioned. “I could knock him out in one punch before he ever even thought about hitting me,” he told her.

Raylene’s eyes widened before she said, “Please tell me you didn’t knock him out last night!”

“I didn’t knock him out…per se,” Adam began.

“What did you do?” Raylene questioned, obviously scared for Patrick. “Is he alright? You didn’t hurt him too much, did you? You didn’t put him in the hospital or anything, did you?” she started questioning Adam.

“Raylene, calm down,” Adam said, putting his hands on her shoulders, and Raylene stopped talking, taking a deep breath.

“What did you do?” she repeated her original question.

“I just gave him what he deserved,” Adam shrugged his shoulders.

“What did you do?” Raylene asked once again, her eyes narrowing at Adam, who was surprised by her. She had always been the shy, timid one of the group of girls, but right now she was being resilient with her questioning. “Adam,” she continued.

“I told him to apologize to you. Has he apologized yet?” he asked, hoping to distract her.

“What else did you do besides tell him to apologize?”

“I punched him in the stomach,” Adam finally said, his words coming out in a rush, as he hoped Raylene wouldn’t understand what he was saying.

“You punched him!” she cried, and Adam shut his eyes, both because of how loud she was and because he was a little afraid she was going to smack him.

When he didn’t feel her palm on his cheek, he slowly opened his eyes to see her staring up at him. “I don’t get you, Raylene,” Adam spoke, and Raylene put her hands on her hips, continuing to look at him. “How are you not pissed off at Patrick for what he said to you?” Adam questioned, and he waited for her answer, but she remained quiet. “Do you want to know why I punched him?” Adam questioned, and before she could even answer him, he continued. “Because all he wanted out of you was a quick fuck, and then he said you were too much of a prude to give in!” he said louder than he had intended. He looked down at Raylene to see tears in her eyes, and Adam immediately felt guilty for what he had said. “Raylene, I’m sorry,” he told her, his voice quieting.

“Again, why are you the one apologizing?” she asked quietly, her eyes staying fixed on the ground. “I—I’ve got to go get ready,” she said, walking towards the staircase. Adam sighed to himself, knowing he had just made things worse, not that he could do anything about it right now. So, he made his way into the kitchen, figuring that’s where he could find Patrick right now.

As soon as he stepped inside, he saw Patrick and Delaney sitting together, laughing about something, and he rolled his eyes at the two of them before he made his presence known. “You didn’t apologize,” he said to Patrick, quickly glancing at Delaney before looking at Patrick once again.

“What?” Patrick asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

“To Raylene,” Adam clarified.

“Why would he apologize to Raylene?” Delaney asked, feeling out of the loop.

Adam looked at Patrick for him to fill Delaney in on the situation, but he looked as confused as Delaney did. “What? You’re gonna pretend that you don’t remember last night?” Adam asked, and Patrick told him that he really didn’t remember anything last night minus the fact that he had drank some vodka. “Oh, so you don’t remember trying to get Raylene to sleep with you and when she refused calling her all sorts of names? And, you don’t remember telling me that you were looking for a quick lay from her and that she was too much of a prude to give in to you? And, I’m sure you completely forget me punching you in the stomach last night,” Adam said, his voice rising with every sentence.

“You punched him!” Delaney exclaimed, and Adam couldn’t help but wonder if that was just every woman’s reaction to hearing that. Didn’t they understand that that was what men do? They fight each other.

“Well, that explains the bruise,” Patrick muttered, lifting up his shirt to show the bruise on his abdomen.

“That’s all you have to say?” Adam questioned. “You have nothing to say about what you did to Raylene? You don’t care that you made her cry last night?” he continued, and Delaney looked over at Patrick, wondering how he was going to respond to all of this.

“I was wasted,” Patrick tried to defend himself. “I can’t remember anything past taking the vodka out of the refrigerator. I don’t even remember talking to Raylene last night, let alone trying to get her to sleep with me or making her cry. I’m sure she must have known that I was drunk.”

“You’re a jackass,” Adam spoke before walking out of the kitchen, leaving Delaney and Patrick by themselves.

***

As Patrick sat in the living room by himself that day, Adam’s words ate at his mind, and he wondered if he really had upset Raylene, even if he was drunk. Not being able to get her off of his mind, he made his way upstairs to her room, knocking on it when he found it closed, only to have Kristalyn open the door. “Hey, Pat,” she smiled at him. “What are you doing up here?”

“I was looking for Raylene,” he said, trying to peer around her into the room.

“Raylene,” Kristalyn called out, opening the door further to reveal Raylene sitting on her bed. “Somebody’s here to see you,” she told her, and Raylene looked up from the book she was reading to see Patrick standing there. Her eyes widened a bit, shocked that he wanted to talk to her now, but she stood up anyways, and Patrick led her downstairs.

“So, what did you need to see me for?” Raylene asked.

“Adam talked to me earlier,” he began, and Raylene nodded her head, encouraging him to continue. “He said that I did some things last night that I’m not too proud of,” he told her. “But, in all honesty, I can’t remember anything. I drank some vodka, and let’s just say, I don’t hold my liquor too well, and I can’t remember anything past getting the vodka out of the refrigerator. So, anything that I did or said to you, I don’t remember. But, if I hurt you in any way, I’m sorry,” he told her.

Raylene looked up at him, wondering if he was telling the truth or not. Part of her wondered if this was just him taking the easy way out, pretending he didn’t remember anything. He really had hurt her last night with the things that he had said to her, but she wasn’t going to tell him that. “You’re forgiven,” she told him with a small smile.

“Thank you,” he said, wrapping his arms around her, pulling her in for a tight hug, as Adam watched from afar, wondering why Raylene was forgiving him so easily and why he was feeling the need to defend her so much.