She Won't Be Lonely Long

The night went just as planned. Well, just as Hannah had planned. It was absolutely nothing but three good friends bonding and more importantly enough booze to send you to hell five times and back, if that's relevant. It was a genuinely good time as she challenged the happy couple to a series of make-shift drinking games created by her and the crowd she ran with in Michigan, after Maral left their home shared in Baltimore and financial reasons sent her fleeing home to her beloved 'cow-town'. Hannah was the proud victor each round, only because the games that she had been teaching to her opponents were her own creations and she was the only one who knew ways to cheat. Somehow, she still managed to get incredibly wasted over the night to make for one hell of a hangover by dawn.

"I don't know if taking Hannah out last night was such a great idea." Sergio said to Maral as he was brushing his teeth and she was in the shower.

He was frothing at the mouth, speaking border-line jibberish while green foam sprayed the steamed over vanity-mirror before him. They had just woken up and were preparing for the trials of today.

"Why not? It was fun, wasn't it?"

Sergio chuckled, letting the wild times of their previous night flash through his mind. "It was very fun, but I figure she's feeling rather down today. And today is the day that... he comes."

Maral's jaw fell and she swung open the thick, translucent glass slab separating the two to glare at Sergio.

"Fuckin-A she's gonna be 'feeling down'!" she mocked his accent while quoting him indirectly. "She was wasted last night, Sergio! Call your friend and tell him to wait until tomorrow."

Sergio spit a mouthful of spearmint waste into the sink and faced his dame.

"I can't do that; He's on a plane right now. He'll be here at noon."

Maral threw her arms into the air and rolled her eyes. Her forecast of this particular set-up was getting more and more disastrous as time went on, thanks to her trusty suitor.

"This poor fella is flying here so you can set him up with Medusa in there?!" she let out an obnoxious and dramatic groan.

Sergio pulled his brows together defiantly. "She doesn't remind me of Medusa at all..."

Maral hissed at him. "Sergio, my point is, some hot piece is flying all the way here right now to be with Hannah, and Hannah is going to be very hungover! Hungover Hannah is very different than the slightly melancholy, yet still entertaining and outgoing Hannah that you've come to know. Not a good first impression at all."

Sergio put some thought into her words but still managed to shrug it off.

"So what? We'll tell him that she's hungover and he'll get to know her tomorrow, if its that bad. And he doesn't know he's coming here to meet her. I told him that you wanted to see him and he agreed because he's in need of a vacation. He only decided to come a bit earlier than expected. Relax, darling."

Sergio placed his calloused hands on Maral's bare hips and pulled her out of the shower so he could plant a kiss on her lips without getting completely wet, although it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. He left her to her thoughts, knowing she'd have more than he wanted to hear after such an explanation.

If whoever was on their way could believe that Maral wanted to see him, then she must have befriended him at some point in the past. Against the iron stubbornness in her, a faint soprano voice in the back of her mind suggested that maybe this would be more fun than she thought.

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Noon came around soon and Maral was biting the once perfectly manicured white margin of her finger-nails awaiting the arrival of what she fantasized to be Hannah's knight in shining armor. It shone in her mind against it's fellow gray fibers, a mere filiment of her imagination that she hoped to be reality. He would be tall.. around 6'5" with satiny locks of raven-black hair that reached far past his shoulders, thick and strong as a horse's mane. He would have shoulders broad as a small car that smoothed down to become his perfectly sculpted pecks, two planes of reddish brown silk exposed from the flowing button up shirt he was sporting open.

Maral's imagination skidded to a stop quick, though, before she was on the floor laughing about how well this compared to one of the many soft-porn novels she had thrown out.

Hannah hadn't woken up yet, but hadn't decorated her bedroom with vomit yet either which tipped the scales towards good.

It seemed like days after noon before the sound of tires cracking against a gravel driveway graced Maral's ears. She let out a blood-curdling shriek and hurried to the door, anxiously glaring past the engraved cherry-wood egress and to the frosted glass panelling next to it.

Once the unfamiliar rental-car was parked and the ignition was off, it's door sung open and he stepped out to reveal his identity clearly.

Maral's ridiculously cheesy grin fell into a hideous glower and she turned on her heels towards the living room where Sergio was casually stretched on the couch reading a magazine.

"I am going to kill you." she whispered quickly. "Xabi Alonso? Xabi is the mystery man that your demented brain somehow figured compatible with Hannah?!"

Sergio sat down his magazine at the coffee table adjacent to him and stood to face Maral as she continued babbling.

"They're not alike in any ways, Sergio! He's so nice! And... and friendly."

"Hannah is very friendly." Sergio stated simply to prove wrong her frantic point. It was needle sharp but not of much importance. "And... don't worry, it will work. I've put thought into it."

Maral sighed and looked away from him for a minute, trying to think like she figured Sergio had been thinking while matching Xabi with Hannah. A light-bulb flickered over her head and in a single moment she had convinced herself that Sergio was a genius.

"Oh! I get it!" Maral exclaimed, letting the glitter of a smile reappear on her face.

Sergio didn't wear a grin for her sake, he was too confused. He didn't understand how Maral could possibly understand his decision when he didn't even understand it. He simply stared at Hannah for a minute out of his previous day before deciding that he trusted Xabi with her, and he wouldn't mind having him stay for a week or two. Compatibility wasn't much of a factor in his decision, although he was at the point of bleak realization that maybe it should have been.

"It's the whole opposites attract thing, right?" Maral went on. "You are one sexy genius, babe!"

"Oh." Sergio grunted, bending his lips to create something similar to a triumphant smile. "Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking."

A knock at the door interrupted their conference and Maral lept to answer it. Once the complications had unfolded, she was letting herself feel the excitement of seeing Xabi once again. The two of them got along quite well, in many ways better than he did with Sergio.

He casually stood at the front steps with his scarcely packed bags, acknowledging in his mind how conveniently spontanious this trip was and wondering how it would turn out. It was a bit odd, Sergio calling him and requesting a visit as if they wouldn't see one another the next month anyways. There was a first time for everything, and this was certainly a first. The same went for Maral. But yesterday when Sergio called, something completely anonymous to him tipped the scales towards a trip to Spain.

"Xabier!" Maral rejoiced, throwing her arms into the air and letting them settle over his masculine cabinet of shoulders.

She let the hug remain only for a split second before yanking him inside. Her mind was running wild with creativity. The idea of opposites attracting seemed like a brilliant one to her. Sergio didn't quite believe it, himself, but he stood by it as long as it was saving him from the doghouse for a while.

"Hello." Xabi said while looking at Maral, and held his hand out to Sergio who pulled him into a hug and smacked him on the back.

"I'm glad you're here." Sergio exclaimed, letting Maral and Xabi follow him to settle in the sterile white living room.

Maral and Sergio managed to uphold normal conversation with Xabi for about thirty minutes although the only thing on their mind was getting down to business and completing their mission. Oddly enough, Sergio was the first one to break cover.

As Maral and Xabi fell deeper and deeper into their conversation, Sergio lept to his feet and hastily merged with the shadows being the hallway that held all of the house's bedrooms. Maral continued talking but her lips stretched with excitement as she watched Sergio dissapear, knowing exactly what idea he was fueled by.

He made sure to bang on the flimsy door of Hannah's newly claimed bedroom first but she didn't do much in response besides whimper in pain. Hastily, he invited himself into the primitvely chilly room and turned on the lights.

Soon, Xabi and Maral's conversation was interrupted by a thunderous argument from the back of the house.

"Stop yelling at me!" Hannah shrieked.

"I didn't say anything!" Sergio hollered in response.

"I hate you! You're a bad man! What do you want?!" she asked as loud as she could but still managed to say it in a whiny voice.

The hollering was excrutiating but still seemed necesarry on her part, simply because in her mind he interrupted an incredibly vital day of hibernation and this made him the devil.

"Get out of bed!" he demanded while effortlessly hooking his strong arm around whatever he could get to first, being her right leg. The slick satin sheet that she was lounging on made it significantly easier for him to drag her off of the luxuriosly high bed, all while she was screaming and flopping around like a fish out of water. In the living room, Xabi curiously looked to Maral and she just shrugged it off.

"Kids, right?" she said calmly, relieved that Sergio had still been ignorant enough when it came to Hannah to have a crazy idea such as waking her. Better him than me...

All of the commotion from Hannah's room perished instantly at the sound of a raw thump, that even got Maral a bit concerned.

"Owwwie." Hannah whimpered, clutching her head and curling into a ball on the bleak hard-wood floor that her noggin had so abrubtly came to know. "That didn't help my hangover much."

Sergio's eyes widened and he knew that he'd best start apologizing. "I'm sorry!'

"No." Hannah whispered dramatically, swiftly pulling the romantic peach-colored sheet off of the bed to cover her face. "Leave me in peace."

All of Sergio's sentiment dissappeared in an instant and he recalled the mission that he had came for. Their argument wasn't loud enough that Xabi and Maral could hear it, but for lack in volume it compromised with time. It was nearly fifteen minutes before Sergio could get Hannah into the living room... fully dressed, that is.

A substantial amount of struggle on her part alerted Xabi and Maral that they were approaching. Sergio led Hannah into the living room by her arm, looking very displeased and anguished. Golden brown ringlets of frizz buzzed around her head like a lion's mane and her eyes were poofy, nearly welded shut with so much rest. Her mere presence burned with alcohol and she cringed whenever someone spoke, sending a bolt of excruciating white light slicing through her brain. Not the best first impression, indeed.

"Hannah, this is Xabi." Sergio stated as Hannah was struggling to escape from his grasp.

His finger nails tore at her skin like the stretchy rubber wrapping of fresh produce and his tenacious fingers hardened to concrete on her so that her only way of inching out would be to melt the structure of her arm. Groaning in defeat, Hannah looked to where Sergio had directed her, the couch where Xabi was nervously grinning. Instantly she was stunned by the handsome lad sitting before her. Everything she was doing was so unladylike that she stopped it all and simply stared at him.

"H-hi." she breathed, remembering to finish with a smile.

Maral and Sergio looked to one another, pleased with Hannah's reaction to Xabi.

"Hello." Xabi returned, pushing himself off of the couch to take her delicately limp hand in his and shake it. "It's nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, too." Hannah returned, quite proud of herself that she had remembered to speak.

She excused herself only with permission and trudged into the kitchen, disappointed to see that Sergio was following close behind. He took a seat at the counter again and watched her as she found herself a carton of juice again, basically the same awkward scene as the day before.

"What do you want?" she whined, dropping the carton onto the counter and digging into the cupboards for a glass.

The mess of ratted curls hugging her head moved lightly as she did and every action was accompanied with an exasperated look on her face. The previous night was haunting her in a malevolent way.

She stopped moving for a minute and glared at him until he answered.

"So, Xabi... he's sexy, isn't he?" Sergio chimed, putting his hand under his chin and grinning for her response.

Hannah staggered backwards, a sparkle of fake horror in her eyes.

"Sergio..." she gasped. "Out of all the pebbles I know, I never expected you to turn out fruity."

He cringed in confusion. There were certain expressions she used that he didn't understand, this being one of them.

"What?"

She chuckled and shook her head while beginning to fiddle with the carton of juice again.

"Nevermind."

He settled with that and returned to the subject at hand. "Anyways, Xabi..."

His pushiness on the topic was beginning to give him away; She literally growled at him.

"You fucker." she sniped. "Stop trying to set me up with guys that look like... that."

Sergio didn't even bother denying the central accusation made, although it may have supported his point in the very near future. He was too distracted with the last thing she had added.

"Look like what? Would you rather him be fat and ugly? Because Xabi is perfect!"

"Yes, perhaps that would be better." She said calmy while manuvering around the counter to join him, planting her butt on the over-stuffed circular cushion of the barstool next to his. "I'm begging you to quit this. I don't need a boyfriend right now."

"He's just here to visit." Sergio said innocently, a bit too late though.

"Right. Can I please go to bed now?"

Sergio coughed and shook his head, stealing from her a glass of juice and tipping its contents into his mouth. "No. Go shower and wash the smell off of you; I'm drunk just breathing by you. Then we will go to lunch."

"I would say no but I'm afraid you'll throw me on the floor again." she spat crystally before stomping out of sight to do as he said.