Belle of the Boulevard

Chapter 3.
I woke up in an unfamiliar place, with sunlight streaming through a window across the room, painfully blinding me.
I quickly sat up, which was a mistake. What had to the Worlds Worst Hangover, pounded through the walls of my brain, threatening to burst through. I grimaced, then suddenly discovered, with a quick look at the walls surrounding me, that I was most defiantly, without a doubt, in a guys room. The walls were painted an off- white with tons of posters of heavy metal bands leering down at me. There wasn’t much furniture in the room itself. In fact there was only the king-sized bed that took up three-fourths of the room, and a miniscule nightstand.
Sincerely hoping that this was not Average’s bed, I jumped to the floor and realized I was still wearing the clothes from last night, sans my pants. I still had on my sweaty gray tank top, but instead of my skinny jeans, I wore a pair of unfamiliar plaid boxer shorts. Maybe this is Plaid Shirt’s house, I thought, relieved at the fact. Maybe he had an infinity for plaid. My shoulders relaxed. That means Elle was probably here too somewhere. Struck with that sudden thought, I squeezed past the bed and opened the door out into a small hallway, and tiptoed down the stairs.
In the living room, there was no sign of Elle or Plaid Shirt and the couch looked untouched. On the dusty floor however, were a spread of blankets. Why would Elle and Plaid Shirt give me the bed instead of the couch, I wondered making my way into the kitchen. My head gave another nasty throb as I pushed open the swinging door. It came hurtling back towards me almost immediately, having come into contact with something on the other side. I quickly jumped back, hearing a grunt and a smash on the other side.
“Oh no! Oh shit, I’m so sorry” I said pushing open the door to revel Andrew on the other side. I flinched in shock. Why was Andrew here? And where was Elle?
He was stretched across the floor, nursing a small cut on his hand. Beside him were two broken coffee cups sitting in a puddle of steaming hot chocolate.
“What are you doing here? Where’s Elle?” I demanded
He glared at me. “This is my house.” he said cooly. “And your friend ditched you last night. She’s probably at Stephens place right now”
“What? Who the hell is Stephen?” I snapped, bending down to help pick up some of the glass.
“Stephen?” he said raising an eyebrow at me
I shrugged.
“The guy with your friend last night? Drove you to the party? Man how drunk were you?” He said eyeballing me.
Oh. I realized that I never learned Plaid Shirts name. Elle was still with him? A horrible thought dawned on me. But that means she never came to my rescue last night. How dare she leave me in my time of need like that? Passed out on the lawn like that! Anyone could have taken advantage of me in my state. She could be such a selfish, self-absorbed-
“Whoa, careful! Your holding that glass a little too tight” Andrew said uncurling my clenched hands. There were several little bleeding cuts on my palm were the glass had dug into my skin. He looked at me sympathetically and threw the remaining glass in the trash can.
“So what exactly happened? How did I get here?” I asked
He stood up, rocking on his heels, making him look like a tree swaying in the breeze.
“Well, I found you passed out in the front yard. You’d already by the looks of it thrown up, so I carried you to the porch and went to go get your friend. But I couldn’t find them anywhere.” He paused and looked me straight in the eye. “I heard about your little scandal while I was in there” I blushed a deep red. “So I figured it would be a good idea not to tell Brian what was going on. I asked a friend for a ride, went and got you, and here we are” he said simply

I sat in silence for a minute before saying “Well thank you for taking care of me. I’m not entirely positive that Elle would have.” I said smiling at him.
He shrugged. “I couldn’t exactly leave you there. My conscious would be after me for weeks”
I laughed, getting to my feet. I felt my phone vibrating like crazy in the pocket of the boxers I was wearing. I gave Andrew a quizzical look before pulling it out and glancing at the ID.
Elle.
I so didn’t want to talk to her right now.
I wanted to scream at her.
Andrew took one look at my face and took his cue to leave, the door swinging closed behind him.
“Talk” I said into the receiver.
“OHMYGODYOURALIVE” breathed Elle on the other end.
I said nothing.
“Oh my god. Thank Goodness! Where are you?”
I still said nothing.
“Look, I know your pissed, but-”
“No! There is no ‘but’ Elle, I mean what the fuck, you just left me out there? How selfish can you be? Not once in our six years of friendship have I ever left you. EVER. No matter how much I fucking wanted to” I shouted, pacing around the small kitchen.
“But, wait let me explain-”
“No, you let me talk. Where the fuck are you? Where is the car? You know, Andrew had to take me to his place, because you never showed up when I needed you for once, but nooo, it‘s always about YOU. Isn‘t it?!” I could feel my face getting redder and redder as I shouted.
Elle made a protesting sound but I plowed on.
“Whenever this happens to you which is OFTEN, I’m always there to hold your hair back while you puke, or carry you to the car. Do you know how scary it was for me to wake up in an unfamiliar place, not knowing how you got there? Well I hope it was worth it, I hope Stephen was great in bed. You know what, maybe I should have expected this, because you always THINK ABOUT YOURSELF” I stopped, all out of steam.
Then I hung up, wishing I had a flip phone instead of touch screen so I could slam the cover shut, with a satisfying thwack. Instead I settled for jabbing the end button extra hard, making a little technicolor fingerprint on the screen.
I stood, there with my chest heaving.
Man that felt sort of good. Not good but great. Finally letting two years of pent up frustration out felt fabulous.
She called me back of course, and I answered, not saying anything.
“Ok, I’m sorry and everything you said was completely right, and please don’t be mad at me anymore because yourmybestfriendandIloveyou.” That last part I could barely make out because she had burst into tears, garbling her words.
I sighed, feeling my temper balloon deflating.
“Ok, ok don’t cry. Just come and get me.” I said.
“Areyoustillmad” She wailed
“Shit Elle, what do you think? Of course I’m still mad. I’m gonna be mad for a while” I said exasperated.
She cried a little longer, and I just stood there with the phone cocked between my shoulder and ear, doodling on Andrew’s little whiteboard that was filled with what looked like it was used for grocery lists. I waited until her tears had reduced into little sniffles before asking her when she was coming to get me.
“Well Stephen went to the store, but as soon as he gets back, we’ll be there.” she sniffed.
We hung up and I walked into the living room to find Andrew watching TV on the couch.
He had his feet propped on the lone coffee table in the middle of the room. I wished I could too, but it was too far away for my feet to reach. There were many Coke cans littering the floor, long veils of cobwebs draped in every corner, and the floor had a certain grainy film on it. I grimaced and tiptoed the rest of the way, because I was barefoot. I could tell he hadn’t cleaned in a long time. Possibly ever.
I joined him there, tucking my feet under me to avoid touching the floor, and watched South Park with him for awhile.
“So, uh…were you mad at her or something? I couldn’t tell” he asked, trying to keep a straight face.
I glared at him.
“Yeah, something like that. I don’t know, maybe a little”
“Just a tad?”
“Yeah just a tad” I said putting my index and thumb close together to show him.
He burst out laughing.
“Sorry. I uh, couldn’t resist” he said flipping his hair.
I nodded, focusing on the TV where Eric Carman cursed like a sailor at little Kenny for being poor.
Kenny then promptly died, causing Andrew to dissolve into laughter.
“You know you shouldn’t bottle up your anger like that. It’s, uh bad for you” he said
I stared at him. He was kind of a hypocrite, concerned about other peoples health when yet his living room looked like shelter for hobos.
“Actually, I prefer it that way” I sniffed trying my best to finger comb my messy bedhead. “That way when I do get mad, its like ten times worst than my normal mad.”
Suddenly, it occurred to me that my pants were still missing.
“So, um, where are my pants?” I asked
He turned and looked at me, very serious.
“I’m wearing your pants” he said solemnly
I quickly looked down, seeing that he was in fact, pulling my leg and totally falling for it.
“Not funny” I grouched.
“Ok, you threw up on them so I tossed them in the wash. They’ll be done soon, I expect”
I grimaced. Gross and embarrassing. First I hook up with another girls guy, then I puke on myself.
I have so much class.
“Well, Elle and Stephen should be here soon. I’m guessing in about thirty minutes or so?”
He went to got put my jeans in the dryer, and when he returned he gave me a mischievous look.
“So what exactly happened between you and Brian?”
“I don’t want to talk about it” I said crossing my arms.
“Well, he said that you came onto him and-”
“WHAT? No no no no. He came onto me. He got me drunk!” I interrupted.
He held his hands out. “Don’t shoot the messenger now, I’m just telling you what he said.
I crossed my arms, fuming.
“Well, he came on to ME, got me drunk, then we fooled around and this blond chick showed up. She totally wailed on him.” I said.
His face lit up. “Oh, that’s Cheyenne, his girlfriend. That bitch is crazy” He said gleefully.
“Wow, awesome, thanks” I said sarcastically.
“Well, did you want me to lie? She IS crazy”
“No, but you don’t have to look so damn happy about it” I glared at him.
The doorbell rang behind his, and I made no move to go get it.
We sat there in an expected silence.
“Uh…that’s, probably your friend.” Andrew said, stretching his arms out in front of him.
“I know” I answered, looking away.