The Beach

Alex groaned a little bit as the sun hit him in his face, waking him up and making him all too aware of the minor headache that was throbbing in the front of his head. He was about to let out another groan, until he became aware that Sawyer was still peacefully sleeping next to him, and he had enough sense not to wake her up. If his memory served him correctly, she had had much more to drink than she should have, and almost certainly more than Alex had drank.

He looked at her, and had to admit that she looked like she had drank more than she should have, even in her sleep. He smiled as he looked at her, because despite her most definite alcohol induced sleep, he was all too well aware that she hadn’t looked this peaceful since she found out that Jake was visiting. Even the night he left, she had still looked like she was restless.

Looking at her now, you would never know she had been so stressed for the past week. She looked like any other twenty something that had given her all to the night before and was going to be feeling the side effects the day after. But at the moment, she looked content, happy, and far from stressed.

Alex, despite the dull throbbing in the front of his head, slowly moved away from the girl cuddled into him, trying his best not to wake her up as he awkwardly maneuvered his limbs off the bed, almost knocking into the bedside table. He paused as he nudged it, looking at the sleeping blond girl to find her unaffected by the noise. He continued to maneuver himself till he was standing next to the bed, slightly hunched forward due to his pounding head.

Alex made his way to the bathroom, careful to shut the door quietly before using the restroom and going in search for the Advil in the medicine cabinet. He finally found some, opened the bottle, popped a couple in his mouth, and used the sink water to rinse them down, not even caring that he had gotten a bit of water on his chin from the running water.

He left the bathroom, creeping his way out of the bedroom, glancing at a still heavily knocked out Sawyer. He carefully closed the door behind him, trying not to wake up Sawyer or irritate his still throbbing head.

Alex crept downstairs, not knowing who was sleeping and who was awake, and afraid to wake any of them. If they all drank like he did last night, he was more than sure that they were going to be feeling very close to how he was feeling. He could hardly remember much of last night, but the glimpses he had included doing a few rounds of shots with his friends, playing a couple rounds of beer pong, and he’s fairly certain that he had some mixed drinks in there somewhere as well.

As he made his way into the kitchen, he was shocked to find a very disheveled looking Austin and Rian, both nursing mugs of piping hot coffee, looking more than hung over.

“Glad I’m not the only one that’s feeling the side effects of last night.” Alex mumbled as he slowly moved over to the coffee pot, pouring the rest of the coffee into the mug he had grabbed. Austin and Rian both mumbled responses that Alex couldn’t quite make out, but he didn’t pay a lot of attention as he started a new pot of coffee, knowing that he was going to need more than one cup, as was evident seeing as the coffee pot was almost empty from just Rian and Austin.

“Dude, we drank way too much last night.” Austin stated with a groan, causing moans of agreement from Rian and Alex as Alex joined the two of them at the table.

“The advil hasn’t even thought about kicking in yet.” Alex muttered, and Rian and Austin let out small laughs.

“Well, I’m sure advil can’t even cure the amount you and Sawyer drank last night. You two were by far the most far gone of everyone. I’m kinda surprised you didn’t end up getting it on in the middle of the living room.” Rian said with a snort, and Alex furrowed his eyebrows, trying desperately to remember what him and Sawyer were like last night.

“We weren’t that bad, were we?” Alex asked, and the other two chuckled, joined by Jack’s as he entered the kitchen as well.

“Dude. Sawyer was groping your crotch in front of everyone, and not very subtlety either.” Jack said with a laugh, heading straight for the coffee pot that was second away from finishing the new batch of coffee.

“Sawyer wouldn’t do that.” Alex said, shaking his head in disbelief.

“She would, could and did.” Jack said with a nod, the other two nodding in agreement as well.

“I really don’t remember this.” Alex said, trying desperately to recall the details of the night before. All he could come up with were bits and pieces, snippets of his actions.

“I’m not surprised. I definitely have pieces of last night missing, but trust me, you and Sawyer were far, far gone.” Jack said, taking a seat at the table with everyone else.

“Damn.” Alex said, shaking his head as he let a small smile slip onto his face.

“Last night was a blast though.” Rian stated, as everyone else agreed, just as Zack walked in with Jayce.

“Coffee” Jayce groaned, heading straight for the coffee pot, leaving Zack chuckling as she poured two cups o f coffee, going to start a new pot.

“Aren’t you hung over Zack?” Jack asked, and Zack responded by shaking his head no with a smile. He moved over to the table, sitting down, followed by Jayce who sat two cups of coffee in front of them.

“I only had a few drinks last night, mostly because everyone else was downing drinks like they were water, and I figured that Sawyer didn’t want people in the house all night.” Zack said, just as a very hung over and half-awake Sawyer stumbled into the room.

“Wow. You look like you had a whole keg to yourself last night.” Zack said with a flinch, and Sawyer groaned as she noticed that the coffee pot was brewing, no longer full. She made her way over to Alex, stealing his cup and taking a large gulp before sighing.

“Normally I’d be really mad that my coffee just got stolen while I’m so hung over, but I know you must need it since you really hate coffee, so I’ll let it slide this time.” Alex commented. Sawyer just glared at him out of her peripheral, carelessly tossing up the middle finger closest to Alex before drinking more of the coffee.

“Wait, you hate coffee, yet you had a full blown stash of coffee in the house when we got here, as well as having the coffee pot. How does that even make sense?” Rian asked, and Sawyer shrugged, handing the cup of coffee back to Alex before sitting down on his lap without warning.

“This one inhales coffee like its water.” She grumbled, leaning into Alex and closing her eyes. The hangover induced migraine she was sporting was making her ability to function almost near impossible.

“Well he’s probably going to have to restock after today. Since there’s 7 of us drinking at the moment, and I’m fairly certain we’re all having more than one cup.” Austin stated, and Alex shrugged. It was a simple fix. The coffee was just at the local market down the street, and it would be a simple 10 minute trip to go get more and bring it back to the beach house if needed.

“So we’re all going to take off today.” Jayce announced, and the room got entirely silent. No one really wanted to think about the fact that within a matter of hours the 7 friends would be separated as 5 of them embarked on their journey back home. Sawyer was especially upset, because she had really grown to like all of Alex’s friends. Sure, she had her friends back home, but she felt so much more at ease with Alex’s friends. She could see why Jake believed they had been friends for years. She felt like she had known them for years herself.

“I vote you don’t leave.” Sawyer grumbled, still trying desperately to ease away the hangover she had.

“I vote we don’t leave too. But we all have things that we have to get back to.” Austin said with a sad smile. “But hey, you have our numbers now. No reason we can’t always talk about everything even when you eventually go back home to California. See. Now you’re stuck with us.” She said, and Sawyer smiled back, nodding in agreement. She would definitely be talking to the two girls frequently.

So rather than dwelling on the topic, the friends continued to fight their hangovers and enjoy the late morning together.