Other Side of the World

Nathan woke up with a jolt in a room that he was unfamiliar with. The soft sheet of comforter that gave him warmth all night gathered around his waist as he sat up, rubbing his temples. His throat felt really dry and a sharp pain pounded against his head. He dragged his body closer to the headboard and rested his head on it. He could hear the sound of the ocean.

Was he dreaming?

Where the hell was he?

He looked to his right, where there was wind blowing from the balcony of the room, swishing the voiles curtain around. He could certainly see the calm ocean. What time was it? Why did he feel as if he was hung-over…?

Hold on.

He felt more awake than ever as his brain processed the events leading up to him sleeping in a bed in a beach house. He was feeling utterly uncomfortable and ill for the week before, which didn’t mean well when the graduation ceremony was a few days after. Even then he felt as if he wanted to puke his lungs out and deal with the whole death thing. He just didn’t care anymore. And that was when Katie decided to invite everyone to a post-graduation party at her family’s beach house. He remembered being in the state of not giving a shit and drinking punch, which happened to be spike. But he moved on to the liquor cabinet and decided to do the honors of drinking two or three bottles clean.

He didn’t know whether to laugh or to scream in horror.

Nathan slid inside the comforter again, staring at the ceiling as he tried to savor the first few minutes of his morning not thinking about things like the fact that he didn’t take his meds (or if he did, he might have washed them down with alcohol) or did his nebs or his oxygen. It was a habit. And he stopped taking anything for a while due to the simple fact that he was lazy and exhausted from the busy, busy weeks.

He smirked. If the disease didn’t kill him first, his mother probably would.

Come to think of it, his phone was out of battery for the longest time. Maybe he’d borrow Katie’s phone to call his parents back home, before they think of unnecessary things. But not before he’d take a shower. He felt horrible and the steam from the hot shower might help.

It was as if at that moment, he finally remembered he had a girlfriend who was in Australia. A girlfriend, who – Nathan thought about it shamefully – he hadn’t call for a while nor pick up her calls, if any, because he was just too damn exhausted, lazy and busy all at the same time to bother.

He cursed under his breath as a rising urge to bang his head against the wall engulfed him.

He needed to search for Katie or any of his friends for that matter immediately.

With that thought set in mind, he rolled to his side, trying to get out of the comforter when he realized that there was a partially undressed girl sleeping next to him.

Search for the word ‘distraught’, ‘confused’ and ‘panicked’ in the dictionary, you’d find ‘Nathan Scott’ in bolded letters under them.

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Haley gave up. She decided to stop daydreaming or brooding and actually pay attention in class. Maybe that was why she had a hard time to understand anything. She also needed to have a couple of projects on her plate. Maybe a couple of volunteer work here and there.

Hopefully, things would brighten up for her in Australia.