When the Sun Comes Up

Gabe blinked a few times before his eyes adjusted and he started to panic, this was Kaitlin's room,what had he done. His head felt like there was a jackhammer going at it, but he forced himself to sit up. He lifted the blanket, and gave a sigh of relief when he saw Ryland sleeping beside him. He spotted the glass of water and pills beside the bed, he smiled. He didn't question how they had shown up there, he just took the pills and drank all the water. He got out of bed and tip-toed down the hall and peeked into Claudia's room Kaitlin was sleeping alone. He tried to turn away but knocked down the wooden peace sign hanging on the door.

"shit," He whispered picking up the peace sign and trying to hang it back up.

"Perv."

He jumped and dropped the wooden peace sign again, he looked up and turned his attention to Kaitlin, she grinned before sitting up.

"If you were awake why'd you let me think you were asleep?"

She shrugged, "I've been trying to go back to sleep since," she glanced at the alarm clock, "ugh three hours and thirty three minutes ago when Claud left."

"where'd she go?"

"honestly I don't know she said something about a dog and coffee?"

"oh," he finally got the peace sign back on the door, "so uh why were Ry and I in your bed?"

She got out of the bed and walked past him to the bathroom, "you mean you don't remember?"

Gabe followed her and stood in the doorway as she brushed her teeth, "no, I mean I remember you graduated yesterday, Congrats by the way, and uh I remember Alex threw you a party at his place, but after that I'm drawing a blank."

She spit into the sink and pointed her toothbrush at him, "well you did get like super wasted like I had to drive your car here, while Claudia drove you guys in her car. Honestly I'm glad she didn't leave early like she wanted to because I cannot handle drunk people."

"how wasted was I?"

She rinsed out her mouth and set her toothbrush back in the holder, she gave a small
laugh, "yeah uh, you were pretty fucked up."

He stepped aside so she could get out, he then followed her down stairs and into the living room, she turned the TV on and skipped through a few channels before just leaving it on the midday news.

"Like you weren't walking straight towards the end of the night, and like you weren't speaking English, you kept switching between Spanish and I think it was Hebrew. Ryland on the other hand was speaking English but in a British accent and was even referring to himself in third person but I guess he had like a different persona or something because he kept calling himself Guy something with an R."

Gabe gave a small chuckle they really must have been fucked up because Ryland only referred to himself as Guy Ripley when he was super drunk. he put his feet up on the coffee table and got comfortable.

"so what do you remember?"

"uh well most of the people at the party were Alex's friends so like I pretty much stuck by you guys. Um I danced with Nate for a few songs then he dissapeared, I don't think I saw him again until we needed help getting you guys into the car. I danced with Ry for a while, then he went to get a drink, um Claud was pretty much texting the whole time then said she needed air and went outside. Uh you were pretty like buzzed when you asked me to dance, and like you kept drinking, I guess I could have told you to stop or something but I dunno it didn't seem like that big of a deal."

"You guys are loud"

Gabe looked over his shoulder and smiled at a tired looking Ryland decending the stairs.
"morning Ry, you want some coffee?"

He gave a small nod, Kaitlin quickly got off the couch and made her way into the kitchen. Ryland lied down on the couch resting his head on Gabe's lap, "My head is killing me."

Gabe nodded, "yeah apperently we got really trashed last night."

"I know," Ryland groaned.

"so you remember last night?"

"bits and pieces."

"Like what?" Gabe asked, wondering what had happened last night.

"uh, Nate and Alex dissapeared or at least I didn't know where they were, but then again I think I saw Nate go somewhere with some girl. Uh you said something about wanting to get laid, but you were like nervous and were drinking the whole night, I'm pretty sure you and Kait snuck off at one point. I remember something about a girl with pink shoes, I think I kissed a girl with pink shoes, I don't know."

Gabe's stomach felt like it had dropped, he and Kaitlin had hooked up again and she's just going to pretend like it hadn't happened again, why did she keep doing this? Maybe she only thought of him as an easy fuck? He shook the thought and listened to Ryland ramble on about the girl he thinks he kissed.

"Dude if all you can remember is the color of her shoes maybe you didn't kiss her?"

Ryland shrugged, "I remember the kiss, but I don't remember her face like it was, I don't know I mean I remember she smelled good and had pink shoes and umm. . .I don't know I think it was outside because it was warm but not like too much bodyheat type warm. Do you think Kait saw?"

"saw what?" She asked carrying a tray with three mugs of coffee on it along with cookies.

"The mystery girl Ryland thinks he kissed, " Gabe replied trying to act like he didn't know about the two of them possibly hooking up.

"oh that's why when you were all British or whatever you were saying something about how you were in love or something like that."

Gabe snickered at Ryland's behavior, Ryland glared at Gabe and picked up a mug of coffee.

"Claudia didn't drink at all, maybe she saw?" Kaitlin suggested.

Ryland mumbled a small 'yeah'.

"I bet you kissed a dude wearing pink sneakers," Gabe said laughing and jumping off the couch, "now if you'll excuse me I need to take a piss."

Gabe made his way into the bathroom, and splashed water on his face, he looked at himself in the mirror. He needed a shave, and maybe a haircut. He forced a smile as he gave himself a small pep talk, he probably didn't even have sex with Kaitlin last night they probably just were pulling a prank on someone right? they did have the same sense of humor. . .

Gabe heard the door shut and figured Claudia was home, he gave himself one last look in the mirror assuring himself that there was nothing wrong with him, and exited the bathroom. A tiny black fur ball rushed at him, he picked it up.

"Hi doggy what's your name?" he tried to find a tag but didn't see one, "hey where'd the dog come from? can we keep it?"

Claudia laughed, "I borrowed him from a friend at work, His name is Gizmo, isn't he cute?"

Gabe looked over at her, "yeah he's, oh my God! Guys look she's wearing pink shoes!"

"uh yeah, aren't they cute?"

Gabe and the other two exchanged looks, Gizmo squirmed in Gabe's grasp, he set the dog down and gave Ryland a small shrug.

"what's going on? is there something I'm not getting?" Claudia asked setting her purse on the coffee table and sitting on the nearest chair.

"Did we kiss last night?"

"No," her face flushed and she began to play with her hair, "I uh, no why?"

"You so did! that's what you do when you Lie!" Kaitlin exclaimed.

"No I uh it didn't mean anything I just," she looked around, "well you know atleast I didn't make Gabe call Ian and tell him that he's better in bed than Ian was!"

Kaitlin face turned pink, "I told you not to tell anyone!"

"yeah well you just sold me out!" Claudia exclaimed getting up and running towards her bedroom.

Ryland stood up, "okay. . .uh maybe I should uh- I'm going to go talk to her."

Gabe looked at kaitlin, "uh you made me drunk dial your ex?"

She burried her face in her hands, her voice muffled by her hands replied, "yes, I'm sorry. I just. . . I don't know what I was-"

"I can't really hear you," he said feeling guilty, about harrassing an innocent guy.

"it's just he was my best friend before we started dating, and he promised he'd come to my graduation and I just I dunno I miss the friendship. I'm really sorry I mean I was having fun hanging out with you and like I dunno it made me miss Ian and I'm sorry can we pretend this never happened?"

"that's all that happened between us last night right?"

She nodded, "yeah, I'm sorry."

Gabe nodded, he knew what it was like to be heartbroken it always hurts; but it's worse when it's the first person you've ever been in love with so he couldn't really blame her. He was fine with just pretending it never happened, "so can you believe Ry and Claud?"

She shook her head, "no I mean honestly I thought she and Alex were a possiblity, ya know cuz they're always talking all secretly and stuff, or maybe even her and Nate since they're always messing around."

"That's funny, I always thought you and Alex."

"What?" she laughed, "why?"

"I don''t know I guess it's cos you guys are all into cooking and you guys are always hanging out with him when I'm at work."

She shook her head, "nah I love that Alex likes to cook, but other than that, no."

Gabe beamed, he no longer had to worry about Alex and Kaitlin hanging out, "as for Nate she treats him the way she treats me so, I think she thinks of him as like a kid brother or something."

"Yeah you're right, I didn't think of it that way. I was thinking like you know how kids are mean to eachother when they like eachother. Strange."

He nodded and focused on the tv. Kaitlin nudged him, he looked at her and she motioned towards the stairs.

Ryland walked down, upon noticing both pairs of eyes on him, he gave a small shrug, "it didn't mean anything."

"what? she was blushing and stuff it had to-"

"She just got home from her coffee date, and they're going to dinner in a few hours. Apperently when we were talking last night she was describing the guy and I guess I thought she was talking about me or something," Ryland said sitting on the couch.

Gabe couldn't help but feel slightly dissapointed.