So Keep Your Hands on Your Chest and Sing With Me, That We Don't Wanna Believe

I woke up with a pounding headache. I slowly opened my eyes, letting them adjust to the light. I tried to put my right hand over my face when I realised there was something covering it. I looked to my side and saw a sleeping Josh Franceschi beside me, his arm draped over my stomach, his head leaning on the side of my chest. I sighed, holding back a very girlish giggle, when I looked at his serene sleeping face, his body slowly moving up and down with the pace of his breathing.

Somehow, we managed to end up falling asleep in the hallway between my bedroom and the kitchen. I racked my brain for memories of us walking home, but only drew a blank. I retraced my steps in my mind of the whole night. We walked, we danced.. oh.. right. I remembered something. The kiss. Memories of last night began flooding my mind; Josh giving me my fourth or fifth drink before we were outside on the back patio, having the cliché deep and meaningful conversation about life, before he kissed me for the first time.

I lifted my head up slightly, looking around. I froze when the boy next to me stirred. Josh was awake. He tilted his head up towards mine, looking into my eyes. He smiled when he realised I was awake too, and, to my distaste, moved away slightly. He took a deep sigh before he whispered “Morning Gracey”, smiling at me more.

“Morning. Sleep well?”

“Very”, he said winking. My heart skipped a beat. He yawned, and looked around.

“Shit, what happened here last night?” he asked glancing around at the messy house.

“I probably remember less than you do”, I joked.

He stood up slowly, and grabbed my hands to help me up when he was fully on his feet. He wrapped one arm around my waist and, keeping each other stable, we walked through the house in search of some sort of civilisation.

We made our way into the lounge room, before spotting Max and Riannon. Oh, Max and Riannon. Riannon lay fully on the couch, while Max’s top half lay on her, his legs draping onto the floor. Riannon, in nothing but a large t-shirt and a pair of black socks, complimented nicely with a drooling Max naked with only his boxers.

If it wasn’t for Josh’s sudden burst of laughter as soon as we entered the room, I would have made sure to take some nice photos for future Riannon blackmail. Nonetheless, it startled Max to the extent he jumped so high he fell completely off the couch. Riannon however, deep sleeper that she is, just rolled over on the couch as if nothing had happened. Max stood up and looked around, his face turning bright red as soon as he saw us in the doorway.

“Oh bloody shit fucking hell where are my bloody trousers”, he mumbled, frantically looking around.

“Nothing we haven’t seen before, Maximus”, Josh said, still laughing. “He has a habit of getting drunk and then striping naked”, Josh informed me.

“Just like Riannon! They really are good together”, I mocked.

“Yeah, well that’s another conversation”, Max said, pulling on a pair of shorts he found in the corner.

Using what little strength I had managed to recover, I let go of Josh’s hand and ran over to my best friend, jumping on her in my best attempt to wake her.

“The fuck are you doing Grace”, she mumbled.

“Wakey wakey.. someones got to explain-ey!” half whispered, half screamed into her ear.

She slowly became more aware of her surroundings, and sat up, with a look I wasn’t sure was happy disbelief or embarrassment.

“Ooh, someone left a present here”, I said, grabbing the infamous black bra which now hung over a lampshade.

“Ah, yes, that was for me”, Max said, taking it from me. Riannon stood up and snatched it out of his hands, blushing and shoving it down her t-shirt to hide it.

“Well, shall we go search for the others?” I walked over Josh, my nose just reaching the bottom of his chin and brushing against it.

“Nah, let’s go get some food, I’m starving”, he said, leading me to the kitchen.

We walked past Stef’s room on our way, and the curious cat I was couldn’t stop myself from taking a peek through the crack in the door. I held my palm to my face to stop myself from screaming when I saw her… And Dan… cosy together in her bed. I wondered what I would see if I happened to walk past Trixie's room.. but it was on the other side of the house. Dang.

Josh and I took refuge making chocolate chip pancakes in the kitchen while the others slowly woke up from their pleasant slumber. One by one they came in, inquisitive of the aromas that escaped the room into the rest of the house.

After nearly an hour, Josh and I had made enough for ten times the people we needed to feed. Thank god he could cook. Really, all I did was pour endless amounts of chocolate chips into the batter.

Josh gave me a soft kiss on the forehead as we sat down at the table with everyone and began eating, getting many compliments from each seat.

“No worries guys, have fun cleaning it up”, Josh smiled at them. I laughed as everyone groaned and played ‘not it’ as I sat back and savoured the perfect moment.