Broken Lullaby

Sydney could feel the sun caressing her face, in an effort to slowly wake her up. She groggily smiled and for half a second she felt at peace. Quickly the intensity of the sun started to hurt her eyes and her head warned her of its imminent explosion. In an effort to get up, she grunted and tried to open her eyes, but all she could see was the blurred lines of a hotel room, like if she was still dreaming, a dream bathed in light and pain and nausea.
She sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing her eyes in an attempt to remove its fogginess and, through a dizzy mind she saw a naked body lying next to her. A body she recognized too well.
A loud ring came from her cell phone and she didn’t even have the time to understand the scene in front of her. In two jumps, the second one almost making her fall on the carpet floor, she entered the bathroom and closed the door.

“Hello?” She flinched as her voice came out like she felt inside, drowsy and ashamed.

“Hey Syd, it’s me. Are you okay?” Sydney rubbed her temples at the sound of Michelle’s voice on the other end.

“Yeah, I… I was just asleep. What’s the problem?” She asked even though she knew why Michelle was calling her. The answer was still sound asleep in the hotel bed.

She heard Michelle sigh on the other end. “Do you know where Brian is? I’ve called Matt and the other guys, but they don’t know where he is.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry Chelle, I thought Brian had told you -” Sydney tried to think of a plausible excuse for him to have stayed out all night.

“Let me guess, you and Morgan decided to kidnap him and get him drunk,” a giggle was heard.

“Yeah… that was it,” she realized Michelle hadn’t talked to Morgan yet. “I’m really sorry, I thought he had told you we were going out. He’s probably still passed out on the sofa downstairs.”

Michelle laughed. She had learned to respect Sydney’s and Morgan relationship with the guys and had gotten used to seeing the two girls with them all the time, even if that had been a bit hard in the beginning.

“Well, I just wanted to make sure everything was okay, my flight is going to leave in a few minutes.”

“Everything’s fine, have a safe flight!” Sydney tried to sound cheerful, but her mind was still slowly trying to recall everything that had happened last night.

“Thanks sweetie, see you in a couple of days. I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too,” she closed her eyes and tried to breathe slowly, as she thought about the lies she had just told Michelle. She liked her too much to ever do something like that to her, so she couldn’t understand how that had happened.

Once she hung up, and after spending a couple of seconds trying to control her disturbed stomach, Sydney slowly opened the door and stared at the room. It seemed like a scene from a movie about tornados or earthquakes, with chairs tumbled down, lamps and other ornaments on the floor, paintings hanging crooked on the walls and a mess of bed linen and clothing on the floor.
She silently cursed at every object she picked up, finally finding her dress among the wreckage. Once she was properly dressed, Sydney faced now the hard task of waking Brian up whom, after all the commotion she had caused when trying to find her things, was still deeply asleep.

“Brian,” her voice came out cracked so she called him again, louder and more firmly. Still, no movement was made. She repeated the process a couple more times, but there was no response.
Sydney didn’t want to touch him. She felt like if she touched him everything her mind didn’t remember would suddenly become a vivid memory, so she grumbled and growled, her feet thudding the floor with violent precision until she decided to fill a glass with water and throw it at his face.

“What the -” Brian suddenly shouted, but Sydney didn’t let him finish his sentence, throwing his clothes at his face, and all he could hear afterwards was the slamming of the room’s door.

Brian quickly realized where he was, his mind rushing through the last night events. He couldn’t blame her for being angry. He was supposed to be the one not let her kiss him and instead he had kissed her back. He was supposed to be the one to make sure she would get home safely and instead they had spent the night in a hotel. She was his best friend and he had just had sex with her. And damn, that had been amazing.
She had been completely, utterly drunk. He had seen her drink more than she ever did, but not even for a second he had thought the night would end up the way it did.
He was actually finding it amusing, the irony of watching her make a fool of herself and not the other way around. Even when she kissed him, for a moment he thought she would just pass out and that he would have to drag her to a taxi. Yet, she turned around, acted like if nothing had happened and started to sing. She had a good singing voice, not so good when the alcohol affected it, but still enjoyable.
Brian watched her walk ahead of him, leaving her high heeled sandals behind, and he had to laugh.

“Where are you going?” He grabbed her shoes and stepped up his pace until he reached her.

“I don’t know, where are you going?” She pushed her index finger against his chest and took one step backwards.

“Could you just stay still for a moment while I get us a taxi?” He held her by her arm.

“To where?” She flashed him a sexy smile.

Brian shook his head. “Home.”

“Oh, that sounds boring,” she snatched her shoes from his left hand, “I don’t want to go home. Can we go somewhere else?” She asked him and he faced her, thinking of an answer. They stared at each other for a while and finally Sydney sighed. “You’re boring.”

“And you’re too drunk,” Brian saw a taxi appearing around the corner and signaled him to stop.

“You’re such a bad man,” she breathed out as they got inside the yellow car.

“You’ll thank me tomorrow,” he grinned back at her, enjoying her upset look.

As the taxi driver drove through the city, Sydney leaned her head against his shoulder and Brian smiled, hoping that she would finally settle down. But that didn’t happen. Without warning, she leaned herself against him, her mouth barely touching his ear.

“Do we really have to go home?” Her hot breath gave him goose bumps. “Because you know, I’m really in the mood to do something bad,” she smiled against his ear. “I’ve got a bad desire.”

“Sydney, that’s enough. You’re being crazy.” He was not finding it amusing anymore, now he was actually trying to keep himself together.

“But you’re the one who taught me that it was good to be crazy,” she placed both hands on his leg, too close to his crotch for him to feel comfortable about it.

Her face was getting closer to his and Brian glanced at the taxi driver, who was staring back at them through the rearview mirror. “Could you please stop the car? We’re getting out here.”

As soon as the car stopped, Brian paid the taxi driver and joined Sydney on the sidewalk. “Hmm, I like your idea, let’s make it a private party,” she stared at the hotel on the other side of the street.

“What? That’s not-” Sydney silenced him with a long kiss, making his arms entwine tightly around her waist and hers, clinging to his neck like a lifeline.
In that moment something inside him changed, but he could dwell upon that later, because now, neither he wanted to go home.

“Now be a good boy and do what I want,” she pushed him by his jacket as they walked inside the hotel.