The Girl With the Half Beating Heart

“Dammit.” Acacia grumbles to herself, as she wakes up. She rolls back into the sheets, not ready to face the day. Her head is throbbing, her stomach is churning, and her mouth is about as dry as the Sahara. She rolls over, and the light from her window floods her vision.
“Aggh!” She groans, rolling back onto the other side of the bed. Her bedside clock reads 1:47 PM. “Wow.” She whispers, sitting up slowly, so her brain doesn’t fall out of her head, and her stomach doesn’t fall out of her body. “I’m never drinking again.” She whines, frowning as she looks around her room. She notices that she’s not under her covers, but instead she’s laying on top of them, with her throw blanket over her. “Weird.” She says quietly, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. She never uses her throw blanket. And she’s still wearing her dress that she wore for Christmas.
As far as what occurred last night, she’s drawing blanks. She remembers sitting in the backyard with her cousins, and passing around a bottle of eggnog with whiskey in it. After that, everything else is fuzzy. She lays back in her bed, hoping that she can stay there forever, or at least until someone comes to get her. She smells her sheets, and grows even more confused at the familiar scent they hold.
“Alex…” She whispers, sitting up again. She leans back on her headboard and shuts her eyes, trying to recall what happened, and why her sheets smell like Alex. Everything is blurry, but she’s getting something. She remembers being on the phone, but not with who. Her head throbs as she racks her brain, but she manages to come up with something more.
“Hey Alex?”
“Hey Acacia.”
“You know how I feel right now?” She asked, rolling over to look at him. He rolled over as well.
“No, but I bet you’re going to tell me.” He laughed slightly.
“Bet your ass I am.” She smiled, and he playfully rolled his eyes. “I feel like, I feel like a whiskey princess.” She said, her eyes widening and lighting up.
“I don’t think that’s a thing. Or a good one if it is.” He laughed, biting his lip.
“It is now.” He laughed again, and she smirked.
“Shit.” She hisses, pressing her hand to her forehead. She called him over to her house. He came though, and it looked like it was fun. She thinks harder.
Their lips moved in sync, hers tasting like whiskey, and his tasting like chapstick, which he applied earlier. He pulled apart from her, and opened his eyes slowly.
“Oh my god.” She says out loud, her hand flying over her mouth. She kissed him. She remembers it now. They were laying down, she leaned in, and she kissed him. And then he pulled away from her.
“How could I be so stupid?” She rhetorically asks herself, placing her face in her hands. “There’s no way a guy like him could like a girl like me.” She whispers. She lays back in her bed, and decides that she’s not ready to face the world yet.
Sometime later, she wakes up to the sound of her phone ringing. She looks at her bedside clock. 3:12. With a heavy sigh, she picks up her cellphone to see who it is. Its Alex.
She has an internal debate on whether she should answer or not, but she decides to after a minute or two.
“Hello?” She groans, sitting up straight in her bed.
“Hey, whiskey princess. Is that hangover worth the royalty?” He jokes, sniggering as he does so.
“Shut up.” She laughs, biting her lip. “I feel like shit.”
“I know you do, I could’ve told you this would happen to you.” He replies, feeling sorry for her again. Hopefully she won’t drink again after this.
“How? I thought you don’t drink.” She says, confused. She does remember him saying that.
He frowns, thinking of his mother. “I’ve seen it happen.”
“Ah. Alright then.”
Their usual silence falls right on queue, as the both of them sit with their phones to their ears, listening to the sounds of the other breathing. Alex wants to ask her to hang out today, but he’s a bit nervous. Even though they kissed the night before, she was drunk, and he doesn’t know if she remembers anything.
Acacia wants to tell him that she’s sorry about kissing him, and that it meant nothing to her, even though it did. It meant everything. She felt sparks welt up in her chest, and she saw fireworks behind her closed eyelids. But from the way he pulled away, she knows he doesn’t feel the same.
“Hey A-” They both start at the same time. Acacia giggles, and Alex smiles.
“You first.” He says. She sighs.
“Alex, I wanted to tell you sorry. About last night. I know I kissed you out of nowhere, and I know it took you by surprise. But I know how you feel, and I just wanted to tell you it won’t happen again.” She whispers with a sigh.
All of a sudden, Alex feels like his entire world just came down. He swore she felt something. There was something there, he’s not crazy. Hell, she even asked him to kiss her again. Something isn’t right.
“Oh.” He says blankly, looking at his empty bedroom wall. “Okay.”
“You okay?” She asks, worried. He sounded so cheerful when he first called her, now he sounds broken.
“Yeah.” He replies. “I’ve, I’ve got to go, okay? I’ll talk to you some other time.”
“Alex wa-” She starts, but he already hung up. “Fuck!” She yells, throwing her phone on the opposite side of the bed. He took it all wrong. “Wait…” She says to herself, before finally putting it all together. The way he sounded so happy when she picked up, then empty when she told him their kiss meant nothing… he felt something. He likes her.
“Oh my god.” She whispers, her eyes widening. He likes her, she likes him, but she just shot him down.
She scrambles off the bed, and picks up her phone. She calls him back, but he doesn’t answer. She decides to text him.
Acacia: Alex please please pick up. I’ve gotta talk to you, like now.
She types it quickly, and hits send. She waits anxiously for a few minutes, and her phone vibrates.
Alex: I’m busy, sorry.
“Ughhh!” She groans out loudly, slamming back onto her bed. She hears footsteps running toward her room. “Fuck.” She whispers. Her parents.
“Cariño, estás bien?” Her mom calls out, opening her room door.
“Yeah, estoy bien. Uh, mi cabeza duele.” She lies, rubbing her head. Her head feels fine, it's her heart that hurts. And not in the usual way. “Pero estoy bien. Por favor, no te preocupes!” She tries to reassure her mom by telling her that she’s fine, and not to worry. Her mom says okay, and leaves her room.
When her mom leaves, she picks up her phone again, and texts Alex.
Acacia: Look, I’ve gotta tell you something important. It affects the both of us. So if you don’t wanna hear it, fine. I’m gonna call you one more time, and if you don’t answer, I know how you truly feel.
She gives it a minute or two, then calls him. A few rings, but no answer. She groans again. A few more rings, and when she’s about to hang up, he picks up.
“Hi.” He says quickly, and she smiles.
“Hi.” She replies, sitting up.
“So, what did you want to tell me?” He asks, still sounding kind of glum.
“Look, Alex, forget everything I told you earlier, okay? I only said that cause I thought you didn’t feel the same. And even if you don’t, I don’t care, I just have to tell you, so I don’t let this eat at me forever.” She says quickly with a sigh. “I, I kissed you for a reason last night, Alex. I might have been drunk off my ass, but I knew what I was doing. And I remember it too. Just like I said I would.” She begins to chew on the inside of her cheek, but she realizes she has to finish saying what she was trying to say. “I like you. Like a lot. I swear you’re all I think about half the time.” She admits. Her stomach starts flipping again. Maybe its because she might have to puke, or the fact that she’s telling Alex how she feels, but either way it doesn’t feel too good. “I may not know a lot, but I do know that the sun rises in the east and it sets in the west, and that even though it might not snow for a while, it snows every winter in Baltimore, and that I feel something for you. I really do.” She finishes with a gasp.
Alex sits on the other end of his phone, dumbfounded. The girl who just told him that she was sorry for kissing him, just poured out her entire guts to him. He doesn’t know what to say.
“I, uh,” He stutters, completely at a loss for words.
“Its okay if you don’t feel the same, I just had to tell you that.” She whispers. “Well, I oughta-” He cuts her off.
“No. Don’t hang up. Just, just listen, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I, I have feelings for you too, alright? I don’t know if you remember this, but I told you I only stopped kissing you because you were drunk. And I wasn’t gonna take advantage of you.” He starts nervously. “Also, I stopped because I didn’t know what that kiss meant. I didn’t know if you were drunk and bored, or if you actually had feelings for me. And I wasn’t gonna let myself get into something that meant nothing to you, but everything to me.” He says as he starts to fiddle with his bracelets. “I’ve never felt this way before, about anyone really. And it feels weird. But I like it. And I like you, Acacia. I have since you got me that card.” He finishes, and waits for her to reply. She smiles.
“Hey Alex?”
“Hey Acacia.”
“What were you gonna ask me before?” She asks softly.
“I was gonna ask if you wanted to hang out with me.” He replies, smiling.
“Does that offer still stand?”
“Of course.”
“Will there be kissing?”
“Seems whiskey princess can’t get enough of my magical lips.”
The both of them laugh.
“I'll be at your house at like 7, okay?” He says.
“Okay.” She answers.
“Bye Acacia.”
“Bye Alex.”