Once Upon A Time, Back In Highschool

I groaned and rolled over, feeling a horribly sick feeling in the back of my throat. I blinked slowly, I couldn’t remember anything, it felt like a big blurry gap. I fisted the sheets in my hand and pulled myself up, covering my eyes with my hand and letting out a small whimper. I crawled out of my warm duvet den, inwardly burping and groaning again when I stepped in a bucket.

Yawning I lifted it up onto the bed, just looking at it was enough to send this wash of nausea over me. I got up to my feet and made a dash from the room, not wanting to throw up in a bucket because I’d have to clean it out. I found the toilet quickly and emptied my stomach contents… four times. I leant back against the bath, dry gagging on nothing. I clutched my now empty stomach and whined, I was never going to drink again.

I flushed the toilet and walked down the stairs, dragging my feet along the carpeted hallway. Mr. Way didn’t seem to be up yet so I found the kitchen and trudged in, searching the cupboards for aspirin. I found a box full of pills and I sifted through them all before finding the white packet.

Popping a pill out of the plastic I filled up a glass of water and flicked the pill onto the tip of my tongue before taking a large gulp of water. Sighing heavily, I trudged back out in the hall towards the lounge, plopping down on the sofa and turning on the television quietly. Ten minutes later I heard the soft pad of feet walk into the kitchen. Gerard suddenly padded in, smiling soflty as he fell down onto the sofa, two cups of coffee perched in her hands.

“What happened last night? I can’t remember any of it,” I yawned, feeling too ill to chuckle at Gerard’s bed head appearance. His hair stuck up and odd angles and he was wearing a crumpled Harry Potter shirt with maroon pyjama bottoms.

“Well… you drank loads. We danced for a bit, we went home –you decided to walk home with your dressed tucked into your pants- uh… you borrowed some of my clothes , then went to bed. That’s it,” he said, shrugging.

“Oh pretty okay then, I thought you’d come down in the morning explaining all the embarrassing stuff I did,” I said, chuckling weakly and bringing my head down on the sofa cushion.

“Nope. You didn’t do or say anything.”

Gerard made us both breakfast at half eleven, it consisted of him pouring cereal into a bowel. He said it was his bachelors household, he had no clean clothes, no food and the hot water was extremely limited.

“Right, I’m going to have a shower. There’s only one and it’s in my room, the other one just doesn’t work anymore, I think Mikey must have managed to break it. I’ll be real quick anyways ‘cus you can only shower for like six minutes –so we’ll split it,” he said, walking out the room.

Gerard literally only showered for a minute alone, his radio on loudly even though my head protested bitterly. The phone began ringing and I groaned, trying to bury my senses in side my hand.

“Oh for fuck sake!” Gerard cursed from upstairs, running down stairs full speed in his dark blue towel, “What?” he asked the phone, “Hi mom,” he said, he caught my eye and grinned before moving his head towards the stairs, he grabbed my arm as I was going, “Theres a towel on the radiator,” he whispered, “No ma I don’t have a girl round,” he said into the receiver. I chuckled and walked up stairs sluggishly, dragging myself along to Gerard’s room. I turned down his radio quickly before walking into his bathroom.

It was steamy, white tiled, like any normal bathroom. Although I felt weird using his things, like I shouldn’t be doing it. I tried to shrug it off and closed the door with a click. I bent over the sink and saw it was filled up with water, blobs of shaving foam still floating copiously on top, his razor long sunken at the bottom. I pulled the plug out and wiped the steam off the mirror. Grimacing, I wiped the smudges of make up of from under my eyes and pushed back my hair before shrugging.

I took off Gerard’s clothes, hanging then over the radiator before turning on the shower and looking for some kind of shower gel that wasn’t for men. I found the shower was pretty much the most cramped space a person could shower in. There was a shelves along one side you could tell he had put up him self because they were going diagonally down the wall. Empty bottles of soap and hair shampoo littered the floor and he hand managed to break the shower door so it swung open every few seconds. I washed quickly, tripping on a blob of conditioner making me slide out painfully.

“You okay?” Gerard called from down stairs, “Sounds like your bumping round my bathroom!”

“I’m fine!” I called back, opening the en suit and stepping out into his room quickly -to escape his bathroom from hell. I padded along towards the spare room, finding my clothes again and drying off, I heard Gerard humming in a jolly manner as he walked along to his own room.

“Stay for a bit longer? We could catch a film or something," he called through the door.

“Sure. Can I ring my mum first?” I asked, Gerard nodded and directed me to the phone. I hopped down the stairs, gritting my jaw to try and disable the achy feeling lying there. It rang a few times before mum answered, sounding extremely tired.

“Hey mum, it’s me,” I said.

“Oh, -hello darling. How was your sleepover?” she yawned.

“It was good, I’m gonna be back later-“

“Listen darling about that, do you think you could stay out a little longer with this Heather? Your fathers acting like a right twat if I do say so myself,” she said primly, “I might actually stay at Aunt Carolinas tonight. You’ll be all right if daddy doesn’t come back late?”

“Mum, I’m seventeen, quite capable of looking after myself for a night.”

“Alright, love you.”

“Love you too,” I said quickly, pushing the phone back down and walking up stairs, “I can stay. Mum and dad are on non-speaking terms so they want me to stay out,” I told him. Gerard nodded and gave me a sympathetic smile, “So… how was the club yesterday? I can remember the lights and a few other things, I just can’t remember any of it,” I said, chuckling and following him back into his room.

“What can you remember out of it?” he asked, “I wanna hear a drunken account of the whole evening, -entertain me,” he grinned. I sat down on the edge of his bed and lay back against the pillows, my feet crossed underneath me.

“I remember standing outside with you. Drinking something weird… different colours. Then dancing with you, I remember that, well a little bit of it. I remember you were good at it anyway. Then… I can remember you washing my hands, but I don’t know why or where,” I said, he laughed, “And…” I thought hard, and I suddenly something.

“If you let me stay up I’ll dance for you,” I probed, grinning cheekily.

“Ren I’m sure you’d do a lot of things right now,” he laughed, “Get to bed you dirty girl and stop that,” he grinned

“And something about… I was dancing for you? In the spare room?” I asked, becoming unsure of whether to say anything next.

“I do! I’m not lying. You’re in all my nightmares! Or maybe there my dreams. I’m not sure they really, really confuse me-“ I said, not realising I’d just let out one of my biggest secrets ever. Sadly, Mr. Way cut me off and cocked his eyebrow at me expressively.

“What kinda dreams would those be?”

“I dunno! I’m not saying,” I grinned, flopping down onto the bed, the duvet poofing up around me, “But they have something to do with me… and you… and no clothes,” I giggled, hiding the duvet and giggling, feeling a hand tear away the duvet, “What?” I asked innocently, giggling again.

“Say that again?” Gerard asked, perching on the end of the bed whilst staring at me intently.

“I said… it has something to with you and me and no clothes… can you figure the riddle out, Mr. Way?” I asked, trailing my finger slowly down his chest like some brazen slut, “You’re supposed to be a teacher. I thought you’d have figured it out by now,” I giggled, reaching his belt buckle and tracing that too.

“Well, maybe I need a little preview?” he asked, “It’s not like you’re gonna remember any of this in the morning anyway.

“Maybe I should give you a preview when I can remember it then?”

The rest was a deep black hole, I stared at Mr. Way, my mouth open a crack.

“I can’t remember anymore,” I lied, closing my mouth quickly and staring at the duvet, “Sorry about the dancing thing. I guess I’m just easy when I’m wasted, right?” I murmured, I heard him chuckle and the weight on the bed moved slightly.

“It’s alright. I didn’t let you do it anyways,” he said, turning on the television and staring intently at the screen, a side smirk playing on his face.

“Mr. Way what really did happen? Like –the non drunken version?”

“Uh… we went, danced, you needed the toilet, I washed your hands for you because you were barely capable of walking. Came back here, I put you to bed… and that’s it -nothing happened,” he shrugged. I stared at him… was he lying?

“But I can remember something after that,” I said, trying to probe him for information, “Something about you calling me a ‘dirty girl’ and touching?” I asked desperately, rather him tell me then sit there knowing everything.

“I was kidding when I said that. There’s nothing else… trust me.”