CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Christ, her head was pounding.
What the hell had she been thinking drinking that much on a week night?
It wasn’t going to be a fun day and she only had herself to blame. Not true. Cara was totally and completely to blame. Her friend had been so upset about the news of her parents. Charlie had only agreed to go to Full Circle because she’d felt sorry for her. A couple of drinks turned into many, mostly led by Cara, of course. Going to a club on a Wednesday night wasn’t the best of ideas, which was evident in the way Charlie couldn’t even wait until she got to the kitchen for a glass of water. She needed hydration sooner than that.
Going straight in the bathroom, she grabbed the glass off the side and filled it with water, drinking it down quickly and instantly needed another. When she was satisfied, she leaned against the sink and looked at her sorry state in the mirror. Panda eyes. Another sign she’d drank too much. Her make-up was still mostly there and she had an angry crease down the side of her left cheek, which she wouldn’t be able to cover with fresh make up and would no doubt be there for half the bloody day. Wasn’t like ironing her face was an option. Or wearing a balaclava.
Getting a tissue out of the box on the little shelf above the sink, Charlie blew her nose and when she crumpled it up and threw it into the toilet, that was when she remembered. Oh! She groaned.
Memory was a brutal thing sometimes, especially when it came back to you in a rush, bringing with it the most embarrassing thing to come from the bad decision she’d made to go clubbing last night: Jake had seen her in all her drunken glory. Covering her face with her hands, she groaned again. He’d seen her throw up. How mortifying.
She had to move. It was the only way to escape the humiliation.
Holding the side of her head, she left the bathroom and when she walked into the main hall, she saw a piece of paper folded in half on her mat and her heart sank a little. The poster from The Gifted Crow.
Shit! There was no chance of that happening now.
Charlie groaned as the pressure in her head amplified when she bent down to pick it up. When her eyes focused on it she saw the indent of some writing from the underside.
Nervously she opened it up and turned it over. Nice try, was all that was written. And even though Charlie was disappointed, she couldn’t help smiling as she looked at Jake’s scruffy handwriting. Ok, so the poster was an obvious hint and he’d point blank turned her down. But he hadn’t ignored it and thrown it in the bin like she’d expected, even after she’d embarrassed herself.
This gave her hope.
Maybe she didn’t have to move after all. Just avoid him for as long as possible until he maybe forgot all about last night’s mishap.
Still wearing her smile like some love sick idiot, Charlie went to the kitchen where she got a pen from the middle drawer and scribbled something on the poster right under his message, leaving it on the counter so she didn’t forget to grab it when she left.
Her happy was short lived. When she got the box of cornflakes from the cupboard, Charlie almost gagged thinking about eating a bowl of them.
Too much. No way would her stomach handle it.
Dry toast it was then.
Today needed to be over already.
* * *
Yes, Charlie did feel a bit of an idiot in the sunglasses when it was pissing down with rain outside and there’d been no sign of the sun all day. Had to be done though. She was rocking Hangover Hayley in the uni canteen and the glasses had been the only thing to get her through her lectures so far.
But it wasn’t her delicate condition that was chafing her nerves at that moment; the look of sympathy on Cara’s face, crossed with the it’s-your-own-fault eyebrows, made Charlie want to run away. Or throw a piece of bread at her. As if she didn’t know already. Shit, she’d already spent the day admonishing herself for it.
“I honestly haven’t seen you like this for a long time,” her friend said, smiling as she tucked into the lunch that Charlie couldn’t stand the smell of. Some sort of pie and gravy. Charlie put her hand over her mouth and squeezed her nose shut between her thumb and finger. “Shit. You really are still suffering aren’t you?”
Dunking some dry bread into her vegetable soup, which was the only thing she could stomach, Charlie looked across the table at her friend through the tops of her glasses. She had bright pink, wavy earrings and matching lipstick, with a navy, pink, and yellow neck scarf. Charlie bet they looked a right pair sat across from each other. Cara with her bouncy, black curls and colourful everything, while Charlie imagined herself as grey. Grey clothes, grey skin, sitting under a grey cloud of sorrow. “You don’t say. And, how are you not?”
“What can I say? I’m obviously made of tougher stuff.”
“Or it could be that you’re always out clubbing so you’re more used to it than me.”
“Yes.” Cara pointed her fork at Charlie. “See, you need to get out more. Then this wouldn’t happen.”
“No, I really don’t.” Not if she was going to feel like this every time. She was never drinking again as far as she was concerned. Ever. At all.
“We did have fun though didn’t we?” Tilting her head to the side, Cara got a strange look on her face, like she’d drifted into a memory. And going by the sparkle in her eyes it was a good one.
“Cara? Are those dreamy eyes?”
They landed on Charlie and a huge wide grin appeared on her friend’s face.
“What are you not telling me?” Her memory was a little hazy from the alcohol, so there were gaps in their evening; unfortunately not where she wanted them to be: Jake.
Cara pushed her empty plate to the side. “Guess who I snogged last night.” she said, resting her elbow on the table, chin on her hand.
“You didn’t. Nathan?”
“Yep.”
“How did that happen? You finally got the balls to tell him?”
She sat up straight. “No actually. He was the one who came on to me. Told me he’d fancied me for ages but didn’t know if I’d be interested. He didn’t give me chance to respond; he just started kissing me, and OMG, Char. . . It was so much better than I imagined.”
Charlie couldn’t help the wide smile as she looked at how happy Cara was. She needed a distraction and she’d been vying for this particular one for long enough. “I’m happy for you. Really. Did you. . .?” The unspoken question warranted shrugged eyebrows.
Her friend’s eyes widened. “No! I wasn’t that drunk. No. The guy can take me out a few times first.” She laughed and it made Charlie feel a little better to see Cara smile today. With what her best friend was dealing with at home and how upset she’d been, Charlie could at least feel that last night was a success. Was the hangover worth it? Yes. No. Yes. Of course it was. Because she’d gone against her usual weeknight rules and agreed to go last night, Cara had finally kissed Nathan. Mission complete for her friend.
If only the night had turned out better for herself.
Her stomach sank for like the hundredth time again today when Charlie thought about it. God, she wished she’d been drunk enough to not remember anything this morning. She was so embarrassed by her behaviour that she hadn’t even told Cara yet and didn’t know if she was going to. Until. . .
“What aren’t you telling me?” When Cara got that narrow-eyed look on her face there was no escaping it. Sun glasses or no sun glasses, the bloody woman’s eyes caught you in their trap until you confessed.
Never mind studying to be a surveyor; she’d make a great interrogator.
Cara didn’t press with words, but her face said it all.
“Okay. But you promise not to tell anyone else.”
“Ooh.” Sitting bolt upright, Cara actually rubbed her hands together. “Juicy goss. I promise. Tell me.”
“I was pretty drunk last night, Cara. This is the reason you should have insisted I stay at yours.” Taking a deep breath, Charlie led with, “I saw Jake when I got home. I was a little worse for wear falling over my shoes, trying, but failing miserably, to get in my flat without waking the whole bloody building up. Well, of course Jake was going to hear me. He came out of his place and helped me to mine.”
“You are joking?”
Groaning into her hand, she wished she bloody was. “No Cara, I’m not. And that’s not the most embarrassing part.”
“Oh no.” Her voice sounded concerned, but the woman was twitching as she tried to hold in her joy. “What happened?”
“Seriously, Car! I’m suffering here.”
“Okay. I’m sorry. Go on.” But the smirk still remained.
“I almost threw up on him.”
Now the laugh burst out of her and Charlie was on the verge of leaving the table. Except then she laughed herself. “Stop it. It’s hard enough as it is and I haven’t finished yet.”
“You said ‘almost’ threw up on him.”
“I did. Because luckily I managed to hold it in until I got to the toilet. And I only managed that because Jake helped me bloody walk there.” She took her glasses off and scrubbed her face. Reliving it only made her head pound more.
Her friend looked perplexed. Charlie got that. It wasn’t like her to get so wasted. She wouldn’t be doing it again in a hurry that was a fact.
“After I was done, somehow I must have fallen into him and. . .” Oh God. She couldn’t even say it.
“And? Come on Char. What?”
“I hugged him.” Her own eyes widened along with Cara’s. “Then I asked him if I could keep hugging him.”
Slapping her hand over her mouth, Cara spoke a barely audible, “Charlie!” behind it. “It would have been commendable if you’d have kissed the guy.”
“I know.” Her shoulders slumped. “I also sniffed him.”
More laughter. “Oh God. You need to move. Or get laid. I would choose the latter.”
“Cara!”
Another laugh. Charlie was glad it was her misfortune that gave her best friend so much cheer.
“There is no way you’re going to live that down. How are you going to face him? Wait,” she reached over and grabbed Charlie’s hand, “what did he smell like?”
Like that was the most important thing right now. It was the first time she’d allowed her mind to go back to last night as she thought of Jake’s aftershave. It had smelled like a mix of watermelon and spice, with an undertone of his own manly smell. Charlie’s mouth watered before she set it tight. Looking across the table at Cara’s eager expression, she wasn’t getting sucked into it. But then again she couldn’t help herself. “Nice, Car. Too bloody nice.”
They laughed so hard the rest of the canteen looked over at them, but she didn’t care. In fact, the whole conversation had taken her mind off her head and she noticed her headache had almost gone.
Oh well. Charlie couldn’t turn back time. What was done was done. And it wasn’t as if Jake liked her all that much anyway. In fact, he’d probably be happy when she avoided him from now on.
“Do you need a place to stay for a bit? You can sleep on my couch until you find another place to live,” Cara said between the laughter.
Charlie broke a small piece of her left-over bread and threw it across the table at her friend. “No. Thank you though.”
“Hey. Maybe you should go home early seeing as you’re not feeling too good. You don’t have much work left today do you? You definitely won’t bump into Jake that way.”
It was tempting. But Charlie was so close to the end of her studies she figured it was worth pushing through till the end of the day.
“He gets in from work just before six. I just won’t go home before seven o’clock ever again.”
“Well you better call in at the retail park and get yourself a change of clothes for tonight then,” her friend said as she assessed her attire disapprovingly, “because we’ll be leaving at half past.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s Thursday. When we were at Nando’s last night we arranged for Jas to pick us up to go to The Crow. Seven thirty.”
Oh God. She’d completely forgotten. Her stomach lurched. Charlie didn’t think she could even be near any alcohol after last night. Just the thought was bad enough. She went to protest until Cara’s hand went up like the police directing traffic.
“I’m not listening. You’re coming.” Cara got up and grabbed her bag by the strap from the back of the chair. There was that smile she wore when she was being smug. “See you at seven thirty.”
Surely I’m being punished for something I did in a past life.