Hangover 1, Steph and Mia 0

I toss a little hearing noises outside the bedroom door. It's Steph. She stumbles in laughing with and to absolutely no one or anything. She's drunk.

She throws herself in the bed and lands on top of me. "Ow!" I yelp.

"Oh shit Mills, I forgot you were here." Steph laughs.

So not funny.

Steph becomes a child when she's drunk and needs a babysitter which looks like it'll be me for the hundredth time. "What time is it?" I ask.

She slurs "I dunno. Like 4?"

I don't know how she does it, if I stayed up drinking until four am I'd be hospitalized with a month long hangover. Years ago, I could take that like a champ but now it just catches up to me.

I roll over so my back is facing Steph. I snuggle my head into the pillow and stare at nothing. "Hey Steph?" I ask.

She replies with "Hmm?"

"Do you think that we're safe here? That I'm safe here?" I ask.

She grunts and says "Yeah Mills. I'd never put you in a situation where you weren't. Now go to back to sleep. I can't stay up for a second longer."

She's right, she couldn't stay up a second longer. I can hear her softly snoring already. I close my eyes and drift back into sleep as well.

…

I wake up actually feeling refreshed for the first time in months. I quitely tip toe out of the room careful not to wake Steph up and make my way into the kitchen.

Coffee. I need coffee.

I search around not finding anything to make coffee or even see a coffee machine. Dammit Steph, since when do you not drink coffee? I think to myself.

I open the mini fridge for something to drink instead and praise the lord there's a container of cold brew coffee. I grab myself a glass from the cupboard above and pour myself a generous amount and throw in some French vanilla creamer along with it.

I make my way to the couch and grab the cream colored blanket that's draped over it and wrap it around myself. I pull out my phone and go through my emails.

I open the one from my new boss Marlene. I've met her twice already and she's sweet but equally just as strict. She's probably around mid fifties, she's well put together in expensive clothes, her silvery hair is a little above her shoulders and wears thick black framed glasses that make her look just as intelligent as she is. I strive to be like her one day.

I read over the email and it just explains what is expected of me my first week there. I'm excited about starting my new job.

I got my degree in marketing four years ago but stayed working as a waitress, I needed the flexibility while caring for my dad.

Rick understood the situation with my dad and would cover for me whenever I needed to leave at a moments notice. I am forever grateful to Rick and my old co workers for always having my back. I'm really going to miss them.

In six weeks, I am officially starting my new job as a marketing research analyst with Marlene and her team downtown. I really hope to fit in with them. I scroll over my other emails which are mainly just junk mail, I get bored of the email scrolling and set my phone down.

…

It's nearly nine o clock by the time Mia strolls out of her room like a zombie.

"Hey girl" she says and makes her way to the couch besides me.

"Hi Mia, how was last night?" I ask.

We talk about how last night went and laugh about how Steph made a fool of herself on more than one occasion.

"Speaking of the devil.." Mia trails off.

Steph, not looking any different than Mia does at the moment, walks over to us.

"Hey! Don't be laughing at me, you're just jealous I was the life of the party." She says. Mia and I roll our eyes at her.

"What? It's true!" she tries to convince us.

"So.." Mia begins and looks at Steph.

"Guess what I heard? Julian is going to be at the club tonight" she winks at Steph.

"Umm who is Julian?!" I ask very intrigued.

"Don't even Mia" Steph scolds. She ignores her completely and turns towards me. "Well…Miss Stephanie Taylor here has a massive crush on Julian. He's one of the guys here and X's best friend. They've been a duo since they were kids apparently. Julian is just right under X in ownership of the house and is almost just as significant and powerful as X. Little Miss life of the party here and Julian have hooked up several times and she's basically in love with him." Steph rolls her eyes and says "I am not! And why do you have to say crush like I'm a sixth grader? Okay yeah, maybe he's the sexiest thing to ever walk this planet but I am not in love with him. Besides, it would never work with us, he loves his freedom and doesn't want to be tied down to anyone, especially me."

Mia takes over "Oh Steph, stop feeling sorry for yourself. It's obvious he's into you too but you're both just too chicken shit to actually admit it to each other."

I can tell steph is in total denial about her feelings. I'm surprised she never brought him up to me before, maybe if she told me it'd be too real for her. She's clearly afraid of how much she likes him. Steph has been burned several times so I don't blame her for keeping her guard up.

Steph finally speaks again "Whatever. Can we just please stop talking about this and talk about something else now?"

We agree because she's visibly uncomfortable with the conversation.

We talk about random things for the rest of the morning and I learned more about Mia and her life and how she got to where she is today. I really like her so far, she's sweet and easy to talk to. I can only hope the rest of the people here I meet are the same.