22 How fucked up are you?

"Ggrrrr ggrrrr." Liam's phone alarm rung as the phone's screen flashed a sudden static colour.

With a hasty yawn and a sluggish pace, he traced his fingers towards his phone to put off the irritating sound.

God! Alarms aren't a sexy sound to wake up to.

"Wait. What?" Liam thought to himself in a millisecond rush that snoozed his mental rest and heightened his sobering up.

He hadn't needed an alarm to get up from bed and to head to work in 4 years, and hitting the club a few hours earlier definitely had his routine unsettled.

Did he hate that he was at the club? Hell no. He had Kendall to thank for that.

With less than 25 minutes to freshen up and head to work, he rolled from left to right on his bed and with his eyes shut, he fell on the ground with a muffled groaning but no fatal aftermath.

He had a quick shower, got dressed, but somehow couldn't wash off that "I look like shit" look off his sleep-famished face.

With his ride to work already waiting outside, he hastily ran out of his room and shut the door behind him. He didn't see Charlotte in the living room. He'd left her there a few hours ago. However, he wasn't about to hurt his head by thinking about her or anything, so he closed the apartment's door and headed to work pretending to be focused on the day he had ahead.

"I was worried that I kept you out too late and maybe you weren't gonna show up today." Ava said with her ever soft voice to Liam who looked a little less than a New York junkie who ate drugs for a living.

With his eye balls exceptionally vivid as he widened his eyes in order to not fall asleep, he said nothing, and truth be told, he heard nothing. All he did was smile like a prisoner who'd just been kissed on the balls.

"Wait. Are you okay?" Ava asked with a funny face that was a laugh half-cooked as she looked at him closely.

"Oh, yeah. It's just the groove, Kendall." Liam replied with an enchanted voice and jerking eye balls.

"Kendall?" Liam and Ava exclaimed the question together.

What the hell? How was he going to fix this? This was a weird speech slip and he was fucked. At least, he thought he was.

"Hey, Jerry. Liam isn't feeling too well. What do you think about him taking the day off?" Ava asked with a friendly tone as she looked over at Jerry's desk.

"Yeah. Sure. That's okay. Take all the time you need, Liam, and don't worry, we've got you. Iron Lady doesn't get back till Friday anyway. Heard she's at this Forbes' conference at Berlin or something." Jerry replied as he looked towards the disconcerted Liam who heard every word in slow motion and in a dozen accents that fell far from reality.

With Ava's help, he got up from his desk and turned his face towards Jerry and Cillian to say bye.

"Ohh! He sure looks fucked up to me. Wait a minute. Did you guys do drugs last night?" Cillian asked with an entertaining smile as though he was a proud father to delinquent kids.

"Oh, no. It's okay. I got this. Thank you, Ava." Liam said to Ava who walked him to the door and asked if he needed her to help him get into a car.

Liam, trying so hard to get a hold of himself, staggered gallantly towards the elevator and all the way to the entrance of the building where he hailed a cab.

"The fool's Home, sir." Liam said to the driver as he took his seat with his eyes half-closed and his brains half-asleep.

"Excuse me? The fool's what?" The mid-aged grey-haired driver said with a weird expression as he turned his head towards the dumb speaker whose head was falling over and over to and fro his neck.

"Oh, God. The Bull's Dome, uhn?" The driver asked, without much sight on an answer as he set the car in motion and drove.

"We're here, sir. Hello." The driver said as he leaned backwards towards the sleeping Liam before tapping his shoulder lightly.

"We're not flying private, mum.. we're not." Liam muttered sluggishly as his eyelids twitched slowly before he freaked out at the sight that was before him.

"Oh, God!" Liam said as his body froze within his spine at the sight of the driver's face.

The driver had been looking at him really funny as though he was a Broadway's theatrical flop with a life worth pitying.

"The fool's Home, uhn?" The driver said with a funny face and his fingers pointing towards the edifice to their right.

This guy was funny, and Liam who was freaked out a few seconds ago, couldn't keep his laugh in him as he let it out like a drunk heading for a slump.

Liam dipped his hand into his back pocket and from his wallet, he removed a 20 dollar bill and handed it over to the driver who wore less of a funny face before returning his face back to the wheels.

Liam slowly got down from the cab and yawned wide enough to fit the Queen's crown with people looking at him funny as he staggered less awkwardly into the Bull's Dome.