Oreos for Breakfast: Chapter 25

Oreos For Breakfast: Chapter 25
By the Paperbag Princess and Pumpkin Coach

Ow.

You know it's going to be a bad day when your first thought is 'ow'.

My head was screaming, and I screwed my eyes shut against the light. Reaching out for Rachel, I barely caught myself as I started to fall.

What the hell? I opened one eye carefully, looking for her. Rachel was here, right? The light hurt. It was only from a crack in the curtains, but I buried my head under a pillow, blocking it out.

Oh hell, I'd slept on the couch again… why'd I do that when I had Rachel and a big bed upstairs?

My brain couldn't process this. We'd all gone out last night and had fun. Someone snored close to me and I peered over. Vinnie. Great! I have Rachel here and I slept with Vinnie?

Ewww…

I laid there for a while, just breathing, letting my head get used to being awake. After a while- it might have been five minutes, it might have been an hour- the pillow was yanked off my head, and I looked up carefully.

The light was caught in her hair, so it didn't hurt. It hurt to look at her, though. She was so pretty, and so pissed off.

What did I do? We'd had a fight last night, I could remember that much. But I didn't know about what, or why. It was a bad one, I could tell that by the look on her face.

Well, that and the fact that I was lying on the couch in the clothes I'd worn last night. Good thing I was Hef and my costume was pajamas, huh? They smelled like smoke, too. Ick.

"Give me your car keys," she bit out.

I tried to sit up, but that hurt, so I lay back down. "Why?" I croaked. Water. I needed water.

"Because I'm leaving."

I just blinked at her for a minute. "Leaving?" Was it that bad? What did I do? She just got here. Right? God, my head hurt.

"I don't want to get into it with your friends still here." She said 'friends' like it was a bad word, and I remembered her saying it that way last night. Did we fight about my friends? What was wrong with my friends?

God damn, my head hurt.

"Are you coming back?" Did I do something unforgivable? My body might not ever forgive me for drinking that much.

She just looked at me for a moment, her face softening, and she sat down on the edge of the couch next to me. "Yes. I just can't be here right now."

"My car keys are probably in the kitchen." She got up to get them and I glanced around the room carefully. The place was a wreck. A few people were camped out on the floor and Vinnie was on the other side of my sectional couch. Did I look as bad as he did? I hoped not. I sat up carefully and saw Rachel in the kitchen. It was even more of a mess than the living room. We'd never put any food away last night and there were cups - probably all half filled with stale beer - laying on every available surface.

"There's some restaurants nearby," I offered. Should I get up and go with her?

She turned back to me, clutching the keys in her hand. "I know. I'll be back in a couple of hours. I'll be better then. Anna's coming with me. But her car is blocked in by one of the…" she glanced around and then corrected herself, "your friends."

But she still used that tone. Yeah, we definitely fought about my friends.

Groaning, I covered my face with my hands. She and Anna were going to go out to breakfast and complain about me, weren't they? As if last night wasn't bad enough… Anna knew all my stupid secrets and Rachel was about to know all of them, too. Hell.

She laughed, and I sneaked a look at her. "Don't worry, Nick. At least you know I like one of your friends."

I guess she was right. There were way too many people here last night and not all of them were my friends. And then we'd met up with more people out at the bars. Last night was slowly coming back to me, and none of it was very good.

"Make your friends help you clean up and then get rid of them. I'll get stuff to make dinner tonight."

I groaned, clutching my stomach. The thought of food, even Rachel's cooking, was distasteful. She laughed again, and came back to the couch, smoothing the hair off my forehead. "Get up, take a shower, and then drink lots of water."

I caught her hand, just looking up at her. "I'm sorry."

"You have no idea what you're sorry for, do you?"

"Um… no." I still wasn't sure what the fight was about. My mind was wrapped in cotton.

Leaning down, she kissed my forehead quickly. "I'll remind you later. Now shower, you're smelly." Rolling her eyes at me, she left.

At least she was smiling when she left. That thought gave me enough energy to sit up and I whimpered, holding my head. There was way too much alcohol last night. My friends tended to have that effect on me.

Rachel was right, I needed to shower and drink some water. And clean up the house and get rid of everyone before this weekend was completely ruined. I sucked on that promise to sleep with her every night, didn't I? First I'd fallen asleep in front of the television and then I'd gone and pissed her off. Hell, there hadn't even been sex last night. That was practically unheard of when we were together!

Groaning, I made my way upstairs, passing Anna on the steps. She just shook her head slowly and I started to say something, but Rachel called for her and she ran by me. Did I really want them to be best friends? Half the time Anna thought I was a complete moron, and told me as much.

I climbed into the shower and shut my eyes. Breathing in the steam from the hot water, I replayed last night in my head.

We should have just gone to the Keys like we'd originally planned. She'd come here to get to know my family, after all. But I thought Guavaween would be fun. I never got to do the normal stuff my friends did. Hell, even Rachel got to do the college thing, parties and all. And I wanted to see my friends, so she agreed. She wanted to do that, too. She wanted to know about my life when I wasn't touring. As much as I tried to explain to her that touring was my regular life, this was just a vacation, I could tell she didn't quite agree with me. Her real life was Long Island and her family, no matter how much she was on the road.

My tour bus was much more home than this condo. I didn't even have shampoo or food. I had to go buy all of that when I'd gotten here the other day. I wished she were here now to wash my hair. This house had a great tub, and we hadn't taken advantage of it yet. We'd planned to yesterday, but then people started showing up for the party.

The party… I leaned against the wall, remembering. It had started out okay. Rachel was talking to people and I'd thought she was having a good time. But when the shots started, I'd lost track of her. Before we went down to Ybor, I found her out on the deck, talking to Anna. I'd known she'd like Anna, Anna always told me that she was the only one of my friends with a brain, after all.

They were smoking. Cigarettes - which was better than the stuff being passed around inside the house - but I still had to say something about it and Rachel exploded. Anna disappeared to somewhere while Rachel and I sniped at one another. That didn't start the evening off well.

I groaned as I remembered the rest. The main activity at Guavaween was guys trying to persuade girls to show them their tits. Not that most of the girls needed all the much persuading. Everyone was drunk and acting silly. Hell, the guys got a peep show and the girls got a string of plastic beads. Sounded like a fair trade to me.

Not to Anna or Rachel. Why did I ever think for a second that either of them would play that game?

By the second bar, girls were recognizing me and coming up to give me their beads. It was all in fun and I'd let some of them kiss me… but just a peck on the cheek. Okay, a few gave me slips of paper with their numbers… but that didn't mean I was going to call them. They knew that, my girlfriend was right there!

Fuck. I was such an idiot when I drank.

"Nick, I'm gonna flush!"

What the hell? The toilet flushed, and I stepped away from the scalding water. Vinnie was such a fuckin' idiot and I told him so, screaming over the sound of the water.

"Chill out, dude. Oh, Stevie threw up on the deck. It's gonna rain tonight, though. So it's cool."

I rolled my eyes. I didn't have the energy to fight with Vinnie or any of his lame friends at the moment. "Hey, Vin… can you wake everyone up? I need to clean up before we leave."

"Where you going?" he yelled.

I could see his blurry image through the smoked glass of the shower door. He was sitting on the counter now, waiting for me to finish. Fine. I turned off the water and wrapped a towel around my waist.

"Miami. As soon as Rachel gets back." Something told me that staying in Tampa was just going to get me in more trouble.

He just looked at me, perplexed, "I thought we were gonna go out tonight. Brent met that babe. And you said you'd make Anna entertain Rachel…"

I cut him off, "Look Vin, I don't know what I said last night and barely remember what happened…" He started to respond and I held up my hand, "Spare me the details. I know it was bad."

"It was fuckin' amazing, Nick! You are the man! You showed that bitch who's in charge, dude."

That bitch? He didn't mean Rachel, did he? I wanted to punch that smirk off his face, but I was standing here soaking wet with a towel around my hips. Not really the best way to pick a fight, huh? Instead I pointed to the door, "Out!"

"But…"

"Out!" I hollered, pointing to the door again. "Get Tony and all the rest of them and get outta my house. Now!"

Vinnie was smart enough to realize he'd pissed me off, I guess, because he huffed out of the room, muttering something that I didn't even listen to. I slammed my bedroom door and grabbed the sheets, ripping them off the bed and throwing them around the room, furious. I'd let him call Rachel a bitch just now. I'd done that last night, too, hadn't I?

Fuck.

I remembered watching her leave some bar and laughing with Vinnie about it. Half of the fight that must have preceded that was lost forever in my alcohol-addled brain. But I remember her telling me that my friends were a bunch of drunken losers who just liked my money and that I was acting like a stupid frat boy. Vinnie'd responded with the very clever come back that she was a stuck up bitch who needed to chill out and I'd… done nothing. I think I'd ordered her another drink… a pretty blue one with an umbrella. She liked those and had been happy drinking them earlier, but by the time I'd found her, though, she and Anna were leaving.

Last night I had defended my friends, but now I wasn't so sure.

Before we'd left for Ybor she'd complained that they didn't have any interest in talking to her. But that was wrong, they liked her, didn't they? They'd treated her better than they'd treated any of my other girlfriends. But Rachel was definitely not like any other girl I'd ever been with. I tried to remember what any of them had said to her.

Not much.

My friends were idiots. So was I. Why was I hanging out with them when I could have been with Rachel?

But I thought Rachel was okay. She and Anna were hanging out, with the girls in Anna's band. I thought she was having fun! But maybe it would have been nice to have fun together, instead of being in our different groups. Even Anna tolerated the boys only up to a point, and then she'd huff off and take a walk on the beach or hang out with some of the girls or something.

I loved Anna. I'd known her practically my entire life. She was the person I'd talk to at 2 am when I was drunk and stupid and we'd talk about everything. She was one of the first people I'd told about Rachel, I'd run into her right after we'd gotten together and she told me that I was going to fuck it up. "Rachel Connor is way too cool for a Backstreet Boy," she'd teased. Anna was a music snob, and she hated our stuff.

They'd probably been out there on the deck talking about the genius of Courtney Love, and I had to come out and be a boy. My mere presence was annoying, and then I told her she shouldn't be smoking.

Well, she shouldn't be. It was bad for her.

Worse than downing about 10 Jell-O shots, Carter?

I shook my head at myself and it didn't hurt too much. I heard the downstairs door close and a car drive away. Opening the door, I listened for a minute and heard… nothing. Everyone must have left.

At least Vinnie did that right. Why was he being such an asshole about Rachel? He was one of my best friends, shouldn't he at least try to like my girlfriend? Tony did. When she and Anna had left that bar, it'd been Tony who'd caught up with them and walked them back here. He was a good guy.

Unlike me.

I'd just ordered another round and laughed at the girls dancing on the tables with Vinnie.

I pulled on some clothes and went to survey the damage. The house was a wreck and I really should clean it up before Rachel got back. And I'd pack her stuff, too, so we could drive to Miami. She was sort of right about my friends, anyway. I'd take her to Miami and we could stay there for a couple days… I'd make last night up to her. She had to forgive me, right?

Wait… what was that? I heard something in the kitchen and found Tony in there, opening cabinets. He saw me and shook his head. "Dude, do you not have any trash bags?"

"I thought everyone left."

"They're not for the bodies, Nick. I was just gonna help you clean up a little."

"No, you don't…"

He found the trash bags under the sink and held them up to me, stopping me. "You can be mad at Vinnie, because he's an ass. But you don't get to be mad at me for walking the girls back here last night."

I sighed, looking around for a place to at least lean, if I couldn't sit down. I couldn't even lean. "I'm not mad at you. I just want this place to look decent by the time Rachel and Anna get back." That was going to be a fucking job. God damn, my friends were slobs.

"No problem, man. It's mostly paper. And the food's gross now, we'll just throw it away."

Rachel worked really hard to make that food, and no one even ate it. No wonder she hated my friends. Her friends were all settled and interesting and mature. My friends were college idiots.

"We might need more trash bags. Here, give me one."

We worked quietly for a few minutes. Every time I bent over, my head screamed at me. Tony didn't seem to be hurting as much. "Hey," I finally said. "Did Rachel… did either of them say anything about me last night?"

Tony just cracked up. He set the bag he was holding down and just laughed at me. "Dude! Nick, it's Anna. I don't know Rachel that well, but she and Anna are two of a kind. What do you think they said last night?"

Fuck. I never should have introduced them.

And then Rachel would have been hanging out with the other girls last night? There would have been a lot more fighting then. Rachel wasn't like those other girls.

"They hate me," I muttered, shoving more trash into my bag.

"No. They hate Vinnie. Rachel thinks I'm the nicest boy ever, but Anna told her I was only being nice because otherwise she'd rat me out to Mom."

That was half true. But Tony was the big brother protector type.

"Why did you go with them? Your girl was pissed off."

Shrugging, he went back to throwing crap away. "Whatever. She had her friends, and I knew they weren't leaving until Vinnie did. I didn't want Anna and Rachel walking through that mess alone, man."

"I think they could take care of themselves." They seemed to be having fun deflecting all the 'show us your tits' stuff. I didn't make that up, did I?

No, I asked Rachel if she was okay and she said she was. I didn't need to feel guilty about that.

"I think they were going to get themselves killed, as riled up as they were. I took them down the quieter streets and made sure it looked like we were together, so they didn't get bugged as much. Then we came back here and they decided since we were back first, we got the big bed."

That's right… I sorta remembered stumbling back and Rachel telling me to go fuck myself before slamming the bedroom door in my face.

So, I'd tried to sleep with her last night. This time it wasn't my fault!

Yeah, that was so not gonna fly.

"The three of you were in that bed?"

He rolled his eyes. "I slept on the floor. They shared the bed. I think they talked all night. I fell asleep eventually."

"What did they say?" Did they actually talk in front of him? Like… secret girl stuff?

Tony smirked at me, tying up his trash bag. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

I glared at him and he just laughed. "I don't know, man. Seriously, I was drunk. And they were just going on and on… Anna was defending you, I remember that. Then they started talking about their bands and shit. Rachel was pissed off, but I think Anna calmed her down. Told her it was all Vinnie's fault and shit. Anna likes any excuse to trash Vinnie, you know that."

Maybe that was a good thing this time?

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