“It’s almost 10 am asshole, wake up.”
Tristan begrudgingly pushed himself off the bed slowly, allowing the expected wave of nausea and the pounding of a roaring headache to wash over him.
“You know you had to literally crawl up the stairs last night to get to bed,” Jordan said with a chuckle, which made Tristancringebecause hedidn’tremember that at all. He remembered everythingupuntil he was pushedintothe cab to finally leave the party with his teammates, but then it all went blank.
“I didn’t mean to drink like that,” Tristan’s voice came out in a broken hush.
“Yeah, you never do,” Jordan replied flatly.
“I need to call Tessa,” he said, searching for his phone. His mind was on herimmediately,and he remembered their heated miscommunication last night that resulted in her letting another guy give her a ride home. “I’m such an asshole,” he mumbled to himself when he finally found his phone andscrolled through his messages, not seeing anything new from her. He sat confused for a moment before remembering that she never messaged him that she was home safe, and also didn’t answer any of his twenty phone calls, but then instantly was relieved once he remembered being able to get a hold of Amber who had assured him that Tessa was home with her and simply did not want to speak to him yet.
“What happened?” Jordan asked, having not being around for their altercation.
“Idon’tknow man. OnesecondI was asking her to come to the party with me and she said no, and then the nextshe’ssuddenly yelling at me about playing beer pong at the exact party she said shedidn’twant to go to.”
“Damn Trist. Oldest trick in the book. You betterstart paying more attention.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You know, like when your girlfriend says ‘noit’stotally fine,go out with your friends’,butreallyit'sa test to see if you will turn down your friends to stay with her. Katie did that to me once. She acted like shedidn’tcare if I went out to the bar or to dinner with her parents and I chose the bar because she said shedidn’tcare, and shedidn’ttalk to me for like a week.”
Tristan sat in silence for a moment contemplating Jordan’s words of experience.
“I don’t know, it didn’t feel like that. And I don’t think she’d do that either. That just doesn’t make any sense.”
“Tristwomendon’t make any sense.”
Tristan chuckled and nodded his head slowly in agreement.
“Well hopefully she slept it off because I told her I’d take her tobreakfast,and I really want to see her.”
“Just tread lightly,” Jordan said, giving Tristan’s shoulder a supportive squeeze, “she might still be all emotional or whatever it is they do with their ovaries.”
Tristan laughed again as Jordan left their bedroomtoheaddownstairs. With a smallamountof nerves anda very largeamount of the hangover shakes, Tristan calledTessa andwaited anxiously while it rang a full five times before going to voicemail.
“Goddamnit,” he whispered to himself, dialing again, only to get the same result. He then senta quick text message toher, informing her thathe’sawake and wants to see her, and thenquickly sentanother message apologizing again for their argument last night.
Tristan sighed and rubbed his eyes with the heels of his palms before cautiously standing up from the bed, letting the dizziness subside before he went into the bathroom to take a very cold shower in an attempt to bring his body and mind back from the dark shadows of his hangover.He took his time in the shower, allowing his thoughts to drift, as they always did, to Tessa. He thought about howit was clearas day that he loved her, and how he should go about telling her. He then wondered if she felt the same, or if last night was enough to make herrunawayfrom him at full speed. His chest tightened at the thought of not having her anymore, and he said a silent prayer to a God hewasn’tquite sure if he believed in to let Tessa’s heart remain open to him.
Once he was out of the shower and dressed in his favorite pair of grey sweats and Vanderbilt hoodie, he walked back over to his bed and glanced at his phone, his heartimmediatelythumping against his rib cage upon seeing Tessa had replied to his message.
Sorry, I’m exhausted. I’m going to stay home and catch up on sleep and studying.
“Fuck,” he cursed in an angry sigh before he sent his large body flying down the rickety stairs two at a time. “She said shedoesn’twant to meet up for breakfast. What do I do?”
Jordan looked up at him from his place on the couch and cocked his eyebrow at his little brother.
“She’s really laying it on thick, isn’t she?”
“What does that mean?What does this mean?” He asked frantically, holding the phone in his hand and shaking it in the air.
“She’s doing the whole ‘Don’t come chase me’ thing, when she reallydoeswant you to chase her.”
Tristan squinted at his older brother, weighing his adviceinhis head. He then realized he was taking advice from his brother, who, albeit was betterthanTristanatmost things, datinggirls was notone of them.Actually, Katiewas the only real girlfriend Jordan had ever had, and from what Tristan hadobservedover the year they had been together,hewas in awe of how Jordan was able to keep Katie around.
“I’m calling Katie,” Tristan said in response, shaking his head at his brother’svery badjudgement.Tristan brought the phone up to his ear as he walked into the kitchen to make himself a cup of black coffee.
“Are you in jail?” Katie’s flat and unamused voice came through the phone.
