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“What hellhole?”
“The hellhole that is this existence. I seriously didn’t think it could get much worse after that asshole Luca—” She stops herself. “Anyway, it doesn’t matter. I didn’t think it could get much worse than last night, but hey, this morning decided to exist and be way, way worse.”
“What happened with Luca?”
“I don’t wanna talk about it,” she grumbles. I would usually push it, but her eyes look tired and sad.
“This is a hellhole of your own doing, young one.” I pat her head and flop down next to her, stroking her gently.
She groans some more when Ashley makes her way down the stairs. Ashley is already dressed in her fitness clothes, which elicits another moan from Sydney.
“Ash, seriously, you don’t have to rub it in my face.” She scrunches her nose up.
Ashley saunters past us and chirps, “I’m not rubbing anything in. I’m just off to a Pilates class. Would you like a water, Sydney?”
“Yes,” Sydney replies. “I’m sorry for saying you’re rubbing it in. I’m just projecting. How can you be feeling so fine after you came out with us last night?! I don’t get it. Do you have some mutant gene that means alcohol doesn’t affect you so much?”
Ashley shrugs, returning with her own pink travel bottle filled to the brim and hands Sydney a glass with murky-looking water.
“Uh, Ash, are you drugging our roommate?” I ask.
She rolls her eyes. “No, this is my secret to waking up fine. Well, this and the fact that I probably only had one drink for every three you had, Sydney. These are electrolytes. Just try it. I promise you’ll like it.”
Sydney sits up and eyes the water suspiciously, giving it a sniff first, reminding me of an uncertain cat.
“You promise this will help?”
“I do.”
All in about three seconds, Sydney takes a gulp, her eyes widen, and she spits out the drink.
“Sydney! What the fuck!” I shout, getting up.
She wipes her face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect you to give me SALT juice?!? Who does that?!”
“What did you think electrolytes were?”
“I dunno, like Gatorade?”
“Jesus Christ.” Ash wipes the salt juice spray off herself. “It’s replenishing your lost salts from dancing and drinking; it helps you hydrate faster.”
Sydney still pulls a face and puts down the glass on the table. “No. thank you. I will revert to my usual hangover cure.” She’s already tapping away on her phone.
“That will not help, you know. It’ll momentarily give you a dopamine hit, then you’ll crash even harder.”
“Then I shall crash with a belly full of McNuggets.”
Ash laughs and then heads out the door to Pilates. She really does work hard, but her body shows for it. She looks fucking amazing.
“Anyway, what did you and Cal get up to here…all alone?”
I tense up.
“What do you mean?”
She pushes me in the arm.
“I mean, I’m not blind, Bea. I see the way you two look at each other.” Sydney narrows her eyes. “What is going on there? Because if you’re secretly fucking Callum Fox and haven’t told me, I would consider that a serious crime against our friendship.”
