Chapter 9
Chapter Nine
CARI
“Rise and shine, babe!” River shouts, and I squeeze my eyes shut.
Why the hell is my head pounding so hard? My mouth is as dry as the time I tried those terrible homemade gummies in college. I groan and open my eyes as much as they’ll allow. River is sitting on the edge of the bed holding a glass of water in one hand and something else in the other.
I eagerly grab the glass of water and sit up.
Then I open my eyes properly, trying to ignore the hammering in my head when I see she’s holding out two white pills.
Ah, right, last night was the Halloween party.
I must’ve gotten drunk, and that’s why I am in pain.
I guess I decided to sleep in the guest room instead of heading home.
“Thanks,” I mumble.
“Are you awake this time?” River looks at me.
“Yeah?” I don’t know what she means.
“You woke up three hours ago, and I tried talking to you, but you fell back asleep.” River sighs. Her mouth forms a hard line, and I realize now that she’s pissed at me. It happens rarely with us, but when she’s pissed, this is the look she gives me. Flared nostrils and all.
“What happened?” I try to be as alert as possible.
“You were a train wreck at the party last night. An absolute mess, but I’m guessing you don’t remember any of that?” she asks. I shake my head, but then wince at the pain. “I have no idea how much you drank, but I’m seriously worried about you. Do I need to check you into rehab or something?”
“What? No. This is the first time I’ve been drunk in like a year. Why would you say that?” I ask.
Sighing, River picks up my phone and shows me a series of videos.
First is one of me laughing on the floor of the party with snacks all over me, then another of me singing in the middle of the party, then the last of me crying into the toilet.
There is a series of selfies in between each video, and I looked worse and worse in each one.
“Jesus. At least I didn’t post those.” I breathe a sigh of relief.
“Car…” River starts, and I gasp, reaching for my phone. River holds it back so I can’t reach it. “I didn’t see them until this morning, but everything’s deleted now. I need to talk to you before you take this back.” She tucks it back into her pocket.
“I don’t remember anything. Like last night is a blur, I’m trying to piece things together, but I don’t remember much,” I admit, focusing too hard hurts my head.
But everything else is a blur. I remember seeing Max, her words repeating in my head.
The look she gave me before she left. Of course, that won’t leave my head either.
“You and Max made a scene, but you also almost got into a fight with Gus and Emily? What the hell is going on with you? What happened?” River asks, her voice turning to concern.
“I-I don’t know,” I admit, choking back tears. I don’t want River to be upset with me, and I also don’t want to tell her my part in everything else.
“Please just talk to me. I feel like I don’t even know you right now. The girl in those videos isn’t my best friend, and I’m worried,” she says.
“I just had a rough night, aren’t I entitled to those every once in a while?” I snap.
River’s face changes, her jaw clenching as she looks at me.
“Aspen wouldn’t say it to you, but because that’s my wife, I’ll say it.
It was incredibly inconsiderate of you to get that drunk in front of Aspen.
You know her mother was an alcoholic, you know she doesn’t like to be around people like that.
You know she doesn’t even drink, so last night was incredibly triggering for her.
This is her home; she should feel safe here of all places. ”
My stomach drops; I did fuck up. Aspen and I had grown closer for the months we were roommates, so of course, I knew all about her mom. I was so fucking stupid to do that to her, now I feel like an ass.
“I’m so sorry.” I sigh. “I didn’t plan on getting that drunk, but I will apologize to her.”
“She’s not here. She was too worried about you, but at the same time didn’t want to be around this, so I sent her out for breakfast. I’d like you to be gone before she gets back.” River frowns.
“I understand.” I nod. My head hurts, but I ignore it this time. I need to get out of here as soon as I can. I sit up and realize I’m not wearing any bottoms, just a pair of panties from last night.
“Your clothes are here. I’m here if you want to talk before you go,” River says, handing me a pile of my clothes.
They look freshly washed, but I’m too embarrassed to ask whether she had to wash them or did it to be nice.
So, I just take them as she leaves and get dressed as quickly as I can.
I want to check my phone, but she didn’t leave it behind, and I can’t ask her for it yet.
I make the bed behind me and grab my knee socks, shoving them into my purse.
Standing up, I look in the mirror on the back of her door, and I wince.
My makeup is streaked down my cheeks, my hair is a frizzy mess, and my cheeks are puffy and bloated.
I look as bad as I feel. I need to get home so I fix myself as best as I can in the bathroom before finding River in the kitchen making coffee.
She hands me a full reusable coffee cup and I sip from it.
“I’m going to need that cup back eventually,” she says.
“So, you’re saying you want to see me again?”
“You’re my best friend, and I’m pissed at you right now, but I’m also worried about you. So yes, but next time you come by, my wife deserves an apology,” she says sharply.
I nod. “Can I have my phone back?”
River sighs and pulls it out of her back pocket. “I know you need to look, but maybe check it when you get home? Your fans can wait, and I don’t know if you’re in the best headspace for this.”
“I at least have to call an Uber home. I’m in no position to get on the subway right now.” I sigh.
I ignore the handful of messages waiting for me and open the Uber app.
As much as I want to check socials, River is right, I can’t do that yet.
When the car is a minute away, I grab my shoes and head outside.
River gives me a tight hug goodbye, and I try to relax on the short drive home.
I open the door to my apartment, and there’s a feminine scream along with a blur of bodies.
“Oh, my God!” I squeal, shutting the door behind me and spinning around as quickly as I can. Hazel and her girlfriend are clearly in the middle of something in the middle of our living room.
“I’m so sorry!” Hazel screams.
“Just tell me when I can go hide in my room,” I say, keeping my eyes clamped shut.
“All good!” Hazel says a moment later.
I turn around and she’s sitting with her girlfriend, both with a mess of hair and cheeks rosy red.
“Hi, you must be Molly. We haven’t had a chance to officially meet.” I smile and stick out my hand.
Molly smiles but looks at my hand hesitantly. “I would love to shake your hand, but I think it’s best if I take a raincheck.”
Hazel bursts out laughing, and I blush, realizing exactly what they were doing out here.
“Of course.” I head for my room as I hear Molly whispering at Hazel for embarrassing her.
I desperately want to take a shower but I wait until I hear their giggling move to Hazel’s room at the end of the hall.
Then I grab my towel and hide out in the scalding hot water.
I am still too afraid to look at my phone.
I had only seen a glance of what River showed me, and I am terrified to see the comments.
I never stray from my brand, posting only what is ‘approved’ content.
So to get drunk and post myself drunkenly singing and crying?
I am more than embarrassed. Over one hundred thousand people could’ve seen me acting like an idiot. Not to mention, Max.
My heart aches thinking about her. Of course, she wasn’t one of the people who texted me, I checked. I was the last one to send a text, and thankfully, it wasn’t a drunk text last night.
My head is still pounding despite the coffee I drank on the way home. Max was mad at me, but I’ve never seen her like that before. Is it really over? Or maybe she had as much to drink as I did. Well, no one had that much last night.
All I wanted was to spend the night with Max.
I thought maybe we’d hit it off at the party and go home together again.
I thought if I could just get her to see me again, things would all work out.
I didn’t realize how upset she was. It wasn’t my fault I thought she had something going on with Superwoman, I mean they were literally in matching costumes.
What was I supposed to think? It didn’t help that she basically blew me off for the entirety of last week.
I hate not knowing what is going through her head, but I also hate having to ask.
She isn’t exactly an open book, and anytime I try getting her to open up, she immediately shuts down.
She’s like a scared cat I have to approach slowly.
I get out of the shower and head right for my room, thankful that Hazel and Molly are still in her room.
After getting dressed, I decide to tackle social media.
I sit on my bed and head to Instagram first. Even though River deleted the post, there are over 100 comments on my last post, even though I can tell the comments have nothing to do with it.
Thankfully, it isn’t a branded post, so at least none of my clients were getting these notifications too.
My stomach drops as I look at my follower count, knowing that I lost at least two thousand followers overnight.
Sometimes I lose followers, but never this many at once.
I need to do damage control and fix this quickly.
Most of the comments are bashing me for looking like a wreck, and the other half are voicing their concerns.
I get it, I was drunkenly singing and then crying into the toilet.
I don’t even want to know which videos I actually posted, but one can guess.
I post an Instagram story of text saying I’m sorry for the drunk posts.
I over-served myself, and that’s unlike me, but I’m okay and taking the next few days off to recover.
Hopefully, that will tide everyone over until I can think about how to handle it.
It’s not like they need more of an explanation, but I need to get back those I lost and make sure no more decide to leave.
I breathe a little lighter after I post. Some of the contracts I signed would become void if I dipped under one million followers. Which would mean a lot of the money I planned to come in wouldn’t be. It’s not like there’s a way to smudge the numbers; if I lost a few thousand more, I’d be fucked.