A Shady Place

9

"Wake the fuck up, bitch," a voice rasped. A pillow slammed into the side of my head and I groaned. Denaun cackled from a couple feet away.

"We got a run-through in like twenty minutes, so you better put your white ass in gear."

"Who the fuck even let you in here?" I croaked, rolling to my other side and burying my face in the stiff hotel sheets. It felt like my eyes had been plastered shut. Even if I'd wanted to open them, I probably wouldn't have been able to. Honestly, couldn't be fucked to try, though. Someone threw the thick drapes open, and I huffed through my nose, struggling upright. "Aight, aight, calm down," I said, licking my lips. My mouth was tacky with thick saliva, and I squinted. It felt like my brain was swollen, like someone had shaken and stirred that bitch around and then squeezed it up against my skull. Wasn't nothing really out of the ordinary, I guess, but my eyes burned, even when they were shut. That only happened on really really shitty nights. What the fuck did I do?

After a couple seconds, my brain became aware of another weight on the bed, and I cranked my neck to check who I'd fucked last night. Isis. Damn. I'd half expected it to be Megan.

"You got like five seconds to get ready. Don't even think about showering, I know that shit takes you a couple hours," DeShaun drawled, then shuffled out with Denaun before I could sling the pillow back at them. Sighing, I fell back onto the bed and stared up at the ceiling for a moment. Last night looked foggy in my mind. After about 10 o'clock, it was mostly a jumbled blur of shapes and colors and snippets of slurred conversations. I don't know what it was, but even though my body felt like shit, my mind felt a little more settled than it had these past couple of days.

I glanced over at Isis, who had bolted up from the bed and was now rubbing her eyes. "Yo, did we—"

"No!" she yelped. "Not at all. Everyone crashed here, but you kinda called dibs on the bed," Isis answered more firmly, then her eyes narrowed. "Is that mine?" she asked, pointing at the device resting near the crook of my arm. I shrugged and tossed it to her.

"You tell me," I huffed out a yawn, lifting my arms behind my pounding head and closing my eyes again.

"Hmm."

I peeled one eye open to look at her. "What?"

"I— well, what're you doing with my phone? Why's it dead?"

My eyebrows furrowed and I scratched my temple. "That shit wouldn't stop ringing and you weren't doin' anything about it." I stopped. Oh fuck. That's right, I'd talked to Megan for a while. My big ass mouth had spewed some shit about Kim, I could just tell. Must think I'm some kinda wack-ass jerkoff. My mood instantly soured. I seriously needed to stop getting fucked up around that woman. The one thing I didn't need right now was this bitch getting it into her mind that I felt some typa way about her. She was just in the wrong place at the right time. Shit, I probably would have opened my mouth to lil miss Christina, if that's who'd answered the phone. I pressed the heels of my hands against my eyes and cringed. Should have just got myself some earplugs and let it ring out.

"I gotta get outta here," I said at last, throwing my legs over the side of the bed, and knocking over a couple empty bottles of Jack and Bacardi in the process. Isis didn't say anything, just watched as I walked out of her room.

Ducking into the elevator, I leaned my head back against the cool metal wall. Fuck. I just kept creating more problems for myself and I really didn't have the time or energy to fix that shit. What had I even said? I felt like I remembered talking about Hailie. And I'd only known this bitch for what, two seconds? I chewed my lip, trudging out of the elevator and down the hall to my own room. What if she sold me out? Spilled all the dirty details of Eminem's marital problems to the media? In all likelihood, she was sitting in front of ten reporters right now with a couple of twenties stuffed down her bra. I felt my pulse quicken and I tore my shirt over my head, getting dressed quickly to distract myself from the thoughts rattling around in my brain.