The Prince and the Plant Whisperer

Until He Sobers Up

[~Posted 6/22/21]

Kai and Lilly stood transfixed by the sight of Tom inside the limo. His eyes were bleary. Vomit drenched his shirt.

Then, the sound of shouting pierced their thoughts.

"WHAT do you think you're doing?! Eh!?"

A portly man in a suit came round, from the driver's seat.

The chauffeur.

The furious chauffeur.

On the sidewalk, he started shaking his finger at Tom.

Kai and Lilly watched, shivering in the cold, as the breeze curled their dresses around their knees. 

"Hey! Hey hey hey..." From inside the limo, Taeyong started waving his hands at the driver. "We'll clean it up right now!"

It wasn't good timing. Tom leaned forward from his seat in the car, and retched even more. He clutched the velvet interior of the limo door—it was a purply maroon, the same color as the evening sky.

The limo driver turned beet red. "Get out!"

"Hold on," Taeyong said. "The contract we signed says—"

The limo driver seemed to suck air in, inflating himself up with anger. Then he spat, "I don't care what the contract says. Get out. I'm not spending a whole night waiting around and breathing in this stink. That smell takes days to air out, if you let it sit too long. Get out!"

With a heave, the chauffeur picked Tom up from his armpits, and dragged him out onto the sidewalk.

Tom just gave the limo driver a cynical, bleary eyed stare. Then his head lolled forward.

Wordlessly, Taeyong slid out the vehicle too.

Doors slammed. Then the limo swerved away, leaving Tom seated on the ground. Taeyong, Lilly, and Kai stood in a semicircle around him.

"What a pr*ck," said Tom from the ground. "We'll shoo you for violation of contract," he shouted down the street where the limo had disappeared. Then he closed his eyes.

"What's going on with Tom?" Kai asked Taeyong, over Tom's head.

"He drank a lot. Pre-partied."

"What!?" exclaimed Lilly. "He was already drinking? Like that much?"

Taeyong replied, "Honestly, I think it was because, well—"

"Because?" Lilly prompted.

"Well, he was nervous," Taeyong smiled a half smile, and looked at Kai. His glance was full of meaning.

"Do you think we should take him to urgent care?" asked Lilly, horrified.

From the rough gray sidewalk, Tom caught a strain of the discussion happening overhead. "No-o-O-o hospital," he slurred. His suit jacket lay beside him. Then Tom added: "Just get me near a bathroom." He smiled a dangerous-looking smile, then lolled forward again.

"You know," said Taeyong, "He just needs a place to sober up. A place with a bathroom," he added.

Kai was already texting Barry a message on her phone. A few minutes later, Tom's younger brother joined them, out of breath.

"Barry, can he sober up in your dorm room?" Kai asked.

Barry replied, apologetically, "My roommate's hosting his kid sister for the night."