Be My Forever

xi | the disaster that is the brunch.

The loud, annoying beeping of my alarm clock cuts through my strange dream, which features dancing strawberries and Warren tackling me. Groaning, I roll over and search my nightstand until I hit the snooze button. The blissful silence tries to lull me back to sleep, but I know I have to get up to get ready for the brunch.

Yawning, I force my eyes open, sit up in bed, and stretch my arms up. I freeze when the lifeless lump in bed next to me groans.

Oh. My. Gosh. I forgot about Warren, practically comatose in bed next to me sleeping off probably what is his worst hangover in his life. I lurch up from bed, grab my pillow, and smack his face as hard as I can.

"Warren. Warren!" I hiss, hitting him again, "Warren!"

He groans again, "What the-" He bats away my blows, still half asleep, "Mom, go-"

I know that he's horribly hungover and just woke up, but I take personal offence to being called mom and swat at him again with my pillow, "You're lucky I'm not your mom, or else she'd be beating your ass right now. Now get up!"

He sits up abruptly, squinting with bloodshot eyes, and clutches his head, "Oh God, my head."

"Serves you right." I hiss at him, turning towards my closet while flicking on the light to look in. It's the nicest luxury in the world to have a walk-in closet.

I know I have to pick the perfect outfit for this brunch. Even if Warren screws this up, I will not. I flick through my selections, trying to put an outfit together in my head. I decide on a breezy, long white dress and matching platform sandals. It's a pretty dress, lacy and flouncy at the bottom with off the shoulder ruffles.

When I come back out from the closet, Warren is sitting on the edge of my bed, staring bleary eyed around like he's never seen my room before. I cross my arms.

"Hello?" I snap my fingers under his nose, "Warren!"

He glares up at me, "Jesus, could you not be so loud?"

I want to smack him. I want to smack him so bad. My fingers twitch.

"I am going to go take a shower. And if you are not out of my room before I come back, I will tell your mom what you did last night." I say in a dangerously calm voice.

I don't give him time to answer, instead I spin on my heel and yank open my bedroom door. In the bathroom, I turn to water all the way up. I wash away all of last night, enjoying the steaming water.

Ugh. I hate him. I can't believe that he made me lie for him. I hate lying. He also put me at risk for getting in trouble for lying. And I can't believe he came home drunk. I haven't had much experience with alcohol. Dad will give me sips of his beer or wine he gets, but I don't have much of a taste for either. He definitely deserves the massive hangover he's dealing with right now.

I take my time in the shower, thoroughly washing my hair, shaving my legs, using the good body wash so I smell nice. The bathroom is steamy when I finally get out and dry off. I wrap my hair up, finish drying off, and wrap my robe around my freshly cleaned body.

When I open my bedroom door, Warren is gone and I feel a rush of relief. He isn't my problem anymore after all. Trying to him out of my mind, I start to get ready. I decide to put on some makeup today, since Charlotte bought all of this stuff for me and I wouldn't want to waste it. I'm not that good, but I scrape by and it actually turns out nice.

I'm slipping on my shoes when someone knocks on the door. It's Charlotte, in the process of putting on a dangling pearl earring.

"Oh, you look lovely, dear." She says with a smile, "Perfect choice. Almost ready? We'll be leaving soon."