Star Side

Chapter 37

Stellar date (Earth Time): 04-26-2914

I woke up in pain.

First and foremost, was my head. Hangover, yo.

Then there was my shoulders, my neck, my back, my hips—I had to let out a few cuss words because, damn, just how did I sleep to cause all this? Maybe it had to do with the fact I was perfectly cocooned in my blankets like a sushi roll. It wasn't weird to me that I was only in my night shirt, but it was weird that my underwear was missing, but I found it at the bottom of my sushi roll so I could guess what happened to it. I hadn't gotten drunk all that often in my life, but each time had its own flavor of 'well, that's different,' so I wasn't alarmed.

What I was alarmed by was how close I got to throwing up all over my bed because my sushi roll slowed my attempts to the bathroom. Thankfully, I made it to the sink, where I vomited over the pain speckled drain.

My vomiting turned to a scream as Gilrack appeared in the bathroom doorway like a bat out of hell. Good holy crap, did he fly here?

"Jo, sick, rriicklisss-wrong?" He devolved back into his own language in his panic. Spines were up, his tail was attempting to rise as high as his shoulders, and his wings were outstretched.

I croaked, then threw up again.

Gilrack let out a high keen, then vanished. I heard the beep of the observatory intercom, which I never used since I usually had my own communicator on hand. It was good to know Gilrack had watched us use them the few times we had to recognize them. I had turned on the water to wash away the sick so I didn't make out what he gabled through the speaker.

Only minutes later, Levi was bursting in and all but kicking the fluttering Gilrack aside from the bathroom door, where I knelt with my head against the cold tile. I would have been more embarrassed by my bare legs if I wasn't staring at the fact that Gilrack had LET Levi kick him aside.

Levi took one look at my pale face, my bare legs and my carefully covered dignity by my oversized shirt, and groaned.

"Hangover," I said.

"I damn figured." He yanked a bottle of aspirin out of his pocket and chucked it at me, all while cursing Gilrack. Levi didn't look so great himself.

"Just woke up?" I asked as I popped the bottle open.

"Yeah. Gimme some of that when you're done."

I did so, popping the pills dry before handing the bottle back.

"Water and coffee in the biome?" I asked.

"And pants," he grumbled.

"What? Not appreciating my thunder thighs? I could crush a watermelon with these."

"It'd be a great way to die," he grumbled. "See you there."

Which meant I had to dig out my pants from my bed, all while trying to preserve my dignity from a fluttering, worried Gilrack who kept crooning my name inbetween clicks and jitters.

"Calm down," I said for the umpteenth time. "It was just the stuff we drank last night."

Gilrack's ears flattened. "Poison."

"Yeah, but not enough to die from. It's for fun."

All his spines went flat and his tail curled. "Humans drink poison for fun." The tail twitched as he searched for a word. "Crazzzzzy."

I giggled. His use of 'z's always sent the entire room buzzing along with him. He couldn't say a small 'z' to save his life.

"Yeah, which is why I don't do it very often. I'm sure your kind do stupid stuff for fun sometimes soon."