Shadows in the Concrete Jungle Book One: The Grey

Chapter Seven

Thirty-six hours after her drunken night with Noah and his friends, Kendra still felt like straight ass, as she and Noah rode the elevator down in silence to the ground floor. She was a warmed over corpse, Frankenstein's monster brought back to life again, except it was McDonald's, coffee, and painkillers surging through her veins instead of electricity.

She had woken up late in the afternoon in their spare room the night after, discovering her sopping wet clothes left on the tile floor in the attached bathroom as she tripped over them in her rush to make it to the toilet to throw up. Her head hadn't pounded that hard since... well, since the last time she drank.

Kendra had crawled back to the bed, noticing the only thing on her body had been Noah's sweater. It smelled like him, like the sea, and she could smell her own vanilla scent underneath it all, and it had been glorious, drifting back off into a sickly sleep for another night and part of the next day.

They checked in on her, she knew. Noah, then Nicholas, who brought her peppermint tea, Noah again, then Jolly, who offered her more tequila, to which she replied with a groan and pillow tossed at his head. Noah visited again, dropping off french fries, and telling her not throw up on his favorite hoodie, then Nick visited with a change of clothes, and then Noah, again, with water and painkillers. And then Noah again, and again, and again, all throughout the night into the next day.

He had shaken her foot to wake her up, and to Kendra's utter surprise- and excitement- crawled onto the bed beside her. His scent was overwhelming, making her head swim again, but she didnt even pull away. Instead she flipped around and scowled at him.

"How are you guys not close to death?" she groaned, letting her eyes slip closed.

She heard Noah chuckle, which was truly a lovely sound. "When was the last time you drank like that?"

She sighed. "It's been a while."

"Exactly. And we drink all the time. Jolly is pretty much immune to alcohol, so we always have to keep up with him. There have been lots of times though where I've done the same exact thing as you."

Kendra only slowly moved closer to him, until her head was tucked onto his chest, his arm wrapped around her. Noah had pulled out his phone and put on some random anime she hadn't yet seen, but it was subbed, and not dubbed, and she didn't have an ounce of mental capacity to follow along, so she fell in and out of sleep on his chest. And despite her feeling like shit, and dreading going to work that night, Kendra wouldn't have changed it for anything.

She was perfectly content with staying in bed just like that, forever.

Until Nick showed up with bags and bags of McDonalds.

The text that he was there with food flashed on the screen, the sound jarring Kendra back awake. Noah had slipped from her embrace and left the room to allow her to get dressed. He was already in the dining room when she appeared, dressed in the sweatpants and sweatshirt Nick had left for her.

"She lives!" called Jolly when she appeared, and they cheered, sending her head throbbing again, but she only bowed, and sat between the two Nicks, who offered her a plethora of fries, burgers, and chicken nuggets, and diet soda, something that Nicholas had apparently gleaned from her and informed to Nick.

They talked aimlessly about everything and nothing, new video games coming out soon, the full moon happening soon, and the lunar eclipse, then they switched to movies coming out, and then the next time their mutual friend Vincent would be in town.

"He word for the SDAEC," Nicholas said in her ear. The East Coast then, but he visited frequently. Kendra only nodded, before stuffing another fry in her mouth. "There's a portal right into the room he stays in."