The Mechanic.

Chapter 7

Ella woke up to the sound of someone banging on her door. When she got up to go get it, the pain that assaulted her made her lay back down. Her head hurt like the devil. Her mouth felt like a garbage can. Even her body hurt. What had she done to herself last night? To top it off, the last thing she remembered was taking shots with her friends at the club.

There was more banging and Ella flinched. The pain intensified. She looked to the table beside her and saw the bottle of Aspirin and a bottle of water. Had she kept that there? The banging continued and Ella grumpily got up and went to answer the door.

"What the hell happened to you last night?" Jasmine shouted as Ella let her into the house. "Where did you go?"

"Stop shouting." Ella said with a deadly calm. She would bash Jasmine's head in if she shouted one more time. She rubbed her forehead to try and alleviate the pain there.

"How bad is your hangover?" Jasmine asked patiently.

"Horrible." Horrible was an understatement. It was even worse because she hadn't felt this way in the longest time. She hadn't even had a hangover since before she had gotten pregnant with Josh. "I feel like death. I am never going out with you again." She said, then she realized that something was wrong with this scenario. "Wait! How the hell are you standing here? How aren't you throwing up in your bathroom and clutching your head? And where the hell did all of you go?"

"Well. I'm not hungover at the moment because I drank responsibly, when I saw the way you guys were drinking." Jasmine said proudly. "And as to where we were. I was in the bathroom holding Brenda and Penny's respective hairs back while they puked their guts out." She scoffed. "Remind me never to go out with people who never go out."

"That makes sense." Ella sighed.

"And you!" Jasmine pointed her finger at Ella's face. "Imagine my surprise when I asked the bartender if he had seen a drunk brunette wearing a green top and he told me that you left with A MAN!" Jasmine's voice got higher and higher until the last words were a shriek. "A man, Emmanuella, a freaking man!"

Ella sat down and stared at her friend. What in God's name was she talking about? "Calm yourself, Jazz. He must have been talking about someone else because I don't recall leaving with any man."

"Really? So how did you get home?"

"I don't remember that either." Ella said dejectedly.

"Ella, he described you perfectly, even the makeup you had on." Jasmine said, getting agitated again. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? Plus you weren't picking your phone, -"

"Because I was asleep." Ella grumbled. She felt nasty. She was still wearing the same clothes from last night, which were uncomfortable and smelled like smoke. She still had her makeup on, and her hair was tangled and also smelled like smoke. She needed a thorough cleaning.

"Ella, you're not listening to me." Jasmine said. "If a man didn't bring you home, it means you drove home drunk, which is even worse! Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Ella could see now that the reason Jasmine was so freaked out was because she had been so worried about her and she was just brushing the whole thing off like it didn't matter. She walked to Jasmine and put her hands on her shoulders. "Jazz. I'm okay. I'm fine. I'm sorry I made you so worried, I wasn't thinking. But nothing happened to me."

The tension in Jasmine's shoulders went away and she hugged Ella. "I was so scared." She whispered fiercely. "If something had happened to you, it would have been all my fault."

Ella patted Jasmine's back comfortingly. Then Jasmine regained her composure and moved away from Ella. "Okay, so now that is sure you're okay. I have to go. I have a breakfast date. Clean yourself up." She said and picked up her purse and left the house.