My eyes flutter open and I take in my surroundings. It's nighttime and I'm in my bed with my head throbbing. Violet is unattractively sprawled on the floor without even a blanket covering her. I guiltily tip out of bed and go inside to see Vern in the kitchen. He spares me a glance and chuckles through his nose.
"Hungover?" he asks sarcastically before turning to the coffee machine to pour me some coffee. "Of course you are." he suddenly sounds louder than usual.
"Stop yelling." I groan, greedily taking the coffee from his hands as he holds it to me.
"You and Violet are something else." he leans onto the counter, his own coffee in front of him. "When Gin and I came back home to see you guys wasted, we demanded you go to bed, but Violet refused to leave your side, and, well..." he widens his eyes judgmentally.
"We're joined to the hip." I say proudly, taking a sip of the bitter black liquid. The coffee is especially strong today. There's a weird silence before Vern speaks.
"You wouldn't stop rambling about Raph, do you remember?" Vern frowns. I spare him a short and embarrassed glance before taking another sip of coffee.
"I don't." I shamefully admit. I wonder what I said. Was it bad? Was it weird?
"And Leo."
My blood runs cold as Vern says this.
"You know everything, huh?" I ask sheepishly, a blush creeping onto my face.
"Pretty much." Vern says, "I don't know why you felt the need to keep me in the dark, and I hate to be the one to say this..." when Vern says those words, I usually prepare myself for something really bad. "But you need to get over Raphael."
"I am over him!" I protest almost immediately before shrinking a bit. "Kinda." I am far from over him and everyone seems to know it except the turtle himself.
"He's not right for you." Vern says, "apart from him being a turtle, he left you when you needed him the most."
"Can we stop with that?" I snap slightly, raising my voice as I look sternly at Vern. He doesn't even flinch. "Yes, I know the past sucks, but I'm so sick of thinking about this. Of hearing about it. The suicide attempt was so long ago, can't we just bury all of that? It's dead. Dead like Juliet." I feel bad that I'm snapping at Vern, but I need an outlet for all of my emotions. "And you don't think I want to forget him and forget everything we've been through? I want to go to college and meet a human boy and move on, but I'm not like you. I can't just...do that thing that you do."
"What thing?" Vern sounds offended.
"That thing where you're able to control your emotions and thoughts." I sigh. "That thing where you can pretend a situation doesn't exist."
Vern just lets me talk. I talk for a few more minutes before I'm done. I insult Vern, I insult Raph, I insult the world before I'm even the least bit satisfied.
"Now that that's out of the way...I have some news." Vern's voice is miffed and I know I put him in a bad mood, but I don't care. I feel much better after releasing all those pent up emotions, though it does nothing to my hangover.
"What news?" I ask.
"We set a date."
"You what?" I shriek, clearly excited. Violet and I were patiently waiting for the date that Gin and Vern were struggling to set. We were excited to be bridesmaids and ultimately sisters, but it seemed to be taking forever. "When is it?"
"March." Vern smiles to himself. "So after Christmas, prepare yourself for a whole bunch of bridesmaid dress shopping, because everyone knows-" I cut him off by hopping off the chair I'm seated on and practically barreling into him, holding him tight. "Can't breathe." he groans and I release him.
