Don't let me go | HEROPHINE

Chapter 15

Hero's Pov:
Goddamn it, why the fuck did I get so drunk? As soon as I open my eyes, the immediate, horrific feeling of a hangover sets in. I threw up a good few times between getting home last night and now, and the acid has burnt my throat to the point I can no longer feel it. In fact, it's safe to say I feel like death this morning.

I reach my limp arm out to feel around for my phone on the other side of the bed. It's so strange not feeling Josephine's body next to me when I wake up. I'm used to her dragging me out of bed in the mornings and I now I have to do it myself.

When I feel the cool metal of my IPhone, I pull it up above my face to see the time. Only 11am. This could be far worse. I've been known to sleep until 3pm when I'm this hungover. Then again, I haven't been this hungover in a while. In fact, I'm not sure I ever have been to this extent. I'm convinced it's my swelling headache that woke me in the first place. If it weren't for that, I'd be sleeping peacefully.

Once I've plucked up the strength to pull myself out of bed, I realise I'm still wearing my faded black jeans from last night. God, I was so drunk I couldn't even strip down to my boxers like usual.

I remove my dirty jeans and current pair of boxers, before retrieving a fresh pair from my drawer and pulling them up my legs.
I walk through to the bathroom and splash cool water on my face. Instead of easing my headache, it highlights it for all its worth and i can feel a physical throbbing under the skin of my forehead. I stare into the mirror blankly, frowning at my appearance. I don't think I've seen myself looking this terrible before.

I pull a grey t shirt and sweater from my wardrobe, slinging them on the bed behind me. I deodorise to hopefully drown out the smell of liquor and sickness lingering on my body. I dress myself, only wearing gym shorts over my boxers on my bottom half.
I think of how if Jo were here she'd complain and make me put on sweats or jeans. Shit. Josephine.

I grab my phone off the bed and run downstairs and into the kitchen. I decide to take some paracetamol to do battle with my headache before speaking to her. Her words will only scramble my mind further. I don't even remember what I did last night.
I gulp down the barely cold water and swallow the pills, before bracing myself and unlocking my phone. I'm surprised when there's no texts or missed calls. Only our call from last night is logged. Wait, I called her?

It takes a few minutes for the events of last night, my drunken words, the slurring of my speech, to flood back into my mind.
I shoot her text after text, frantically apologising for what I said or did last night.
But the worst part is, I'm not entirely sure what exactly I'm apologising for. I must use the word 'drunk' about 20 times throughout the streak of outgoing text messages to Jo. I'm not helping myself here, this is seriously bad. I can tell.

A few days later..

Josephine's pov:
I'm not really sure how it happened but the original director is off the movie. But I'm so pleased with who we've got now.

Roger Kumble.. wow. All these years directing and he's still- in my opinion- one of the best in the business. I'm so happy to be working on a film with him again.
He really did an amazing job on after we collided, plus he was under a lot of pressure to do a better job than Jenny Gage.
I don't like to insult her, but having read all the after books, it's not like she made the biggest effort to stick to the novel. I'm sure Anna would agree!

As much as I'm glad to have a familiar face around, it's a little strange with Hero not being here. The three of us had so many laughs filming after we collided, I can still remember the dodgy tweets from Roger, half hinting at me and Hero being together. The fans analysed his every word, and while we were still a secret, it was so fun seeing their reactions to his small, subtle clues online.

I'm riding with him to the restaurant- we're having dinner with the cast in about half an hour. I'm kind of nervous to meet Noah. I mean, it's Noah Centineo, he's a very talented actor.
I mean, we already briefly met last night, but it was just at the bar in our hotel, he's staying in a room two floors above me so we hadn't really run into each other. It was just a general greeting, the same as I had with everyone else there. But I didn't stay long, I had felt a little strange around all those new people. I can be a little shy in the beginning stages of movie making I guess. I didn't even finish my drink before leaving and going back to my room.

I've ignored every single text from Hero since that conversation we had over the phone. I just don't feel like talking to him. He may be my husband but he is certainly being a dick. He couldn't even give me a sincere apology, it was all mixed up. He hardly knew what he'd even done to upset me.

So tonight, I'm going to try and enjoy myself, with thoughts of my marriage far away. I can't deny I still love him. And nothing will change that, but I really just want some time to myself, to think. To be happy.

..

Roger and I enter the restaurant. 'Smile Jo, you look way too scared for someone who's about to devour a burger.'
I laugh nervously but force a smile as we approach the table. Rita, the producer stands up to hug and welcome me. Then, Noah gets up from the table and steps towards me.
'Josephine Langford' he greets me, with a perfect smile, and I don't even correct his use of the wrong name..