Only Fools

Chapter Thirteen

As my eyes flutter open, I can't help but immediately notice the steady breath of the person next to me who must've kindly let me use their shoulder as a pillow all night. As I lift my head up, Margot's eyes flutter open and she sends me a soft smile.

Her hair is all disheveled from sleeping with her back to the foot of the bed and yet she somehow makes it look good with her curls taking on a messier approach that still maintains a strange beauty. Whereas, my hair is probably lacking any and all grace or sophistication as it sticks out in every direction.

"Good morning," I say with a small laugh, trying to ignore the pounding in my head.

"Morning," Margot says as she lets out a yawn.

"I guess we just fell asleep?" I note, feeling slightly awkward with the situation.

"The conversation must've gotten really boring," Margot jokes, and I just roll my eyes at her before my eyes widen at the realization that Margot isn't the friend I came here with. Yanking my phone out of my pocket, I swiftly turn it on to find dozens of missed texts and calls from various friends. I check Tori's first.

Tori: where the fuck did you go?

Tori: OMG dude

Tori: are you getting laid?

Tori: shit sorry

Tori: tell me about it later I guess ;)

I let out a sigh, both unsure of how to respond and also simply not wanting to. So I move onto Naomi's messages.

Naomi: hey aspen. where did you go?

Naomi: seriously, dude. i'm getting kind of worried.

Naomi: i'm just going to assume you're fine and not checking your phone.

Two minutes later.

Naomi: ok. i don't want to assume that anymore. i'm worried. please respond.

Naomi: ivy and tori seem to think that you're fine so i'll stop texting you, but please respond as soon as you can.

Naomi: shoot i've gotta drive tori home.

Naomi: i assume ivy's got you covered.

Naomi: please still respond when you can.

As soon as I finish reading her messages, waves of guilt hit me given that I know Naomi well enough to realize she probably overthought the situation and the last thing I ever wanted was to put her through that.

Me: I'm so so sorry. I'm fine. I fell asleep upstairs.

Last, but most certainly not least, I check my messages with Ivy, and it pains me in a way that the guilt from Naomi's messages couldn't begin to.

Ivy: Hey I'm not sure where you are but I thought I'd let you know that I'm going to drive Jax home. I'm sorry I have to do this but it's kind of an emergency.

Ivy: I hope you're all good, birdie.

I'm not exactly sure what hurts most about the message, but I quickly shut my phone off and put it back in my pocket anyways. Maybe it's the fact that it just feels like she didn't even try to look for me. Maybe it's the fact that she quite literally chose Jax over me. And I realize that she did say that it was all due to an emergency, and those thoughts are at the forefront of my brain. It's just the annoying ones in the back, whispering in my ear that I wasn't her first choice and I won't be anymore. No matter how much I want to be. No matter the amount of time she's been mine.

"Are you ok?" Margot asks me, almost immediately grimacing at the sound of her voice afterwards, seemingly just as hungover as I am. I blink my eyes rapidly for a moment, trying to make sure that any emotions I had previous felt stay inside.