Chapter 5 NAKED GHOST

She woke up with a start and sat upright in her bed,her head zooming in and out and feeling like a spring being pulled back and forth or bouncing on a trampoline. Her eyebrows stuck together like they had been sealed with super glue even though mentally she was awake. She rubbed them open and got out of bed managing to step up to the door without staggering but just as she thought that maybe her klutzy days were over, she hit her foot against a huge box by the door.

"Goddamnit!" she cursed and looked down, groaned in pain then limped it off.

Dragging her legs and heavy body that felt like it had received a severe beating, she walked out of her room and headed to the kitchen. A cup of coffee she so much needed wasn't gonna make itself after all and her roommate was probably turning in her seventh universe in her bed at that time.

She however decided to head to the shared bathroom first before going to the kitchen which was an idea she regretted immediately. She was running her hand through her messy hair and closed her eyes for a moment forgetting that she could never walk a single step with her eyes closed without stumbling into something except that this time it wasn't something but someone. That however wasn't what had her mouth full open in shock. It was the sight of the tall guy,fully naked walking out of the bathroom and now smiling at her as if it was nothing.

"Hey there!" he greeted,his grin extending.

"What the hell!" she found herself saying moments before her eyes dropped without realizing it and to worsen things,her jaw decided to follow suit taking in his length. She quickly caught herself and shook her head,"You know what, forget this,"she said expressing with her hands at nothing in particular then turned around and hurried towards the kitchen. She grabbed the counter top and exhaled deeply,her eyes blinking profusely as she tried to make herself focus.

What did she remember about last night? Nothing, her mind was completely blank. She turned on the tap, leaned over the sink and let the water gush all over her face as if doing that would bring her memories back but nothing. She was well aware of her habit of doing things unconsciously then waking up to messes that were way over her head and even though she most of the times managed to handle them, this just felt awful. And it definitely didn't feel like her doing even though it most likely was because between her roommate and her, she was the one sleeping around with guys.

"Morning bestie!" a cheerful voice sounded behind her but she jumped even though she knew it was her roommate. "Why are you jumpy?"

She moved forward and grabbed her friend by her arms then forced her to look at her straight in the eye. "Andy?"

"There's a creepy guy walking around naked in our apartment. Tell me that I didn't do that,look at me and tell me that I didn't bring him here because I have no recollection of what happened last night,"she said desperately but trying to keep her voice as even as she could. Her friend's response was to let out a snort like laugh. "Seriously Gabby, tell me that I didn't!"

"Whoa,chill out. Relax," Gabby responded. She tried to breathe in and out as she looked over her shoulder just in case... just in case what? The guy turned out to be a naked ghost in her subconscious mind?

"Hey girls!"

Definitely not a ghost and now she wanted to jump right out of her skin in horror because, what the fuck had she done this time round? Picked up a completely random guy and brought him home with her? She closed her eyes tightly for a second then forced herself to turn around. She however had no strength to look into the guys eyes even though he was now dressed and dear God! How much she could pay just so she remembered everything that had happened in the past twelve hours after they had decided to go for a girl's night out.

"Andy, this is my cousin Jake and Jake, this is my best friend and roommate." She turned to her,"Jake brought us home last night and I asked him to spend the night since it was too late to go back."

Andy didn't know whether to be relieved that it wasn't what she had been thinking or to be embarrassed about the whole incident but she sure as hell was ready for this part to be over because it was now beginning to feel very awkward.

"Good morning," Jake replied and offered his hand. "I must say that you really are a completely different person from who I met last night considering that you are completely sober."

'Oh God! What did I do?' she thought silently and slowly looked away.

"Jake, what the hell!" Gabby admonished. "This your first time seeing a drunk woman? And why the hell do you still walk around naked in a house that's not yours?"

"What? It's freeing and am I not allowed to walk around comfortably in my skin?"he chuckled. "Remember when we were young and it was like a tradition? Don't be a buzz killer,you know it was fun."

"Yeah, probably the reason I don't like men nowadays."

Andy took a step away and headed towards the coffee maker,still listening to the two exchange words and for a moment got lost in their world smiling at some of the things they were saying to each other until the coffee was ready and she couldn't continue standing there listening without saying a word. Without even taking the coffee she had come for in the first place, she headed back to her bedroom, grabbed a fresh towel and headed back to the bathroom.

Maybe some minutes under a cold shower would bring her back to her normal self. She shook her head at the thought of that. Normal self? Who was that? How could she even get that back? Or even more importantly, what could be called normal about her.

Everything about her now complicated any normalcy she could ever have and also if her past had ever been normal, she would probably be somewhere else except here, leading a completely different life, maybe with the love of her life even? She scoffed. Love.

That bastard; shitty, source of misery,snatcher of happiness,a crawling parasite ready to devour you from the inside out and leave nothing but an empty shell that has no purpose.

No one ever warned her that the same beautiful feeling could be the source of her misery,no one ever told her that not everything turned out as good as she wanted it to be and that was what she hated most about everything that had happened.

She closed her eyes as the water trickled down her skin, rubbing it slowly as if she was soothing it instead of bathing. Here she was,a qualified doctor which was the only achievement she could claim that had meaning. The rest of her life was a complete mess and it could all be blamed on one thing. The tiny word yet very dangerous and that was love.

She had stopped wallowing ages ago but that didn't mean she ever wanted to hear of it ever again. That part of her life was a mess but it was a mess she preferred knowing that it couldn't get any messier than being in a life filled with the brightness of sunflowers and rainbows and knowing that the rainbows could disappear any moment and the sunflowers bow their heads in defeat,their beauty fading away the moment the very sun they are dependent on becomes too much even for them. Fantasies were good but that went to as far as they wanted to before deciding to fuck you over.

"Andy, breakfast is getting cold," her friend's voice snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned off the shower quickly wondering how long she had been in there. "Are you okay in there?" Instead of replying, she wrapped a towel around her and stepped out of the bathroom. "I'm sorry about Jake,he can be a jerk at times."

"No, it's fine. I was just surprised to see such a big... brotherhood he is," she swallowed as her best friend roared with laughter. "Shut up,is he gone?"

"No he is not," Gabby went on. "So you-"

She lifted up a finger,"Don't even say it." She should have known that her warning would fall on deaf ears. "Did I make a fool of myself last night?"

"As far as I know, I found you with him at the bar,he was taking care of your wasted self. You were telling him about Nicky Chambers and laughing your heart out, crying at the same time which is totally allowed-"

"Oh dear God!" she palmed her face now recalling what had taken her on a drinking spree. Deep down she felt it had been more than just pouring her soul out to a stranger because she knew herself. She knew what too much stress always did to her and she would be lucky if talking and crying stupidly for a person who didn't deserve it was the only thing she had done. She tried tracking her memories but none seemed to land her where she wanted. She bit her lip lost in between remembering and focusing on what Gabby was saying.

"Anything I should know?" She raised an eyebrow.

"What? No,why?" she shook her head vigorously.

"You are wearing your guilty look. Almost as if you know you did something you shouldn't have."

"How would I know?" she asked. "You left me Gabby. I drunk my soul out, literally and even what you are saying sounds alien to me."

"Hey, it's not like you've ever needed me. And besides, I sent Jake to you, I knew you would be safe with him and since you didn't even want to talk to me,I went back to my friends until much later when we came back home."

"Okay,stop,"she raised her hand. "It's okay, I'm not accusing you of anything." She didn't want to continue with this talk because it was now beginning to get personal and more emotional. She believed she'd had enough of those the previous day so she decided to turn it around. "Hey, one last question," she paused, lowered her voice and wiggled her eyebrows cheekily, "Has it always been that huge?"

"Oh my God Doctor Andrea Serrano! You are crazy and I'm not about to discuss my cousin's junk with you," she replied after a moment of figuring out what she was talking about. "Why don't you go ask him instead?"

"You know what? I just might,"she replied before heading back to her bedroom leaving an open mouthed Gabby staring after her. After closing the door, she leaned against it and exhaled deeply hoping as hell that she hadn't done something crazy around Jake.