One Night Stand Until I Woke Up Next To You

"Are you free tonight?"

"I still haven't figured out what to do for my assignment and the first draft is due tomorrow. So no."

"That can wait."

"Can it, really?"

"Don't look at me like that, you waited until now to do it."

"True." I took the beer Brian offered me. "Why does it have to wait?"

"You know how I told you about that girl I met at the gig last week?"

"Yeah. The one who was more into your face than our music. What about her?"

"It seems she's got hot friends. Friends we're gonna meet this evening."

"I don't want to meet anyone."

"Come on, it'll be worth it," Brian implored me. "Hot girls. Free beer. Sounds pretty awesome to me."

"What are you? A frat boy?"

"What you don't like girls and beer?"

"You're disgusting."

"But you are coming right?"

"No."

I ended up coming anyway. After all, I'd read in one of John's psychology textbooks that meeting hot people made you happier. Or something like that.

I pulled out a bar stool and made a show of wiping down the seat. "Princess, right?"

She smiled. "That's right." She sat down. "I'm sorry, but I don't know your name."

"Henry," I said as I sat down beside her.

"That's a nice name."

"You mean it's a boring name.

She smiled. "You said it not I."  She had a cute smile. She pulled out her phone which sounded an awful lot like the wind chimes I got my mother for Mother's Day last year. She answered the phone without chequing who had called. "I'm sorry,  I can't talk right now. I'm having a lot of fun. Call me back later?" She hung up without letting the other person answer. She looked at me and I looked at the bartender who shrugged. "Could I get something to eat, Josh? I hear drinking on an empty stomach is bad for you."

"Like you ever cared before." He put a plate of shrimp and grapes in front of us.

I chanced a look back at Princess. She was clearly not into me or this whole gathering and I wasn't going to push her. I could see her scrolling down Instagram. No, the colour scheme was off.  Was it Quizlet? "Seriously?"

She looked up. "Pardon?"

"Sorry. I didn't realize I'd said that aloud." She stared at me expectantly, prodding me to go on. "I thought you were on Instagram."

"What?"

"Instagram? App with the pictures and filters? Used for posting pictures of your meals-"

She rolled her eyes. "I know what Instagram is."

"Oh yeah. Obviously. I just realised you were looking at flash cards or something."

"I have a test tomorrow that I am so not ready for. So I need all the studying I can get." Yeah, definitely not into me.

One of her friends, Beth I think it was, leaned over and snatched her phone. "Hey!"

"We're supposed to be having fun."

"Well, I'm not."

"Because you're studying!" She slipped the phone into her purse. "There's a nice guy in front of you. Talk to him!"

Princess sighed and turned to me. "So what are you studying?"

"Studying?"

"What's your majour-slash-career goal?"

"Oh. Film."

"Ah, you're an arts student."

"Why'd you say it like that?"

"Like what?" She pulled the plate of shrimps closer to her and grabbed a few.

"Like there's something wrong with being an arts student."

"Oh, there isn't. It's just how many people actually succeed in arts careers?"

"Tons." I popped a grape into my mouth. "You're what- a med student?"

"Law."

"Aren't there like a million and one lawyers already?"

"So? None of them are me."

"Exactly. It doesn't matter if every arts career is hard for everyone to break into. Everyone isn't me."

She shrugged. "Fair enough." She looked to Josh. "Can I get your strongest alcohol?"

The bartender smiled. "Looking to have fun?"

She shook her head. "Looking to get drunk."

He smiled. "I can help with that." He came back with a platter of shots which she proceeded to down one after the other.

"I didn't take you for a drunkard."

She looked at me. "Are you insulting me?"

"I thought that would be clear."

"That isn't a nice thing to say to a girl you were hoping to-" she stopped abruptly. "Sorry, I'm being crude. I'm not having a very good day.

I pulled the platter away from her. "If you keep drinking, tomorrow won't be much better."

She yanked it back towards herself, sloshing some of the alcohol over the edges of the glasses. "I'll take my chances."

Many rounds later, I was nearly as drunk as she was. She was yelling an All Time Low song at the top of her lungs. Her friends had long since gone off to dance or something and I'd stayed behind to make sure she didn't get too drunk or kicked out. Each round she'd order I'd have to drink half and order more shrimp so she'd be able to digest it all. After the fifth round I stopped counting.

"You like All Time Low?" I was speaking far too loud even for an on-campus bar, but she'd decided to not listen to anything not above a hundred decibels. She looked at me. "Duh."

"I thought you were more a Taylor Swift girl."

"I mean, yeah, Taylor's nice but," she leaned back, and nearly fell out of her chair. I caught her before she hit the ground. "Oh-kay. We need to go."

Josh? He turned to me. A bottle of water please. He tossed me one and I grabbed it out of the air. I stuffed it into my pocket

"Do you need to text your friends or something?"

"It's fine."

"I'm sure it is." I hailed a taxi. "Are you dorming or do have your own my place?"

"Of course I have my own place!"

I rolled my eyes. Perfect. "What's your address?"

"I'm not going to give my address to a stranger."

"Please don't make this anymore difficult than it has to be." I fished around in her bag. She had to have some kind of identification. My phone hit metal and I pulled out a phone. I didn't know she'd given it back to her, but I was not complaining. I grabbed her middle finger and pressed to her screen and it unlocked. How did I know her middle finger was the proper fingerprint?

I need to take Princess home.

There was laughter in the background. "Who is this?"

"Henry. We met earlier?"

Oh yeah. Henry? You were saying?

Princess is very drunk and I need to

She cut me off with a loud guffaw. "Princess? Drunk? Yeah right!"

"I need to take her home," I continued, "But I don't know where home is." After more laughter, she finally gave up the address. "Thank you."

"Good luck." And she hung up.

Good luck? I had more important tings to worry about, namely a girl who was falling asleep on the sidewalk. I pulled her up and led her into the waiting cab. "Come on." She leaned her head against the window. "Princess." She looked at me out of the corner of her eye. Drink this. I gave her the bottle of water. She closed her eyes again. "Princess. Trust me. Drinking this will do you good." She took the bottle after missing few times and downed the majority of the water in one continuous gulp. She tossed the bottle at me and missed.