Ch. 9 Pt. 1: A Celebration... Or Not

Chapter Nine Part One: A Celebration... Or Not

"Good lord." I groan as I slowly sit up in bed. My head spins. 

"Good morning sunshine. Or should I say afternoon?" Lydia smiles at me from her seat on the couch. She's watching TV with the volume turned down.

I glance at my clock and realize that it's two in the afternoon. "What?!" I squeal but the exclamation makes my head pound and I grab my forehead trying to ease the pain.

"Yeah, you had a pretty crazy night last night. And from the looks of it, a pretty nasty hangover today."

"Uhhggg." I can't manage anything more coherent than that. I drag myself out of bed and make it as far as the beanbag a few feet away. I drop myself into the chair and look over at Lydia.

She laughs at me and shakes her head. "I told you to cool it on the drinks, kid, but you kept insisting that they were sooooo good!"

I sit and listen as Lydia recounts the details from last night's party. The drinks, the dancing, the people, and the hot frat guy I was apparently flirting with. I try to remember but it all seems pretty fuzzy. 

"So, did anything happen with you and Jack last night?"

"Huh?"

"Jack brought you home last night but when I got home you were asleep and he was gone. Did anything happen?"

I think hard about last night and can faintly recall Jack bringing me to my room but that's about all. "No, he just helped me get home that's all." I tell Lydia this even though I'm not quite sure myself. 

"Well, the two of us are going to hang out today. You're welcome to join if you feel up to it."

I shake my head and my brain feels like it's sloshing around. I groan again. "No. I think I'm going to go back to bed."

Lydia laughs and the sound pierces my ears. I wince and she giggles an apology. "Alright, I'll leave you to that then. Take it easy, sweets." She leaves the room laughing and shaking her head. 

I crawl back into my bed, vowing I will never drink again, and that's where I stay for the rest of the night. 

------

So, I still don't recall much of my drinking fandango, even though that happened almost a week ago, but I guess I didn't do anything too terrible as I haven't heard any rumors around school. So that's a plus I guess, right? 

Jack and I seem to be alright, too. I'm not sure if anything did happen between us that night, I feel like maybe something did, but he hasn't been acting any differently around me so I can only take that as a sign that things didn't happen. 

"Dude?! Are you going to answer that?" Lydia lightly shakes me and snaps me from my thoughts. My phone is ringing.

"Yeah, thanks!" I pick up my phone and press accept, "Hello?"

"Addie, hi, this is Professor King."

"Oh, hi. How are you doing?" I awkwardly ask, I'm surprised that she's calling me.

"I'm doing absolutely wonderful. Listen, I have some fabulous news! I got word from ParentsToday and they want to publish your story in their next issue!" 

At first I can't say anything and I almost drop the phone. Then, "Oh. My. GOD! That is AMAZING!"

Lydia gives me a questioning look and I just smile. 

"It really is!" Professor King exclaims, "Alright, they want to turn your story into an article about a mother's strength and SIDS awareness. As long as that is fine with you."

"Yes, that's absolutely fine with me. That's more than fine. That's perfect!"

"Okay, Addie." Professor King lightly laughs. "We've got a lot of work to do before your story is ready to be published. We need to first of all put it in the format that the magazine is asking for and then cut and paste the parts we want from there. I'll send you an email with more information and the dates you and I should meet. Until then, you should revise your story as you feel is needed. Oh, and congratulations!"

"Thank you Professor." I end the call and throw my phone on my bed before I begin screaming and jumping up and down.

"What, Addie!? What's going on!?" 

"MY STORY IS BEING PUBLISHED!" 

"NO WAY!?" I nod and Lydia joins my jumping and screaming. 

I cannot believe how amazing this is and I instantly want to tell Jack. I gain composure of myself and look at Lydia, "Hey Lyd? I'm going to go find Jack and tell him ok? He's helped me a lot with this story these past few weeks and I wanna tell him before he hears it from someone else."

"Yeah, no problem! Congratulations, Addie. I'm so freakin' proud of you!" 

She gives me a hug and then pushes me towards the door.

------

I'm on my way to Jack's dorm when I hear someone call my name. I turn around and there's a tall, really attractive, guy jogging towards me. I give him a puzzled look as he stops in front of me. 

"It is Addie, right?"

I nod my head, "Sorry if this seems really rude, but who are you?"

"Oh, sorry, I'm Drew. Drew Johnson. We met at the house party my frat threw the other week. We talked for a bit.

"Oh right! Sorry. That was some party." I start to remember parts of our conversation from that night. Drew was the hot frat guy I was flirting with. "Oh God. Listen, I'm so sorry if I was inappropriate or said something that made you uncomfortable, I was, uh, pretty drunk and I know I probably made a fool of myself."

Drew throws his head back and laughs. It's a deep, rich sound which suddenly makes him five times more attractive. If that is even possible. "No, I don't think you made a fool of yourself at all! You actually made quite the impression. I've been thinking about you a lot since that night."

"Oh that's not creepy at all." I mumble under my breath but Drew catches it.

"No, no, hear me out! We met under odd circumstances, but I'd really like to get to know you. You know, when we're both sober."

"Oh." I look down at my feet and blush. 

"So I know this is totally forward and out of the blue, but would you maybe like to go on a date with me tomorrow?" He smiles at me and his eyes seem to melt something within me.

So I barely know him, but he's looking to get to know each other. "Sure." I say. What can it hurt?

He looks surprised suddenly, "Seriously? Oh ok. Sweet! Well, here's my number just text me tonight and we'll set up a time. I'll see you tomorrow, Addie." 

He throws me another smile and then saunters off. 

I continue walking to Jack's dorm, unable to keep the giant, cheesy grin from my face. My story being published and a date? The universe is definitely on my side today. 

I find Jack sitting in the common lounge of his dorm watching TV. I notice that it's identical to our common lounge. He notices me and a huge smile spreads across his face. 

"Just the girl I was hoping to see today! You look exceptionally happy."

I sit down next to him. "I am! I'm having the most amazing day ever. Jack, Professor King called me today." I pause for dramatic effect and see his face light up.

"Aaand?" He draws out the word and I know he really wants to know.

"And my story is being published in ParentsToday!" I blurt out the rest in one breath.

Jack pulls me up into a hug, my feet barely touch the floor. "Addie! Oh my God! That's amazing! I'm so happy for you! I'm so proud of you! Holy shit Addie!"

"Jack. Can't. Breathe." He sets me down and I laugh. "Yeah, I can't believe it! I'm super excited too. But I'm going to need to revamp my story a lot in order to get it to match the format the magazine is looking for. But I did it! I finally did it!"

"I knew you could. We should celebrate. Do you want to plan something for dinner tomorrow?"

"Uh, I can't tomorrow. I've gotta get working on the article, you know, to get it ready in time." I don't know why I lie. Something is keeping me from telling Jack.

"No problem. Let's do something tonight then. Text Avery and Lydia and tell them to meet us at the coffee shop."

------

Jack buys us all cupcakes and coffee to celebrate the upcoming publication of my story. We talk and laugh for hours and I am the happiest I've ever been. 

The only topic we don't cover that night is my date with Drew, I'm careful to keep that to myself. Even though I'm not entirely sure why, I just don't want Jack to know.