Chapter 16 Hangover blues

***POV - Melaena Kiara walks with me up to the impressive multi-storage building wrapped in a glass curtain wall with steel mullions that catch the sun, forming a breathtaking kaleidoscopic fa?ade. I have a hell of a headache after last night s episode and the sunglasses and pain killers are not helping, leaving me cranky and in serious need of my bed. She explained what happened with Damion and it feels as if I can just sink away into a hole and disappear. He s not going to let me forget that, like in ever. Kiara lets go of my hand when we reach the door. I plop another chocolate into my mouth. Apparently, the box of sweetness was waiting at our door when Kiara got home. The card is in the same style as the previous ones from D, but at least he has good taste, these chocolates are divine. "I ll see you for lunch on the grass, bitch." She smiles when I groan and put my hands on the sides of my temples, squeezing them. Damn this headache. "Get over it. And if I might add, it s self-inflicted!" She scolds unsympathetically. I usually don t over-drink, so feeling like this is rare for me. "Really, you going to throw that at me?" I pull a dying face. "Cheer up, it s not a death sentence." "No, it s much much worse. You don t have an annoying stalker and an even more annoying brother s friend annoying you. And you didn t say goofy stuff to that same annoying ass because he s so annoyingly sexy and now he s going to be even more annoying." I squint my eyes trying to count how many times I ve said the word annoying but it still doesn t seem enough. I m contemplating turning around and running back to bed, but I can t afford to skip class cause we re getting our assignments today. "You sure you got enough 'annoyings in there?" Her voice is full of bundled-up laughter. "No." Kiara gets this freaky oh-shit expression on her face, looking at something over my shoulder. "You ok?" The too-familiar annoying voice shoots through my broken head and oh ship, did he hear my rambling speech, emphasizing the word annoying. I turn around slowly, trying to focus on his green eyes. Even in my state, I can see the amusement on his face. Yep, he heard every word. "What the hell do you want now? I m already being punished enough, I don t need to deal with the likes of you too!" I look at him, eyes blazing. And no, I don t notice how awesomely handsome he looks in his jeans and blue shirt. "Well, ain't we just a scoop full of grumpy in a bowl of bitchy this morning. I just wanted to make sure you re ok." I swallow down the lump in my crop and give him a quick what-the-fuck look. I flip him one saying "Aw, my middle-finger likes you at least!" "I was not insulting you, I was describing you, angel. I liked you much better last night." I didn t even crack his ego. "I m fine. I m going to be late for class." I push past him but he grabs my pulse and turns me to face him, his green eyes fucking with my mood. "Actually, I wanted to show you this before you find out another way." He hands me his phone and there on social media are photos of my drunken ass dancing on the bar. Some more photos of Damion carrying me to the car, looking really pissed off. I sigh and slap my hand over my face, pulling it down slowly. Can this day get any worse? "Apparently we had a lover s quarrel and you acted out. For future reverence, just stay in the VIP section. They can t get in there." He smiles, peeping through his long thick black lashes at me, and damn this man for being so perfectly flawless. "If they only knew what you did up there this whole 'love thing would end!" I make air-quotes when I say 'love thing and I look at the sky. "Sorry for being so annoying, little angel!" He pushes a strand of hair behind my ear then lets me go and I storm into the building, punching his beautiful face in my mind. Kiara is laughing her ass off. Some best friend she is. Bitch. Damion puts his arm around her shoulder and they walk off chatting and laughing. I envy her, cause she s able to have a friendly relaxed relationship with everybody. Why can t I be chilled and relaxed with him? As soon as the doors slide shut behind me, I take in the beauty of the interior of the building. The crystalline shell wonderfully complements the structure s aggregate of flowing geometric volumes. I ll never grow tired of staring at it. I walk up the stairs to the next floor and every step is torture. I breathe in deep, trying to control the nauseating feeling in my throat. I sit way at the back, trying to hide behind the computer screen on my table, the glaring light of it already burning my eyes and scrunching my brain. I m never going to drink again. Somebody falls into the chair next to me with a deep laugh. "Bad night?" I open my eyes and see Jesse with a big smirk on his face and I give him a tortured smile. "That s putting it mildly. I m dying here!" He laughs again and pats me on my arm as if I m a child. "You ll survive." I m not so sure, but I suppose I ll have to suck it up and just get these classes over and done with. I fall my head onto his shoulder, needing the support. Lucinda walks in, looking around until she focuses on me. She smiles and takes a seat on the other side of me. She greets Jesse eagerly. "How come you re so cheery this morning?" I grumble at her and she blushes. "I ll tell you why – you don t have the most annoying dumbass bastard men in your life!" I rampage my troubles to them. "At least they re hot." Jesse and Lucinda say together. "Gmf, you re not helping here! Hot, my ass. They re ill-mannered raging annoying cock-ass bad-boy lunatics, the lot of them! Why do all men have to be ruled by their penises and egos?" "Guess you re talking about the bro friend who s the son of the devil?" Jesse has that annoying all-knowing grin, all guys possess, smashed on his face. "I was drunk, ok! I hate that guy." "I don t know what s your problem. I would just use him for sex, he s like perfection on steroids." "You don t know him, he s the most …" Professor Anne cuts my complaint short. I put my elbows on the table and lean my chin into my hands, glaring to the front of the class silently, my brain feeling as if it s being torn into two. "Ok class, now for your assignments. I want you to work in groups of 3 or 4 for this one and it will count as a big part of your exam marks. I m sure all of you have heard about the Epic game group. Each year they invest in our first-year students." She starts handing out booklets and then continues, "They want you to create a new game, design, coding - everything. The group that gets chosen by the managers will receive a large amount of money for that game and they will also help in the development of the said game. So there s much more at stake than just a good mark." I take one of the info books and push it into my bag, still frustrated. "Can we group up?" Jesse asks softly in my ear. "Yep. But we re not going to start today." I tap my head with my finger and he just shakes his head. Then as if I m being hit by a baseball bat, I realize that Jesse said Damion is hot … that he would just have sex with him … "You re gay!" I almost shout out too loud. Jesse tilts his head and starts to laugh throwing his head back. "It took you all this time to register? Damn, you must have a bad hangover girl." I blush, feeling so stupid, but I circle my arm around his and put my head on his shoulder again. The rest of the class is a blur and I walk like a very dead malnourished zombie to the grass area where Kiara is waiting for me. Jesse carries my bag, while Lucinda just strums along, typing on her phone. I swear that girl is more on her phone than there are thoughts in my head and that s a lot. As soon as I reach my friend I fall flat on the grass with a moan and maybe two groans. Jesse drops our bags next to me and introduces himself to Kiara. Lucinda greets Kiara and sits down on the grass next to her and starts plucking some of the green blades as if she s bored. "So, she still being an emotional sulking after-drunk pissy?" Kiara asks Jesse. "Very. I ve never seen anything like it." He laughs. "And she s pretty mad at that coo-coo friend of her brother s!" "I wonder why? Maybe it s his sexy freaking devil demon look." Kiara laughs loudly. "Or his tight but!" Jesse complies. "No, must be those eyes." Kiara plays along and I know without seeing it, that she s wiggling her eyebrows at Jesse. I snort, still lying with my arm over my eyes to dim out the sunlight. "You know I m right here, right? And don t you roll your eyes, bitch." I know Kiara that well. I sit up and look at her smiling face, concluding that I hit the hammer on the nail – she definitely was rolling her eyes. She laughs and rolls her eyes again at Jesse. "Ug, you re the worst friend ever. If you don t make fun of my poor vulnerable state, you hand my drunk ass over to Satan himself." She holds up a hand as if to stop me and then a very accusing finger gets pointed my way. "I didn t grab him and beg him to stay. That one s all on you. Anyway, I couldn t pick you up, weak arms you know." I look at her with my you re-not-serious face. Kiara can easily lift her own weight, there s nothing weak about her arms. She takes a big bite of her sandwich and makes a hard 'mmmm sound just to irritate me more. Now I m rolling my eyes, giving her my best your-such-a-bad-friend look. Jesse takes out his food and eats while lying on his side, propped up on one arm. The next moment somebody jumps right over him and almost lands on top of me. I give a little shout and hold out my hands protectively. "Hey, you." Noah s light green eyes look into mine teasingly, Alejandro next to him. He turns and then does some sort of secret handshake thing with Jesse before he introduces himself to Kiara. He plops down next to Lucinda and gives her a big friendly smile. We start talking about our family relationships and realize that we have a lot in common. Lucinda lost her mom when she was 6 and she grew up with her father and brother here in San Francisco. Jesse and Noah are cousins who lost their parents in the same car crash. Noah has two sisters, still in LA. The older sister is working while looking after the younger one. Alejandro never met his dad and his mom died from cancer a few years ago. He landed up in the same foster home as Jesse, Noah, and the two girls. Alejandro is doing his bachelor's degree in forensic psychology and he is a seal or penguin, or walrus, not sure about what he said due to my splitting head – but it s definitely some sea-creature. We talk for a while and I lay with my head on Alejandro s lap until Noah has to go to his next class. He s studying engineering. "Are you going back to class or can we go home?" Kiara asks me as she is finished for the day. "You go, I have your back for the next few classes. I can do without all the whining anyway." I jump up and hug Jesse giving him a peck on his cheek. "Thanks, thanks, thanks!" He holds up his hands and I pick up my bag and pull Kiara up, eager to drop dead in my bed and pull the blankets over my head. Maybe I ll forget about this embarrassing day and Damion flipping Grimm. I m glad that we came with Kiara s car this morning, cause I m in no state to drive.