That One Moment...

Chapter 14

The Day After...

Sarah awoke with a start. Looking around her room groggily, she couldn't place what was going on yet. Then she heard shouting.

"Sarah. Sarah." A slight, angry pause. "Are you going to get up and grace us with your presence today? It's almost noon. Why are you still asleep?"

Sitting up too fast, Sarah felt the urge to vomit but was able to half yell back, "Sorry mom. I stayed up too late watching movies last night."

A bit quieter, her mom yelled back from the top of the stairs, "Well, get up and get dressed. You have chores to do before work. If you have work today."

Groaning, Sarah couldn't remember what she was supposed to be doing today. Why did she feel so awful?  The nausea came back and she had to lay down slowly. Looking to the side, Sarah noticed a water bottle and some aspirin. Grabbing it, she slowly sipped some water and took a few pills. Her mind was still not there yet.

"Sarah. Are you going to respond? What is your problem?"

"Yeah mom. Let me take a shower and then I'll be up. What do I need to do?"

"Clean."

Super helpful that. "Clean what mom?"

From further away she could hear her dad yelling. "Is she talking back? Is she up? That lazy piece of shit. See, working is not a good idea."

"Hey mom. I just want to know where I should focus on first? Not talking back."

She heard a sigh from her mom. It wasn't a normal reaction. Much quieter, she heard her mom from the bottom of the stairs, "I think you can do outside. It will keep you away from your father. Then, clean up this place." Sarah looked up in time to see her mom waving at her room before she turned and went back upstairs.

Sarah laid back down. Just 5 more minutes and she would get up and get going. Closing her eyes, Sarah's mind finally started moving and it went back to last night.

"SHIT. Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." There had been a car accident, she had gotten trashed, Ryan found her and brought her home. He had climbed in bed with her. "SHIT!"

Sitting up more gingerly, Sarah looked back around her room. It was a mess...and Ryan had been in here. Wait, why was she worried about that? Where was her phone? What had happened last night as she stumbled around country roads trying to find her way home?

Finally locating her phone on her dresser...oddly plugged into the charger, since she did not remember doing that...Sarah turned it on. Over 50 missed texts and multiple missed calls. How was that even possible?

Scrolling through, she found that there were numerous texts from Ryan, Abby, Chris, Jeremy, and Dylan, as well as numbers she didn't even recognize. Many of the early ones from last night were just asking if she was there or to pick up. Sarah realized this must have been when she had lost her signal and they didn't know if she was ok. The unknown numbers ended up being Leo and Anna. It was a bit odd to feel some happiness that they were all worried, until she saw the texts from Jeremy. His cousin had been in the car still...at first he was also asking her to just text, then it turned to worry, and finally a text that his cousin and friend were in the hospital, but not everyone made it...where was she? Not taking a minute longer she texted back:

I'M OK. WAS DROPPED OFF ON ROAD BEFORE ACCIDENT, BUT PHONE DIED. JUST WOKE UP. YOUR COS OK? HE WAS ONE THAT GOT THEM TO LET ME OUT :(

She also texted Abby, Chris, Leo, and Anna, thanking them for looking out for her and let them know she was fine, and stupid.

Finally, Sarah turned towards Ryan's stream of texts, the longest by far. The most recent was asking if she was up yet, but scrolling to the beginning Sarah saw that his first ones were apologies for being a jerk. Then, there was an hour or so pause and the texts turned to questions of where she was and if she was ok.