Chapter 64

‘Happy birthday, beautiful. I hope you have a fantastic night x’

I quickly checked through my social media and noticed he had liked a couple of photos and commented on one of them as well. My heart skipped a beat. It was the first time I had heard from him since he left to go back home after my decision had been made.

‘Thank you, x,’

I wasn’t expecting the message, but I was happy he felt comfortable enough to reach out, especially if it was only to wish me a happy birthday. I was about to call Brax when I was dragged onto the dance floor.

Before I knew it, we were moving onto another club in the city. I messaged Brax to let him know where we were going to be, but I was at the point where I was getting too drunk to notice he was missing too much.

We went to another 3 clubs and had a lot more drinks before I found myself outside trying to stop my head from spinning. I decided to try and call Brax even though it was late. Through the drunken haze I was worried about him. However, I managed to click onto the wrong message when I hit the call button, I was calling Logan.

“Leah, is everything alright?” He sounded genuinely concerned.

I started giggling down the phone, “I am sooooooo sorry. I pressed the wrong thing.”

He chuckled back with how drunk I obviously was.

“I’m guessing you’re having a good time then?”

“Hm, I have had a lot to drink.”

“I can tell,” he laughed. “Is Brax looking after you.”

I pouted at the phone, “Booooo!”

“Leah?”

“Brax isn’t here.”

“What do you mean?” His voice was stern and angry.

“I uno, he never showed.”

The words brought a pang of hurt to my drunken haze.

“I’m sorry Leah.” The pity was palpable.

“I gotta go dance, bye.”

I was being dragged back inside by my friends and had hung up without a second thought. We continued to dance the night away into the early hours when I found myself heading home alone. I managed to somehow unlock my front door and lock it again behind me. I managed to kick my shoes off before planting my face in bed. My head was spinning but it felt like the room was. It had been a long time since I had been out drinking like that. It was definitely having a hard hit on me.

I found myself showering around 5:30am to try and work off some of the hangover. I could still taste the last few drinks we had. I brushed my teeth several times before wobbling down the stairs and into the kitchen. I was convinced I was still drunk with how much I drank. I grabbed a large glass of water and started taking sips and cracked open a pack of paracetamol. The hangover was the worst one I had experienced. I curled up on the sofa while the paracetamol took effect. When I picked up my phone, I saw a message from Logan. I felt my cheeks fill with colour.

‘I hope you got home safe. X'

I couldn’t remember much at first about last night but slowly the memories began forming. I looked through social media photos along with ones that were taken on my phone. Everyone looked so happy but somehow, I felt a little lost.

I was still really worried about Brax; he had not responded to any of my messages and had not answered my calls. It was way too early for him to respond, but I had to try. If I was in a fit state, I would have tried going around to check on him, but I wasn’t. I thought I would send one more text and if, by a reasonable hour, there still had not been a response, then I would try calling again.