Public Relations

I wake up with a splitting headache. I open my eyes and shut them right away. I drank way to much last night. I don’t move for a minute. I try to think back to last night. I was out with Sid, Beau, Brandon and Marc. I remember drinking and that’s about it. I sigh. I open my eyes again and stare at the ceiling for a minute.
“You’re up?” I hear a voice ask from the far side of the room. I turn my head and I see Sid sitting in the chair.
“I guess.” I say.
“How do you feel?” He asks.
“A lot like death.” I groan.
“Not surprising.” He says.
“You had a lot to drink.” He says.
“I know. It was a bad idea.” I say. Sid laughs.
“Did you stay here last night?” I ask.
“Yeah.” He says putting down the book he was reading.
“I don’t remember anything from last night.” I say sitting up. I feel dizzy and my hand goes to my head immediately.
“Advil and water on your right.” He says.
“Thanks.” I say turning to the nightstand. I pop the Advil in my mouth and take a huge gulp of water.
“You really don’t remember anything?” Sid asks.
“No.” I say sighing. Sid looks like he’s trying to decide if he wants to tell me what happened or not. “Just tell me.”
Sid moves from the chair to the bed. He hesitates to tell me about last night at first, but after a bit of begging he finally agrees. He tells me the things I told him while we were at the bar, about James. He told me about the drunken babbles I told him while crying on his lap last night. Once he finishes I don’t speak for a while. I try to process everything. I lie back down and cover my face with a pillow. After a couple minutes I finally break the silence and remove the pillow from my face.
“What do I do?” I ask.
“Well if he did get this girl pregnant it was before you got together.” Sid says.
“Yeah, we’ve only been together for around a month.” I say.
“I’d wait till we get home to talk to him though.” Sid says.
“I will.” I say. I sigh. “If it’s his baby he needs to try it out with her.”
“Seriously?” Sid asks looking a bit confused.
“Brad and I tried to make it work for Reid at first.” I say. “We just couldn’t do it, but we tried.”
“You’re right.” He says.
“I don’t understand why he lied to me last night.” I say.
“I’m not sure.” Sid says. “He lied to us too.”
“I know, but he needs to be honest with me.” I say.
“I agree.” Sid says.
“I remember when I told Brad I was pregnant.” I say laughing.
“How did he react?” Sid asks.
“He was shocked at first.” I say. “Then he was okay with it.”
“Did he question you?” Sid asks.
“Oddly enough no.” I say. “He actually took the news better than my parents.”
“Really?” He says.
“Yeah, my parents were the ones in denial.” I say. “I wouldn’t take any of it back ever. I love Reid.”
“I’m sure Brad feels the same way.” Sid says.
“I know he does.” I say smiling. We talk about Brad and my relationship until we have to get ready to catch the plane. Sid goes back to his room and I change into a pair of dark wash jeans and an over sized grey sweater. I throw my hair up on my head and pull on my dark grey high heel boots. I pick up my laptop bag and throw it over my head. I put my other carry on sized bag on top of my suitcase. I pick up my sunglasses and shove them on my face. I sigh and put my purse on my arm. I tip my suitcase and pull it toward the door. I open the door and step out into the hall. I close the door and walk toward the elevator. Once I get to the elevator I hit the down button.
“Hold the elevator.” I hear Brandon call from down the hall.
“It hasn’t even got here yet.” I say laughing as he hurries down the hallway. Brandon comes to a stop right in front of me and sighs. I press the button again.
“It’s not going to come any faster.” He says.
“Speak softly please.” I say putting my hand to my head.
“Drink to much?” Brandon asks in a softer tone.
“You let me.” I say smiling as the elevator finally arrives. Brandon lets me go into the elevator first. I hold my hand in front of the door as Brandon gets on the elevator. I press the button for the lobby.
“Sit together again on the way back?” Brandon asks.
“As long as you speak softly.” I say looking up at him.
“Promise.” Brandon says winking. We get to the lobby and I get out of the elevator first. Brandon follows me. We walk over to the front desk. We both check out of our rooms and then walk together to the bus waiting out front. Nobody is on the bus yet, so we find a place toward the back of the bus. I take the window seat and snuggle into the travel pillow Brandon brought with him. I quickly fall back to sleep.
I must have slept for the entire ride because when Brandon wakes me up everyone is off the bus, but us. I yawn. I think my head hurts more now than it did before.
“You okay?” Brandon asks.
“Not really.” I say. “Last night was a horrible idea.”
“I think we had a good time.” He says laughing. I smack him.
“I meant drinking that much.” I say.
“You’re the only one feeling it.” He says.
“I drank way more than you guys.” I say. The two of us get up. I get my purse and my laptop bag and Brandon gets his carry on bag and we make our way to the front of the bus. Once we get off the bus we get right on the plane. Most of the guys are on the plane already. The coaching staff isn’t though. I lead Brandon to some empty seats toward the back of the plane.
“Alex you look… hung over.” Beau says.
“Thanks for noticing.” I say rolling my eyes behind my glasses. I keep walking to the two open seats. I move into the window seat and scan the plane. I don’t see James anywhere. I push my sunglasses on top of my head. I meet eyes with Sid. He’s on the other side of the plane and he knows exactly what I’m looking for. He points down to his phone in his hand. I smile at him before sitting down. I pull out my phone and see his text.

Sid – I saw James on the phone before I got on the plane. Looked like an intense conversation.

I quickly text him back thanks. I try not to focus on James. I don’t need to deal with that until we get back to Pittsburgh. Brandon sits down next to me. He was talking to some of the guys on the team. Now he’s back and getting settled.
“Do you need some more Advil?” He asks.
“If you have some.” I say.
“I do.” He says. He pulls out a bottle of Advil and shakes two into his hand. I take them from him and pull out a bottle of water Sid left for me in the room this morning. I pop the two pills in my mouth and gulp down the water. “How’s the head?”
“Not that great.” I groan.
“Understandable.” He says. “Did you eat?”
“No.” I say.
“I’ll be back.” He says standing up. I watch him walk toward the front of the plane. He stops at the front and James walks in past him. My eyes follow James. He doesn’t even glance in my direction. He sits down next to Paul and doesn’t say a word. I silently thank myself for picking seats far away from him. I don’t even notice Brandon come back until he sits down. He hands me something wrapped up.
“What’s this?” I ask.
“Fruit explosion muffin from Tim Horton’s.” He says smiling. I look at him with obvious confusion.
“How did you know it’s my favourite?” I ask.
“Sid told me.” He says blushing a bit. I shake my head and smile.
“Thanks.” I say. “I’m starving.”
“I figured.” He says handing me another bottle of water.
“I have some.” I say.
“You need more.” He says.
“Why are you taking care of me?” I ask.
“Someone has to.” He says. We both laugh. Both of us know that isn’t true and that I can take care of myself. I have to admit though I’m a bit of a mess right now. I eat my muffin and talk to Brandon a bit more before the plane takes off. After a while I try to get some rest while we take this short flight back to Pittsburgh. For a little while James is out of my head and I don’t worry about the next conversation we will have. I just relax and rest.

Notes

Some interesting stuff going on.
Brandon seems to be getting a bit closer to Alex... uh oh.

I just wanted to take a second to thank everyone for reading my story. I love writing & because of all the positive responses I've gotten I am actually planning to publish a book.
Hopefully I will be publishing by sometime in 2016.
I will make sure to keep everyone updated on that.

Thank you all I appreciate every single one of you. Keep reading.
Enjoy xox;