CHAPTER FOUR
the hangover from hell

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CHLOE'S EYES LAZILY fluttered open as she groggily woke up. For a moment, all she could do was remain lying still where she was as daylight enveloped her sight, on her stomach, one arm draped on an uncomfortable, half-deflated pillow so she could rest her head on her forearm, and the other folded beside her.

She was lying on the hard floor, a cocktail-stained duvet—although, there was an extra pressure that led Chloe to assume there were potentially two duvets—shrouded on top of her.

As she finally began to properly wake up, all that Chloe could feel was a rhythmically thumping headache and minor nausea that had now overwhelmed her senses in one fell, sharp swoop. Groaning in discomfort, the woman shifted the hand, that she was previously resting on, around and up to her head, gently rubbing it as if that would make any difference, whatsoever.

When she realised the fact, Chloe just lifted her head, blew out a long, exhausted breath, and attempted to gradually survey the environment with squinted, glassy eyes—the sunlight streaming through the warm windows was way too bright, and it was the last thing she needed to kickstart the hangover recovery process.

The villa was completely trashed, her red dress was now torn and strewn to the ground nearby, feathers from several ripped pillows were coating essentially every surface, what looked to be an array of one hundred empty bottles and cans were now scattered and decorating the floor, picture frames were hanging on the walls by a thread, a live chicken was clucking around peacefully, one of the sofa's had caught on fire, the tv was hanging off the wall—sporting a large crack in the centre of the screen—, the, formerly pristine, curtains were now slung to one side, and the tables were completely covered with whatever wasn't on the ground—among several other anomalies that were a direct consequence of the night before.

Slowly acclimating to the chaotic and disarranged environment, the woman gradually managed to slightly sit up—with strenuous effort, due to her current state—covering her naked torso with the duvet with one hand, though once she did so, placing more of an emphasis on her unoccupied hand to support the action, she stopped at the realisation of what the extra weight across her was.

Turning her head to the other side of her, Chloe was now met with the sight of a shirtless Phil sleeping soundly on his stomach, his, usually perfectly styled, hair now tousled, his closed eyes red-rimmed, and one of his toned arms comfortably secured around her waist.

Widening her eyes as her brain began to race a mile a minute with several conceptualisations—she only had her assumptions to go by, as she couldn't remember a thing—, Chloe internally reminded herself to actually look for evidence of anything before jumping to steadfast conclusions.

As she began to internally panic, Chloe then whipped her head around, ignoring the dull ache that was sharply piercing her brain as she did so, which seemed to progressively get worse with every waking minute that passed, the woman lifting the duvet up to double check that they were both, indeed, naked. Well, they both were, at some point.

Phil must have slipped his underwear and black jeans back on sometime during the night, though Chloe was completely bare.

Covering her body once more, Chloe turned to glance around her near surroundings, immediately halting her rushed movements once she noticed four used condoms, with their respective torn packets accompanying them, on the floor just a few centimetres away from their current position.

Chloe's eyes widened as she whispered in pure shock. "Oh my god..."

If they used four condoms, Chloe could only imagine what else they did that didn't require direct contact with each other's genitals.

As the realisation of the fact that they had slept together after several long years of the two vowing never to sleep with each other again—due to the risk of either one or both of them catching feelings—hit Chloe, she couldn't prevent her voice from raising an octave, and she grabbed Phil's arm tightly in order to push it off her.

"Oh my god, Phil, get up!" Chloe exclaimed, quickly jumping up and pulling the duvet with her, the loud sound startling Phil and causing him to inhale a sharp breath as he awoke.

"What, what?" Phil slurred in a groan as he stumbled to sit himself up, squinting and holding his other hand up, which wasn't supporting his body weight, in front of his face to try to block the blazing sunlight from beaming directly into his retinas. "Chloe?"

Despite Chloe being in a fit of both stupefaction and slight rage, she still managed to take in how his abs and muscles flexed with every movement he made, and more importantly, how it still made her lower regions flutter.

"What happened?" Phil rasped, still super groggy and disoriented from just being ripped awake from his substance-induced slumber. Everything about him; his raspy voice, his athletic body, those deep, cerulean blue eyes that were boring into hers, and his messy hair, made it incredibly difficult for Chloe to focus.

But, focusing on the importance of her newfound realisation, Chloe tightened her grip on the duvet with one hand and gestured to the entire scene around them with the other, eyes widening once more as she intensified her claim. "All of this happened!"

"Shh, stop yelling. Settle down, fuck." Phil groaned lowly, blinking a few times to try to get his sensitive eyes to adapt to the luminous sunlight, and he took a quick scan around the bomb site of a room. "We trashed the hotel room, so what?"

"Not that, dumbass." Chloe blew out an irritated breath as she gestured to herself, Phil, and the condoms with a quick movement. "This!"

Phil held both his hands up to try and settle her down once more as he just released a fatigued breath and followed her gaze. "Alright, alright, calm down. Give me a second, I just woke up. Thanks to you."

Chloe released an impatient huff as she watched him take a second to survey the area, the girl dragging her fingers through her dishevelled hair as she did so.

Phil suddenly stopped, eyes, which were now filled with a knowing glow, travelling up to meet Chloe's once more, a small smile creeping onto his face as he finally came to the same conclusion. "We definitely fucked."

"Yeah, four fucking times from what I can tell, Phil!" Chloe furiously shouted, throwing her arms out to the sides but quickly remembering that she was entirely naked under the duvet, and hurriedly grabbing it once more, securing the blanket before it could expose anything.

Phil huffed out an amused chuckle at the action, and his intent eyes flew up and down her frame. "Relax, I've seen you naked before."

"Yeah, well, you're not seeing me naked now!" Chloe, still irritated, exclaimed, and she crossed her arms over her chest defensively. "If we only fucked four times, imagine what else we did."

Phil's eyebrows raised in intrigue at the possible pictures, mind clearly beginning to race. "Oh, I'm imagining it."

"You're disgusting." Chloe shot him an irked, disgruntled look.

"And you're cute when you're freaking out." Phil confidently smirked at her, and Chloe couldn't understand how he was so relaxed.

"Shut up, you're still insufferable." Chloe frowned at the man, then, glancing at the room where her suitcase was sitting, she made the decision to get herself dressed. "I'll be back in a second, this isn't over."

"Don't take too long, I miss you already." Phil joked as he watched her, now retreating, figure, the woman holding one hand up and flipping him off on the way, the other dragging the duvet with her, the sound of Phil's entertained laughter only aggravating her further.

•

Once she was presentable, Chloe made her way back out to the living room, now finding Stu blankly staring out into space, slumped down on one of the couches, his head hung across the back of the chair in stillness.

"Hey, Stu." Chloe hummed as she began to walk towards Phil once more, waving halfheartedly at Stu as she did so.

"Mm." Stu indistinctly, and drunkenly, groaned as a 'hello' as he just closed his eyes, unmoving.

When Chloe rejoined Phil, she found him sleeping again in the same position, the woman shaking her head as her eyebrows creased inwards at the sight. "No way, if I have to brave this hangover awake, you do too."

Leaning down, Chloe intensely shook him awake, resulting in Phil suddenly waking up once more.

He furrowed his eyebrows at Chloe as he sat up again and complained, his muscles flexing with every movement once more. "Hey, I was sleeping. Do you ever stop freaking out?"

"You don't get to sleep, and no." Chloe corrected, irritation tinging her words as she stood back up, placing her hands on her hips as she kept her calculating eyes trained on Phil.

Sure, she was hungover, quite confused, and very conflicted about her own feelings and thoughts at this current point in time, but the woman still had eyes. He was a very attractive man, and Chloe would only be doing herself a disservice by not looking at his shirtless torso and toned arms when she was presented with the opportunity.

Phil scoffed, flickering his eyes around the room as he simultaneously took the mess in properly. "Well, that's unfair, we went four rounds. I'm fucking exhausted."

"You don't think I am?" Chloe's eyebrows tugged upwards as she then held out her left hand. "Oh, and by the way, I'm apparently married now!"

Phil just looked at her ring finger, his eyebrows gradually raising as he let out a long laugh. "Oh my god, you got married? Who to? Lyle, I bet. Let me guess, you're now Mrs Chloe Smith."

"Fuck off." Chloe dismissively scoffed, the woman then gesturing to see his hand. "Show me yours."

"What? Why?" Phil furrowed his eyebrows as he suddenly got defensive. "You think we got married?"

"After the revelation I just had, I wouldn't put it past us to get hitched under the influence, now come on, show me." Chloe gestured again, the woman stepping closer as she just grabbed his left hand anyway, Phil just blowing out a breath as he didn't make any effort to prevent her from doing so.

"Phil..." Chloe let her voice trail off after a quick moment.

"What now?" Phil exhaustedly wiped his tired eyes with his fingers that weren't currently being examined.

Chloe focused on Phil's face again as her previously interrogatory exterior now swiftly faded. "I'm apparently Mrs Chloe Wenneck."

At the words, Phil's head snapped to look up at her, and he took his hand back, looking down at the wedding band that was secured around his ring finger. "Holy shit. Holy shit."

"Yeah." Chloe blew out an overwhelmed breath.

Before either of them could even begin to comprehend their situation, a half-naked Alan suddenly burst through the bathroom door and erratically bolted out in a wild frenzy.

Chloe widened her eyes and noticed the action just in time, and she stumbled over to the side in a hurry as Alan consequently tripped over Phil's torso, still screaming out of pure terror, the man face-planting right into the ground.

"What the fuck?!" Phil groaned and doubled over in sudden pain at the act, and he held his stomach as he shot Alan an infuriated glare. "Control yourself, man. Goddamn, will you put on some pants?"

Chloe squinted as she looked away, concealing Alan's half-naked frame from her peripheral vision as she raised her hand up to block it. "Alan, please, we don't want to see all of...that."

"Guys, do not go in the bathroom!" Alan was completely panicked, face beet red and his wide eyes frantically darting between the pair as he firmly held his shirt down to cover his lower half with one hand, and pointed to the bathroom with the other.

"Al, just calm down. It's me." Phil looked away to avoid catching an unwanted glimpse of Alan's genitals.

"There is a tiger in the bathroom!" Alan yelled even louder than before, if it was even possible, Chloe furrowing her eyebrows—still looking away and holding her hand up—at the man's distraught words.

"What?"

"What's going on?" Stu dizzily called in confusion, and Chloe just made her way over to join him on the couch at the words, shrugging cluelessly as she did so.

"I don't even know anymore." Chloe's voice was supported by her nonplussed attitude—she didn't even know what to think, at this point.

"There's a jungle cat in the bathroom!" Alan screamed, wildly snapping his head between each member of the group as he continued to freak out. "I- there's- I-!"

Chloe dropped her head in her hands and released a long sigh. She could swear her headache was turning into a migraine with every booming shout that Alan let out.

Phil just blew out an exasperated breath as he slowly pulled himself up, speaking calmly over Alan's alarmed calls to try to get the man to stop yelling at the top of his lungs, mainly for the benefit of the group's respective pounding headaches. "Okay, okay, Al. Al, I'll check- Al, I'll check it out."

Chloe turned around to watch the event, and her eyebrows slightly tugged upwards at the sight of Phil carefully walking towards the bathroom door. Now that he was standing up, she had a much better view of his torso, and every concerning thought she had about the night before, or even any negative quality about Phil, himself, seemed to slowly slip out of her mind.

Before he could check out the bathroom, Phil turned to glance at Chloe, and he gestured to his wedding ring, making his way over to the bathroom door after he stated, "We'll fix...this...later, Chlo."

"Don't go in! Don't go in!" Alan whimpered in distress as he watched Phil with perturbed eyes. "Be careful! Don't, don't!"

Phil held onto the wall for stability as he twisted the door handle and pushed it open, slowly beginning to walk through it before suddenly halting in his place and turning to face the group again, the man letting out a wholly amused laugh as he shut the door behind him and gestured to it with his thumb. "Oh, holy fuck! He's not kidding, there's a tiger in there!"

Chloe widened her eyes in surprise as she turned around to watch the man approach her and Stu with his, now creased, blue shirt in hand. "What?"

"See?!" Alan exclaimed in pure horror.

"No, there isn't." Stu murmured, still utterly out of it and stunned.

"Yeah!" Alan protested. "It- it's big! G- gigantic!"

"You okay, buddy?" Phil slid his arms through his shirt sleeves as he stopped at the couch Chloe and Stu were sitting on, completely ignoring Alan's distress and directing his question to Stu, as he hadn't had the chance to talk to him yet.

"No, I am in so much pain right now." Stu weakly shook his head, and Chloe had only just noticed the small portion of crimson blood that was formed around his lips.

"What is..." Chloe wonderingly furrowed her eyebrows as she slightly leaned forward to point to the corner of the man's mouth. "You're bleeding, Stu."

"Goddamn." Phil blew out a long breath as he let his dumbfounded eyes wander around the disorderly scene, not bothering to button up his shirt as he slumped down on the opposite couch from the pair. "Look at this place."

"What?" Stu frowned confusedly at Chloe, then proceeding to lose his train of thought as he casted his eyes around the completely trashed room. "They have mine and Chloe's credit cards downstairs. We're so screwed. I am so screwed."

"I mean how- how does a tiger get in the bathroom?!" Alan, still in shambles, frighteningly cried out from his position pacing back-and-forth outside of the bathroom. "It almost killed me!"

"Hey, bro?" Phil calmly questioned as he took a sip of the opened can of Monster Energy on the table in front of him, not looking at the man in question, who was still beside himself with dread. "You mind putting on some pants? I find it a little weird I have to ask twice."

"Pants at a time like this? I don't have any p-" Alan complained, turning around quickly to try and follow Phil's orders, but finding a bath towel on the floor and wrapping it around his waist as a solution.

"What the fuck happened last night?" Phil blew out a breath as he slightly narrowed his eyes in an effort to try to recall anything from the night before.

"You're asking me? I can't even remember us getting married, let alone having sex multiple times." Chloe nonchalantly raised her eyebrows as she crossed her arms over her chest comfortably.

"Hey, Phil, Chloe, am I missing a tooth?" Stu furrowed his eyebrows in question as he sat up, opening his mouth as he showed the two his teeth.

"Let me see." Chloe frowned in concentration as she turned to face Stu, hesitating at the sight of the man's front tooth completely missing. Widening her eyes and gasping at the scene out of pure shock, her hand flew up to cover her mouth as a reflex.

Realising that that was the source of the blood, Chloe then exclaimed, the words muffled by her palm, "Oh, my god, Stu!"

"I can't- holy, sh-!" Phil wheezed in a mixture of humour and surprise, eyebrows raised as he watched Stu frown at their reactions, grab the mirror that was on the table, and check himself out.

"Oh my god- my lateral incisor- it's gone!" Stu fearfully shouted, face and tone now rapidly filling with pure agony.

Chloe's face contorted in a mix of both astonishment and horror as she removed her hand from her mouth, rolling her lips inwards as she slightly narrowed her eyes to prevent herself from saying something that would make Stu panic even more.

"It's okay- okay, okay." Phil spoke up over Stu's hysteric murmurs, trying to settle everyone down as his face wore a small, wholly entertained smirk. "Just calm down. We're fine. Everything's fine. Alan, go wake up Doug. Let's just get some coffee and get the fuck out of Nevada before housekeeping shows."

"Sure, because god forbid housekeeping shows and sees this mess before we get a chance to leave." Chloe let out a contrasting, sardonic huff as she just slumped down in her seat, crossing her arms over her chest once more as she then sent the man a seldom look. "Phil, that won't make any difference, they'll charge Stu and I for all of it, anyway."

"Speaking of that, what am I gonna tell Melissa? I lost a tooth. I have no idea how it happened." Stu's eyes were fully rounded.

"Stop, you're freaking me out, man." Phil shook his head at Stu as his friend kept worriedly surveying his face in the mirror. "I've got a massive headache, okay? Let's just calm down."

"Whatever you say, sweetie." Chloe quipped, accompanying the words with a playful shrug.

When Phil just sent her an unenthused look, the woman just raised her eyebrows and held up her hands in a faux-surrender motion. "Hey, the jokes make themselves. Sue me."

"How am I supposed to calm down? Look around you!" Stu shakily voiced, face full of trepidation as he glared at Phil.

"Hey, guys, he's not in there." Alan rejoined the group, gesturing to the bedroom.

"Did you check all the rooms?" Phil inquired, pointing to the other rooms from his position.

"Yeah, I looked everywhere." Alan nodded. "Plus, his mattress is gone."

"His mattress?" Chloe furrowed her eyebrows at Alan, who just wordlessly nodded.

"His mattress." Alan confirmed with a small giggle. "It's- yeah."

"Whatever, he probably went to the pool to get something to eat." Phil casually dismissed the issue as he reached into his jean pocket to pull out his phone. "I'll just call his cell."

"I look like a nerdy hillbilly." Stu quietly whined, eyes filling with paralysing and unsettling dread as he continued checking out his mouth, Chloe letting out a sympathetic 'tsk' as she supportively patted his shoulder.

Meanwhile, Phil lightheartedly chuckled in merriment as he held his phone up to his ear and pressed on Doug's contact, rubbing his eyes with his fingers then running his hand through his unkempt hair as he waited for it to ring.

As if on cue, Doug's cellphone rang from its position on the surface of one of the tables, Alan reaching over to answer it cluelessly.

At the action, Chloe and Phil turned to watch the ordeal, both of them wordlessly watching the man with complete expectancy, and slight incredulity, at his persistently odd behaviour. They should've guessed that he wouldn't catch on to the fact that Doug clearly left his phone in the room so fast.

Chloe opened her mouth to let him know, but Phil saw it coming and tapped her shoulder, catching Chloe's attention and shaking his head lightly. He wanted to see how far this would go before Alan realised.

Shrugging in acceptance, Chloe turned back around to watch Alan obliviously answer the phone. "Hello?"

"Alan." Phil deadpanned, gaze held on an unaware Alan.

Alan furrowed his eyebrows. "Hey."

A brief silence fell between the pair before Phil just continued to entertain the exchange. "It's Phil."

Chloe grinned in amusement, and she just withheld her chuckle as she raised her eyebrows at Alan instead, who had now frowned at the phone in realisation. "Oh, hey, Phi- this is Doug's phone," turning to glance at the trio on the couches a fair distance away from him, Alan hung up the phone and repeated the sentiment, "this is Doug's phone."

"No shit." Phil concluded as he sent Alan a final, knowing look before lowering his phone.

"Yeah." Alan confirmed with a nod.

As if the morning couldn't get any worse, the sudden sound of a baby faintly crying elicited perplexed frowns from the group.

"What the fuck is that?" Stu slowly spoke up.

Chloe shared unnerved looks with Stu and Phil as she let her voice trail off. "Please tell me that's a recording..."

•

AUTHOR'S NOTE
here we go!

© voidvaleska