"Only as sure as I am that the reality of one night, let alone that of a whole lifetime, can ever be the whole truth."

──────⊱⁜⊰─────
𝑴𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒂𝒏

Waking up is hard. I'd say it feels like a bag of bricks hit me but that might feel better than this.

What time is it?

The time on my phone reads 12:34 pm. Err, no, that's Chris's phone and it just died. Shit, where's mine?

I hop out of bed and am greeted with a breeze against my backside.

When I look over my shoulder into the full body mirror, it's then that I notice I don't have any clothes on my lower body and I'm only in one of Chris's ribbed tanks.

I haven't been hungover in years.

As I wander around the room, trying to use evidence of debris and scattered about articles of clothing to piece together last night, I stumble across my phone on the dresser. Phew.

The phone rings three times before I start to get impatient.

"Pick up, pick up, pick up." I rush anxiously, leaning over the toilet.

She picks up the call. "Hey, sweetie, thanks for calling. I was just thinking about you, how was the party-"

"Mom, what was it that you said could cure a hangover? Quick." I didn't have time for small talk, the contents of my stomach are about to splatter over this bathroom, it feels like.

"Oh," she hesitates. "Um, chug some Gatorade and eat eggs! Ginger and chamomile, too."

I know all about her drinking, so knew she'd be able to help. She likes to act like she's not a borderline alcoholic but wine for breakfast lunch and dinner everyday is pushing it.

My cheeks inflate with air, as I gag, thinking I'm about to yak finally.

"Thanks." I can barely spit that out before I end the call and vomit directly into the toilet bowl.

"Eww." I spit, flushing the toilet so I won't have to look anymore.

~

"Chris." I shake my man's leg in bed. "Chris, baby, get up. It's one o'clock." I know that'll wake him up, the time.

"What time is it?" His voice is muffled by the pillow his face has been stuck to all night and all morning.

"One o'clock, almost two. Come on, get up." I urge him, peeling the covers off of his body.

"Shit." Chris curses as he tries to sit up.

He holds his side, suggesting there's a pain in it, and waits at the edge of the mattress.

"The fuck did we do last night?" He wonders, noticing the mess in the room.

I shrug my shoulders. "I hope the rest of the house doesn't look like this."

"Just waking up, too?" He asks me and I nod my head.

"I'm never drinking again." I make Chris laugh until his head starts to pound so he holds it and groans.

"Why do you look so good?" He furrows his eyebrows.

I lift my dark shades to reveal my tired eyes paired with my monstrosity of an unusually pale face.

"I had to call my mom for the remedy, I guess it's working. Your turn, I started the shower for you."

When he stands, I follow him to the bathroom just in case he'll throw up, too, and need anything.

"If Lee drugged us, I swear to God-" Chris starts to pose a threat to his best friend but I cut him off.

I shake my head. "We willingly took those shrooms. Which, stupid idea, by the way. Next time we know our limits." I tell him, leaning against the door.

Chris just walks stiffly towards the toilet and asks me to bring him some water.

As I walk downstairs, I bang on the two parallel guest rooms in which Kailyn and Jack were staying. They should be up and out by now, but if not they'll be helping me clean this place up.

Ding-dong! The doorbell sings just as I pass the foyer.

I walk backwards to see who's there and let them in.

Through the glass, I can see that it's Izzy and Lee. Behind them, Jasmine and Jabari.

"HELLO, SUNSHINE!" Izzy yells in my ear.

"Izzy!" I scold her. "Jesus, what are you trying to do, wake up the whole city?"

"It's almost two o'clock. Someone's hungover." She laughs at me, pushing her way inside with that belly. She's five months now and it shows. Baby Kai is the size of a pomegranate at this point, I just can't believe it. Where has the time gone?

KNOCK. KNOCK. KNOCK.

"Who's that?" Asks Jasmine like this is her house.

I remove her from the door so I can answer it myself after I grab some cash for a tip.

"Thank you!" I immediately say to the DoorDasher with the breakfast that I ordered Chris and myself and shut the door. I don't mean to be rude, I'm just starving. Plus this egg on an English muffin should help with the hangover.

Jasmine, Izzy, Lee, and Jay (JB) are lobbied in the family room, recalling the night, as I scarf down my breakfast sandwich and orange Gatorade. I got two of everything so we have four total orange Gatorades and four total egg-muffin-sandwiches to cure this hangxiety and nausea.
It's a Sunday so we typically don't have plans but I know the last way Chris wants to spend his weekend is in agony. He'd much rather go play basketball, hit the gym, hang out with Kailyn and Jack before they leave, or prepare for work tomorrow. So I'm doing what I can to help. Lord knows he acts like a baby when he has a cold or even a paper cut, let alone a hangover.

I remember the last time he was suffering like this, coming down from the drugs he mistakenly took (was drugged). That was hard.

Once finished, I wash down my breakfast with the last swig of my sports drink and then pop a piece of mint gum into my mouth. It's also supposed to be a remedy.

I lean forward on the counter, tired, and my messy top bun flops with my motion. It's way too high on my head, I haven't worn it like this since I was a little girl because it's curled up after I washed it in the shower and I don't normally wear my hair curly like my sister or mother.

Feeling a bit better, I remove my dark frames and rub my eyes. As I do so, Chris appears in my face like a vision or mirage.

"Hey, Chris." Everyone greets him from their seats across the hall.

He just looks over his shoulder and waves. I notice his eye roll at them, I know he's annoyed we have company when he's in this state, but they're our best friends, who cares?

Chris grabs my waist and leans on my body, his head on my back as I'm bent on the counter.

"Goddamn it." He curses under his breath.

"Not feeling any better?" I ask after his shower. That musky signature scent of his traveling up my nose.

"No." He snaps and stands upright to pace.

I watch Chris bend over the trash bin like he's about to puke so I get some water ready and rub his back.

When nothing comes out, Chris angrily sits on a stool at the breakfast bar and covers his face with a white hand towel.

He tosses his head back but a coughing fit makes him sit back up.

Poor thing is really going through it. All I can do is rub his back and offer something to eat and drink.

"Here..." I encourage him to try the muffin at least.

Chris scarfs down the breakfast like it's his first meal in days. I'm just happy he's getting some energy.

He washes that down with the Gatorade and then takes a piece of mint gum.

Once he's finished, he calls Kailyn and Jack downstairs and waits at the end of the steps for them.

Jack comes running, all happy-go-lucky, and greets us with a "what's up?"

"Where's your sister?" Chris asks him.

Jackson shrugs his shoulders. "How am I supposed to know, I was with Hannah all night?" He smirks, waiting for his older cousin to shake his hand for that. Chris, instead, pushes Jack's head in and tells him to pick up a broom.

"KAILYN!" Chris roars, scaring even me.

We listen to a door upstairs slam shut and footsteps stomp this way.

"What?" She sasses at the top of the stairs.

In her black Nike hoodie, she rolls her neck and keeps her arms folded across her body like she has some attitude. Teenagers.

The look on Chris's face, he's taken aback by his little cousin's outburst and can't even express it, just stands there, furiously glaring at her to come down here.

Kailyn does come down the steps but not without stomping on each one and coldly staring at me.

Her dramatics pull in a crowd, Izzy, JB, Jasmine, Jack, and Lee all come to the foyer to see what's going on.

"Unh-unh." Jasmine remarks at the sight of Kailyn. "Halloween's over, you can stop acting possessed." She clutches her pearls literally.

"I'm not possessed." Kailyn replies with a sharp tone.

"Then fix ya face and stop staring at her like you got a problem!" Jasmine warns Kailyn.

"She is my problem." Kailyn mumbles and I think in the only one who caught that.

"Woah, what'd I do to you?" I ask her.

She just blinks at me.

"Start talking. Now." Chris demands. That makes her listen.

Kailyn drops her arms and exhales a heavy sigh. "I met a guy last night but he said I wasn't old enough for him or as attractive as her."

All eyes shoot to me at the blunt mention of "her." Kailyn is teary-eyed, I see, and shaking with animosity towards me.

"Boo-hoo, so what?" Chris hunches his shoulders with a twisted face.

"Wait," I pause to think. "weren't you with Seth all night?"

"Seth left because he had to go deliver pizzas." Kailyn corrects us but that doesn't make any sense.

"No, you were with him all night, I saw you; he had on an 'Eyes Wide Shut' mask and robe." I insist.

"No?" Kailyn rolls her neck. "Seth was dressed as Ghostface. You're thinking about my date. Err, your secret admirer." 

I roll my eyes at her smart remark and ignore it so I can rack my brain.

"Who the fuck is this new guy?" Chris speaks up.

Clueless, I shrug. So does everyone else. Everyone except Kailyn.

"I did see someone in one of them masks." Jabari recalls.

"Yeah," Jasmine agrees. "He won the costume contest, didn't he?"

Izzy nods her head. "But he didn't remove it or tell me a name."

"You said he was older? How old?" Chris asks Kailyn.

She gulps hard. Nervous or guilty. Hmm.

"I don't know." She lies. I know she's lying, so does Chris and everyone in the room.

"How old?" Chris repeats himself and isn't happy to.

"Old enough. Seemed like it, anyway. He said I wasn't 'physically or financially ready' for him, yet. Pfft. Asshole."

"He didn't show you his face at all?" I chime in.

Kailyn shakes her head no. "We mostly just talked. Mostly."

"You get his name?" Chris asks.

Kailyn stomps her foot, outraged, or just pretending to be. "No! Why, what does it matter? He left, and he doesn't want me, he wants her."

"Mccht." Jabari sucks his teeth.

"Little girl, you say 'her' like that or look at Morgan crazy again, I'll whoop yo' ass." Jasmine gets worked up, defending me when I don't need her to. It's appreciated, but I'm not threatened by a teen's glare or mood swings.

"So no one knew this guy and he was just hanging out all night?" Chris clenched his jaw, looking at each of our friends, and then me.

"Kailyn, he didn't say who he was, where he's from, a name, anything?" Chris's questions makes Kailyn's eyes flicker.

"He said he knows you, that's it, and that it was a surprise." Kailyn's piece of information makes Chris shut his eyes and inhale deeply.

Seeing him start to get worked up, I try to mediate.

"Maybe it was one of your clients, babe."

He gives me the side eye. "I didn't invite any."

"A co-worker?" Lee offers. Chris just stares blankly ahead.

"Oh. It could've been one of the kids' parents from the team." Jabari suggests brightly, getting the rest of us to tag along and agree that might be the case.

"The guest list was already too big, if I invited one parent, I'd have to invite them all. No." Chris talks with sarcasm, shooting down every idea we come up with.

"And we specifically said no plus one's, right?" Chris asks for confirmation on that.

I simply nod.

"Ooh, I kept a guest list!" Izzy remembers suddenly and sparks some hope here.

She leads the way to the family room and picks up the notebook from the coffee table.

We all huddle around her as she sits on the chair and flips through the names and pages.

"I don't see anyone I don't recognize." I speak up.

"Me either, fuck." Chris grumbles.

"Here's a picture I took of him when he won the costume contest. He didn't say a word, just took the prize money. I thought he was just really in character." Izzy suggests, lifting her shoulders.

"Can I go now?" Kailyn asks with an annoyed tone.

She starts walking away without Chris's say so, and something falls out of her pocket.

It's a piece of paper, I see.

"What's this?" I ask, speeding to pick it up.

"Give it!" Kailyn argues. "It's nothing."

I create space between us and read the writing on it. It appears to be a cut out of some old newspaper ad.
Looks like for a store called "Jordan's market" located outside of the city.

I feel like I've seen that store before, the name is familiar, I think hard. Jordan's Market. . .

"There's a phone number." I say, giving the paper to Chris.

"I've seen this store before..." I tell Chris in a whisper. "and that phone number."

"Me too," he says, "well, the store is that racist one we went to, remember, by Yara and Nick's house?"

"Oh yeah!" I gasp with sudden remembrance. That place gave me the ick, I don't know how I could forget it, but I tried hard to.

"This number, though?" He awaits an answer from me and I twist my mouth to think of one.

"Is it that number that kept calling you before?" I think that's it.

Chris shakes his head. "No, that was eight/five/six/one - Sabrina."

Shoot, that's right. And it can't be her.

"I'm telling you, I know this number, I've seen it a lot, I've - wait." I pause in my tracks and make new ones to our bedroom upstairs after snatching the paper from Chris's hands.

I unlock my 10th gen iPad to view my sales on my website.

Sitting on the edge of the bed, I scroll for the last large order that was placed. Seeing the order details and customer information, I match the phone numbers.

10 body scrubs ordered by a guest customer to a P.O. Box located in Birch Lake, New York - farm town. That's where Yara and Nick live. AKA, where that rundown store was with the roaches and kids in blackface. I tremble at the flashback.

With a thought, I look up this Jordan's Market from the piece of paper.

A quick Google search confirms that this is the same place.

I keep scrolling through my orders and see another order of ten - five exfoliating body scrubs and five body butters. And- holy shit. . .