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As we arrived at her door, her arms let go of me and Veronica seemed to almost regain consciousness of something. Then she quickly fired:

“Hm, thanks for the night girls.” We smiled at her and said it was no big deal. “It's good to be able to make new friends...” Her eyes rested on me for a moment. “Well, see you in a few hours.”

We laughed before she and Troian headed to their room, while me, Jaz and Sid went to ours.

The feeling of waking up and thinkingI'm never going to drink againwas one of the worst things that could ever happen. Not that I actually considered never drinking again, but the hangover that morning came directly from hell.

I crawled out of bed and saw Emily full of energy. The only desire I had, at the moment, was to run over happy people.

“Good morning, girls!” Her face was lit up while she blow dried her hair.

“Good morning, Em…” I smiled at her and pushed the sunglasses over my face. My retinas refused to face so much light so early.

“Troian is in the bathroom.” Emily warned. “I thought we'd get coffee before practice.”

“Yes, this will be great!” I said sincerely. Maybe a little caffeine was all I needed.

We waited for Troian to finish getting ready and left for the coffee shop, then we went straight to the training center. For my headache, I popped two Tylenol pills and washed it down with a large cup of coffee, trying to get rid of the pain without getting too sleepy.

I probably wouldn't do as much as I would have liked in practice, but at least I was there on time. We arrived and I dropped myself and my bag on the floor and pretended to be stretching.

At some point, Kendra arrived and sat down next to me.

“Good morning, you big slut!” She greeted me and I laughed.

“No comments...” I replied in a curious good mood by her presence.

She clearly remembered everything about the previous night. I remembered the alcohol, the two frat boys, and also Kendra saving my ass. I couldn't explain in words why I got involved in this, but my subconscious told me that it was a kind of revenge against Martin. Even though he didn't even deserve a single thought from me.

“I'm going to ask you a question, but I don't want you to be offended...”

“Coming from you, you'll probably offend me anyways.”

Blue eyes rolled before she stretched her legs and lay down on them, reaching the tips of her toes.

“Did you want to go to that room?”

“Probably not... I wouldn't be able to handle two guys at the same time.”

She smiled weakly and buried her face in her own knee.

“Ok then.”

I looked at her and took another sip of my coffee. I wouldn't be able to do almost anything that morning, that was a fact I would have to accept.

“Thank you for the party and for getting me out of there too.” I declared, hoping to sound polite and grateful.

Had I cried alone at the end of the night remembering my ex because of the alcohol? Yes, but no one needed to know that part. I had already put myself in a hole of misery, now I just needed to learn how to live life again. Without him, now.

“You already thanked me yesterday.” Kendra looked at me again.

“I'm thanking you soberly now.”

Again, those cruel blues eyes analyzed me for a moment, but she didn't respond in words. She just nodded before stepping on the platform. During the entire workout I pretended like I was doing something and managed to avoid Karlee's attention. Our coach ended up not even calling me that day and I mentally thanked her for that.

At the end of the training, I felt a little better.

Minimally more rested.