A couple of things happened to Lula when she woke up. The first was that she immediately wanted to die, to which point she crawled across the bed to get the Gatorade and Excedrin she had placed on the bedside table before going out last night. She was good like that. After she started her battle with her hangover however, instead of collapsing back into her warm sheets like she had planned, she wondered what the hell she had spilled in them. Putting the doll she had never removed from her side last night on the pillow next to her, she then lifted her sheets while praying it hadn’t been wine. Seeing no dark red stains, she started to wonder what the hell that was until the smell hit her. I peed the bed. It took her a few seconds to process. She hadn’t done that in…ever! She couldn’t remember the last time that had happened, and that included a lot of verryyyyy drunken nights in college.
What the hell happened last night? She hadn’t gotten that drunk had she? She worked to remember. They had all had a great time, aside from that stupid bouncer, but outside of that…then she remembered. She could not believe she had actually taken that doll out with her, much less took it out at a bar. Thank GOD no one saw. That’s right, she had put it back in just as…Austin. The memory of their almost kiss came back in a flood of conflicting emotions. Had she really almost kissed him? She unconsciously grabbed her dolly and held it tight. She was embarrassed, mixed with excited, mixed with confused, mixed with…oh God what does HE think about it?
Her eyes darted to her carefully flung on the floor iPhone. She threw off her gross sheets and moved towards it. She winced as the sudden movement rocked her head. But this was too important to not immediately know. Picking up the phone, she blew away the low battery message and checked her notifications. She had a missed call at 3:37 from Erin, 5 snapchats, and…no messages or calls from Austin. Ok, so that meant….what exactly? Maybe snapchat could help her out.
The first was from a college friend living across the country, she could watch that later. One snap from Austin, one from Erin, and two from Trevor. She opened Austin’s first. “I’m gonna fucking. Make. This. Shot. He spoke into the camera, obviously hammered. He held up a dart. As he pulled back to shoot, the video stopped. Guess we’ll never know how that one turned out, she thought, annoyed. At least it wasn’t a dick pic (not that Austin was that type of guy). Or maybe a dick pic would be a good sign. No. No dick pics are a good thing, she told herself.
The next was from Erin. She and Bradley were sitting outside of a pizza place eating a huge slice each. “PIZZZAAAAAAA!!” She yelled into the camera. “We tried to call you to get you one but you didn’t answerrrr!!!! So that’s your loss. That’s. Your. Lo-“ The video cut out as she was being sassy. She would have normally died laughing if she wasn’t on the hunt for such important information.
Now she opened Trevor’s. He and the boys were walking in what looked like Austin’s neighborhood dying laughing. The caption was UBER DRIVER KICKED US OUT HAHAHAHA. “We’re too fucking drunk!” he yelled just as it ended. The next video was clearly in Austin’s apartment. Everyone was either passed out, or about to be as they listened to some clearly 70s jams. They had broken into her records, Lula noted with a swelling of pride. The caption was “Goodnight tunes”. Just before the video ended she saw Austin passed out on his couch.
Well, she thought to herself, there’s probably a 90% chance he doesn’t remember last night. But was it just a drunken bout of lust? Did he actually have feelings for her? She and him had never really hung out much just one on one. Always with friends. Nor had they really ever sent vibes like that before. What did last night mean? She decided she had to text him. After a solid 5 minutes of debate she decided on “So I vote we have your birthday more than once a year”. It showed she had a good time…that they all had a good time, yet it could possibly hint at more…would he pick up on her signal?
She summoned the courage to hit send, the little whoop noise finalizing her decision. Delivered appeared below the blue a moment later. Now to wait. She looked at the time as she plugged in her phone. Why was she up so early? It was 8:30 on a Saturday morning, but there was no going back to sleep now. Not while her sheets needed washing. Austin probably wouldn’t wake up for a couple of hours. With a sigh she began the process of cleaning up after herself, still in disbelief she ever wet the bed in the first place. All the while and without thinking, she clutched her baby doll.
Once she had loaded the washing machine, Lula decided breakfast was the next item on her agenda. Her headache was subsiding, but she was too hungover to cook anything. She got out a bowl of cereal and poured in some Cheerios. As she went to pour the milk, she just got the urge to eat the cereal dry, opting instead to pour a glass of milk. Taking her breakfast into the den, she turned on the TV. It was Bravo, her favorite. Yet as she put her fingers into the bowl and munched on her cereal, she just couldn’t get into the show. Picking up the remote she found herself skipping over all her usual channels. I wonder what kids watch these days, Lula thought to herself. She found a channel with children’s cartoons and began watching. She used to love Saturday morning cartoons!
As she fed herself with her hands, she seemed to pay no attention to just how much saliva was getting on her fingers. To an outside observer her childish behavior and borderline drooling would be shockingly out of place, but Lula was too enthralled with the playful talking lion on TV to even notice. When she nearly broke her glass with her slippery fingers, she simply used two hands to carefully drink her milk. She thought about Trevor’s joke to the waitress last night. Maybe she was too little for a glass! She smiled thinking about it, but eating cereal required drooly fingers, of course. She would just have to use two hands to drink the milk. “Isn’t that right, Catherine?” she said aloud to her doll, seated right next to her. The name had just felt right. That would be its name from now on. Baby Catherine.