Nicotine & Gravy

Wensleydale

Chapter 3: Aftermath

In Which Hangovers Are Found to Not Be Very Much Fun
and
Somebody Vomits

            Come on, Max! We gotta go!"
Maximilien woke; disoriented, hung-over, and hungry, he rolled over and dug his head into the pillow.

The pillow was snatched away a moment later, and when he cracked open an eye to Durand's beaming face, he decided to try to get sleep without the pillow. This might have been possible, considering his sorry state, except that Durand had started pulling the couch cushions out from under him. "I know you're awake, Max!"

A raging stream of expletives emerged from the couch, and Durand backed away. "Fine, miss out on having coffee with Lia and I."

Abruptly, Maximilien sat up, and put on his glasses. "Where?" was all that he could manage to croak.

Durand made an expression that looked like fear initially and ended as wry amusement, with a side of stifled laughter. He turned away, but glanced back and started snickering again.

Durand was certainly laughing at him, which was not what Maximilien needed at the moment. He needed that coffee or some water, or really any drink to get the vile taste out of his mouth. He grabbed his cell phone—eleven in the morning never felt so early.

Grinning widely, Durand shook, wracked with laughter. "You're lucky that Lia's not actually around right now to see you, Max."

The only reason he had gotten up having left, Max flopped back on the couch and let loose some more choice words.

"Awww, you don't really mean all that! It's just the hangover talking, I know, I know." He lifted up his slight tutor by the shoulders quite easily, in spite of numerous attempts on Robespierre's part to hit Durand in the face. "But look Max, unless you want to walk home, we need to get back—that Trig test won't study for itself, and it's in less than 24 hours!"

This was the last thing Maximilien wanted to do, but he had made Lia a promise. He finally got up, and stumbled towards the door, trying to piece the events of the party together in his head. The intense headache was making everything foggy, and it wasn't until he was finally seat-belted in the car that he recalled the truth-or-dare makeout session.

He really wanted a smoke right now.

The ride back was quiet due in part to the recently awakened memories of last night along with plain old fatigue. Robespierre feigned sleep in the passenger seat in hopes that it would deter Durand from initiating conversation.

As soon as the car's ignition turned off, he bolted from the car, running up into his house. He waved to his parents in the kitchen without bothering to look at them, and slammed the door shut behind him—subconsciously trying to run away from it all. He hoped that he could sleep off his hangover, and flopped into bed.

He woke with a start again to Durand's face, though this time it wasn't beaming. "What the hell are you doing here?" Durand had never been beyond the Robespierre's kitchen, and Maximilien silently cursed his parents.

"I thought you were going to help me study for trigonometry—I brought over some practice problems I managed to finish after I got back." Durand looked hopeful, but there was an underlying hint of desperation in his voice. "It's still going over my head."

Maximilien contemplated the tutoring: on one hand, trig was one of driest subjects, and would be a good distraction; on the other hand, Durand was the last person he wanted to see right now. Still, Durand hadn't brought up last night's events...yet.

"Well, compare them to the answers in the back and I'll walk you through the problems you got wrong. Wake me up when you've looked at them all." That should allow for another thirty minutes or so of shut-eye, and Max pulled a blanket over his head.

Durand immediately prodded his back. "Umm, I did all that already. I've gotten the majority of these algorithms wrong, Max. Do you want me to get you some aspirin or something? Hangovers can be pretty terrible."

A loud sigh came through the sheets. "Helping you with trig certainly won't help it." Maximilien threw off the blanket and sat up, grabbing Durand's scribbled problems to look over them. Wrong, wrong, wrong...this might take a while.

The aspirin helped enough to keep him from collapsing on the bed any time he let Durand go over the numbers; he had explained sines, cosines, and tangents enough times that he felt he should be paid for his work. He was about to go over the hypotenuse a third time when his cell phone rang.

While Lia had never actually given Maximilien her number, he managed to find it and program it into his cell—he had spent many nights just looking at it, trying to build up the courage to give her a call. As soon as he noticed her name on the display, a surge of excitement ran through him, and he forgot the headache and Durand. It was just a text message, but what would it say? She must have gone through the trouble of finding his number, so this had to be important. He opened the text.

"Ohh, looks like Lia has a camera phone!" Durand peered over Maximilien's shoulder and caught a glance of the photo Lia sent—a rather compromising photo of the two guys during that fateful dare.

Maximilien ran to the toilet to puke.

He slept in on Monday, taking a day off to avoid Durand, Lia, and the rest of the student body who by now had probably seen that photo. It wasn't too hard to convince his parents that he was sick—after all, they thought his hangover was the result of the flu or a migraine. After the text message, Maximilien had pushed Durand out of the room without a word, and threw the trig book out at him.

He had a fitful night, waking up with his heart racing and the knowledge that he couldn't do anything about his situation. Sure, he could talk to Lia and ask her to delete all evidence of the photo, but...it was Lia. He kept trying to persuade himself that she wasn't like the rest of the school and wouldn't bother to show it to anyone, but the fact that she photographed it in the first place...

He spent the day reading, catching up on whatever schoolwork he was likely missing. He spent a fair chunk of time debating about whether or not he should continue tutoring Durand—he had grown used to the cookies, and as much as he hated admitting to himself, he enjoyed the company.

The doorbell rang at around 5—too early for his parents to be home. He opened the door to Lia and Durand and a plate of cookies.

"Max, I hope you're feeling better!" Lia flung herself at him, squeezing him in a smoky hug. Before he could react, she had already jumped back, elusive as always. "We wanted to make sure that you were getting better—I missed you at lunch!"

Maximilien was still processing all of this when Durand gave him the cookies and a huge grin. "I passed the test, thanks to you! I made the teacher grade it before I left, and I got a 77! C minus, Max! Lia couldn't believe it, but I figured that you should know that your tutoring is helping out."

This was all very overwhelming for Maximilien, so he responded by taking a bite out of one of the cookies. Finally swallowing, he managed a "thanks".

"I just wanted to give you the cookies, Max, but I ought to get back to my house right now—I want to let my parents know about the test." Durand gave a thumbs up and ran back across the yard, leaving Lia alone with Maximilien.

It had been a while since he had any time by himself with Lia—about a month, in fact. He should have been ecstatic, but that photo still weighed heavy on his mind. "Uh, hey, Lia." She was wearing a more modest outfit for school, but he still caught himself staring. "About that text..."

"...worried that I might send it to the rest of the school, huh? Or your parents?" She stepped inside the foyer and closed the front door behind her. "Don't worry about it, I have no reason to show anyone else. I just figured you guys might get a kick out of it; I know I did." Lia had to know how frustratingly close she brought herself to Maximilien; he certainly wasn't used to her lack of personal space. Her statement brought some relief—he trusted her that much. However, she amped up the tension with her very presence—her very close presence.

"Ah, thanks, I guess it's sort of funny." The last person that had been this close to him had been Durand, and that memory coupled with Lia within kissing distance was testing the limits of Maximilien's self-control.

She stepped back for a moment, lost in thought—though it seemed she was surveying him. "You two are so cute—I heard about your cookie payment system from Durand. If you haven't noticed, he's very grateful for your school help." Suddenly, she was pressed close to him—she had practically backed him into the wall. "I'm very grateful for your help, Max."

Of all the things Maximilien had expected today, kissing Lia de Beaumont was just below being struck by lightning. In fact, being kissed by Lia was like being struck by lightning—quick, shocking, probably not healthy for one's heart. It was almost painful too—though that might have been her biting his lower lip. She tasted like cigarettes, and was just as addictive. As soon as she parted from him, he craved more, mentally and physically.

"Well, I should probably get going too, Max. Are you going to be back at school tomorrow?" Lia recomposed herself, acting as if nothing had happened. "You look pretty flushed!"

Maximilien coughed, well aware that Lia knew he wasn't suffering from a fever. "I-I'm fine," he stuttered, increasing the distance between them. "I'll see you at lunch, then?" He tried his hardest to mask the longing in his voice.

Lia gave a quick nod on the way out, waving a goodbye once she got to her car. He feebly waved back, feeling quite strange. Lia...kissed him? His body was quite adamant that had happened, and for once he was glad she left when she did—he had embarrassed himself enough at the party.

School was fairly uneventful the rest of the week. The picture was never brought up, both kisses were never brought up, and the tutoring continued. Maximilien still couldn't bring himself to call Lia or find any opportunities to ask her out, though by Friday it turned out he didn't need to.

Lunch break, and Durand had left to go get some more food from the cafeteria. Maximilien and Lia were just smoking, and Maximilien was enjoying the silence and Lia's company. He had just taken a long drag when Lia asked if he wanted to catch a movie this weekend.

He choked on the smoke, surprised at this offer out of nowhere. Was there more of a reason for the kiss? She hadn't talked about it at all, and Maximilien had given up that it meant anything to her. But now she's asking him out on a date, practically...

"Sure, that sounds great!" He needed to stop being so eager at every little suggestion Lia made; he needed to play it cool. He definitely wasn't used to reciprocal relationship interest. Relationship? 'Well, there was definitely potential,' he thought. Considering she waited until Durand had left to ask him...

"Okay, meet around 2 at the Bigscreen 14 on Saturday then? Cool, I'll catch you then." Lia started walking away, flicking off some ash. "I'm off to check on my brother, but I'll talk to you later. You have my phone number, right?" She glanced back at him knowingly, having sent that text.

He nodded with a crooked smile, not needing to care about that picture anymore. This could very well be a date!

He was about to watch her leave except that Durand came running up, nearly bowling over Lia. They seemed to have a laugh about it, and he took a seat near his tutor. Talking through a mouthful of fries, Durand asked, "What'd I miss?"

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