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✱

THE WORST THING about waking up used to be the agonizing feeling of opening your eyes and feeling the sunlight hit them mercilessly, and as it seared into your vision, you were met with the realization that today would be just another painfully annoying day of your lower than average life.

Now? It was still exactly that, not to mention what felt like an arm pressed against your naked back. Or well, my naked back, which I had no recollection as to why it was naked, only that I didn't remember not wearing a shirt to bed or anyone else being in bed with me. I was single after my boyfriend Landon had broken up with me and never told me a reason why. It — hopefully — wasn't him, since that would mean he wanted to get back together with me, something he made very clear out of all the things he didn't make clear when he basically kicked me in the heart that night. No, this was somebody else, that much I knew.

The main problem here was less about the what, but more about who. Who in the hell was in my bed? I didn't remember anything from last night, but at this point I could barely even remember my name or my address. I must've been very hungover by the way all of the details in my head were disturbingly fuzzy.

I blinked, tilting my head to the side so I could survey whoever was in the bed with me. He was definitely attractive, with a rugged and hard face, tousled brown hair, a strong jaw, long eyelashes, and olive-toned skin that no one could deny in their right mind. This man — whoever he was — had to be some type of dream come true, or maybe just a dream in general.

I was Mia Casey, after all, and I was not one for one-night-stands, especially not just to rebound. Not to mention how I wasn't lucky enough to wake up with this kind of guy anyway. By the strong arm draped over my back, I could tell he worked out a lot, which was something Landon didn't really do. Landon wasn't completely skinny, but this guy was on a different level of ripped and I could only guess that he played some kind of sport for whatever school he went to.

Trying not to wake him, I shifted my body under him more so I could get a better look at what parts of him were not wrapped up in sheets at the moment. And when I got out from underneath his hold on me, that was when I realized I had made a fatal mistake.

"Oh my God!"

"Good morning, babe," a sleepy Carter Abrams mumbled into his sheets. "Did you sleep well? I hope not. I know I was doing anything but sleeping."

My heart was racing, my thoughts processing too fast for coherence, and my lungs weren't and would likely never be physically prepared for the hyperventilating that I was doing right now. There was no way I slept with Carter Abrams, that was the last thing I wanted to do in any lifetime. If you juxtaposed my eagerness to sleep with him against twenty of the historically evil villains, he would still probably rank around fifteen, considering I despised him that much. I felt as I had taken all of the right steps in my life just for something like this to not happen.

But staring at the scene before me, I guess it did happen. There was no way it didn't happen honestly. I was standing in his wrecked bedroom, naked from head-to-toe while he was passed out on his bed in the same state of undress. I stepped over to lift up the blanket and sure enough: man buns — the good kind.

"Oh no!" I cried. "Oh no, oh no, oh no!"

"Oh yeah, baby," Carter mumbled under his breath, making me roll my eyes. It made sense that he was taking this so nonchalantly because this was his thing. He was the guy who usually slept around with girls in our grade — sometimes even in the ones above and below us if he were lucky — this was second nature to him.

But for me? Having a one night stand? Having a rebound one night stand? A rebound one night stand with Carter Abrams, the insufferable idiot across the hall who was ruining my life? All of this was not my brand and just being in his room felt like I was betraying who I was. Just being on this side of the hall felt like I was declaring war with myself, becoming a completely different person since Landon was no longer here to shield me from it.

Of course, Carter took this intense moment of self shame to throw the covers off of his body completely and rise up from the bed. The sight of him in his birthday suit was definitely the last thing I needed to see at this point, even if I was past the state of deny that it happened. I was trying to bargain with it now. But how could I do that when his naked body looked so damn good?

Carter, noticing that I was ogling his body, smirked like the downright asshole he was and it took everything in me not to land a swift kick between his legs.

"Baby, if we didn't have school in an hour, I would be down for round two," he chuckled. "But we have to get a move on if we want to make it to first period."

Somehow in my mind, the other day registered as a Saturday, so I didn't have that doubt in my mind, but what he was telling me was that the party was on a Sunday night? Meaning that we both had to haul ass to get to school if we didn't want to be in detention? All of this right after Landon broke up with me as well?

My headache only seemed to multiply by a thousand, giving me no time to fight these things as they came but just accept them as they came and figure out how to fix them later.

"C'mon," Carter laughed clearly amused with this situation, "let's get the shower running. Takes a few to get nice and hot with the way the water works in this building. But you know that."

✱

THE SHOWER ISSUE, in other words: us being in even closer contact in a completely enclosed space with our exposed bodies together, was actually solved pretty easily thanks to some intense bargaining on my part. In the quick few minutes it took for the water to get the perfect temperature, I had forced Carter to wear a pair of swim trunks while he showered and that we would have to stand with our backs to each other and switch positions every few minutes much to his protest. He went on and on about how he was enjoying the view and didn't want to lose it, but that was his problem and not mine. I just wanted to be clothed as quickly as possible and for him to be clothed as well so I could put this behind me as quickly as I could.

But there were other issues to be fixed, like the fact that I expected to be back home last night before my parents got in around three. I had forgotten my house keys on the bed when I had changed into the dress upon Carter's request, but I knew we didn't lock the door behind us when we came back to his place.

Of course, I stood in one of Carter's fluffy bathrobes outside of my place, jiggling the door handle as if it would recognize my fingerprint and unlock the way my phone did. With my luck, Carter's stupid door probably did that.

"You need help with that?" I heard the devilish boy in question ask behind me. Turning around, I noticed that he at least put a pair of underwear on, but also that he was holding a bobby pin just like last night. Life had really set itself up so that he could humiliate me over and over again.

"Where are your clothes?" I responded, not exactly read to bargain with the one strand of my dignity I was holding onto for later. Thankfully, he took that as a yes to his question considering he stepped past me and got to work on the lock anyway.

After about a minute, maybe less, I heard the lock click, followed by him asking "Where are yours?"

Okay, well, he definitely got me there. Not in the mood to take this silly argument any further, I stepped inside my living room, and it was a beautiful feeling being back in my own space. I had been at Carter's not only all night, but for most of the morning too and standing inside my apartment was like finally getting control of my life back.

At least until I heard Carter step in behind me. "Well, at least it looks bigger in the daylight."

I clenched my eyelids, lips, and fists shut, knowing that I wasn't in a position where I had the luxury of starting a squabble with him. I would just have to get him back later because now we needed to come together in order to put this behind us as quickly as possible.

With renewed urgency, I put together a quick, school-appropriate outfit that consisted of a skirt and shirt that were already hanging up and didn't need any ironing. Thankfully Carter was roaming around my house instead of bothering me in my room because that was the only way this was going to get done in a timely fashion.

After I changed, I stepped out into to main foyer where I found Carter rummaging through my fridge. Okay, so this was going to be a disaster no matter how willingly I let Carter lead the way. After all, chaos was probably his middle name for all I knew.

He turned around to face me with an unpeeled banana resting between his jaws and one in his hands. He seemed like he was about to say something but didn't want to drop the banana in his mouth on the floor, so he moved over to the island and set them both down on the counter.

"Those are for breakfast today," he said with a shrug, pushing the one with his slight teeth marks on it towards me. Of course, the bastard. "You can eat that in the car without making a mess, right?"

"I feel like anything I say can be twisted into being about your...banana, so I'll refrain from commenting," I answered.

Not even defending himself, he just shrugged. "That's one hundred percent true, I was trying to set you up."

"Okay, so breakfast is covered," I said more to myself but loud enough so that Carter could hear me and chime in if he wanted to. "Now I just need to —"

I trailed off, staring into the distance at a spot in the center of my living room until it seemed to blur out of focus. I had just been hit with the realization that Landon officially wouldn't be my ride to and from school. Sure, there was the bus, but that meant I needed to be up and ready at least a half an hour earlier on a regular day.

I spun around, seeing Carter taking a bite out of his banana with a bemused expression on his face as he looked at me. "You seem like you were just in the middle of realizing something huge." He took another bite and grinned even wider now, my humiliation clearly being entertaining to him. Then again, for a girl who talked so much trash about him, I would be the same. Now I was just reaping what I had sown. "Yeah, now it seems really big, can't wait to find out what this one is."

I rolled my eyes at him before sticking up my middle finger and running back into my room, hoping that a just the few tiny seconds of avoiding Carter that I could afford before we had to leave would be enough so that I could get my sanity back.

Because the realization that Carter Abrams would most likely be my ride to and from school until I finally got my car was possibly the worst news to pile on top of all this.