11:36. AM.

Pain.

So. Much. Pain.

It was dark. It was so very dark. Rebecca was pretty sure that was due to the fact that her eyes were closed, but she couldn't be sure. The darkness was comforting, but the pain was otherworldly. Her entire head felt like it was going to either collapse in on itself or explode in a giant ball of needles.

Memories from the night before were hazy but not completely unrecognizable. She felt like she could remember some things, and certain parts of her body were definitely in pain. But it was so dark. She needed to open her eyes. That made sense. Light would help.

Rebecca slowly opened her eyes and the pain in her head multiplied by ten; the light felt like it was piercing into her skull one ray at a time. She shut her eyes immediately before allowing them to open again even slower, accepting the pain as it came. The room came into focus slowly, like she was watching a movie whose cameraman refused to show the entire frame at once. She knew where she was, vaguely; on one of the couches in Kennedy's apartment. She was laying down, no one on the couch with her, which was probably a good sign.

Except she was pretty sure she remembered bringing someone into a bedroom at some point during the party. So having someone on the couch wouldn't have made such a huge difference.

There were red solo cups strewn on the floor around her, despite the fact that Rebecca was sure she hadn't had anything except the two shots from Celeste early in the night. Two shots. Was it really that easy for her to get plastered?

A condescending voice that sounded suspiciously like Celeste's echoed in her head, telling her that this was the first time she had drank whatever Celeste had given her. It was going to be easy to get hammered.

Or who knew? Maybe one of the cups on the floor around her had belonged to her and she simply couldn't remember it.

Rebecca continued to look around her. There were a few people sprawled out in different positions on the floor or other couches, each of them completely asleep and nowhere near able to get up. She didn't recognize any of the people around her and started to sit up slowly, trying not to think about the fact that her head hurt more than it ever had before in her life. She felt something hard under her leg and lifted it to find her phone, turned on and with 3% battery left.

She saw three missed calls from her boss at the grocery store on the notifications tab before Rebecca turned her phone off and silently berated her drunk self for not remembering to find a charger before blacking out. She was already over an hour and a half late for her shift; there was no point in trying to go into the store at this point and making excuses wouldn't do anything for her at this point.

The people laying around her were still motionless, but Rebecca figured that was normal since it had barely been thirty seconds since she last checked who they were or what they were doing. The couch she was now sitting up on was directly across from the porch doors, where the light was streaming in with terrible brightness.

As she stared at the doors and tried to force her eyes to adjust to the light, Rebecca saw a person sitting out on one of the chairs by the porch table. Her head told her that there was no way she could survive without finding out who that person was, so she stood as slowly as humanly possible before stumbling over to the door, doing her best not to wake anyone on her way over.

Upon reaching the door, Rebecca saw that it was cracked open slightly, as if the person who had gone outside had forgotten how hard they had to slam the door shut in order to actually close it. A voice carried over from the chair and Rebecca barely figured out who it belonged to before deciding to not go outside: Kennedy Abrams.

She was arguing with someone, catching Rebecca's attention before the other girl could decide to go back to the couch.

"Jeremy, I refuse to see him again." Kennedy snapped quietly, her voice hushed but not quite enough, "You're not going to change my mind."

She was quiet again for a second, undoubtedly while the person on the other line—'Jeremy'—responded to her statement.

"I don't want to deal with this anymore. I don't deserve to deal with this anymore." Kennedy said after a second, "So he can sue me or do whatever he wants, but I'm an adult now. He doesn't have control over me anymore."

Silence again, before:

"Fine. I love you."

The phone could be heard slamming down on the table and the chair legs scratched against the porch. Rebecca realized she was hiding behind the door and ran for the couch, jumping on it with a bit too much force as her head hit the armrest with a loud thump.

The porch door slid open and closed as Rebecca opened her eyes slowly, hoping she was successfully coming off as if she had just woken up and certainly hadn't been eavesdropping on the private conversation of someone who was already incredibly private to begin with. She stretched obnoxiously, raising her arms in the air and arching her back as Kennedy walked in and sat down on the couch next to her.

"Hey!" She said quietly, alleviating any burden that excessive noise would put into Rebecca's already pounding head, "Rough night?"

Rebecca sat up slightly and shrugged.

"Honestly, I'm not quite sure." She laughed, "It could have been the best night of my life and I wouldn't be the wiser."

Kennedy laughed at that comment, leaning back against the couch as a few of the people around them stirred slightly.

"That sounds about right for your first time getting drunk." She commented, "Do you want a rundown of what I saw?"

Rebecca thought for a second. Did she want a rundown of what Kennedy saw? Or would it make her realize that even when plastered she wasn't a fun person?

"I'm gonna give you a rundown since you took too long to answer." Kennedy said after Rebecca was quiet for thirty seconds. "Essentially, you drank a lot more than I thought you would be able to tolerate, and I don't think you remember any of that. You took some guy into the Airbnb room and then came back out looking real disheveled, but since I saw you leading him in there, I wasn't concerned. You also completely obliterated everyone in the dance-off and threatened to punch your roommate in the face."

Rebecca's head whipped around so fast she thought she got whiplash.

"Which one?"

Kennedy shrugged.

"I don't remember their names. The one with black hair. Kinda weird when she walked in the first time."

Rebecca felt her heart sink into her feet.

"Kaylie?"

"Yeah." Kennedy nodded, "That was her name. You said something about her doing the dishes the wrong way and then tried to square up."

Rebecca sighed loudly. She already didn't get along with Kaylie. Threatening to punch her was the absolute last thing their relationship needed.

"Did Celeste and Spencer seem close?" She asked suddenly, a vague image of the two of them together entering her head from the night before, "I feel like I saw them—"

"Oh, they definitely hooked up after you got past the point of being able to remember anything." Kennedy nodded. "The two that you're actually friends with?"

Rebecca nodded silently. She wasn't sure if she was happy that she had that information now or not.

"Well, unless you have any more questions, I have a proposition." Kennedy said after Rebecca was silent for a few minutes, "And you can technically say 'no,' but you shouldn't. Trust me."

Rebecca raised her eyebrows. Her head was starting to feel a bit better and she noticed a few of the people around them starting to sit up and look around for their phones, some of them rolling their eyes at the things their drunk selves had texted while others looked like they wanted to kill their drunk selves with everything inside of them.

"What's the proposition?"

"A trip." Kennedy said, "And before you say that you can't afford one or whatever, just know that I would be paying for everything and that you would just be along for the ride. I'm just ready to get out of Clemson and go somewhere for a week, get away, take some new pictures for...you know...and then come back feeling refreshed and ready to continue the semester." She looked at Rebecca eagerly, practically bouncing up and down on the couch, "What do you say?"

Rebecca looked at Kennedy for a while. She wasn't sure exactly how long she looked at her for, but it was longer than what would be deemed normal. Thoughts flew through her mind: she didn't know Kennedy that well. For all she knew, the girl could easily be a serial killer and this was how she got her victims. Rebecca also didn't like being indebted to anyone, and having Kennedy pay for this trip in its entirety was a bit too much for Rebecca to feel comfortable with.

And on top of everything else, Rebecca had commitments. She had classes and work and people who counted on her to show up for those things. She had to be able to get good grades and keep her scholarship, she had to be able to make ends meet by working as much as she did, and she had already skipped more shifts in the past week than she had in her entire life previously.

But then again, she was in college. She was in college and she was supposed to be making memories. What better way to make memories than to take a spontaneous—and free—trip with someone who seemed to be capable of making memories just by opening her mouth?

The three missed calls from Janie loomed in the back of Rebecca's head as she tried to give her answer without any guilt.

"I say let's do it."

A/N: Sorry for the long hiatus! My internship ended and the cornoavirus is making everything crazy and I just didn't have a chance to get to updating. But I'm back with regular updates! Check out a sneak peek of XI.I on my blog, the external link for this chapter!

-Katherine