Chương 14: Chapter 14: Connection

Laying on her stomach with her face pressed into the pillow, Alessa squeezed her eyelids together, but to no avail. The relentless drumming in her head had kept her awake the better part of the morning, and the bright light creeping in her bedroom window was only magnifying the sharp pains surging through her skull. All she was asking was for a couple more hours of sleep. She knew she was just delaying the inevitable; eventually she would have to face the debacle of the night before. But maybe not quite yet.

Covering her head with a blanket to block out the sun, Alessa reached blindly out from her bed, groping the floor for her backpack. She withdrew the half-empty bottle of water from the night before and tossed the covers from her face with a groan, gulping down a mouthful of plasticky lukewarm water.

She lay back in bed, an arm draped across her eyes. She'd known last night that she was going to regret all that beer, and she'd been right.