Charly

“Have fun guys, but don’t overdo it”, Paul admonished the guys before they took off to their afterparty. “Oh Paul, don’t worry, we always behave”, Louis said and put his arm around Paul’s shoulders. “If that’s behaving what you did last time then goodnight!”, Paul sighed and rolled his eyes. “Let’s go guys!”, Liam said and was the first one out the door. “And you really don’t wanna come?”, Niall asked Charly who was sitting on the couch playing with her phone. She looked up and gave him an excusing smile. “Sorry, but I really can’t”, she said and got up. “But have fun…and don’t kiss too many girls. They will get jealous and hunt you down”, she joked and patted his cheek before she left to get to her hotel room. Niall kept looking at her until she was out the door. “Niall, you’re drooling”, Paul pointed out and had to laugh a bit. “Shut up”, Niall put it as a joke and followed the guys to the taxi that was already waiting. It would have been more fun if Charly would have joined in, but he was excited for the club. He always was. He couldn’t wait to dance to different songs than their own and drink and have fun.
Charly on the other hand was getting ready in her room for her little skype date with her boyfriend. She was late; he would call in 5 minutes. So she just brushed her hair, refreshed her lipgloss and started her laptop. They have agreed on 11:30 pm since the show of the guys and the wrap-up afterwards would always take that long. She was a bit nervous. She hadn’t talked to Ethan for a while now. He had just started a new job and was busy all the time and wanted to make a good impression at his new workplace. That meant working late, mostly texting and when he skyped with her, then very shortly. That’s why they set today’s call a while ago so that he could make his plans around it.
When the clock showed her it was midnight and still no word from him, she was a bit pissed. When the clock stroke 1 am, she was out of her mind. She texted him furiously. 2 minutes later came his response. “Can’t make it, sorry. E”, was his lame excuse. “Oh you fucker!”, Charly screamed out. She was about to call him, but she just knew that he wouldn’t pick up. She pushed down the screen of her laptop and just got into bed, but she was too mad to sleep. Then it came to her. Why should she spend the night in bed when everybody else was out partying, Ethan surely as well. If he could reply that quickly then he’s not at home sleeping.
“Are you still at the club?”, she texted Niall. “Yes.” His answer almost came immediately. “I’ll be there in 20”, she texted back and quickly threw on some clothes. She put on some makeup, but didn’t take too much of an effort. She just wanted to dance like crazy and get drunk. She almost ran down the hotel stairs and gladly got a taxi right away. 18 minutes later she arrived at the club. She was impressed by her timing. When she got closer to the entrance, she saw the masses of people standing in line to get in. If she would get in line, she probably wouldn’t get in before 6 am. So she took out her phone while walking alongside the building to the side entrance to text Niall to pick her up. “at the back entrance, come pick me up, Mr. Ireland”, she texted. As soon as she pushed the send-button, the door opened and she looked up. That was quick, she wanted to say, but actually spotted Liam, who came out of the door and wasn’t able to really stand up by his own. He had a bottle in his hand that didn’t look like beer.
He leaned against the wall and wanted to take out his cigarettes, but because he was too drunk, he dropped the bottle. “Liam?”, Charly asked as she came closer. At first, he didn’t hear her. She quickly came closer and he started to slide down the wall to his right. She stopped him before he hit the floor. “God, Liam. What happened to you?”, she joked, but when she saw his face, she immediately stopped. His eyes were red and swollen. It looked like he had cried. “What happened?”, she asked all serious now. “Ssss brow up wit meh”, Liam mumbled. “WHAT?!”, Charly didn’t understand a word. “Se broah…sh bord up wif meeeee”, he tried again, almost angry. “Who bored you?”, Charly tried. He wanted to give it another try, but then he fumbled for his phone which almost fell out of his hands. His fingers angrily wiped over the screen and then he handed, no, dropped the phone into her hands. She needed to turn it around first to find a text message he wanted her to read.
“I know it’s a shitty move to do it over the phone, but I hardly ever reach you. So, to make it quick. I’m breaking up with you. I can’t do the long distance anymore. Sorry!”, Charly read silently and looked up. “Is this from Sophia?”, she asked the obvious. He just nodded. “Did you call her?” “I-I tried, bu’ she didnn answa”, he kept mumbling. Boy, was he drunk! Charly realized that it was a lost cause trying to talk to him. “Come on, we’ll get you back to the hotel”, she said and wrapped one of her arms around his waist and put his arm over her shoulder. He almost put all his body weight on her and she was glad she didn’t wore high heels.
She guided him away from the entrance so no one, especially no fans, would see him. She was sending a quick prayer to heaven for finding a taxi quickly. She could stop one with Liam almost totally collapsed on her and she luckily maneuvered him into the taxi. She named the hotel and as the taxi driver drove to their destination, she got out her phone. “Change of plans, getting Liam back to the hotel. He’s too drunk to function”, she texted Niall, who probably was already waiting for her at the back entrance.
At the next second Niall received that text. He quickly read it and sighed. “It was too good to be true”, he said to himself, standing in the small back street behind the club. He turned around to go back inside, but stopped for a second to kick the wall.
Back at the hotel, she had her trouble to get Liam into the Hotel and up to his room. When she got him into the elevator, he dropped to the floor. “Liam, don’t do this to me. Don’t make me call Peter. In your state right now, you probably can’t even picture the trouble you’ll get. Please get up”, she begged him and pulled at his arms. When the doors opened with a Pling! he crawled out on all fours.
“Where’s your keycard?”, she asked him. “Dunno”, he grunted. She couldn’t leave him like that. All the other lads were still out to party and he would probably choke on his own vomit. “Okay, you’re sleeping in my room. Come on”, she heaved him up and carried him to her hotel room. Since she could not get her keycard out of her pocket like that, she just let him fall back to the floor, since he couldn’t stand up on his own anymore. He would have enough bruises tomorrow anyway.
“Come on, crawl in”, she said to him and pushed him in by his bum, which was quite hard. “Do you want to try to throw up first or go to bed right away?”, she asked and put her purse down. Liam who was feeling very, very sleepy all of a sudden, crawled into Lisa’s bed, who was still out with the other crew members herself. She would have to sleep somewhere else tonight. Charly quickly texted her to stay away from her room tonight or she might get puked on by Liam, no further explanations.
“Now let’s get those shoes off”, she said and pulled off his big, leather boots and his pants in one go. She had seen the guys in just their underwear too many times to make it awkward for her. He just grunted, but was already half-asleep. “Do you want to take off your shirt to?”, she asked him, but he didn’t respond. He would puke on it anyway, so she let him keep it on. She stripped down to her underwear herself to get into her pajamas. “I neva seen you in youa undawea befo”, he suddenly mumbled and she turned around. “You will have forgotten about it by tomorrow anyways”, she shrugged her shoulders and kept on dressing herself. At that moment he turned around and puked on the floor. “Okay, I try not to take this personally”, she said. “Come on, let’s go to the bathroom”, she said in a little vomit-break and dragged him to the toilet by his arm. Of course, he stepped into his own pile of vomit before he collapsed in front of the toilet and gave it the tightest hug she had ever seen.
She grabbed a towel herself, made it wet and tried her best to clean up Liam’s vomit. She also opened a window to get rid of the smell. As she came back to the bathroom, Liam was giving the toilet “everything he had”. “Thank god you don’t have hair to hold back”, she muttered to herself. She took a tiny towel from the shelf and soaked it with cold water. She then put on his forehead as he leaned back. “Goodnight, Liam”, she said and left the bathroom. He would probably puke all night and with staying closest to the toilet, he would be in good hands. She went to bed, but wouldn’t get much sleep, always listening with one ear on what’s going on in her bathroom.

Notes