Drunk

Your character is at a party and has locked themselves in the bathroom. Write the events that take place after being locked in the bathroom.

"Okay," Ellie said, because she was the voice of reason in their group, "if you can tell me how many fingers I'm holding up, you can have another drink."

Alex grinned because he was a lot of things but he wasn't the type of guy to get drunk from seven shots, "You're holding up three fingers, now give me more alcohol."

"He's sober!" she cheered, pouring another shot and holding it out for him.

"No," Jeremy corrected, taking the shot glass out of her hand just as quickly and playing keep away when Alex reached out for it, "he's drunk and he shouldn't be given anything other than water."

"I'm not drunk, I passed the Ellie's test, didn't I?"

Jeremy arched an eyebrow, "Really? Your spatial awareness is completely gone and I don't think you could take this shot from me even if I gave it to you."

Alex hesitated, because it didn't seem that far from the truth, "To be fair, though, my spatial awareness is dodgy even when I'm sober."

"So you admit you're drunk?"

"Pleasantly buzzed," he offered, as an alternative.

Jeremy didn't look like he believed him, and probably for good reason, but he left him alone because previous experience had taught him that trying to separate an Alex from his alcohol was a near impossible task, not helped at all by the fact that Ellie would enable him. She proved that, too, by passing him a shot as soon as Jeremy was gone and he grinned at the burn as it went down.

"You're the best, Ellie."

She preened, "I know."

The two of them had been close friends since the first day of uni, both Engineering students who'd been completely out of their depth, something that hadn't stopped them at all from fully embracing the culture of Freshers week. It was November now and they'd settled in but it was also the end of midterms and that called for a celebration, never mind that they hadn't had to sit them. The block predrinks had been going on for an hour and a half and, normally, they would've been bundled into taxis by now but it was Friday and that meant there was a wait list.

Since none of them were feeling particularly organised, or even sober, they were unsurprisingly at the back of said list.

"How long ago did we call the taxi company?" Alex asked.

"Five minutes or so? They're going to be at least another forty so you might as well drink up."

He grimaced because forty minutes was long enough for him to sober up or, alternatively, get so wasted he wouldn't make it into the night club and he didn't like either option because they both sounded like a bad night. After some deliberation, he downed the sh.

Fulfilling her best friend duty, Ellie made sure that he always had a drink to hand, and Alex lost count of how many he'd had, a little hazy on the details. What he was aware of was that his bladder had been steadily making itself known for the better part of the night and, now, it was with a real urgency.

"Fuck," he said, getting up and almost falling at the sudden shift in gravity, "I need to take a leak."

Ellie looked at him, concern bleeding into her voice, "Are you okay? Do you need to me to help you up there?"

"It's only stairs," he said, brushing it off, "and Jeremy's a Med student anyway so he can fix me if I die or something."

"Yeah," she said, because she was far too gone to know differently, "that's true."

There were bathrooms downstairs but he knew for a fact that they'd seen a thorough few vomitings already and he decided to pass on using them. It took a fair while for him to make it to the bathroom, having to pause to reorient himself at the landing before he'd half crawled to the first floor, and he was really proud of the fact he'd managed not to make a mess when he relieved himself. He went through the motions of washing his hands, using way too much soap, and then went to open the door.

It didn't give.

"Huh," he said, frowning at it, "that's weird."

And Alex wasn't worried initially because it was halls and they were designed to be especially easy to live in since it was the first time most students would be away from home but, no matter how much he tugged at it, it wouldn't open. And he wasn't the type to panic but he was a little claustrophobic—okay with small, enclosed spaces so long as he could get out of them—and he couldn't get out of this.

Which was, really, his justification for jumping out of the window.

"Fuck," he hissed, clutching his wrist close to his body, "that might have been a bad idea."

"What the hell were you thinking?" Jeremy demanded, rushing out of the block and over to him. "You could've killed yourself."

"Hardly, it was the first floor."

"Yeah, and if you landed on your head, what happens then?"

He shrugged, "You're a medic, you'd fix me."

"I can't fix brain damage, Alex!" he snapped, "I can't do that!"

"Don't yell at him," Ellie said, coming over and crouching down, "can't you see he's hurt his hand? He needs some ice right now, not a lecture."

Jeremy's eyes softened, reaching out and turning Alex's arm this way and that as he looked it over, "You're right. It looks swollen, we should go to the hospital, just to be safe, and to make sure he hasn't done something stupid like breaking it."

Alex shook his head, "I'll pass, thanks, that doesn't sound like a fun night at all."

"Yeah, no, that's not an option."

He turned to Ellie, who was normally on his side, but she just shrugged and held a half-full bag of peas around his wrist, "You don't have to be a medic to know you should go to hospital. Besides, you've been wanting to get an A&E trip ticked off your first year bucket list and this kills two birds with one stone."

"But I'm fine, I only hurt my wrist a little."

"And I'd be a lot happier if a real doctor was telling me that. If you go with Jeremy to the hospital tonight, I'll make you breakfast tomorrow. How does that sound?"

"It sounds like a bribe."

"Is it working?"

"Yeah," he admitted reluctantly.

She beamed at him, pleased, "Good, if you start walking now, you can probably catch the bus before the services stop. Go."

"Come on," Jeremy said, handing him his jacket and wallet, "we can make the number two down to the interchange if we get going now."

There was only one bus that went to the hospital and it took the most long-winded route around the city and surrounding towns which meant it was almost forty minutes later that they arrived at their destination. It hadn't been a bad ride, the bus almost empty when they got on and staying that way for most of the journey, but the back roads were bumpy and the alcohol was starting to wear off. Suffice it to say, he was more than glad when they finally got off.

"Hey, you holding up okay?" Jeremy asked.

"I'm good," he said, shaking it off, "but the doctors are going to tell you later that we made a forty minute journey for nothing."

They didn't.

"To be fair," he said, when Jeremy got that smug, I-told-you-so face, "it's only a fracture."

"A fracture's still a break," he said, but his voice lacked the sharp reprimand it'd had an hour ago, "and you're going to have that cast for six weeks."

"Sweet, I'm going to pull all the girls, then. They love a bad boy."

Jeremy laughed,

Alex made a noise of affront, "Hey, what's with that? I could totally pull a girl."

"That's funny, considering you can't even pull yourself right now."

"You're hilarious," he said, injecting as much venom into his voice as he could.

"I thought I'd try and lighten the mood, this isn't exactly the best place to spend your Friday night."

And Alex did feel a little guilty about that, "Sorry, I didn't mean to ruin your night. I know you didn't want to spend it waiting in A&E with me."

"Nah," he said, nudging him gently, "I would've just been taking care of the others anyway, at least here I got a change of environment and an opportunity to speak to the medical staff. It was educational."

"I'm glad. No, really, I am, because I'd feel like such a shitty person if you'd had somewhere else to be and I'd just been taking up your time."

"I always have time for you, Alex, you're my favourite."

He grinned, pleased, "I love you, too."

Jeremy rolled his eyes, messing with Alex's hair, "That's not going to stop me from giving you a stern telling off in the morning when you're sober enough to actually take it in."

"I'm sober now."

He looked at him critically, "No, you're not sober enough for me to yell at you."

Alex got told off a lot, since Jeremy was the father figure of their group—and Ellie was so far from the voice of reason, no matter how much Alex tried to insist she was—and that was just his way of showing his love. He was the stereotypical Med student, looking out for everyone and caring too much even when they made the same mistakes because that hadn't even been the first time Alex had climbed out of a window this semester. He complained about it but there was always affection in his voice and he was kind of the best flatmate anyone could ask for.

Jeremy knew how to handle a situation with the right amount of care, taking Alex back home to their block and helping him brush his teeth before making him swallow some pain meds that worked with alcohol.

"You're going to drink this glass of water," he said, placing it on the bedside table, "and then you're going to sleep. I've confiscated your phone, you're not getting it back till the morning."

"Alright, dad."

"You're older than me."

"But you're still more mature and responsible," he patted his knee, the closest body part he could reach, "you're going to make a great father one day."

"I'm far too young for kids."

"No, you're not, you're the most organised person I know. I bet you've already picked out the one person you want to spend the rest of your life with."

"Maybe," he said, a softness bleeding into his voice, "there might be someone I'm a little bit in love with."

"Ew, I don't want to hear about my dad's sex life."

Jeremy rolled his eyes, shoving at him, "Go to sleep."

He did, partly because Jeremy told him to and partly because he was tired now, and he drifted off to the sound of his quiet breathing. It was a while later that he imagined the soft brush of lips on his forehead, the bed dipping as Jeremy moved, but he was too out of it to fully register the movement.

After all, guys like Jeremy who had it all together didn't fall in love with fuck ups like Alex.

If you liked this, vote and comment! :)