It was the morning after a night of partying and all was kind of wrong in the world, especially since a certain mocha brown girl had the worst hangover she's ever had in years. She could not believe that she got wasted like that again. She hasn't done that since college when one of her roommates had taken her across town to her boyfriend's house party. She couldn't remember anything during the time she had been intoxicated, but she did remember waking up next to this extremely muscular, yet tall handsome guy. Needless to say, she wasn't all that freaked out about that predicament because they had another round when he woke up, but it was still bad.
For instance, right now she had woken up in a strange bed, inside of a strange room, feeling sore in all the right places, and sticky as well. Monet chalked it up to her Houdini syndrome acting up once again when she got drunk. She really needed to see a therapist about her habit of just disappearing when she gets drunk because it's a real problem for not only her, but others as well.
Wait. Her Houdini syndrome had acted up again?! Shit! That means that she had disappeared when her friends weren't look and made them worry worse than before. Oh God! Monet was an idiot. How the hell did she manage to slip from their watchful eyes, especially Yvette's? Monet shifted a little in the bed, but it was kind of hard with the feeling of a heavy arm wrapped around her waist. She looked over at the man that was holding her to his toned body. She noted how good looking he was with his curly black hair, smooth amber brown skin, low cheekbones, a very strong and prominent jawline, and well rounded lips.
"Hm. Maybe my drunken state wasn't so bad after all," She thought to herself, "Sadly, I need to leave this handsome guy and go find my friends."
Carefully and quietly, she slipped his arm off of her and slipped out of the bed with the same carefulness as before. She saw her phone sitting on the nightstand on twenty-two percent, but this was on a count of the fact that her phone had been blown up by multiple texts, calls, and voicemails form Josie, Jade, and Yvette combined. Each of them had over a hundred of texts, calls, and voicemails combined, which let Monet know that they were possibly searching for her as they speak. Quickly, she called her best friend.
The call was answered on the first ring.
"Hello? Monet, are you alright?" Jade asked on the other end.
"Yeah," Monet rasped, "I'm alright. I'm just feel like dying right about now."
"Oh thank God," Jade sighed in relief. She heard voices in the background and the sound of the phone being shifted around.
"Monet, it's me. Yvette. Are you alright? Where are you so we can pick you up," Yvette said with worry in her voice. Monet, with squinted eyes, looked around the room for any clues on where she was. Her eyes landed on a desk in the corner. She knew that most hotels or motels had stationary for the guests to use, or at least she hoped that this one did.
"Hold on, Yvette," Monet murmured.
"Okay," Yvette replied. Monet walked over towards the desk and searched it for stationary. She looked through the drawers and everything for it until finally she found it.
"Okay. It seems like I'm at a place called The Downtowner," She informed her.
"The Downtowner, you said?" Yvette inquired.
"Yeah," Monet groaned as her head began pounding.
"Good. We'll be there as quickly as possible," Yvette assured her, "We'll bring you some extra strength Tylenol as well."
"Thanks, Yvette," Monet said.
"No problem," Yvette replied.
"I'll see you guys when you get here," Monet told them.
"You too. Bye," Jade spoke up.
"Bye."
Once the call ended, Monet sighed and sat down in the chair at the desk. She set her phone down on the desk so she could try and relieve herself of this headache. Just as she moved her hand away, she saw something gleaming on her finger. She did a double take when she saw what was on her finger. Monet instantly brought her hand close to her face to inspect the diamond ring on her finger. She blinked twice at the sight of the wedding bands on her finger.
"What the hell?" Monet whispered to herself in disbelief. Was she seeing correctly? Did she have a wedding ring on her finger? There couldn't possibly be a wedding band on her finger. There's no way. There is just no way that this could be possible. It was not possible that she got married. No way. There was just no way. How did it get there? When did it get there? Was his a joke? Was his some sort of practical joke? Did the guy in the bed put this on her when he met her? Was the guy in the bed a psycho who would sleep with women, put a ring on their finger, and then murder them? What the fuck was going on?
As the millions of questions and possibilities of how it got there raced through her mind about the fact that she had a wedding ring on her finger, a very scary thought popped into her head. What was that thought you may ask? Well that thought was,
"If I got married in Vegas to some stranger, then what will happen when my parents find out?"
Monet, after thinking that, began to panic. She began bouncing her leg nervously at the thought of her parents finding out. She could not let them find out about this whatsoever if she was married to this stranger. She just couldn't. It would totally cause them to disown her and kick her out of their home. If they found out, then they would completely write her out of their family and act as if she was dead like they did her sister. Oh God. She was going to be discarded like trash like Tyra. She did not want that. She did not want that at all despite her parents doing and saying things that she hated.
"Oh God. What am I gonna do?" She muttered out of hopelessness. Monet could not believe this situation. She just couldn't believe it at all. She was possibly married to a stranger and now she couldn't married to the man her parents wanted her to marry. It was a good thing that she wasn't possibly marrying Trevor and she was very grateful to the stranger in the bed for helping her to prevent it, but at the same time she knew her parents would throw a fit. She knew her parents would become irrationally angry and take it out on her. She knew that her parents would possibly kick her out of their home and force her to fend for herself. She knew her parents would do any and everything to get dispose of yet another disappointment.
At the realization of this, Monet began to quietly cry to her self. How could she be so stupid? How could she be so reckless? This entire thing completely changed everything for her and it was only going to prove to be something that would ruin her life for good. God. What was she going to do? What was she going to do when her parents found out? Where was she going to live? Where was she going to sleep? More questions ran through her head that continued to scare her more and more each second. This was such a horrible situation for her. This situation was only going to get worse.
"No, Monet. The more you continue to think about it, the more you freak yourself out. Just breathe and find your clothes," She thought to herself. Monet breathe in and out deeply quite a few times before putting on her clothes that had been scattered around the floor. Tears continued to slip from her eyes as she put her clothes back on.
A loud groan caused her to look over at the bed. Quickly, she wiped away her tears and noticed the once sleeping stranger was waking up.
"Ugh! My head," He groaned. He sat up in the bed and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He didn't seem to notice Monet just yet for he had got out of the bed and walked past her to the bathroom. He closed the door and went to do his business.
"What the fuck?!" Monet heard him exclaim from the other side of the door. He burst out of the bathroom moments later with a confused yet panicked look on his face. This time he noticed Monet sitting at the desk.
"Do you know something about this?" He held up his left hand. Monet tool notice of the band on his finger as well and gasped a little. Holy fuck. So she did get married in Vegas.
Monet stood up and held up her hand, "Y-Yeah. I think I do."
His eyes widened in realization of the situation at hand. They had possibly gotten married here in Vegas while intoxicated.
"Wait, wait, wait," He said, "We need proof."
"Proof?" She asked.
"Yeah. Proof that this entire wedding happened or something," He answered.
"O-Okay," She nodded.
"We need to go and-" He was cut off by the sound of someone banging on the door of their room.
"Who could that be?" He asked. Quickly, he tugged on his boxer briefs and opened the door. Jade, Josie, and Yvette burst into the room almost hitting him with the door.
"Oh my God! Monet! Thank God you're okay," Jade rushed to her best friend. She pulled her into a tight and warm hug. Monet felt bad for worrying her best friend like that. If only she had just stuck by them, then maybe things would be different.
"We were so worried about you," Yvette said.
"They're right. You just up and disappeared without a trace," Josie agreed.
"We thought you had been kidnapped or...or...or worse, killed," Jade began wailing. Tears fell from the chocolate brown girl's eyes as she hugged her close.
"That was extremely reckless of you, Monet. You could have been hurt," Yvette scolded.
"Or killed or something," Josie added.
"It's partially my fault because I, of all people, should have kept a better eye on you. All it took was for me to turn my back and you just disappear," Yvette said.
"No. I'm sorry, Yvette. It was my fault," Monet assured her.
"No no. I was responsible for you and it was my fault for just not keeping a closer eye on you," Yvette said.
"There's no point in trying to figure out who's to blame. She's safe now and that's all that matters," Jade spoke up.
"Speaking of safety, who are you?" Josie turned to the stranger.
"I should be asking the same thing," The man replied.
"Well for one thing you sure are packing in that short body of yours," Yvette smirked.
"Yvette, shut the fuck up! All capital letters!" Josie hissed.
"She's right. Wrong time for you to even be saying that," Jade shook her head.
"What? I'm just being honest," Yvette innocently stated.
"No, bitch. You're being real inconsiderate right now," Josie told her.
"Whatever," Yvette rolled her eyes.
"Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Who are you and what did you do to my friend, you pervert?" Jade asked defensively still holding protectively.
"Pervert? What makes you think I'm the pervert?" He asked incredulously.
"He's got a point. She gets pretty frisky while drunk," Yvette whispered to Jade.
"Yeah, but I'm not about to admit that," Jade whispered back.
"First, can you please put some clothes on so we can have a serious conversation about what's going on?" Josie asked.
"Umm...uhh...yeah. Yeah sure," He answered.
"Thanks," Josie smiled. The guy grabbed his scattered clothes and headed to the bathroom to freshen up.
"Yvette, you weirdo! You got us off track!" Josie snapped.
"I'm sorry. He really was packing," Jade said.
"Even though he was, that still didn't mean you had to say it out loud. We needed to figure out what was going on at least," Josie remarked. Jade let go of Monet and stood up.
"Especially since Monet has this on her finger," Jade remarked holding up her best friend's hand. The two other women gasped loudly and quickly ganged up on Monet. They inspected her hand thoroughly as they inspected the ring on her finger.
"What the hell? What happened within those hours you had disappeared?" Yvette asked.
"I don't know. That's what we were trying to figure out before you guys burst in here like the Feds," Monet answered.
"Wait. Does he have one on his finger?" Jade asked.
"Yeah," Monet nodded.
"There's no way that this is true. It's just too cliché to be true," Josie replied in disbelief.
"As cliché as it may seem, we need some cold, hard proof of this union," Jade said.
"She's right. As much as this is a good thing for all of us, especially Monet who did not want to marry that jackass, we need proof," Yvette agreed.
"Wait. You were already going to get married?" They heard from the doorway of the bathroom. Their attention was soon on the stranger.
"Umm...Yeah," Monet nodded.
"Damn it. I'm so sorry," He apologized. From what Monet could see, he was very remorseful about the entire thing. She kind of appreciated that he was, but it's not like she liked the person she was marrying in the first place.
"It's...umm...alright," Monet assured him.
"It really is. The man is a total bastard anyway," Jade said.
"He is," Yvette nodded.
"However, we still need to figure out what's going on with these wedding bands," Josie said.
"Alright," The guy nodded.
"So we need to head to the nearest chapel and see if anyone knows anything," Jade explained.
"Okay. We can head there now in my car," Yvette said.
"Alright. Let's go, you guys. Let's go figure what the hell is going on," Jade nodded.
"Before we go, what's your name?" Yvette asked the guy.
"Adrián," He responded.
"Okay, Adrián. I'm Jade," Jade said.
"I'm Yvette," Yvette told him.
"I'm Josie," Josie said, "And that's Monet."
"Nice to meet you all," He replied
"Good. Now that we know each other's names lets roll out," Jade said. The five of them exited the hotel and paid on their way out. They piled into Yvette's car and drove to find some answers about last night.