2019-06-30 - That's My Phone

There are certain habits that are hard to break, and waking up early is one of them. Sure Easton works as a bar tender but he still has 6AM wakeups ingrained in his biorhythms, which most of the time he ignores and goes back to sleep. This time however the pounding of his head is enough that he knows that will be a losing battle, so he lets his eyes open. The bedroom is dark, fancy pants automated blackout shades are rolled down blocking out most of the early gray light. There is however just enough light to remind him that he didn't sleep alone. It takes him a minute to remember the events of last night. He knows there was day drinking, and then he called the psychiatrist lady ... He peers over the sleeping woman's back wondering if emergency therapy session turned unprofessional super fast, before he remembers the next set of texts.

Baylee.

He sucks in his breath and tries to ease himself out of bed. He has a pair of crutches by the bed to help him get to bathroom. Just as he's about to maybe slink quietly into the bathroom unnoticed his phone on the nightstand buzzes. It lights up the room and he winces, too far away to do much about it as the text notification buzzes again in case he missed the first. He waits at the door of the bathroom on his crutches, in just his boxer briefs to see if it wakes Baylee or if he can sneak in a shower before she wakes up.

The text message lighting up the phone is from Bennie. It reads: I miss you.

There is probably a whole lot of bad that can happen at this moment. Baylee could see it, she could freak, she could...snore through it? Well, the first set of buzzing she doesn't wake up for. But the second she reaches out to grab the phone off the bedside table, rolling herself over onto her back to peer at the screen, then she starts to sit up, a hand raising to rub at her eyes.

Lucky for Easton she doesn't seem to notice him, and in her half-asleep state she tries to unlock the phone, clearly thinking that it is hers. And if she can she sends a text in return. Emojis. Eggplant. Peach. Heart. Then she promptlys rolls back over, hugging the pillow with a yawn, like she's going to go right back to sleep.

"Uhm" Easton watches, with a wince as Baylee picks up his phone and reads his text. It never occurred to him until this moment to lock his phone. He lives alone. He's never had a one night stand pick up his phone... He catches himself. That's not what this is! Kind of. Except. He clears his throat, trying to get the morning roughness out of it before trying again to speak. "Pretty sure that's my phone."

He waits for a reaction before following it up with, "Who's texting me at ass o'clock in the morning?"

"It was Bennie. She says hi." Baylee holds the phone in question up, waving it in the air for him to come take back from her if he wants. She's not seeming to be too worried about the content of those texts. Or rather, the text she sent to Bennie. Even if she probably should be. Then she pushes herself back up on her elbows, peering over towards him, "You want me to tell her to bring breakfast?"

Nothing. Nothing at all. This couldn't be bad. Because she turns her attention to make this happen, because she has yet to really think about the long lasting repercussions of this entire situation.

A slow gurgling groan escapes his lips when Baylee informs him who texted him, and he stands in the doorway to the bathroom looking at her with a mix of confusion and in-credulousness. He crutches back toward the bed and says firmly, but not yet angrily, "No. I don't want you to ask her to bring breakfast." He spins to sit down on the bed, laying the crutches back against the wall for a moment and he picks up the phone. He winces as he sees the first text, groans again at the reply and then when he sees her TTYL he just sighs.

"Perfect. That's... just fuckin' perfect."

He looks back at her and gives an expectant look, as if waiting for her to wake up enough to realize this isn't a great situation. Or something. Anything really, other than the oddly chipper response thus far.

"What?" Baylee rubs at her eyes, then under her nose before she starts to kick the sheets off her, scooting to the edge of the bed before she starts to her feet. There is a very big, huge bit of things that she seems to be missing, obliviousness seems to be something that has firmly grown root.

Once on her feet she looks around for her clothes, finding her shirt to tug it on, tugging her hair out of the neckline before she heads towards the bathroom herself, "Can I use your toothbrush? My mouth tastes like a cats ass."

Easton looks at her as she asks him what he's getting at and he just shakes his head. "Nothing." He sighs and accepts that of course this doesn't have any significance to her. He considers explaining to her how screwed up this is, and how much that text could have come in handy oh, 6 to 12 hours ago. But no. It arrives now. He stares at his phone as if trying to conjure up something to say. And while technically the emojis are not lying, they are also not exactly the sentiment he'd have responded with. He sighs and types something out only to be interrupted by the question he waves a hand at her and says, "Yea sure. There's extras in the guest bathroom, but go for it."

Extras? Whatever. Baylee doesn't seem to have any problem just using what is actually available, and she kicks the door partially closed so that she can take care of her own morning business. Which includes things like brushing her teeth, and washing her face.

It's all very refreshing, this washing of the face and teeth. Then she pulls that door open suddenly like she just thought of something, one hand settling on the frame of the door, the other on the edge of it, "What the fuck did you do, Easton?"

Oh. There it is.

Easton looks up from his phone, a forlorn blank look on his face illuminated only by the screen in his hand. He sighs and shakes his head considering the question. "I pulled a me." He looks at her and wants to elaborate and explain but the booze has cleared and all there is in it's place is a pounding anger that feels like it needs to break free from his skull.

"I..." but he doesn't get more words out, just shakes his head and looks back down at the phone.

"Fuck"

"Fix it." Baylee points towards the phone, "You fix Bennie, I like her." Which is probably a very weird thing considering things. But drugs, alcohol. Who can be blamed, right?!

Baylee steps back out into the room, grabbing the rest of her clothes to tug them on, then she moves to drop down next to him on the bed, "You what, Easton? Whatever it is, it's fixable. You just got to tell me what's going on, and we can fix it...right as rain, come on..." She is at least not reaching for his phone to fix it, but she is reaching for her own pockets to see if her phone happens to be in them somewhere.

"I will." There is no confidence in his voice at this reply. He does intend to do it, but it feels eerily familiar in a way that he doesn't really want to face. "I will." He repeats, with a little more certainty as he mentally tries to think through the details of how and when and what not.

He watches Baylee get dressed and tries to nod, "I will tell her." Wait tell who what's going on? He looks over at her and asks confused, "What do you mean whatever it is? This. This is what it is." He explains, "I thought she was pissed at me about the drugs. Or pissed I blew her off to get high. Or.. I don't know. And then you came over and.. I mean" He winces and clarifies, "I'm glad you did. Still. I know that's..." He keeps trailing off. It's really early. He's really hungover. This is complicated.

"Not just busy with working?" Baylee's brow lifts upwards as she stares at him, "I'm guessing that this..." She lifts a hand, indicating this. "Wasn't on your okay activity list."

There doesn't seem to be much insult taken to the comment about her coming over, even before he tries to clarify it. Instead she checks the time on her phone when she finds it, then gets to her feet to find her shoes, "If I were you, I'd take a shower, change your sheets, and get her over here to figure out if she's going to be actually pissed at you."

"Busy working is what I tell women to blow them off." Yes, even with her 37 jobs he didn't expect her to actually mean it. Easton gives a half-shrug and says, "We don't have an approved extra-curricular list hammered out. We- fuck, haven't even talked about any of this."

He is glad he doesn't have to deal with pissing Baylee off right now, because the thought of screwing up his relationship with both of them is just now dawning on his throbbing skull. He nods dumbly at the plan of action and agrees, "Yea. Wash self. Wash sheets. Explain I'm an idiot. Got it." He stands, pulling the crutches back towards him.

"Thanks Baylee. For everything."

"You are an idiot." Baylee agrees, tugging her shoes on before she checks the room, making certain that anything else that is clearly not Bennie's or Easton's isn't laying around. Because there's telling Bennie what happened, and then there's her finding out because someone was sloppy and lost an earring.

Everything accounted for, though, as far as she can remember it, and then she glances at him, shaking her head, "Probably shouldn't be thanking me. Probably should like...kick me out, throw my shit off the balcony, accuse me of taking advantage of you for drugs. But I'll accept a thank you, I guess." She moves towards him, reaching over to give his cheek a pat, "You are an idiot. But at least you're a lovable one, I guess."

Easton can only nod in agreement, as he stares at the rug with unfocused eyes. At the part about kicking her out of accusing her of something he laughs, "Yea, no. I'm hardly the victim. And I am glad you came." He may regret asking, but that's another matter entirely. He looks at her with a bit of uncertainty as she approaches, unsure what they for goodbyes after their intimate evening and cold-shock of a morning. "I agree on both charges." With that he crutches towards the bathroom to try again for that shower and start sorting himself out.

Evidently they are exactly where they were before. Because Baylee doesn't seem to be up for changing the situation to anything else, "Good luck." And with that she heads out, pulling out her phone to perhaps make sure she didn't fuck up her own shit somehow. More certain she didn't. But still.