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finn-nelson-for-the-win · 7 years

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Changing Priority- Chapter 13

Hello again, everyone! I wanted to post this when I finished it a few days ago, but the internet at my apartment has been shit, so I’ve been writing and not posting lately. 😬

I swear this was the longest week ever for Rae but a lot happened, thus warranting multiple chapters! I’m not sure that this chapter will be what you’re all hoping for (and I too find myself wanting to give Rae a friendly slap across the face and tell her to pull it together from time to time during this chapter, but I digress) but it was a significant series of events in the grand scheme of things, so try not to hate me too much…😅

Wanna check out all the previous chapters?

Thanks for reading and I’m excited to hear what you all think (also be on the lookout for Chapters 14 and 15 to be posted in the next couple days!)

Just Roll With It

When Rae’s shift was over, she slung her backpack containing the snacks she had purchased earlier that day as well as anything else she thought she may need for her movie night with Izzie and began the walk to Izzie’s apartment from memory, despite having only ever been there once before.

Rae’s mind was still preoccupied with the odd turn of events thus far today—as Rae rarely caught the attention of one boy, let alone three within the span of eight hours—so she was thankful for the crisp January air and the thirty minute walk that gave her a chance to process everything a bit more.

Eric the Barista has been taking my order when I grab coffee from there for months and he always seemed friendly—but not necessarily “flirting friendly”…

I had assumed that to just be part of his customer service persona, but maybe it was flirting all along…

And if I’m being honest, he is quite attractive…long, spikey dark brown hair, olive skin that makes the green in his hazel eyes look much more prominent…tall, lean, and athletic-looking…and a wide and toothy smile that exposes the most perfectly white set of teeth I have ever seen.

Not to mention the tattoos that cover his arms almost entirely from what I can tell and piercings on his nose, lip, and ears that had been one of the first things I noticed about him…

What can I say? I have a type…

But still, I don’t even know him all that well and while I’m flattered by the sudden attention he paid me today, I don’t know what to make of it…

“Ugh, what a prick…” Rae muttered with an eye roll as she quickly side-stepped to avoid a person on a bicycle going the opposite direction on the sidewalk that clearly had no intention of slowing down or swerving to avoid colliding with Rae.

…And what was all that about with Andrew today!? That seemed to come from out of nowhere a bit…

Rae pulled herself from her musings to determine how much further she had to walk before grabbing her cell phone out of her purse and typing a text message while she waited to cross the street.

Rae: So…you’ll never guess who I was talking to today…

Rae: And I’m pretty sure he asked me out (although I did have to politely decline since I already had plans today)

Rae felt her phone vibrate within her hand, but she waited until she was out of the road to read the text she had just received.

Rebecca: OMG WAS IT WHAT’S-HIS-FACE!?! Rebecca: YAAASS GET IT GIRL!! ;)

Rae: Good guess, but nope

Rebecca: Who then!?!?

Rae: Andrew…

Rebecca: Look at you! Stealing the hearts of every male coworker you come into contact with. \(^-^)/

Rae: Hah, very funny. It was just so odd though…like we were chatting a bit and then he asked me to “hang out” and it seemed like a date, but I don’t want to assume that he was asking me out though, you know?

Rebecca: Yeah, I get you. Is that all he said? He’s kind of flirty in nature, so maybe he just meant in a friendly way without the expectation of it being a date, you know?

Rae: Maybe, yeah… Rae: He did compliment my hair, say he misses seeing me at work, and tell me I looked pretty today though…does that change anything?

Rebecca: (-_-)

Rebecca: “Does that change anything?” YES THAT CHANGES EVERYTHING! Rebecca: I suppose that it is possible, although not probable, that he meant hanging out as friends…but I wouldn’t bet on it. I can do a little recon for you if you’d like…

Rae: You don’t have to do that…I guess I’ll just keep an open mind and see if he starts talking to me more or tries to ask me out again.

Rebecca: Ok! Sounds like a plan!

Rae was fairly certain that she was standing outside the door to Izzie’s apartment, but she texted her just to be certain.

Rae: Hiya Izz! I think I’m here…please come outside so I know I’m not awkwardly standing outside some random person’s door xD

Izzie opened the door that lead to a small patio in front of Izzie’s actual apartment and Rae breathed a sigh of relief at finding her mate’s apartment without getting lost at all.

“Rae! How are you?” Izzie exclaimed as she pulled Rae into a tight hug.

“I’m pretty good. How are you?” Rae replied as she followed Izzie through the front door to her apartment.

“Good…excited for tonight, definitely!” Izzie said as she knelt down to open the puppy crates once Rae had shut the door behind her and began to remove her shoes.

“Jupiter…Panther…your favorite person came to visit you two!” Izzie called as her dogs hurried to free themselves.

Rae had her back turned as she took the snacks she had purchased out of her backpack and placed them on the table at one side of the room when she heard the distinct sound of yapping and felt Izzie’s two Chihuahuas leaping against her ankles to get Rae’s attention.

“Hello, my loves! Did you two miss me?” Rae cooed as she leaned forward to give each puppy the attention they were demanding from her.

When the dogs became distracted with fighting over a toy Izzie had thrown on the ground on the other side of the room, Rae walked further into Izzie’s apartment, placing her backpack into Izzie’s bedroom.

“So, Rae-Rae…I know there was talk of watching our favorite childhood movies and playing video games today, but we don’t have to only do that. We can watch other movies or anime or play board games or something, if you’d prefer.“

“It doesn’t matter to me, Izz, I’m up for doing whatever!”

“Okay, cool!”

“Hey, Rae!” Izzie’s older sister, Megan, who Izzie shared this apartment with said as she walked into the living room where Izzie and Rae sat on the couch as they were talking.

“Hi!” Rae replied as she beckoned the dogs that were licking at her now bare feet to leap up onto her lap, which they did without hesitation.

“I’m kind of hungry…are you hungry, Rae?”

“Maybe a little bit…” Rae said to Izzie who was now standing from the couch and making her way into the kitchen.

“Okay, cool. Do you like frozen pizza rolls? We have a huge bag and I can just throw some in the oven for us all to eat…”

“Uh, sure…that’s fine…”

Have I ever had frozen pizza rolls? No…I have not…well, there’s a first for everything, I guess.

“Great! I’ll get them started!”

Rae continued playing with the two dogs who seemed to be enjoying the attention they were getting from Rae, until Izzie let Rae know that the Pizza Rolls were done.

“Izz, can I be honest with you?” Izzie nodded and Rae continued, “I can honestly say that I have never had frozen pizza rolls before this…”

“Really? I feel like that’s almost all we eat anymore if we’re too lazy to cook or get food from anywhere…So, what do you think?”

“Uh, they’re okay…I don’t know that I would buy them to make for myself, but not too bad…”

The three girls stood in front of the counter in Izzie’s kitchen, eating the pizza rolls directly from the tray they had been baked on rather than dirtying plates for this small snack.

They moved their conversation back to the living room when they were done eating and continued chatting about how they had spent their Christmas and New Year’s Eves when after a while, Izzie’s sister stood from the couch where she had been sitting next to Rae and stretched her arms high into the air.

“Izzie, I want to take a shower before it gets too late…can you and Rae walk the puppies while I shower and get ready and then we can watch movies and hang out more afterwards?”

Izzie looked to Rae who shrugged and nodded, and Izzie agreed happily as she went to get the leashes to take the dogs on a walk.

Once the dogs were ready to go outside and Rae and Izzie had both put their shoes back on, they walked outside and Rae was surprised to see that it was already incredibly dark outside.

“There’s a park we take the dogs to right down the street,” Izzie said as she handed the leash for one of the dogs to Rae.

“Great, lead the way!”

When they arrived at the park Izzie had been referring to, she leaned down to unhook the leashes from each dog and they immediately took the chance to run a short distance away to a particularly grassy and well-lit area of the park.

“So…I have a bunch of stuff to update you on with the situation with Finn…”

“Ah, yes you do! I’ve been waiting eagerly to have this conversation for over a week now!”

Rae and Izzie continued walking idly around the park as they watched the dogs run around and play in the grass as Rae informed Izzie of everything related to the situation with Finn, including elaborating more on some of the things that had happened months ago but Rae was never able to tell Izzie about in-detail when Finn would sit by them on a daily basis at work.

“Damn Rae!” Izzie exclaimed once Rae had finished catching her up on everything that had happened in the last couple weeks in terms of the latest shift in dynamic between her and Finn.

“I know…it all seems so crazy, but I guess this is really happening so I think my only choice is to just roll with it and see what happens” Rae replied, still chuckling at Izzie’s response to what she had been told.

“And all of this was happening at work—sometimes when I was only a few feet away from you two—and I hardly picked up on any of this. How clueless am I?” Izzie asked with a shocked laugh.

“It’s hardly your fault…prior to the last week or two, Finn was generally pretty subtle about his flirting, except for the sniffing incident and a few other things that you were already aware of. But now? I don’t know…I feel almost like he’s just said ‘fuck it’ and decided that there was no use being coy with his flirting. Don’t get me wrong, I dig it, but I still don’t know if I should make a move or wait for him to make the first move, you know?”

Izzie had reattached the leashes to each of her dogs’ collars and she and Rae began walking side-by-side back to Izzie’s apartment.

“We’re back!” Izzie called to her sister as she and Rae walked through the front door of her apartment after letting the dogs off their leashes for them to run inside on their own.

“Okay, I’m just finishing up now,” called Megan from behind the closed door of her bedroom.

“So Rae, do you wanna watch a movie now? Or play video games? Or we could play a board game, if you’d like…” Izzie asked

“It’s up to you guys, I’m fine with doing whatever…”

“Oh, Izzie! I know what we can do! We can play LCR! It’s perfect because we finally have 3 people to play the game with…” Megan said as she came into the living room from her bedroom whilst towel drying her hair.

“What’s ‘LCR’?” Rae asked, but it did not seem like anyone heard her.

“Oh my god, yes! That’s perfect! We should totally play LCR!” Izzie replied, leaping from the couch and walking across the living room toward her bedroom.

“Hey…guys…what is ‘LCR’ and how do you play it?” Rae asked again, this time a bit louder to ensure that she would be heard.

“It’s a game of chance where you roll dice and bet money or something like that. Do you have any money to bet with?” Megan replied as she moved a small coffee table into the center of the room to serve as the table for them to play the game on.

“I don’t think I do…I think I only have my card with me today, sorry.”

“No problem! Hmm…what can we use instead…” Izzie replied as she returned to the living room with three labeled dice, setting them down on the small table.

“Alcohol!” Megan suddenly exclaimed.

“Really? You want to bet with alcohol?” Rae asked, slightly surprised to hear Izzie’s sister suggest that as Rae had never known Izzie to be a very frequent drinker.

“Yeah! We could make it into a drinking game and do shots of vodka instead of betting with money or whatever…” Megan said as she grabbed a nearly full bottle of vodka from the kitchen and set it down on the table alongside the labeled dice.

“Are you alright with possibly getting a little drunk tonight, Rae?”

“Izzie! Do you really even have to ask? I’m always fine with drinking and getting drunk, let’s just be honest here…” Rae replied with a casual chuckle as she continued scrolling through social media on her cell phone.

“Great!” Izzie and Megan replied with a laugh.

“So how is the game going to be played?” Rae asked as she set her phone to the side and grabbed the dice off the coffee table to examine them further.

“So basically, we each start off with three shots of vodka in front of us. We then take turns rolling these three dice and each of them have L, C, R written on each side which stands for Left, Right, and Center. And then we just do whatever the dice tell you to when you roll all three…it sounds a little confusing, but I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it, Rae!”

Rae was still utterly confused, but the idea of unwinding with Izzie and her sister and getting drunk was enough incentive for her to follow along to the best of her abilities until she figured out how the game was played.

“What kind of vodka do you have?” Rae asked as she returned the dice to their prior position on the table in front of her.

“Uh, regular? I guess…It’s not flavored or anything…do you want to try some before we get started to see if we want to use some other type of alcohol?” Megan replied as she held up the blue bottle of vodka for Rae to get a closer look at.

“Yeah, I’ll try some, I suppose. Thanks Megan!”

Izzie’s sister grabbed one of the shot glasses she had placed on the rectangular coffee table centered in front of the couch and poured it full of vodka before handing it to Rae with extreme caution not to let the vodka splash over the top of the decorative shot glass.

Megan proceeded to pour Izzie and herself a shot as well and Rae sniffed the vodka, trying to remind herself what to expect from drinking straight alcohol opposed to the wine and mixed drinks Rae had grown accustomed to more recently.

“Salud!” Rae declared as she lifted the shot into the air ceremonially—clinking glasses gently with Izzie and Megan—before bringing the glass to her lips and swallowing the entire shot in one go.

Rae winced slightly as the shot went down her throat, burning more than anticipated but not unbearably so. Looking around, Rae was amused to see that the other two girls were having much more difficulty with their own shots and they opted to sip their shots rather than drink it all at once.

“So…? Is vodka alright with you?” Megan asked while trying to gauge Rae’s response after having finally finished her own shot.

“Yeah…that’ll do just fine.” Rae said with a chuckle.

“Ugh, why is alcohol so nasty? Megan, do we have anything to drink with it? I forgot what it’s called…” Izzie asked as she struggled to remember the term she was looking for.

“A chaser,” Rae replied, immediately knowing what her mate was referring to.

“Yeah! Do we have any chasers?” Izzie added, giving Rae smile for helping to remind her of the word she was drawing a blank on.

Megan walked into the kitchen and perused their pantry and refrigerator, taking stock of what they had that could serve as potential chasers.

“Uhh…water…soda…pink lemonade?”

“I say pink lemonade, but you two can do something different if you’d like…” Izzie replied after considering her options.

Rae opted to use the lemonade as a chaser as well, although she was completely aware that she could drink the vodka without needing a chaser.

Megan brought the pink lemonade and three cups from the kitchen and poured half a glass for each of them before setting the container of pink lemonade on the ground beside her.

“I don’t have nine shot glasses for us each to have three, so I’m just gonna use a shot glass to measure shots into other cups, okay?“

Izzie and Megan began pouring and distributing the shots until there were three in front of each girl.

“Okay! Rae, since you’re the guest here, you can go first. Just roll all three dice and then we can help you figure out what you’ll have to do with your shots, if anything, alright?” Izzie said as she gave Rae a reassuring nod after noticing Rae looking at her with an eyebrow quirked up in uncertainty.

“Alright…here goes nothing…” Rae took all three dice into her hands and shook them around a bit before dropping them onto the coffee table and accepting the fate this game of chance bestowed upon her.

Wait…does this mean what I think it means…?

“Uhm, what do we do if you roll a dice and get the ‘C’?” Rae asked with hesitation evident in her voice.

“Normally you’d put your bet into the center of the table, but for our purposes, if you get a ‘C’ you have to take a shot,” Megan clarified.

“Why? What did you roll, Rae?” Izzie leaned over to get a better look at the dice on the coffee table in front of Rae and burst out laughing.

“Holy shit!” Megan add, having leaned over to see what Rae had rolled as well.

“No fucking way…” Rae said as she looked down at the three dice in front of her to see that each of them had landed on the C, which meant that Rae had to take all three of her shots before the next person could take their turn.

“Well, there’s not use prolonging the inevitable, ladies,” Rae shrugged and grabbed the first shot glass in front of her, lifting it in the air as she did the prior shot and announcing, “Salud!”

Izzie and Megan lifted their glasses of lemonade and called out “Salud” in response and Rae took her first of three shots.

“Blegh…okay, one down and two to go…Salud…and, salud!” Rae took her two shots almost back-to-back and followed with a generous sip of pink lemonade to ease the burning in her throat and rid her mouth of the unmistakable flavor of strong alcohol.

“And, I guess we’ll just go counterclockwise now, so Izzie, it’s your turn…” Megan said with a smirk, jumping at the opportunity to be the person rolling the dice last.

The three girls kept playing until Izzie won the game—having done the least shots by the time all the shot glasses had been emptied.

Rae had indubitably taken the most shots and she was not feeling the effects of the alcohol until she stood to grab the charger for her cell phone and very nearly lost her balance.

How many shots did I even have? 1…2, 3, 4…5…6…7…was there more? Oh…and then number 8, which was the final shot of the game that indicated that Izzie had won…

The vodka was catching up to Rae and despite having her contact lenses in still, her vision was blurred to the point that she would have guessed otherwise. Rae could not remember the last time she had drank that much alcohol in such a short period of time, but honestly, Rae felt…great.

As the other two girls gathered the collection of now empty shot glasses and cups, Rae settled into the couch where she was sitting and opened Snapchat on her phone.

Okay, Rae…you look really pretty today, so let’s take some selfies to document this rare occasion, yeah?

Hmmm…okay, that filter is cute, but what should I caption it..?

Rae added the simple caption of “Fun night with great people” to the selfie she had taken using the pink flower crown snapchat filter and posted it to her Snapchat story.

She was still taking selfies and trying to convince herself that she wasn’t that drunk—but she was—and that she didn’t look as drunk as she was feeling—but she did—when she heard Izzie rummaging around in the kitchen.

“Rae-Rae, if I make popcorn, will you eat it?”

Oh, I don’t like popcorn…

“I mean, yeah…maybe a little bit, but only if you’re already making it, Izz”

Izzie hummed in response and returned to the living room a few minutes later with a large glass bowl full of microwave popcorn. After handing the popcorn to Rae and taking a handful of the fresh popcorn from the bowl Rae had set down on her lap, Izzie grabbed the remote to put on something for them to watch.

“Do you want to watch a movie or anime?” Izzie asked as she turned on the TV that was mounted on the wall.

“Uh, yeah…that’s fine…” Rae replied distractedly while typing quickly on her cell phone, earning an eye roll from Izzie.

Rae stared straight ahead at the TV—not paying attention to what she was watching so much as just zoning out and being only vaguely aware that she was in fact watching something—while munching on popcorn in the bowl resting on her lap. She was not sure how long had passed, but Rae soon realized that she was alone in the living room and Izzie’s sister was calling Rae’s name from another room.

“Raaaeeee….Rae-Raaaeeee…yoo-hoo, where are youuu?” Megan drunkenly sing-songed.

“I’m in the living room…” Rae called in reply, her voice more slurred than she would have liked.

“Come and join meeee…I’m so lonely in here all by myself here in the kitchen,” Megan whined, her voice sounding even more slurred than Rae’s did as she dragged out most of the words she was saying.

Rae stood carefully from the couch and placed the bowl that had previously contained popcorn onto the coffee table before slowly walking into the kitchen to see Izzie’s sister laying on her side on the floor.

Megan used a hand to pat the kitchen floor behind her, inviting Rae to join her on the cold laminate floor. Rae shrugged and eased herself into a laying position on the floor behind Megan.

“Raeee…let’s take a snapchat videooooo!”

Megan opened up Snapchat on her phone and began recording.

“I’m soooooo drunk! Say hi, Raeeee!!”

“Hey girl, heeeyyy!”

“Yay for being drunk!”

“Woooo-hoooo!”

Rae and Megan remained laying on the floor in the kitchen until Megan quickly bolted forward, barely making it to the garbage bin near her before emptying the contents of her stomach along with the few shots of vodka she had drank.

“Ugh…I’m such a lightweight…” Megan said once she was confident that she would not get sick again as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and sat back down on the laminate floor of the kitchen.

“I’m just gonna get some water…” Rae stood up from the floor where she was sitting and grabbed a cup to fill with water.

Rae gulped down the entire glass of water and set it back down on the kitchen counter before her legs gave out from under her and Rae slid smoothly down to a seat position on the ground.

“He’s so handsome…” Rae said seemingly out of nowhere.

“Who is?” Megan asked, clearly confused by Rae’s sudden exclamation.

“And he’s so sweet and I love talking to him…and I just never know what to expect from this boy…but best of all, he likes me! Me…as in me, Rae, me!”

“Who’re you talking about, Raaaeee?”

“Oh! I know…I’ll show him to you!”

Rae crawled over to where she had left her phone when she was lying on the ground a short time ago and entered her password correctly on the third attempt as she crawled back to where she had been sitting on the kitchen floor with her back propped against the refrigerator.

Rae tapped the icon for the Instagram app and went to her recent search history and found the Instagram account she was looking for at the top.

“This is him! Isn’t he so nice to look at?” Rae turned her phone toward Megan so she could see what Finn looked like, but Megan was lying flat on her back on the kitchen floor with one arm blocking the light out of her eyes.

“Oh my! He posted this picture of him shirtless a couple days ago and you can see all his tattoos. I just wanna touch’em…like I have touched his tattoos before, but I wanna touch them even more…and here, he is on stage with his punk band when they were playing some shows back in December. Did you know he missed me while he was traveling with his band? ‘Cause he did and when he came back he told me so and it was so cute…holy fuck! Finn posted a picture of the cupcake I gave him and he used a bunch of heart-eye emojis in the caption where he also wrote ‘This girl certainly knows the way to my heart! Mondays aren’t so bad when there are sweet treats from a sweet girl to enjoy’…Why did I not look for him on Instagram sooner!?!”

Rae continued scrolling through Finn’s Instagram account and was surprised to see how many of the pictures were in some way linked to her or brought back memories of a conversation she had had with Finn at some point in the last three months.

When she had scrolled long enough that every post was over thirty weeks old, Rae’s stomach dropped at the sight of numerous pictures of Finn and his ex-girlfriend, Stacey.

Wait…THAT girl is his ex? She’s perfect! She’s thin and blonde and pretty and they look so cute together.

Why did they break up?

And who broke up with who?

She’s not THAT attractive…

…who the fuck am I kidding!?! She’s so adorable and tiny and cute and I fucking hate her even though I’ve never met her and they are fucking adorable together and…

She’s so cute! Why would Finn ever flirt with someone who looks like me when he had someone like her?!?!

Why did I think he could like me? And why did I let everyone trick me into thinking that he could like me when the truth is this obvious…he’s an 11 and I’m a 4 on a good day with the right lighting and angles…

He has to know how much his flirting has been stringing me along, right? These last three months have just been some sick joke that went too far and now I’m the punchline of the joke.

Why would Finn do this? Why would anyone do this? Why? Why? Why?

Rae had not realized this but as she continued to scroll through more pictures of Finn and Stacey going back to when they first began dating her breathing became uneven and she now found herself crying and hyperventilating as she kept scrolling.

Her breaking point was a picture of Finn and Stacey sitting beside a pool with her bikini-clad body nestled against the side of his body and she was kissing his cheek as he took the photo and Rae lunged forward as quickly as she could, throwing up in the trash as she still struggled to slow her tears and regulate her breathing.

The sudden wave of nausea having passed as quickly as it came over her, Rae rinsed her mouth with water from the sink and sunk back down to the floor with her head tilted back against the refrigerator and her phone out of arm’s reach.

“Are you two alright? I heard someone getting sick earlier and then just a bit ago…” Izzie said as she came into the kitchen from another room, and Rae realized for the first time in a while that she had no idea where Izzie had snuck off to while Megan and Rae sat in the kitchen.

“I threw up a while ago and Rae just got sick. I’m okay now, how are you Rae?”

“Good now as well…I don’t know what came over me…” Rae quickly realized that neither Izzie nor her sister were aware of the self-inflicted panic attack she had after getting too engrossed in stalking Finn’s Instagram, and she decided it best for them to assume that it was the alcohol that had made her sick and not her latest epiphany about Finn and how disgusted Rae knew he would be if he ever found out that she had thought that the two of them had potential as a couple.

Rae continued sitting on the floor of the kitchen in silence and the only thing that could be heard was the sound of Izzie’s conversation with a friend that she had called shortly after Izzie checked on her sister and Rae.

“I just love you so much! You’re so beautiful…no, I’m serious! You’re beautiful and perfect and I love you and I want you to always know that, okay?” Rae overheard Izzie saying too loudly into her cell phone.

“C’mon, Rae…let’s get to bed. I don’t know when Izzie will finish, but she can just join us when she is done on the phone…”

Megan helped pull Rae to her feet and Rae was initially surprised at how quickly Megan had seemed to sober up.

Well, I suppose it makes sense that you can sober up much faster after 3 shots and throwing up twice shortly afterwards…

Meanwhile I had almost triple the amount of alcohol she had, almost all the shots with very little time in-between, and the vodka had been rotting in my belly for much longer and that did not seem to change dramatically even after I got sick.

Rae followed Megan to her bedroom and slipped under the covers of the California King-size bed, falling asleep almost immediately.

***

Rae awoke a couple hours later with a massive headache, but her full bladder seemed to be a more pressing matter as she disentangled herself from the blankets and made her way into the bathroom attached to Megan’s bedroom.

When Rae walked out of the bathroom, she saw Megan sitting upright in her bed.

“Are you feeling okay, Rae?” Megan asked, her voice still thick with sleep as she rubbed her eyes slightly.

“Yeah, I just woke up and really had to pee…”

“Okay, come back to bed, then. It’s freezing cold outside of these blankets!” Megan said as she sunk back down under the pile of blankets on her spacious bed.

Rae walked back to the bed and climbed back under the covers as well before retrieving her cell phone from underneath one of the pillows she had slept on.

Wait a second…why can I see right now?

Ugh, fuck! I never took my contact lenses out last night!

Rae tried to ignore the discomfort she was feeling in her eyes long enough to check the time on her cellphone when she pressed the power button on the upper right side of her phone.

6:26 AM

Ugh, fucking hell…

“Hey, Megan are you awake and sober enough to drive me to my apartment?”

“Right now?” Megan said with a groan.

“Soon at least…my shift at work starts at 8 and I want to shower and try to sober up a bit more beforehand…”

“Yeah, I should be fine to give you a ride to your apartment now if you’d like, let me just put some shoes and warm clothes on…”

Megan pulled on a pair of sweatpants over her pajama bottoms and a thick coat and slipped on a pair of sneakers before grabbing her car keys and leading Rae in the direction of her car to give Rae a ride back to her own apartment.

“Thanks for the ride, Megan. Izzie works today, I think, so tell her that I’ll see her at work later, okay?” Rae said as she collected her backpack from the floor of Megan’s car.

“Will do! Good luck at work, Rae. I hope you had fun last night because I know that Izzie and I did!”

“Yeah, I had a lot of fun! We’re gonna have to do something like this again sometime. I’ll see you later, yeah?”

Rae waved goodbye to Megan after getting out of her car and hurried up the steps in front of her apartment as much as she could with the dizziness and headache that was beginning to set in as Rae realized exactly how hungover she was.

As soon as Rae was back in her bedroom, she removed her clothing that she had been wearing all day yesterday and that she had slept in—since when Izzie invited her over to hang out Rae had no way of knowing that she would end up getting drunk and spending the night at her apartment—and jumped into the shower with the water set to the coldest temperature that Rae could withstand.

When Rae was fairly certain that she had to get out of the shower if she intended to make it to work on time, she quickly turned off the water and dried her body and hair with a towel before padding barefoot into her bedroom and throwing on the nearest clean clothes that were in a pile on Rae’s bed.

Rae brushed her teeth as quickly and thoroughly as she could to remove the lingering taste of vodka in her mouth and took a moment to observe her appearance.

Rae had deep purple shadows beneath her eyes from lack of sleep over the past week. Rae had been so caught up with work, making plans with friends, and preparing for the new semester of Uni to begin the following week that she couldn’t recall the last time she had gotten a decent night’s sleep that wasn’t following an evening spent drinking—whether it be alone or with friends.

Her eyes were still irritated from sleeping with her contact lenses in, so Rae decided that it would be best to wear her glasses to work today to avoid causing her eyes any further discomfort.

Ugh, I hate wearing my glasses…it just reminds me of what it was like when I was younger and the time before Uni, which are a lot of memories that I do not wish to relive.

The thick, black frame of Rae’s glasses helped hide some of the shadows beneath her eyes, but she could still clearly see the exhaustion and pallid coloring that resulted from the night spent heavily drinking.

I am never going to drink again…

Rae sped out of her apartment and walked briskly to work, desperately hoping that she would not be late to work but having no way to check the time as she had left her cell phone charging in her apartment because she did not foresee needing it at work today.

To Rae’s relief, she walked through the doors to the office with a little more than five minutes before her shift began and she instantly perked up when she saw Rebecca sitting at a table in the break room, waiting until it was closer to the start of her own shift before entering the main part of the office.

“Rae! Good morning! You look incredibly tired…” Rebecca said as she waved Rae over to join her at the table where she was sitting.

“Hey, Rebecca! Tired, a little…but more than anything, I’m a bit hungover,” Rae replied sheepishly as she took a seat.

“Rachel Earl! How irresponsible…showing up to work hungover after a night of drinking and being a hooligan!”

“I know, I’m awful!” Rae replied with a chuckle.

“Did you see mine or Izzie’s snapchat stories?”

“Not yet…should I…?” Rebecca asked, already unlocking her phone to open up her snapchat app on her cell phone.

“Yes”

“I’m watching them now…oh my god…that’s amazing! Rae, you look so cute and drunk in all those pictures and videos!”

“Thank you, I think…I’m quickly realizing that I’m not so much a ‘drunk texter’ as I am a ‘drunk snapchatter’…there are like twenty different conversations from last night that I have no memory of initiating, so I’ll probably have to deal with that a little later, huh?”

“Yeah, probably. You didn’t do anything too crazy while drinking last night, did you?”

“That sort of depends on how you define ‘crazy’ I suppose,” Rae began but quickly became distracted by the concerned look on her friend’s face.

“Oh no! What did you do, Rae?” Rebecca asked seriously, although there was an edge to her voice that indicated she was more interested in hearing more than critical of Rae’s actions.

“Well, I ate an entire bowl of popcorn…and I hate popcorn,” Rae continued after laughing about this with Rebecca, “and I, uh…maybe…kind of, sort of…Instagram stalked what’s-his-face as you call him and ended up crying hysterically and having a panic attack on Izzie’s kitchen floor…”

“Aw, Rae! Why would you Instagram stalk him, especially when drunk? And was it something that you found while stalking that upset you?”

“I don’t really know, it seemed like a good idea at the time, but perhaps that was just the eight shots of vodka doing the thinking for me…”

“Wait, did you say eight shots of vodka? Like shot-shots or shot glasses full of vodka? Because you do realize that a shot glass filled to the top is more than one shot, so if you had eight shot glasses, it was probably closer to twelve or more actual shots!”

“Well fuck…”

“Rae!” Rebecca chastised halfheartedly before chuckling and motioning for Rae to proceed, “sorry about interrupting you like that, carry on with what you were saying before…”

“So yeah, drunk Sarah thought it’d be okay to stalk his Instagram and drunk Sarah stumbled across some pictures of what’s-his-face’s ex-girlfriend and the negative thoughts set in…”

“I’m sorry, Rae. Now that you’re less influenced by the alcohol, are you still really upset about it?”

“Not so much, especially not as bad as I was at the time last night…right now I’m just confused and so unsure about what to make of the situation.”

“Yeah, I can see how you’d feel that way. Just take your time thinking it all through and if you need anything from me along the way, just let me know, yeah?”

“I will and thanks, I appreciate that…Well we should probably head inside and get to work now…” Rae said as she slowly stood up from her chair with a slight groan.

“Yeah, you’re probably right…Good luck at work and I’ll be sure to come over and check on you when I can and you can come over and chat if you get the chance too, okay?”

“Sounds like a plan!” Rae replied as both girls scanned their badges at the machine on the wall and went their separate ways.

Rae took a seat between Archie and Hannah and began logging into her computer as a massive yawn took her by surprise and concluded in a groan when she was reminded of the headache that she had nearly forgotten about up until that point.

“Hiya Rae…from the sound of that yawn-turned-groan, your ‘fun night with great people’ may have been a bit too much fun knowing that you had work the first thing the next morning, huh?” Archie said with a cheeky smile when Rae continued logging into her computer.

“Good morning, Arch. So I take it that you saw my snapchat story last night…” Rae replied with a nervous chuckle.

“That’s a very astute observation. Yes, I did see your snapchat story…and Izzie’s snapchat story…and the various snapchat messages and selfies that you sent me from last night until early in the morning. What did you two girls do?”

“Wait…I sent you snapchats? I don’t even remember sending you anything! What did I send you?”

“A few selfies with different filters, a picture of a bowl of popcorn, a video of you eating said popcorn and watching something on TV…I think you were watching anime…Do you really not remember any of that?”

“Oi…I am so, so sorry about that Archie! I remember all of that, I just don’t remember sending any snapchats! To you or a number of other people, but my recent snapchat activity is telling a different story!”

“No need to worry, Rae, I took screenshots and saved everything you sent me so you can relive it all over again!”

“Ugh…” Rae groaned as she hung her head forward until she rested her face directly on the cold surface of her desk in front of her.

“Oh, don’t be like that, Rae! Do you want something for your head or some coffee or anything? Getting some food into your belly to soak up all the alcohol should help too…”

“I should be fine, I think…” Rae said without lifting her head from her desk, but Archie rolled his eyes and locked his computer before standing up from his desk and walking out to the break room.

When Archie returned a few minutes later, he placed a bottle of orange juice and a granola bar he had purchased from the vending machine on Rae’s desk and dropped a few tablets directly into one of her hands.

“For your head…I know this isn’t much of a breakfast, but you should still eat it…It’ll make your shift today a lot less miserable, I think.”

“Thank you, Archie. I really appreciate it!”

“It’s nothing really, Rae. But I must ask, what kind of shenanigans did you and Izzie get up to last night?”

“Well…she had invited me over for video games and movie night…which quickly turned into a dice game to be played with money, but we didn’t have money…we had alcohol. And I was either really good at the game or really bad at it, depending on what my end goal was!”

Archie and Hannah were laughing at Rae’s stories from the prior night and she joined in when she realized how quickly their innocent plans of children’s cartoons and video games had unfolded and led to her being at work at 8am with the third worst hangover of her life.

A couple hours later, Rae looked up to see Izzie scanning her badge at the machine on the wall and walking to take a seat at the desk behind Rae.

“Rae-Rae! I’m so glad to see you made it to work today. I woke up a bit before Megan came back from driving you to your apartment and I didn’t know where you two had disappeared off to at first.”

“Yup, I made it! And you sure do look well-rested and cleaned up well this morning…” Rae replied with a slight eye roll as she saw Izzie’s refreshed appearance in comparison to her own exhausted and tired self.

“Yeah, I had some time to take a shower and get ready after I cleaned up some of the mess behind from the popcorn and all the cups and shot glasses we used.”

Izzie got logged into her computer and they all continued working for a few hours as the radio in the background played an eclectic mix of music from the 80’s until today and Izzie and Rae recalled random details and memories of the previous evening that were slowly coming back to them and falling into place.

When is was Rae’s scheduled break time, she had barely locked her computer and turned away from computer screen in her desk chair when she noticed that Rebecca had the idea to come chat with Rae on her break as well.

“I was just about to go say ‘hi’!”

“It looks like I beat you to the punch then, I guess!” Rebecca quipped as she gave Rae’s shoulder a playful shove.

“Oh, you all will never believe what happened yesterday morning…” Rae said loudly enough for all of her coworkers that she had been chatting with thus far in her shift to hear her.

“What happened, girl?” Rae heard Finn ask and she immediately whipped around in her desk chair to see Finn walking toward the recently vacated desk beside Izzie and taking a seat in the chair without breaking eye contact with Rae.

“Oh, hiya Finn…”

“Well, don’t stop the conversation on my account, Rae…unless you don’t want me hearing it..? I didn’t mean to intrude on your conversation, honest!” Finn mumbled, suddenly trying to backtrack and apologize for interrupting the prior conversation.

“No, no worries, Finn. I just forgot what I was going to say and needed to remember it. So, uh, yesterday I went to the little café across the street…”

“Yeah, I saw you when you were standing outside the café, don’t you remember me telling you that?” Finn asked with a smirk.

Rae ignored the raised eyebrows she was receiving from a number of her friends and nodded before proceeding with what she was going to tell her coworkers.

“Well yeah, but when I was in the café…one of the baristas gave me coffee for free…and we were chatting a bit…”

“Oooh, look at you, Rae! Wooing the baristas and getting all kinds of freebies just by flirting a bit!” Peter exclaimed while giving Rae an exaggerated wink.

“Wow, Peter! That’s really mature…it probably wasn’t like that at all. The barista was just trying to be nice and earn some good karma by giving a repeat customer a free drink, right Rae?” Finn said as he turned towards her to confirm what he had said.

“Yeah, maybe…but then again, I’m pretty sure he was hitting on me…I’m not quite sure, because he’s always been a pretty nice guy…but he wrote a little note on my cup and he’s never done that before.”

“Aww! That’s so sweet of him to do, Rae!” one of Rae’s coworkers gushed, but Rae was too preoccupied with watching Finn sulk and turn around in his chair with a huff as he logged into his computer and got to work to determine who it was that was speaking.

“He also offered for me to skip the line whenever I go there if he is working, but I don’t know how to feel about all of that, you know? I just feel like if I let him be really friendly like this and he is flirting with me, it may be leading him on or taking advantage of him because I don’t see him like that, you know?”

Rae quickly glanced toward Finn and noticed that he had perked up slightly after overhearing what she had said and he was now turned slightly toward them in his chair, his interest in the conversation piqued again.

“Honestly, I’d just roll with it. Coffee is really expensive and lines for coffee can be so long, so it may not be the worst thing if this barista’s little crush on our Rae-Rae helps you get the occasional free coffee or a fast pass in the line. I’m not saying give him false hope, but just be nice and keep things platonic and see if he makes any attempts to change things while you are trying to determine what he is trying to get from the relationship…I don’t know though…That’s what I would do, but I don’t want to make any decisions for you, Rae” Rebecca said as she processed the entire situation and gave her input.

“No, I think that’s a good idea too and I appreciate getting another point of view on the topic,” Rae replied with a smile.

Rebecca’s break was nearly over so she waved goodbye to Rae and Izzie before returning to her side of the office building and taking her seat beside Andrew.

Rae turned around in her desk chair as well to get back to work when she noticed Finn clearing his throat behind her and she turned again to see why he was trying to get her attention.

“Oh, Rae! I just wanted to let you know that I think you look really pretty when you wear your glasses. I like how you look without glasses too, of course, but your glasses just kind of frame your eyes and make them look even more beautiful…so yeah…” Finn smiled nervously as he ran his left hand through the hair at the nape of his neck like he often did when he spoke to Rae.

It seemed to Rae like he had used every bit of confidence he possessed to tell her this, which Rae found incredibly endearing and she made no efforts to hide the blush and genuine smile that spread across her face upon hearing Finn’s compliment.

“Thanks, Finn. That really means a lot to me, especially coming from you.” Rae turned in her seat to face her computer and she could not contain the smirk that was spreading across her face when she saw Archie smiling and raising his eyebrows suggestively.

Ha! Stacey, who?

She’s his ex for a reason and she’s in the past…but am I his future?

@eveerez @tinakegg @hey1tskat1e @bitchesbecrazy89 @kneekeyta @milllott @protectfinnnelson @arathewallflower @jackiewalsh2013 @pink-royaute @i-dream-of-emus @lurkernolonger @bitchy-broken @nutinanutshell @mallyallyandra @borntosik

A/N: Hellooooo! Only 2 more chapters to go before a critical point in this story line and a sorta small announcement I’m gonna make at the end of the week…Which is kind of exciting and kind of nerve wracking hahah...

I know that the dice-game-turned-drinking-game in this chapter could be a little confusing, so here is a link with some basic info and basically instead of the chips mentioned in the wiki page, my friend and I used shots of vodka…so basically: L (pass a shot to the left), R (pass a shot to the right), C (take a shot), and any other sides you don’t do anything and we just kept taking turns until all the vodka was gone. Much like Rae, I was either really good or really bad at this game, depending on what the end goal was hahaha 😅

#mmfd fanfic #my mad fat diary #my mad fat diary fanfiction #mmfd #my writing #Changing Priority #chapter 13

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