but the motion made me dizzy. My stomach lurched. Don’t puke. Don’t puke. Oh God, how much had I had to drink? I lay back down and settled for turning my body away from the window. The pressure in my throat produced a burp but no vomit. Thank God. But the burp left a sour taste in my mouth, and I tried to remember if Carson kept mints lying around.
Mints… shit. Please tell me I didn’t try to suck on his nipples like they were peppermints. I distinctly remembered them tightening as I pinched them, but had I left it at that? I was pretty sure I had, but my head ached so badly, I couldn’t think straight.
I peered at Carson and cringed. He hadn’t been wasted last night, so no doubt he remembered everything. Heat rushed to my cheeks. My opinion about him being asleep suddenly shifted, and I was grateful he slept like a hibernating bear. It gave me a few minutes to pull myself together before I had to live down my humiliation. Carson was going to be merciless with his teasing.
Taking several deep breaths, I tried to psych myself up for the trek to the bathroom, which was all of ten feet. Gripping the edge of the bed, I sat up slowly, but when I stood, I immediately became dizzy and plopped my ass right back down again.
But I didn’t have a choice. Now that I was fully awake, my bladder screamed at me. I slid down off the bed and onto the floor. Crawling toward the bathroom, I prayed Carson would not wake up. He didn’t need any more ammo against me.
When I made it to the bathroom, I closed the door behind me and breathed a sigh of relief. Before attempting to stand again, I pressed my cheek against the cool veneer of the toilet seat. That was the position that had gotten me into this mess. I dragged myself upright and took care of business. Then I rifled through Carson’s cabinets, looking for a spare toothbrush. Bingo. I brushed my teeth and scrubbed my tongue so hard, I gagged. I stuck my mouth under the faucet and sucked in mouthfuls of water. I should have done that first, but I wouldn’t have been able to stand swallowing with the sour taste in my mouth. More rifling through the cabinet turned up Advil. I popped four.
Bracing my arms on the sink, I gazed into my bloodshot eyes. Suddenly, my twenty-first birthday lost its appeal. Luckily, it wasn’t for a few more months. Hopefully by then, I would be ready to drink again. At the moment, the proposition wasn’t appealing.
I sank down onto the toilet seat. Maybe I could sneak out before Carson woke up. I normally gave as good as I got, but I didn’t have it in me, especially when the humiliation was so fresh. I was no stranger to embarrassing myself in front of Carson since he and my brother had been inseparable since they were twelve, but what I’d done last night went beyond embarrassing. It was downright shameful. I had felt him up and pinched his nipples.
He probably thought I had some weird nipple fetish. I didn’t—not in the slightest—but I would have been lying if I said I’d never noticed Carson’s chest. Heck, I’d noticed his everything.
The longer I hid in the bathroom, the shorter my window got for sneaking away. It was cowardly, and I wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever, but I didn’t know if I had it in me now.
I cracked the door open and peeked out.
Carson propped himself up on one arm and grinned at me. “Good morning, sunshine.”
I winced. So much for sneaking out. “Good morning.” I walked over to the bed, each step reverberating up my body and rattling my brain. I sank down onto the bed, grateful not to have to move for a few seconds. Who was I kidding? I wouldn’t have been able to sneak out anyway because I was in no shape to drive.
“How are you feeling?”
I eyed Carson warily, waiting for the punchline. When none came, I answered honestly. “Not so good.”
“Sorry. I should have known better than to make you doubles.”
“I asked for them.”
“Yeah, but still, I shouldn’t have made them.”
I didn’t have the energy to argue with him about how it wasn’t his responsibility to be the Becca police. Wait. The Zizzo police. I appreciated having someone who wanted to look out for me, but