“Is this my bedroom? No. Seems kind of familiar, but this is definitely NOT my bedroom. Hrm. Okay, think Corey think. Where can you be? What did you do last nigh… uh-oh.”
Like a speeding car it hit him. Sarah Campbell. Sarah fucking Campbell. The same Sarah Campbell he went out with in High School. The same Sarah Campbell he dumped because she started gaining weight. The same Sarah Campbell who never stopped gaining weight.
Memories of the previous night entered his brain, unpacked and then started making a mess. He had been drinking with his two friends Ant and Damo. After emptying pot-upon-pot of beer into their systems, they decided they’d go clubbing.
The club is where it happened. Where Captain Ahab found his whale. Still reeling from the effects of the alcohol, the boys were lucky to be let into the club. Or at least, that’s what they thought.
The boys found a spot at the counter, but did not bother ordering drinks. Vomiting a second time was not on the agenda. Pretty much instantly, they heard the voice. Somehow, it bellowed over the music. “Corey! Corey! Hey Corey!”
Corey turned around. It was her. He gasped, shocked. He had not seen her in years, and she was bigger than ever. She waded her way through the crowd as Damo and Ant both laughed openly at the size of her. “Jesus Coz, didn’t you used to go out with that thing?” Ant managed to speak through his laughter. Damo, never one to shy away from crude remarks openly commented: “That fucking thing is huge.”
She got closer and closer. Ant and Damo continued to laugh. Corey closed his eyes. This would be the first time he had spoken to her since he unceremoniously tore her heart out, pissed on it and then fed it back to her. To his surprise, when she began speaking, there was not a hint of bitterness in her voice.
“Wow! Corey. It’s been a long time!” She said, smiling. “Amazing. The whale can talk.” Damo muttered under his breath, causing Ant to explode into fits of laughter and Corey to shove them both. “Shut up!” He said forcibly. “What?” Sarah asked, thinking Corey’s words had been for her. “Nothing” he quickly replied. “You want to go somewhere else?” He didn’t ask because he wanted to. He merely felt obliged to, and didn’t want to continue the conversation around his friends who were likely to say something stupid. “Sure” she said excitedly. Grinning, she took his hand in hers and began to lead him away from his friends who laughed and shouted after him “It’s got him! The whale got him!”
Those shouting, joking voices were the last thing Corey remembered from the night.
Getting out of the bed, trying hard not to disturb the sleeping giant, Corey had to fight back the vomit he felt creeping up inside of him. Whether this was due to a hangover, or due to his new realization, he did not know. All he knew was that he had to get out of there.
Step, step, and step he made. “Don’t make a sound, Corey. Just DON’T make a sound.” he thought to himself. Suddenly: “Corey, is that you?” It was Sarah. Speaking with a sleepy voice, she asked again “Corey?” Corey cursed himself for thinking, as if his thoughts had some how awoken the beast.
He turned to face her. Guiltily he spoke. “Yes. It’s me.” She rolled over in her bed, possibly causing an earthquake in a country far away. She sat up in her bed. “How are you this morning, babe?” She asked innocently.
“How am I? How AM I?! How dare you ask that! You… you behemoth! You monster! You slept with me! You RAPED me!” Corey thought to himself, wishing he had the gall to actually say these things. Instead, the best he could offer was “I’m fine.”
“Interesting night it was, last night.” She said, grinning demonically. The rage built up inside of Corey. The vomit still stirring inside of him. He couldn’t stand it anymore. He had to ask.
“Sarah… did we…” closing his eyes, he finished the question “sleep together last night?”
Laughter. Loud, spontaneous laughter. It came from Sarah. Laughter?
She repeated his question, albeit in a completely different tone. A tone of incredulity. “Did we sleep together last night?” Once again she laughed.
“What?” Corey asked, confused. She continued to laugh. “What?!” Corey once again asked, now becoming angry. Sensing this, Sarah ceased her laughter and answered plainly. “No Corey. We did not sleep together last night.” A sense of relief flowed through the man. Then a sense of confusion.
“Then, why did I wake up in your bedroom?”
Sarah looked at him plainly. Corey looked back at her and couldn’t help noticing that she was taking up almost the entire bed. How did he fit in there? Sarah spoke.
“Last night, I saw you at the club. You and I left and started talking. But you just suddenly got sick. You could barely walk. I didn’t want to leave you to go and find your friends, and I definitely wasn’t going to leave you alone in the city all night. So I just called a cab and took you back here.”
One of those great moments hit Corey. One of those moments where everything makes sense. The planets seem perfectly aligned and all is in its right place. Then, he felt like a prick. He realized that this was the same girl he had dumped because she was too fat. This girl, whom he had treated worse than garbage (at least you don’t make fun of your trash with your friends), had took him in when he was sick and had no where else to go. Corey suddenly realized just how shallow a person he really was.
Then he shrugged. “Who cares, really?” he thought to himself, and with not so much as a goodbye he turned and exited Sarah’s room. Then her house. Walking away, feeling sick and still slightly drunk from the night before, another realization came to him.
“Christ. She really did gain some weight!”