When I wake up in the morning the first thing I make out is the sound of angry bickering. It’s disorienting. My head’s already pounding and I can barely open my eyes.

“Why the fuck did you spend all of last night ignoring me?”

It’s Gwen.

It’s Everest and Gwen. They’re fighting. Gwen’s probably angry about the entirety of last night. She’s mad he was talking to other girls. She’s mad that she didn’t succeed in making him jealous in return.

I keep my eyes closed. I don’t want them to know I’m awake and that I’m eavesdropping on their argument. I doubt they’d even realize though. They seem pretty distracted.

“I wasn’t!” Everest insists, sounding exasperated. “Or at least I wasn’t meaning to until you got all engaged in a conversation with that random dude.”

“Please!” Gwen scoffs. “You didn’t even care that I was talking to him! You were too invested in chatting it up with those girls!”

“Oh my God,” he grumbles. “Just stop it. Amanda’s my coworker. Just because I talked with her for ten minutes doesn’t mean I’m trying to screw her.”

That response just seems to make Gwen even angrier. “Are you KIDDING me?” she exclaims. “You didn’t even notice I had come back!”

“You didn’t try to get my attention at all,” Everest tells her, the fire totally gone from his voice. I guess this is the part in the argument where he starts to back down.

“I shouldn’t have to! Fuck!” Gwen continues, growing more and more frantic. “You would have noticed if it were Ian! You treat him better than me!”

What the heck is she talking about? Of course he treats me better. I’m his best friend. I’ve known him forever. She only showed up recently and all she does is act like a drama queen.

Everest scoffs. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“It means exactly what I said,” she barks. “You act like you like him more than me and I’m supposed to be your fucking girlfriend!”

If she’s going to use that as her argument, then she should start acting like a girlfriend and stop being such a cow.

“I don’t know what to tell you. You’re being ridiculous.”

“I’m not!” Gwen maintains, her voice getting even more shrill.

She is though. She’s being totally absurd. Part of me wants to get up and tell her myself but that would probably just make everything worse. I’ve never told Gwen off in my life. She’d probably lose her mind if I tried to now.

“Whatever,” Everest says after a moment of silence. “You win, okay? I’m sorry I was talking to those girls. Can this just be over? It’s stupid.”

No. It can’t end like that. This isn’t okay. He needs to tell her to stop being so controlling. She needs to know that she’s acting like a bully.

“But it’s not stupid!” Gwen says, trying desperately to get him to see her point. “You need to realize that what you did was wrong!”

“Okay, fine, I was wrong,” he responds, sounding anything but sorry.

Gwen lets out a sharp sigh. She probably knows this is as good as it’s going to get.

“You should think about what you did and then maybe you’ll see why I’m mad.”

“Okay,” Everest says simply.

He’s too permissive with her. I get that he doesn’t want to fight, but he needs to start sticking up for himself.

“Okay?”

“Yes, okay,” he reiterates. “I’ll think about things.”

I hope this means he’ll think about dumping her.

I’m seriously sick of listening to this. I feel like I have to intervene, even if it’s just making it known that I’m awake. I force my eyes open and prop myself up against the pillow using my elbow. Ugh. My head is still spinning.

“You guys,” I manage to grumble. “Enough.”

Gwen glances over at me, rolling her eyes, and Everest gives her a dirty look.

“Sorry we woke you up,” he adds sheepishly a moment later.

“It’s fine,” I answer, sitting up a little more. “Gwen, can you relax?”

She stares back at me and her jaw tightens.

“Like I told you last night, Everest was just being friendly. He wasn’t trying to ignore you,” I explain, doing my best not to sound condescending. “You should know him well enough to know that.”

Everest looks like he wants to add something, but Gwen doesn’t give him the chance.

“Oh shut the fuck up,” she snaps at me in a tone that’s so biting it makes me regret saying anything at all. “If you two know each other so well then maybe you should fucking date instead. You’re all cozied up in here anyway, so it looks like step one is out of the way.”

Jeez!

I don’t know what to say to that. I feel a wave of nausea wash over me and I’m not sure if it’s because of her or if it’s coinciding with the fact that I’m a hungover mess.

Everest sighs. “Ian is here because I didn’t want him to drown in his own puke.”

“That wouldn’t happen,” she insists.

“It could’ve,” Everest says.

Gwen doesn’t care about that. She only cares about herself because she’s selfish. She’s the most selfish person I’ve ever met.

“Whatever,” she exclaims, throwing her hands up in the air. “I’m done with this stupid fucking conversation.”

With that, she stomps out of the room. Everest doesn’t try to go after her, which makes me think that she probably barged in here this morning just to yell at him.

This is terrible. My ears still feel hot and I’m really embarrassed. I don’t even want to look at Everest. I should have just slept upstairs, or let him sleep on the floor, or something, anything, other than this.

Everest sucks in a deep breath and holds it. I look up and watch him rub his eyes with his sleeve.

Ugh. I’m so tired of seeing Gwen make him cry. Sometimes that seems like it’s her only goal. He’s an emotional guy, but lately, he’s gotten more and more jaded to their arguments. I wonder if that’s making her mad.

“Gwen’s a jerk,” I tell him softly, breaking the silence.

“Yeah…” he mumbles, and I wonder if he’s as uncomfortable as I am. I’m embarrassed, too, but for different reasons.

I shouldn’t feel this way. I shouldn’t feel this way about him.

I don’t know what to say to him now. I want to say something. I feel like I have to say something… but I don’t know what.

After what feels like a long time, he looks at me and says, “Don’t worry about any of the shit she was spouting. She’s just mad.”

I nod slowly. I know he’s right. There’s no way Gwen actually thinks Everest and I were messing around. She just said that to screw with my head. That doesn’t matter though. I still feel weird.

“I’m gonna go make some breakfast,” Everest continues awkwardly. “You should try to get more sleep if you can. I’m sure you feel terrible.”

I do. I really do.

“You can stay in here if you want,” he offers.

That’s nice, but honestly, I want to be as far away from this mess as possible.

“It’s okay,” I shake my head. “I’ll go upstairs.”

“All right,” Everest shrugs, drawing his lips together into a thin line. “Well, take your time.”

He doesn’t say anything past that, just turns around and slips out the door.

Jeez. This turned into the worst weekend ever. I hoist myself out of Everest’s bed and drag myself upstairs. I’m nauseous and heavy and groggy. I grab the railings, supporting myself so I don’t slip. Gosh, this really is the worst.

When I get to my room, I look at the clock on my nightstand and it’s almost two. Yikes. I slept in late. I still feel foul, though. Last night had the potential to be fun, but it ended in such a mess. I feel like that happens every time we go out these days. I don’t know why.

I flop into my bed, wanting to fall back asleep and never wake up.