harlow woke the following morning, momentarily questioning her surroundings once again. she lifted her head slightly, to find that she was once again at the boy's house. the last time she woke in this house harlow found colby's arm wrapped tightly around her torso, and she was relieved to not be snuggled against the boy for a second time.

instead of colby snuggled beside her, kat was on one side and devyn on the other. harlow laid back down, staring up at the ceiling in an attempt to remember the end of the night, and why she was still at the house.

harlow struggled to put together the pieces, only remembering bits and pieces of the night before. only a few minutes passed before harlow heard shuffling in the kitchen.

"is anyone awake?" sam half-whispered from the entry to the room.

harlow raised her hand in the air, not wanting to disturb the girls.

"want coffee?" sam asked, moving towards the lovesac.

this time, harlow raised both hands in the air. sam chuckled, grabbing both hands and pulling her up from between the two sleeping girls. "thanks," she replied.

harlow moved to the mirror, wanting to assess the damage. her makeup had been removed, and her hair was messy from sleep. she was wearing a pair of sweats and a t-shirt, different from her last sleepover at the house. harlow made her way back into the kitchen, where sam was sat on the counter with a cup in his hands.

"so, what happened last night?" harlow asked, gesturing to her clothes. she couldn't even remember changing.

sam laughed, "i kinda figured this would happen. what's the last thing you remember?"

harlow sat at the small table, thinking back to the night. she remembered getting water in the kitchen, but she couldn't remember actually drinking it. she then remembered jake managing to convince the girl to play him in pong. "i remember pong. i remember missing lots of shots."

"yeah, basically all of them." sam replied, sipping his drink. "he actually beat you in four back-to-back games. then you and kat started doing shots, and you were basically gone by that point. it was actually really funny to watch. you're way crazier when you're drunk."

harlow mentally facepalmed. "oh god, what did i do?"

"nothing really terrible, you and kat did a performance on the kitchen island."

harlow's jaw fell open, "are you joking?"

sam laughed, "it honestly wasn't that bad! but you did yack in the plants outside,"

harlow rubbed her temples, staring at the table. "that's so fucking embarrassing. i'm so sorry,"

"don't be. it was funny. plus it was basically at the end of the night so there wasn't a lot of people around." sam paused to take a drink. "and don't worry, elton was long gone by that point."

harlow sat back in the chair. "damn. i'm never drinking again."

"i've heard that before," sam replied, passing a mug her way. "never actually happens."

"you'd believe me if you felt my headache right now." harlow replied. "literally feels like twenty little jackhammers going to town."

sam laughed, pushing himself onto his feet. "i'll go get you tylenol."

harlow took a big sip of her coffee. "you're a godsend,"

eventually, devyn and katrina woke up and made their way into the kitchen, sitting around the small table with harlow. "someone's up early," devyn said to harlow.

"yeah, i have no idea how. i couldn't even remember falling asleep last night."

kat groaned, "i sure do. you literally made us sleep with you. kept saying you needed your bitches in case there were any "ghosties" in the house."

harlow laughed loudly, "damn. i really have half a brain cell."

devyn snorted in response. "you're welcome, by the way. i took off all your makeup, and kat helped me change you into these. you kept trying to lay down in your dress, but we were scared you might flash someone."

harlow put her head in her hands, trying to hide her embarrassment. "you should've just knocked me out,"

"thought about it a few times. you kept yelling at me about taking off your eyelashes."

katrina nodded. "y'know, i love drunk harlow, but damn, blackout harlow is a different specimen."

the girls told harlow a few other things she tried to do while drunk, like how she wanted to take jake's toy car out for a "spin". eventually, the girls realized that they were hungry and decided to head over to kat's apartment and have a chill girls afternoon.

they were currently sat in kat's living room, still dressed in the clothes they woke up in. harlow had convinced the girls pretty easily to postmate breakfast, as harlow had a weakness for chocolate chip pancakes when she was hungover.

"oh," harlow said excitedly, mouth full of pancake. "i forgot to tell y'all. i was so drunk last night, i was so pissy at colby for smoking with another fucking girl. and the girl was KAT."

"no you didn't" devyn replied with her hand over her mouth. "did you know it was kat?

"oh god, no. i didn't know until i had already been a bitch."

katrina sat staring at harlow with amusement written all over her face. "you got mad at him? damn, my wife has some balls." she paused to take a sip of her water. "but also, i wasn't even smoking. i took his smoke from him to put it out."

"harlow, you're full-blown psycho"

harlow shoveled another piece of pancake into her mouth. "oh i know i am. and to make things worse, it was pretty obvious that i was jealous he was with another girl. so if he couldn't pick up my obvious feelings before, they're pretty fuckin' clear now."

"well that's not really a bad thing, is it?" devyn asked, looking at harlow. "i mean, maybe it's better for that to be aired out."

"well i aired it out in a bad way." harlow replied. "i was deadass jealous because we always say smokes and red bulls are our thing-"

"okay, we also had no red bulls," katrina said interrupting her friend. harlow just glared at kat. "continue."

"i mean obviously there's feelings for him. but i just didn't really want to act on them until i talked to e. he was friends with colby for a long time before i even knew him, it'd be pretty shitty of me to swoop in and potentially wreck that for him."

kat nodded, "i mean, yeah it's probably a good idea to talk to elton about it. but don't let elton stop you from shooting your shot with colby."

harlow took a long drink of her water before answering. "it's easy to say it, but he is my brother at the end of the day. i'd rather have e if that's what it came down to."

devyn leaned back onto the couch, pulling the blanket up onto her lap. "harls, i've known colby for a while now, and i can tell you i haven't seen him this happy in a while. he spends a lot of his time alone in his room, but since elton brought you around, he's barely doing that anymore."

katrina nodded. "dev's right, you know. you definitely make him happy. and let's be real, he makes you happy too."

harlow smiled sheepishly. "yeah, he does." she paused, seeing her phone light up in front of her.

"speak of the devil," devyn said, glancing at harlow's phone. "aw, cute. he has a special name!"

harlow just rolled her eyes at the girl, opening the message colby sent her.

🐝

hey i must've missed u this morning

sam said u kat and dev are having a girls day

maybe we can hang tn? just us 2?

u shud be glad u didn't see me

i look like death had a child

not cute :(

but i actually have an assignment i need to work on tn! maybe tmrw?

🐝

i forget ur in uni sometimes

im just a NorMaL GIrl

🐝

ignoring that

maybe i'll come edit while u work

if that's ok

as long as u don't distract me

i need to finish this assignment tn

🐝

i won't

u wont even kno i'm there

sneaky mode: 1000

🐝

sometimes i wonder how u got into uni

my last few brain cells had to work ot

c u tn

🐝

🤪

harlow looked back up at dev and kat, who were both intensely staring at their friend.

"so, what'd he want?" kat asked, basically sitting on the edge of her seat.

"just wanted to see if i wanted to hang out tonight." harlow responded as casually as she could. "i'm literally doing an assignment, while he edits. don't get too excited."

devyn clasped her hands together in excitement. "you two are so domestic already! i love it!"

harlow rolled her eyes at her friend. "i literally just said don't get too excited,"

katrina placed her water bottle on the coffee table in front of her. "y'know, this would be an ideal hangout to talk to him. super chill, just you two,"

"i already told you i want to talk to elton before i do anything else that could be detrimental on his friendship with colby."

"ok, so talk to elton." devyn stated, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"i don't really know what to say. imagine telling your brother you accidentally caught feelings for his friend. not fun."

the girls sat in silence for a few moments, all trying to think of ways to make it easier for harlow to talk to her brother.

"you know, you could just text him. that kinda eliminates the whole awkward face-to-face part of it." devyn eventually said, shrugging. "that's probably the easiest way."

harlow thought about it for a minute. "yeah, you're probably right."