Page 28 of Begin Again Again

Chapter 6

“Ifeel like death.” Lara pushed her sunglasses up her nose. “I feel like death, and I want to die.”

Beth tore her attention away from thoughts of Byron’s lips and onto the friend beside her. “You feel like death?”

“More than I can possibly say.” Lara’s hair was limp, and she had bags under her eyes. A couple of her work friends had come around to see Angus last night, and they’d ended up drinking a few bottles of Chardonnay.

“You had fun, though?” Beth asked.

“Yes. No. I don’t know. It was a terrible idea,” Lara croaked. “I’ve got no stamina anymore. And I couldn’t get back to sleep after you got home.”

“Sorry.”

“Not your fault. I shouldn’t have smoked. I haven’t had a cigarette in like three years and now whenever I have one, I’m buzzed for hours.”

She said it so accusingly, Beth almost apologised again. She pointed at the nearby Coles. “Do you want to get water or something?”

“I want to go back in time and not be an idiot. But also, yes. And ice cream. And paracetamol.”

Beth exaggeratingly swerved the pram toward Coles and Angus cooed with excitement. “At least little Mister is in a good mood.”

“Hmmmf.”

They strode the shelves, stocking Lara’s war chest with salt and vinegar chips, chocolate digestive biscuits, rainbow paddle pops, bananas, cold drip coffee, three blue Gatorades, and extra strength Panadol. Beth tried not to think about how Byron liked blue Gatorade. Tried not to remember she’d left him shirtless in his bed. It was midday and he hadn’t messaged, though surely, he’d been awake for hours at work. Her stomach was in knots over it. She couldn’t stop checking her phone.

It felt pathetic to be grieving the loss of someone she’d known for a few hours. It couldn’t be real disappointment, she’d decided. It had to be her pride at gambling and taking a loss. At being rejected by a guy who hadn’t really noticed her in the first place.

“I feel better already,” Lara said as they walked to the registers. “Are you sure you don’t want anything?”

“Nah.”

“Come on, get something.”

Beth grabbed a sparkling water just to get the show on the road. Lara paid and they headed for the exit.

“Have a good morning!” said a chirpy greeter.

Lara covered her face with a palm.

“This is ridiculous,” she said when they were out of earshot. “I can barely look my fellow man in the eye, I’m so hungover. God, when did we get old?”

“In the last five to ten years, I guess,” Beth said. “But we’re still pretty young. I mean, younger than Glenn Close, right?”

“Sure.” Lara tore the plastic off a Gatorade and chugged several inches. “That’s better. I miss hangover Gatorade.”

“I was more of a collagen with added vitamin C girl.”

Lara swigged her drink. “Man, I keep forgetting you drank. How crazy is that?”

“I wish everyone would.”

“Like, considering how much you drank, it’s nuts that I never think about it anymore.”

“Maybe because I’m living here? You don’t associate Melbourne with me drinking.”

“Yeah, if we headed back to Aucks, I’m sure I’d go straight back to remembering all the places you used to chuck.”

“Auckland,” Beth corrected.

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