˗ˏˋ the mornings after and sober realisations 'ˎ˗

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Mahika doesn't really know if she's a morning person or not.

It depends entirely on how she spends her time the night before — which usually consists of staying up late to finish her assignments, let's be honest here — and how much sleep she gets.

The thing is, she likes mornings. She likes waking up to the light peeking in through the slightly parted curtains of her window. She enjoys the few hours of the pleasant weather, the very thin veil of cold in the air before the heat strikes and pierces through it, and claims the noon as its own.

Today, though? Not so much.

She first opens her eyes with a groan, already feeling a dull, throbbing ache in her neck that she knows will get worse as her day progresses. Squinting her eyes as she barely opens them, she inhales deeply and lets out a long, sleepy sigh.

God, I hate Mondays.

When she finally manages to push herself into an upright, sitting position, she winces at the kink in the back of her neck. Even when she reaches out to massage it a little, she knows it won't do much.

This. This is why she hates weddings.

Letting out another sigh of exasperation when she can't completely straighten her back for a bit, exhaustion evident in her muscles more than ever, she somehow manages to slip out of bed and drag herself to the bathroom, all the while lousily stretching her arms above her head with a yawn. The floor is cold against her still-weary feet, certainly an odd but definitely not an unwelcoming feeling. If anything, it feels a little soothing.

But of course, to add to the misery of her day she has to be in college in less than two hours.

Managing to squeeze some toothpaste onto the brush shaking in her drooping hold after struggling for a few minutes, she slips it into her mouth and finally looks into the mirror.

And well... that's a surprise she clearly wasn't ready for.

Feeling like a bucket of cold water has been thrown in her face, Mahika knows that she looks absolutely ridiculous with the toothbrush hanging from her slightly parted mouth, eyes unnaturally wide as she takes notice of the marks on her neck.

Oh, God, she thinks. Are those hickeys?

Upon a shaky but closer inspection, eyes-narrowed and head tilted to one side with her frame leaning forward, she comes to the conclusion that the very pink, and very obvious marks on the side of her neck are truly hickeys.

She tilts her head to the other side, carding her fingers through her hair to push it back and reveal the other side of her neck. She blinks a few times, a limp attempt at clearing her vision before a faint blush coats her cheeks at the realization that she has a few marks on the other side too.

Mentally, even if it's just subconsciously, she counts the days inside her head until her mother returns from her trip. Three days, she concludes. These marks aren't going to stay that long... right?

It's kind of absurd that she possibly slept with a stranger a few hours ago and the only thing she's worried about right now is: oh, God what if my mother sees? She shakes her head at the nonsensical thoughts, reminding herself that she's worried about the wrong things right now.

Okay, but what did I even —

Amoli.

— Oh.

The blush on Mahika's cheeks deepens to an extent where she has to avert her eyes from the mirror, feeling the warmth on the tops of her ears and all the way to the back of her neck.

It's like the mere name of the girl was all that her brain was waiting for to set the rest of her thoughts in motion. Because like magic, the events from the night before are running like a slideshow inside her head.

There's the sound of breathy giggles echoing somewhere at the back of her mind, and it sounds so familiar that Mahika accidentally inhales sharply around the toothbrush still in her mouth and chokes.

Even amidst the coughing fit, the images flickering in her head never take a pause.

The image of Amoli's petite figure pressed up against the wall with Mahika's lips on hers is quite a wake-up call. It only makes her cough harder, traces of tears beginning to appear in her eyes.

The kisses. The whispers. The effort that Mahika had to put into stopping herself from going any further than they already had. The realization that taking hold of their emotions was a really good idea because only a few minutes after they had arrived in Amoli's room, Amoli had hunched over the side of the bed and thrown up. Helping Amoli clean up before she had fallen asleep.

Mahika's coughs begin to subside, and she has to brace herself against the sink as she breathes between the occasional sniffles and wheezes.

Just how out of it was I last night?

It's only when she meets her own teary, red eyes in the mirror that she's hit in the face with another realization, mouth parting and an embarrassing squawk making its way out.

She left her number on the night stand beside Amoli's bed.

Oh... Oh, no.

Washing her face and gagging only a little at the toothpaste that she can taste in her throat, she rushes for her phone, almost stumbling on her way out of the bathroom. She has no idea if Amoli is a morning person or not, but if there's a text waiting from her waiting for Mahika, she's actually going to extemporaneously go up in flames.

It takes her a bit to locate her phone amid the chaos that is her room right now, finding it lying on the bedside table with her accessories that she had taken off last night in a daze before changing into a ratty pair of pajamas since those were the first pair she could find in her closet, and thrown herself into bed.

Five minutes after that, and she was out like a light.

Mahika's phone, though, turns out, has no texts from an unknown number waiting for her to see.

She has a few, and they're all from her friends.

There's one from Dhruv that says, I feel like someone just ran me over with a truck. Not that I wouldn't prefer it right now, but anyways. Thanks for being there last night. You're a real one. Mahika definitely needs a moment to process that one.

She sees one from Keerti, another one of her close friends from college, asking Mahika if she is up to grab some breakfast together before their classes for the day begin. Mahika is well-aware that Keerti is probably only going to get some coffee because the girl can't even walk normally without pumping herself with caffeine, but she says yes either way. She's never not going to be amazed about the fact that Keerti might be pocket-sized, but she can probably inhale all the coffee available in the country if given the chance.

With another shake of her head, she numbly drops her phone on her bed, resisting the urge to check just one more time, and heads back into the bathroom for a shower. She internally thanks her body the fact that she doesn't have to put herself through the misery of dealing with a hangover.

It was partly why she had drank so much even though she knew college would be hell the next day. Mahika has never experienced a hangover headache in her life. Her friends have always been envious of how well she can hold her alcohol. Well... she can for the most part. If alcohol was capable of making her confess her two-year long crush on a girl, then maybe she wasn't as good at handling her liquor as she was assuming she was.

She doesn't take very long in the shower, because she knows she has to spend quite a while thinking of a way to hide all of the marks lining her neck. There are two ways; one of them being the possibility of wearing a turtleneck, of course. But Mahika discards the option as quickly as it comes. She was not going to put herself through that. The heat would kill her within just a few minutes of exposure to the sun.

Not to mention, she would look absolutely ridiculous dressed in something that warm in the middle of April.

So make-up it was.

She spent a few minutes thoroughly drying her hair, and a whole lot of time doing her make-up. All the while, she had her nose scrunched up in distaste because she wasn't used to it. As someone who sweated a lot, she usually avoided wearing a lot of it unless the day, or situation demanded it.

It's not that the marks were very prominent, but Mahika wished that her skin was just a tad bit darker right then. Because anyone with two eyes and a bit of common sense would be able to tell what she was up to the night before.

And frankly, Mahika did not vibe with that.

But just as extra precaution, she chose a full-sleeved cotton shirt instead of her usual colorful kurtas in case her make-up rubbed off because of sweat and the marks on her collarbones became visible when she wasn't paying attention. She definitely couldn't let that happen.

Because it doesn't matter if she was with a girl or a boy. Mahika isn't ready to have suggestive eyebrows raised in her direction.

As soon as she's done with everything, she has a moment of silence where she just stands in the middle of her room, blank and blinking down at the locked screen of her phone that's still lying on the bed.

She doesn't know what she had hoped for, or even expected in the slightest. But it was certainly not this. Whatever the hell this situation was.

Because, you know, radio silence from the first and only girl she just made out with, and possibly (Fine, maybe not 'possibly') outed herself to isn't exactly the ideal setting she could have ever imagined herself in.

Well, maybe she could take this as a lesson.

Don't check your phone, she thinks as she reaches for it to slide it into her purse. Don't you dare check your phone, Mahi.

She checks her phone.

No new texts.

Definitely going to take this as a lesson. 

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a/n

WOO HELLO THERE

am i back to updating at ass o'clock? who knows.

thank you so much for reading! the response on the prologue was absolutely insane and i just wanted to let y'all know that i managed to write this way quicker than i originally would because i was so HYPED. thank you. so much.

i hope you're all having a good day! lmk in the comments if you want !! we can even have a lil chat <3