lost in the thrill of it all (lulu)

If Sindri Trickett had dreamt the night prior to waking up with half of his body dangling backwards over his bed, he certainly didn’t remember it. Come to think of it, remembering anything from the night before was damn near impossible. The solitary thought - a noise - that bore through his mental space was the pounding sound coming from above his head somewhere. It seemed that his prized antique ceiling fan had morphed into a device whose sole purpose was torture. Had it always been so boisterous? Sindri couldn’t recall, and instead resolved to looking into when his head didn’t feel like an overinflated balloon on the verge of bursting.

“Owww,” The man groaned, pulling the half of his unclothed torso that had been dangling over the edge of his made bed up to a normal position. Made bed? Hazel eyes, albeit blurred with sleep, noted that he was still wearing slacks as well. Sindri’s gaze focused on the dress pants with maximum effort and then, all at once, shot open in disbelief.

Trickett family Christmas.

The night before came back to him in a series of out of focus photographs. Had he worn women’s shoes? Why was there paint on his chest? It seemed that every passing second brought a new unanswered question. None, though, as shocking as the one he would soon be asking himself.

Sindri heaved a lifeless arm across what was usually the empty side of his bed in an attempt to bring back some sense into it. As the pins and needles subsided, and his half-asleep stupor lifted, Sindri finally realized a horrible truth. His arm was draped over a body. A body of the human variety. A body that was attached to flowing brown hair and a set of legs that certainly were not either of his brother’s.

The man nearly flew off his bed, taking with him the lamp that once sat on his bed side table. Lulu Prescott was sprawled out in his bed. If his head hadn't exploded yet, it certainly was about to. "Oh, er," Sindri fumbled, suddenly flooded with embarrassment about his state of undress and body painted torso. It was then he noticed that Lulu too had matching colors swirled across her shoulders and arms. There was no way that this could be good.

"Geroffme," a gravelly voice muttered in her sleep as something heavy landed over her stomach and disturbed her sleep. Lulu Prescott was, for all intents and purposes, useless to the world. She was half-asleep, lingering somewhere in that state between peaceful sleep and the shady cloak of exhaustion that often accompanied hangovers. She pressed the weight away from her feebly, not even giving much thought to why her roommate Erika was in her bed in the first place. It would have taken too much effort to remember or ponder at why that was.

Lulu was pretty much a mess. She still had on the red dress she had went to the party in, her hair looked like a haystack, sticking up at weird angles, and there was a little bit of drool at the corner of her mouth. If she were cognizant of how she looked just then, she would be horrified. But alas she was dead to the world. Even if she had wanted to get up, her head felt like a troll was sitting on it and she couldn't move it one bit. Not that she tried until a loud smashing sound shocked her out of her sleep. She came awake suddenly, leaning up on her elbows, her heart racing with the surprise of being awaken that quickly out of sleep. It was a bad idea to sit up that quickly though. A wave of nausea rolled over her and she flopped herself back onto the pillows before covering her eyes with her arm.

"Eri, stop making so much noise. I'm not getting out of bed for at least a week. This is your fault." Her words were jumbled and mushed together, her mouth still filled with that sleepy, cottony feeling. There were pricks of pain behind her eyes and her head vibrated uncomfortably, but it dulled in comparison to her reaction to what happened when her brain finally caught up with her sight.

Her gray blue eyes flew open as she looked to the side, seeing Sindri stand there. "Sindri?" she asked confused. In her sleepy stupor, she had assumed it was her roommate Erika. Shocked confusion soon turned to outraged indignation. "Get off of my room, you dolt!" she yelled at him as she threw a pillow his way and simultaneously tried to pull a blanket over her bared legs. "Why aren't you wearing a shirt!" What did he have smeared on his chest. Why was she still in her party dress. What was he even doing here. Lulu's brain was going haywire with all the questions, all the confusion. And then that's when she realized she wasn't even in her room. This wasn't her apartment.

She pulled the sheet up to her chin as her face went white. She just stared at Sindri, thinking hard and trying to recall what had happened. Ohmerlinohmerlinohmerlin. What did I do?! This was Sindri. Lulu felt like she couldn't get enough oxygen in her lungs and she worked harder to drag the air in. His expression scared her even more. This wasn't normal. This wasn't expected.

The silence hanging heavily between them was too much for her. "Did we..." she whispered, too horrified to finish the question, too horrified that she even had to ask.

Her room?! Sindri opened his mouth to protest but was instead accosted by one of his own pillows. He threw the sad excuse for decor to his side in a huff, nearly toppling over with it in the process. The chance that he was still drunk from the previous night's festivities was looking more and more promising. "Why are you.." The twenty-three year old began as he assessed the rest of his clothing situation, happy to see that his pants and socks were still right where he had left them. "Not, not wearing pants?!" Hazel eyes flicked back to those legs before darting away again.

"No pants," Sindri repeated with a paranoid shrug whilst reaching for a blanket that had been cast to the floor in the morning's events. The assurance in his tone certainly betrayed the fact that his logic had no footing -- to be fair Lulu hadn't worn pants the whole night, and had no reason to in a dress. The man wasted no time to wrap the old Trickett family Christmas blanket over his bare shoulders before resigning from their little battle and taking a seat gingerly on his bed, that now felt a little foreign to him with her in it.

"We didn't," He was quick to answer Lulu's question, which had also been weighing heavily in the back of his own mind. "We didn't?" Sindri repeated, this time softly, and considerably less certain than he had been just moments before. "I'm wearing pants," He looked over his shoulder at her as a childish grin made it's way onto his lips. Perhaps it was the residual alcohol, or maybe just the absurdity of the situation they had found themselves in, but it was funny. Hilarious, even. Here he was with reindeer face paint, slacks and wrapped in a Christmas blanket. A series of giggles escaped his lips before Sindri clamped a hand over his mouth. Lulu was likely less apt to agree.

"I apologize," Sindri looked down to his feet. "It's really... not at all funny," He struggled to speak through his grin. "Shit's sake, how did we end up here? Look at us, what are we like?" He outstretched a paint splattered arm in assessment. "Trickett family Christmas," Sindri darkly repeated the phrase that had been echoing in his thoughts all morning.

No pants?! Lulu gasped astonished, heart racing, and glanced at her bare legs and then pulled the blanket over with so much force that she almost toppled over the side of the bed. When she managed to right herself a second later, her world was still reeling. Definitely should not move that fast again, she scolded herself as she lifted one hand to her forehead and squeezed her eyes shut until the dizziness faded away. It occurred to her belatedly that she was still wearing her dress from last night and that's why she wasn't wearing pants. Duh Lulu.

And while she had known Sindri for years, when he sat on the edge of the bed, Lulu still shrank away. She feared the answer to the question that she had left hanging in the air. She feared what kind of girl this made her, what kind of friend. This was her friend's boyfriend and she hated to think that her actions, whatever they might have been last night, would result in her losing one of her friends.

His answer to her question sent a wave of cool relief through her. She hadn't realized how much tension she was holding in her body until it suddenly wasn't there anymore. Lulu exhaled a long breath and brought both hands up to wipe over her face. His repeated 'we didn't' made her still and she peeked at him through her fingers. Lulu was desperately trying to remember what the hell had happened last night but the last thing she remember was taking shots with Sorcha. Dammit. She was not the kind of girl who could hold her liquor and shots should always be on her "Lulu, don't do this, you dolt" list.

The sound of his laughter made her eyes snap up to his face and she did nothing to curb the glare that graced her features. In what world was this funny?! But then she noticed those dimples and his 'I'm wearing pants' comment finally registered and the weight of the awkwardness made her crack a smile. Even though she fought it at first, her glare morphed into a smile and soon she was giggling softly too, shaking her head at both of their behavior.

Lulu smiled at Sindri as she slumped to the side and curled herself into the blankets. Holding her head up was currently a job she was not up for because her head felt like it weight ten thousand pounds. She propped her head in the palm of her hand and gazed up at the ceiling as she tried to rack her brain for more information on how she ended up here. Honestly, it was a bit scary for her that she didn't know. But on the other hand, she was glad it was Sindri here and shirtless and not some man she didn't know at all. She shuddered at that thought.

"This is all Eri's fault," Lulu muttered as she gazed down at the blankets, picking at a loose thread with long fingers. "Oh my gosh!" she suddenly said, wide eyes flying back to Sindri as something occurred to her. "I'm never going to be able to go back to a Trickett Christmas! Your family probably thinks I'm some sort of crazy alcoholic now!" She ended on a wail and flopped onto the bed, burying her face in the blankets as she tried to hide from the embarrassment her thoughts brought to her.