schnaps
Author: Nathalia
Rating: PG-13
Challenge:
Apfelstrudel #07 - schnaps
Flavor of the Day #247 - abstemious
Extras / Toppings: pocky chain
Word Count: 489
Story: Misfits
Summary: five moments that could make you think Wes was an alcoholic.
Notes: For the record, I don’t think Wes is an alcoholic just yet. Definitely borderline though.
Wes was leaning over the toilet, breathing heavily as his stomach decided to empty itself yet again.
“Maybe you should have stopped after the tenth drink,” Lynn muttered. She was sitting on the bathroom floor close enough to the tub to be able to reach it if her stomach rebelled again. “Then again, maybe I should have stopped a lot earlier.”
“Drinking competition,” Wes managed to force out, not lifting his head, just flushing. “Can’t lose a drinking competition. Humiliating.
“Oh, and spending the night in the bathroom isn’t?” Lynn shot at him.
“Nobody needs to know.”
***
“Why are you getting drunk on your own engagement party?” Face asked sitting down next to Wes who was trying to build a pyramid of glasses in front of him. At his level of inebriation, it was a wonder he had gotten this far.
“I don’ wanna get married.”
“Then why did you ask Shirley to marry you?”
“I didn’t! Why does everyone think I did?” Wes asked angrily, pounding his fist on the table and the pyramid collapsed.
“Well, normal people don’t propose by accident. Were you drunk?”
Wes sighed in resignation. “That’s the sad part. I wasn’t.”
***
The phone’s constant ringing right next to Wes only came through to him slowly and he hesitated before raising his head from the table and picking up the phone, his fingers only hitting the right button immediately because the movement was so deeply engraved in his brain.
“Yeah?” He slurred and his eye caught the sight of the almost empty bottle of cheap whisky in front of him. Hadn’t it been full earlier today?
“Wes, we need you at HQ.”
“Lemme sober up. I’ll be there in the morning.”
“No time. We need you now.”
***
The doctor was looking at the scans he had taken of Wes skeptically, grunting now and then, as Wes sat across from him uncomfortably. He didn’t like this new doctor; he was always judging him, telling him things in a way that made Wes feel like the doctor thought he was something better.
Wes really missed Tom, the fact that Tom would offer him a drink when he had to come take his physicals instead of babbling on about Wes’ questionable liver values.
When he left the doctor’s office, he spotted a bar. He really needed a drink.
***
“You’re drinking more than you used to,” Lara remarked sitting down next to Wes who was making himself the second drink of the evening at 7pm.
“I’m married. Or was.” He shrugged. “I’m not sure what my martial status is right now. Ask Shan.”
“Marital.”
“I couldn’t have put up with Gladys for so long without drinking heavily. Do you realize how many horrible memories I have of that time that I needed to get drunk to forget?”
“Well, when the divorce is through, how about you and me join Hobbie on the sobriety front for at least four months?”