What are the chances?

Keep your head up

Kat awoke to the warmth of the sun on her face as it filtered through the glass panels of the balcony doors. Stretching her arm across the bed to the side table she grabbed her phone and could just about make out the blurry 8:12 am illuminated on the screen. A tired groan escaped from her dry lips as she pushed the phone away and sunk back into the spongy pillow, instantly regretting not taking a glass of water to bed with her when they finally called it a day around 2 am.

Get up Kathleen, GET UP! She willed herself to move from the comfy bed but ended up sinking further down into the cloud-like mattress.

After a further 10 minutes of staring blankly at the slowly rotating ceiling fan above the bed she took a motivational deep breath and dragged herself up. Yawning loudly she heavily padded over to the en-suite and splashed her face with water,  wincing as the coolness shocked her skin on contact and forced her body to wake up. She caught a glimpse of herself in the large gold mirror hanging over the sink and screwed her face up at the sight of the dark circles around her tired eyes and her grey pasty complexion. "Ugh! I've got to do better if I'm going to survive this week and all that alcohol." Muttering loudly to herself she turned and made her way across the room, flinging the balcony doors open as she reached them to let the fresh morning air circulate the stuffy bedroom. The reminder of the scenic view brought a smile to her face as she stretched out, quietly convincing herself it would be a great idea to get up early every morning and go out onto the lawn and do some yoga, although deep down she knew not to make it a promise as this ropey feeling would most likely become the norm for the rest of the week.

There was a faint sound of humming interrupting the peacefulness of the emerald land laid out before her. Whilst trying to figure out where it was coming from a ferrel looking cat prowling between the cypress trees caught her attention and she watched for a couple of minutes as it lay in wait, then pounced into action, never quite catching whatever it had its eye on. A warm smile filled her face as she thought about Sophie, and how she would be having a great time running through all those muddy puddles in Wales. 'I should call Mum later and check in.' she informed herself as the faint smell of coffee filled her senses reminding her of her dry mouth. Taking another deep breath she turned back into the room and grabbed a large faded black hoodie, which she endearingly referred to as her hangover hoodie, and slid her feet into her fluffy sliders before grabbing her phone and heading downstairs to see what was on offer.

Downstairs Gill was silently pottering away in the kitchen. "Good morning sweetie." She whispered as she spotted Kat stepping off the last step. The light flooding through the large glass veranda doors bounced off her wild ginger hair, and her trademark welcoming smile filled her round flushed face.

"Good morning, is it just us up?" Kat whispered back as she crept over to join Gill in the kitchen.

"Yes." Gill nodded as she methodically arranged various jams and spreads onto a large floral tray with small brown birds hidden between the leaves and branches. "I was just going to set up a bit of a continental breakfast. People can just help themselves when they finally arise." She paused momentarily to fan her flushing cheeks.

"Yeah, sounds great." Kat sleepily smiled as she rubbed her twitching eye. "Can I help?"

"Sure, if you could put out those pastries that would be helpful." Gill pointed to a range of buns and rolls. "Just put a few choices out, not all of them mind, else they'll go hard." She motherly instructed.

Kat moved around the large kitchen island and set to helping, ferrying various plates and bowls through to the outside table. It wasn't long before Debbie appeared in the kitchen looking a little worse for wear. Her normal sleek black hair was tousled into a messy ponytail, and her usually piercing blue eyes were small and bloodshot, seeking shelter behind her heavy framed black glasses.