The Young Dutchman's brother and I woke up around 11 AM, our heads screaming in agony, but still alive and kicking. We checked our phones, but neither of us had any word from the Young Dutchman himself. Still, it's not like anybody spends the morning after sex immediately jumping up to text their friends, so we didn't think much of it, and just flopped back down to deal with our aching heads.
I then got up and fetched us both cans of Diet Coke (what a great hangover cure!), and we returned to bed for a bit, debating what had become of the Young Dutchman (we were sure he'd met a girl and was having sex somewhere, but weren't sure who or where), and just talking about life in general. We seemed pretty chill together for just having spent the night together (although we definitely bumped into each other a few times in the night, there was no accidental cuddling or anything), although it occurred to me as we were sitting there that I had no idea if he was wearing any pants. Hence why I kept getting out of bed to fetch things, as I didn't want to make him get up and embarrass himself. Particularly as young men can sometimes have other embarrassing conditions first thing in the morning, especially if they just spent the entire night next to a girl. I later went into the kitchen and busied myself there for a while, until I heard him get out of bed and he came in to join me, at which point he was wearing jeans. So we survived the "lack of pants" issue.
Still, at this hour I doubt there was much on our minds beyond how much our heads hurt and how wretched our stomachs felt. The Young Dutchman's brother then had the inspired idea to order pizza online from Pizza Hut, the most disgusting, cheesy pizza we could think of, and have them deliver it to us. I gave him my iPad, he did all of the necessary work, and we were thrilled a while later when the phone rang and I was able to send him down to pay the delivery man.
We sat eating pizza for breakfast and talked about various topics, including how if we were in the Netherlands right now, we would likely be going to a cafe to get some weed and just getting high right then. I had to admit, as he talked about it, that sounded like an amazingly good idea. No chance of me being able to acquire any weed here in the UK (I'm the last person to have any idea how to buy illegal drugs), but he assured me that I'd visit him in the UK at some point and he would introduce me to his normal life. It always amazes me that the Young Dutchman's brother is apparently a total maniac at home, who goes out to techno parties all of the time and who smokes pot all of the time. Apparently when I see him, he's just in total chill-out mode, so I really only know one aspect of his personality. I'd be curious to see the other side of him sometime.
We also talked about the Young Dutchman for a bit, and his attitude towards friends. I think he has a lot more patience with people than I do, for if I don't find somebody interesting, I really have no tolerance for them, regardless of what connections they might have, or what they might be able to do for me. I've resolved in the New Year to be more patient with people, but in truth while I love many of the Young Dutchman's friends, some of them I find incredibly irritating. Yet as his brother talked through various ones of them with me, I realised that most all of them were well-connected in some way, and were "valuable" connections to have. I guess the Young Dutchman is just more calculating than I am in that regard, to surround himself with people who can be useful to him, regardless of how much he actually likes them. Given what he wants to do in life, this will actually probably serve him well. It's smart, at the very least.
Finally, just when we were really beginning to become concerned, around 3 PM my phone rang. It was the Young Dutchman, alive at last. Calling me first, before his brother, which was a bit of a surprise, but we were mostly just glad to hear from him. He was very cagey about where he'd been, but I didn't push it. He told us that he was going to go to Lotte's to help clean up the mess from the party, and that we should meet him at Kellogg Boy's house in about an hour.
It took us longer than that to get our act together (we were still moving rather slowly), but we got to Kellogg Boy's house and joined a few survivors from the previous day's party. Once there, we all got ourselves glasses of water, and sat down to play an incredibly complex Monopoly-esque game called "Power Grid."
Since none of us had ever played before (and we were all battling massive hangovers), it took us some time to set up and read through the rules, and even then we were still all rather confused. The game even required quite a bit of math, and somebody had the brilliant idea to make me the banker, which pretty much challenged all my mental capabilities at that point to the limit. I was just absolutely operating in a fog that day.
It didn't get any better when the Young Dutchman arrived, and sat down to tell us the story of how apparently Lotte came downstairs at 6 AM to find the Tall South African and Drunk Girl having sex in her bed. Eeewww. I found myself torn between feeling like I'd had a lucky escape to not have done anything with the Tall South African, and absolute mortification that I'd even been flirting with him. I could feel my face turning red with embarrassment (even though it wasn't me who did anything wrong!) as I imagined what other people must think of me for kissing such a guy with low standards that he would sleep with Drunk Girl. In somebody else's bed, at that! (Apparently Lotte had walked in on them, and been so startled that she closed the door while saying, "Sorry!" only to then open it back up and say, "Actually, not sorry, you two better change my sheets when you're done!")
Still, I calmed my embarrassment with the knowledge that only the Young Dutchman and his brother knew anything about my advance flirtation with the Tall South African. Hopefully I can just explain the rest away as having too much to drink. But once again why we try not to do that... I also found myself wondering why on earth does the Young Dutchman get to leave and go have sex with another girl without consequence, just the day after swearing that he was turning over a new leaf? Nobody is judging him for that, at all. It's so unfair how boys and girls are judged differently. We agree however, that Drunk Girl needs to be socially isolated for a bit. I mean, who DOES that? (Funny enough, although it's not like the Tall South African escaped without censure, he didn't take nearly as much blame for the incident).
Thankfully, I managed to put aside my embarrassment and mortification to try and concentrate on the game. In the end, I actually won the whole thing in a determined fell swoop at the end, somewhat negating the lesson about clean energy by winning it running coal and oil-fueled power plants. It was actually quite a bit of fun and incredibly strategic, when you got down to it. Much like Monopoly in that it takes hours to play, but I was feeling much better by the end.
At around 9 PM, the other survivors left to go back to Oxford, and I remained with the Young Dutchman, his brother, and Kellogg Boy. We watched funny videos on YouTube, some videos of amazing piano playing, and the boys played Minecraft for a bit, while I decided to check my Facebook. You can imagine my incredible shock and surprise to find that the Tall South African had written to me. Seriously? Oh well, not like I would ever take him seriously at this point...goodness knows what diseases he has if he'd sleep with girls like Drunk Girl!
Finally I was spacing out I was so tired, so I headed home at around 11, just making the last train on a Sunday night. Completely exhausted, it was time to go to bed!
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