Ch.47

After Eric's freakout and panic, we all sat at the dining table staring at one another awkwardly. I was trying to think of how to word what I wanted to say, while Alex looked like she wanted to hide under the table. Maya looked the same way, wanting to hide under the table. However, Eric was staring at me like I stabbed him in the back and horrified that we may have all slept together. 

"Ok…" I say clearing my throat and grabbing everyone's attention before continuing.

"So, let's be adults… Now from the looks of it, we didn't sleep together last night. Though for some reason you did end up in our room last night. Plus apparently everyone for some reason passed out naked, so more reason to suspect nothing really happened," I say being the voice of reason at this somehow even more awkward table than last night at the 'family' dinner. 

"True…" Maya says with Alex nodding her head in agreement. 

"How can you not know?! I thought you had a photographic memory!" Eric says as he rubs his head trying to piece last night together. 

"Because alcohol-related blackouts are gaps in a person's memory for events that occurred while they were intoxicated. These gaps happen when a person drinks enough alcohol to temporarily block the transfer of memories from short-term to long-term storage 'known as memory consolidation' in a brain area called the hippocampus," I say bringing back my decades of medical knowledge.

"Plus, There are two types of blackouts; the severity of the memory impairment defines them. The most common type is called a 'fragmentary blackout' and is characterized by spotty memories for events, with 'islands' of memories separated by missing periods in between. This type is sometimes referred to as a grayout or a brownout. Complete amnesia, often spanning hours, is known as an 'en bloc' blackout. With this severe form of blackout, memories of events do not form and typically cannot be recovered. It is as if the events simply never occurred," I continue as Eric looks like he has lost what I am saying, while Alex is giving me an impressed and turned-on look. While Maya is just nodding her head, following what I am saying. 

"So all in all, a blackout is not the same as passing out, which means either falling asleep or losing consciousness from drinking too much. During a blackout, a person is still awake but their brain is not creating new memories. Depending on how much the person drank, it is possible to transition from having a blackout to passing out. That means even with my 'perfect' memory, I cannot draw back the information. As it truly is lost to us, unlike in movies and TV shows, they won't be returning to us," I say to them all as Eric is completely lost now, with Maya understanding most of what I said. While Alex looks like she wants to jump my bone, as she really likes it when I get into my technical tangents. 

"Yeah, but I remember the beginning, just not after like the ten shot," Eric says seeming to still not understand. 

"Like I said, we truly blackout at one point unable to retain any memories during that time. However, at some point, we sobered enough to fall asleep, so towards maybe the last hour of consciousness we'd remember at some point," I say trying to make it more simple for him. 

"OK, so when will we remember what we did last?" Eric says as I shrug. 

"Who knows, could be now, in a few minutes, hours, days, or even weeks," I say to him as the brain is a very tricky place and is one of the major places in the human body we haven't learned everything about. 

"Fuck!" Eric says annoyed now understanding what I'm saying. 

"So now what?" Maya says as we all look at each other. 

"We could follow the schedule you guys made before we came. Like I said let's be adults and just pretend nothing happened," I say as everyone nods their heads. 

We all then head out to follow their schedule for today. An hour after we left the penthouse, I remembered some flashes of last night towards the end. I made an understanding face, as the last bit of last night finally came back to me. 

All I could remember was Alex and I were in our room making out with things quickly turning hot and heavy. We threw our clothes and they seemed to have fallen behind our bed frame. However, before things could escalate, Maya came in still very drunk mumbling about being unable to sleep. Then seeing us naked for some reason decided she should be naked too, throwing her clothes in the hallway before walking inside and collapsing onto the bed. 

'We– we… we should let her sleep… plus I'm dead tired too,' I remember Alex saying with a drunken slur before cuddling next to Maya passed out now too. Shortly after I passed out right next to Alex. 

'So one of the staff must have grabbed Maya's clothes from the hallway… As for why Eric woke up naked, I've no idea,' I think to myself as the group is walking. 

"Guys, I remember the last bit from last night…" I say and explain to them my memory as everyone looks relieved. Then a few seconds later Eric scrunches up his face in confusion. 

"Then why the hell was I naked?!" Eric says as people walk by us, but thankfully it's NYC, and no one here cares about anyone else. 

"I don't know 'cause you're a weirdo?" Maya says to her brother as he ignores her and tries his best to remember. 

"Shit," Eric says having no memory of how he became naked. 

Then as we continued doing what the girls planned, Maya and Alex remembered exactly what I already did, reconfirming my story. Eric was becoming increasingly frustrated at not knowing how or why he was naked too. Then we all finally returned to the penthouse. Where Albert was waiting for us by the front door. 

"Welcome back everyone, at your father's request all the alcohol was locked and made unable to be at your service. Especially since Young Master Eric went streaking through the house last night and attempted to seduce some of the maids. Master John had too many bribes last night," Albert says since he and their Dad were nowhere to be seen this morning, thankfully Albert left breakfast for us. 

"Yeah, that tracks," I say nodding my head as Eric just grumbles about not being able to drink and walking away. 

Then somehow we had an even more awkward family dinner, that ended longer than the last one. However, this time everyone was sitting in silence, most likely because Maya was embarrassed from last night. That and Eric looked in no mood to talk with his father, while their father seemed content not to talk. As for Alex and I, we were fine with sitting in awkward silence too. 

Thankfully the next few days ended with no more hiccups. That was until the last weekend of the vacation came. Eric conceived us all to go to a local club he knows won't card us because of his name. So we all dressed up later that day for the nightclub. 

"Let me handle this guys," Eric says walking over to the bouncer and talking with him before slipping him what looks like a hundred or two. 

"Come on guys!" Eric says as we all follow him inside to see a very large nightclub that is the size of a warehouse. 

With two stories, a large bar, a huge dance floor, and a VIP section on the second floor where Eric took us. The music was loud as one would expect from a nightclub, where you had to talk louder than normal to be heard. For such a huge place it was very crowded too, with well over a hundred people in here and several dozen more waiting to come inside. 

"I know the owner! He is a cool dude and since I used to come here a lot in high school, spending a lot of money, he is cool as long as we don't go crazy!" Eric says as we walk upstairs to a certain corner of the club's second floor. We enter a private room that could easily fit ten or fifteen people, along with a minibar and server inside the room. 

"So this is my usual spot here," Eric says once we enter the private room and it is much quieter in here so you don't have to shout to hear one another. 

"This is where you'd go after school every day with your buddies? No wonder Dad was all over you," Maya says looking around as the staff member took our drink orders. 

"Plus this place has private shows if you catch what I'm saying," Eric whispers to me as I notice the very obvious stripper pole centered around the large circular couch. 

"All, I'm saying is we could easily hook up with some people here. Well except for Gabe and Alex," Eric says as his sister gives him a deadpan look. 

"Alex, want to dance?" I say ignoring the bickering between the siblings. 

"Can I get my drink first… you know I hate dancing," Alex says with a nervous voice as I laugh and grab her waist dragging her to the dance floor below us. 

"Gabe!" Alex says as we walk to it, she stiffens up but slowly starts to enjoy herself as we dance. 

Alex no longer wears glasses as much, usually her contacts so she has no worry about losing her glasses in a tightly packed place like this. Then as we were dancing, Eric and Maya joined us. We were all enjoying ourselves, and then Alex and I left after what felt like an hour of dancing to grab our drinks. 

"Seems Eric found someone," I say gesturing to Eric as we lean against the railing over overlooking the ground floor and dance floor. We can see Eric currently tongue-deep in a woman's mouth near the bar below. 

"Jesus," Alex says seeing them have no shame at the very handsy groping they are doing in public. 

"We should help Maya, she looks to be overwhelmed," Alex says as we look over to see Maya cornered by some guys trying to pick her up. 

"Right," I say as we make our way down to rescue her. 

"Leave her alone!" we hear a very familiar woman's voice say as we approach them. 

Finally arriving we see Haley and Andy next to Maya having gotten rid of the guys cornering her. Alex and I look stunned seeing them, as it seems for some reason the two of them are here. 

"Haley?! Andy?!" Alex says as they all turn to us and Haley smiles at her sister giving her a familiar hug, which Alex was too stunned to respond to immediately but then returned a few seconds later. 

"You ok Maya?" I say as the sisters hug. 

"Yeah, thanks to Haley and Andy," Maya says gesturing to Haley and Andy who gives me an awkward wave. 

"Hey," Andy says with his awkward wave, since the last we saw him he was the reason Haley cheated on my cousin. 

"Hey Andy," I say with disapproval in my voice. 

"Why are you guys here and I mean the city, but I guess the club too," Alex says to her sister making sure she knows what she really means. 

"Cause Andy was offered a dream job of his, but back in Utah. However, we decided to go on a vacation before he left. And we both wanted to see New York, so here we are. Plus you know it was easy for me to talk my way into any club I want," Haley says explaining the situation. 

"Well, tonight just got more interesting," I say hearing her and now Eric is walking over with his hand on his new 'friend's ass.