The morning after.

In casual sex, one of the most dreadful things of all is the morning after. Well, of course, this is the time when you realize you've got yourself a great catch or you’ve had too much to drink last night. And there’s just too much to worry about, really—like morning breath, or that awkward conversation, or how to sneak out without waking up your partner, and where your underwear could be.

And if you indeed had too much to drink, you might want to ask yourself if you used a condom. Or if you did, did the condom remain intact throughout the whole session? Well, you know how that would turn out if it didn’t.

The thing is, more often than not, you’d regret what you did the night before, except when the one you managed to snag is John Lloyd Cruz or Sarah Geronimo. No, make that John Lloyd Cruz or Cristine Reyes (Sarah G will forever remain virgin in my thoughts). Going back, yes, most definitely you’ll end up regretting everything—maybe not immediately, but soon enough. Eventually, this certain feeling would haunt you, something will make your stomach sick, like you’ve eaten something rotten or like you’ve had too much Bacardi. Soon after you’ll feel like throwing up.

Sometimes it’s easier that you wake up beside someone you don’t like, because at least, the awkwardness will be shorter. You’ll just need to get dressed, say a line like, “Thanks for the night, see you when I see you” and never drink at the same bar again so you wouldn’t bump into each other anymore. And that’s it. Of course, the 30 minutes to an hour of that scene when you do those things would probably feel like forever, but at least it’s over when it’s over.

On the other hand, when you wake up next to someone great, you most probably would congratulate yourself that your charms worked exactly the way they should last night. And you’ll want to spend a night with this person again, amidst the awkward mornings after that might follow. Eventually, you’ll fall for this person and the casual sex wouldn’t be casual anymore, at least for you. You’ll end up forgetting that this person you’re with wanted casual sex in the first place, and casual sex will be the only thing he/she can give you, even in the long run.

What’s to regret, your low alcohol tolerance, or that you’re too stubborn to even start anything or to think about what’s right? But what is right in the first place when it comes to casual sex, or casual relationships? You ask yourself, and pretend to be confused. But in reality, it’s clear: you can’t really blame what happened to anything or to anyone other than yourself.

But there’s no use regretting anything because they’re done. You couldn’t change anything that happened in the past unless you know how to build a time machine like Stewie. What you can change is the future.

So you decide to stop, and tell yourself it’s over. Yeah, it’s over.

But one night you become stubborn again, get drunk, and wake up the morning after, with a big, throbbing headache and a painful heart. You can’t decide whether it was the hard drink you had last night, or the sting in your chest this morning that’s making you throw up.