Alex

"I'll be there in five minutes, okay? No! Yes, yes, yes! Why do you think that? I left the house a while ago, okay?" The doorbell rings so loudly that I close my eyes, and a laugh on the other end of the line makes me curse.

"I'm leaving the house right now, okay? Start without me." I hang up the phone before I hear the mockery on the other end.

I dropped my phone on the couch near the kitchen.

I look at the time on my watch and curse again, running my hand over my hair.

Drops fall and scatter on the floor. I ran the towel through it, trying to make the water disappear.

The doorbell rings again, and I roll my eyes, throwing the towel on the couch. I heard in my mind my mother's voice, scolding me from heaven for not hanging it up at that very moment.

"I'm coming! Jesus, what impatience!" I open the door, and I have to lower my eyes a little to see a little black-haired girl looking at me with an uncomfortable smile.

It doesn't take my brain long to recognize her.

Nothing has changed, even though it's been about four years since we were last together in the same room.

"Alex." Her voice sounds energetic, maybe more so than she would have wanted it to be.

My brow furrows, trying to think of the reason for her visit.

"Charlo..."

"Char is fine." She cuts me off, smiling a little awkwardly. "Are you about to leave?"

I blink, look at the street behind her, and notice that there is no car parked, no cab or even a bike to indicate how she got to my house.

My face starts to hurt from my frown.

"Yes, I... I was planning to go out, what are you doing here?" I ask, still with my hand on the door, unable to process anything, to remember to be polite and invite her in.

"Can I come with you?" Her question makes me turn to look at her again.

And that's when I noticed her outfit—a shiny dress, a little above her knees, tight on her breasts but hiding them without any problem.

"Do you want to go... How do you even know? Does your brother know...?"

"That doesn't matter, you don't have to worry about him," she says firmly, showing a darkness in her eyes that doesn't match the relaxed smile that's on her face.

I laugh, sighing, not understanding anything but interested in the present situation.

"Are you even of age?" I ask with all mockery. I know damn well she is; if I'm not miscounting, the last time we saw each other was at my graduation; she was barely 14 then.

"I am," she says, moving a little closer to me, determined to prove it somehow. My eyebrows rise. "I am! I'm serious, I can show you my ID if you want," she says and starts patting her dress, looking for a bag.

"I believe you." I say, and she turns to look at me. "I'm going to ignore the fact that you know where I live and that you know I'm going out and let you come with me. Just because I'm running late and they're waiting for me."

Her eyes light up, and her smile seems more genuine.

"Well, let's not keep them waiting any longer, then."

The music sounds loud, and despite being so early, the small discotheque is quite full.

I turn back, looking at the little black-haired girl, somewhere between frightened and amazed.

She watches the people moving from side to side with analytical eyes, as if she somehow wants to learn something from them.

I smile, intrigued, curious to ask her a couple of questions. Maybe it's going to be easier with alcohol in my system.

I take her hand, startling her with the touch. I smiled at her to reassure her.

"Come here." I whisper, pointing my head to some stairs where my group of friends is sitting around ordering drinks.

Charlotte nods, letting me lead her through the sea of people.

"Alex is here!" A blonde girl's shout causes the whole table to start screaming.

My laughter fills the place. My friends stand up, start hugging me, and half-heartedly scold me for taking so long.

It's not until their curious glances move to the little girl behind me that I turn to her, noticing that her hand is still clutching mine.

I pull her toward me a little.

"Guys, this is Charl-" Her eyes glanced quickly at me, and I let out a small laugh. "Char, she's the sister of an old friend. We happened to run into each other by coincidence, so I invited her over." I say smiling at her, seeing her smile of appreciation, as I avoid mentioning that she literally showed up at my front door.

"Welcome, Char. Come, sit here, you need to get as far away from Alex as possible before you catch his ugliness." Emi smiles at her, gently releasing Char's hand from mine and pulling her to sit next to her.

Two hands grab my shoulders, pulling me to the other side of the table.

"You could have told me you were coming late because you were with a girl." I roll my eyes at Mosi, a brown boy I met my sophomore year of college.

"Do you want to die?" I threatened jokingly, smiling at him.

"Isn't that what we came here for?" he replies, pushing me toward my seat as he asks the waiter for drinks.

Char

A loud knock is heard on the other side of the door, I startle, my body filling with panic at the sight of the dark room. I glance at the clock beside me, seeing that my nap lasted longer than I planned.

I sigh in relief as I notice that the headache that has been nagging me all day is finally gone.

I hear screaming from the other side and roll my eyes.

I search for my cell phone in my sheets. When I find it, I notice messages from my group of friends, calls and some private messages.

They're all going to a movie and a pizza dinner later.

I throw my cell phone on the bed, looking out my window.

The streetlights start to come on, and the sun slowly begins to set.

"It's today or never." I say, pushing the sheets aside, going into my bathroom, and coming out a few minutes later, ready.

I unplugged my computer that is on my faded desk after closing the Facebook tab, where it showed a picture of a boy holding a diploma with a huge smile on his face.

The music is louder than expected—not to the point where it gets annoying, but it's much louder than the poor sound my old computer lets out. It's comforting, the noise.

"My name is Emerie, but you can call me Emi." The blonde in a beautiful dress smiles at me, but her smile doesn't reach her eyes. Not since she saw us walking in together.

I smile back at her, but as usual, the smile doesn't reach my eyes. But she doesn't notice, not after so long practicing this smile.

The blonde girl quickly introduces me to her group of friends, but I just smile back.

"Do you want something to drink?" A voice near my ear makes me jump. I look at Alex next to me, he has approached without my noticing, interrupting the chat Emi and her friends had started to have and ignoring me a little.

"What are you drinking?" I ask, not afraid to show that I don't know much about drinks other than beers and the weird liquids they give out at my school's parties.

"It's something strong, do you want to try it?" He offers me his glass, a clear drink with ice.

I nodded, thanking him before taking the glass and taking a small sip.

My face scrunches up, the strong taste of alcohol is present, but after a while it doesn't taste so bad.

I smile and nod at him, and he smiles back before straightening up and asking a waiter to bring me a drink.

"How did you two meet?" The blonde girl's voice makes us both turn to look at her. Her eyes aren't the least bit curious, she smiles big at the sight of the boy next to me, delighted that he's approached, and she wasn't the one who had to approach him, as, I imagine, she was planning to do not too long from now.

Alex puts a hand on my shoulder. I turn to look at him, and he looks at me with a smirk that makes me squint.

I can imagine the millions of scenes running through his mind, looking for the most embarrassing one to tell.

I smile back, a bigger, more challenging one.

I have a few stories in store, too.

He raises an eyebrow, encouraged by the challenge. But he decides not to fight this battle.

"Like I said before, she's the sister of an old friend." I look away from Alex, smiling at Emi, and tell her wordlessly that we won't talk anymore, not to pry.

The blonde understands and smiles without showing her teeth.

The drink reaches me, and I savor its strong taste, sighing.

Hoping that it will take effect, that it will take effect as fast as possible.

"Why don't we play "Never have I ever"?" asks Emi, a couple of hours after we've arrived.

Everyone starts booing, even I, being the youngest there, frown in disgust.

"Never have I ever never? Isn't that a game for elementary school kids?" asks a boy standing next to Alex. "No offense, Char," he continues, and the table laughs.

Alex hits him on the head, and a genuine laugh comes from my lips.

Everyone is a little taken aback, but it doesn't take long for everyone's laughter to come back.

"Please, like we don't play those kinds of games anyway," the blonde insists, and I roll my eyes, a gesture that doesn't go unnoticed by Alex, who whispers for me to behave.

"If you want to..." replies, without much encouragement, the brown-haired guy who made the elementary school joke.

We started to play, first with silly questions so that those who did not know how to play could understand the game, then with more specific questions so that one or two people drank, revealing their secrets.

After a while, the game started to get boring for someone like me, who has done nothing more than challenge my mom a couple of times after an argument.

No one notices that I don't drink when everyone else does and that I do it at strategic times so that when they turn to look at my drink, I've downed it, but they don't know when I specifically took the sip. At least the others, because the only one who seems to keep an eye on my sips is the guy who brought me here.

"Want another?" His lips twitch, Alex points to his own drink and then mine, and I nod, grateful that I'm not the one who had to somehow interrupt the game to call a waiter.

Alex gets up, some people are booing him, thinking he decided to leave to avoid answering the question I didn't even hear. The black-haired man smiles big, trying to get his friends to calm down before approaching a waiter who didn't seem to hear us well over the music.

With a drink in hand, it looks like the game will continue for a couple more rounds.

It's Alex's voice that makes me pay attention to him.

"Never have I ever, I've kissed anyone." His eyes moved toward me. Everyone at the table starts booing again, saying that the test questions have already passed. But he doesn't flinch, his eyes don't move away.

My body stills as everyone around me raises their glasses and takes a sip of their drink.

His eyebrow rises as he himself sips from his red glass.

My smile grows innocent, and I shrug my shoulders. Leaving my drink on the table, making it clear that this round I won't be drinking.

"No one has ever wanted to." I whisper, hoping he manages to catch my words over the loud music, the singing of the people, and the cold darkness of that night.

His eyes are between disbelief and amazement.

"Impossible," he replies, loud and clear. "I don't believe you at all."

His friends start pacing back and forth, trying to pick up on who he's having the conversation with. But my eyes avert, and I take a sip of my drink to throw off the curious eyes looking for answers.

The night passes between songs and drinks. Some of the guys at the table have gone to the dance floor. Others have stayed quiet, talking at the table.

My eyes watch the lights on the moving bodies, a smile appears from time to time as I watch everyone's awkward steps.

My glass is empty, it's been a while now, but I haven't wanted to ask for a refill, nor has anyone made a point of asking if I want more.

Which is fine, because I don't think my body, inexperienced with strong drinks, can handle one more. Not when I see some lights spinning more than usual.

"Shall we go?" The voice of Alex sounds close but, at the same time, distant.

His hand has been placed delicately on my back, he has knelt down in front of me, trying to make eye contact with my eyes.

I smile at him.

"Do you want to leave already? I don't want to cut your party short." I tell him, or try at least, not to get too tongue-tied with my words.

The black-haired man smiles at me, a beautiful smile that reaches his beautiful black eyes.

"Don't worry, I had a long day too, shall we go?" he holds out his hand to me, and I grab it tightly when my brain picks up that I need my feet to manage to hold me up to the car.

Alex says goodbye quickly to his friends, I try to do the same, but my eyes seem to want to close.

I feel his body pass over mine, putting my seatbelt on.

"Char." A breath near my face makes me open my eyes. I startle at the sight of darkness but calm down as I see Alex's face close to mine.

His cold hands are on my face. Moving it back and forth gently.

"We're parked in front of your house, in case you haven't moved in over the years, of course."

My face goes to my side, looking at the small, tattered house in dire need of a paint bath.

I nod, looking at it, hoping it will somehow disappear forever.

"Thanks for the ride. "I say, trying to unbuckle my belt, but her hand goes over mine.

"Are you sure you can come in-like this?" My eyes go to my dress, and I frown. "I don't mean your dress, Char," he says, and I smile, of course.

"Don't worry, they're not home." I smiled at him without showing my teeth. "Thank you for today. Thank you." I say this to the gentleman in the cab before getting out of it and heading home.