The Art of Losing Yourself

"Cara! Your hipster is here!"

"Caroline, I swear to God if you don't take your Goddamn sewing shit off the kitchen table we will accidentally get pizza crumbs all over this ugly fabric!" Ollie screamed from the kitchen.

"Would you hold on? Seriously, I'm curling my hair!" Caroline yelled back from the bathroom. There was a chorus of laughs from the kitchen. The laughs belonged to Ollie’s bestfriends; Cal, Blake, and Cody. Despite Cara’s pleads, Ollie had invited them over for pizza.

"Awe, Cara's doing her hair!" Cal joked. More laughs. Cara stormed out of the bathroom with her hair half-curled.

"Oliver, I thought I told you that they can't come over tonight. I told you this morning that I have a guy from school coming over!" Cara yelled at her sister. It was roughly 6:00, Cara's dude was supposed to be here at about 7:00

"That's precisely why they're here. We can't have our precious Cara dating someone we don't approve of, right boys?" Ollie smiled, sitting on the countertop and munching on a slice of pizza. Cara sighed. She moved her sewing stuff from the table and into her room. Cal, Cody, and Blake nodded in agreement. Cara sent her a glare. “Fine, we’ll meet him, then we’ll go to the bar. Deal?” Ollie gave in.

“Deal. But if you screw this up for me, I’ll kill all of you. Got it?” Cara threatened. Ollie and the boys nodded. Cara returned to the bathroom to finish her hair, and Ollie, Cal, Blake and Cody stayed in the kitchen to eat.

“So, we’re going to the bar, then?” Cody asked. The bar is where Cal works. He lives directly above it, in an apartment. Although he’s the only one of us that is legally allowed to drink, Cal’s brother owns the bar and lets us hang out there and drink whenever we want.

“I guess. I don’t really care. Or we can go smoke. Doesn’t matter to me.” Cal laughed. The four discussed the night’s plans, and it was decided that they’d hang out on the roof of Cody and Blake’s apartment building and roll a few joints. After the pizza was gone, they migrated to Ollie’s room to play some PS3.

“Dude! What the fuck! Oliver!” Cal yelled, when Ollie shot him. “I swear to God if one of you… FUCK! FUCKING CODY!” He yelled again.

“Hey Cody, guess what? FUCK YOU!” Ollie shouted, then sniped cody.

“OLIVER! Shut up! He’ll be here any minute and I don’t want you scaring him away!” Cara yelled, pounding on the bedroom door. As if on cue, there was a knock on the front door. Ollie and the boys ran out of her room, knocking Cara out of their path on the way to the door. When he tried to stop, Blake lost his footing and slammed into Ollie, knocking her into the door.

“What the fuck, man?” She said, hitting him in the stomach. She pulled the door open to reveal a very confused blonde guy with hipster glasses and a peacoat.

“Uhhhh…” The guy mumbled. “Caroline…?” He questioned.

“Oh, hell no. I’m Ollie, Cara’s sister. That’s Cal, Blake, and Cody.” Ollie said, pointing to the boys, in order. “CARA!” Ollie shouted, turning around. “YOUR HIPSTER IS HERE!” She added. Cara pushed through the boys and stood next to her.

“You can leave, now, Oliver.” Cara whispered. “Please. Just, please.” She mumbled. Ollie sighed and went to get her shoes. From her bedroom, she grabbed a pair of DC’s and a hoodie and the four of them were out the door. But of course, not before Ollie reminded her sister to use protection.

Walking down the road to Cody and Blake’s apartment complex, Cody and Blake walked ahead of Cal and Ollie. The walk was pretty quiet, which was a first.

But the silence made sense to Ollie when Cal reached over and grabbed her hand.