Peach & Lemon

Chapter 10

School ended today. Me and Olive convinced Autumn to go to the party the Volleyball girls talked about. I'm going to pick up Autumn before the party and drop her at home, while Olive will be at the party house to help set everything up.
I already rang the doorbell. I look at my phone, it's almost eleven pm. The door opens.
"Come in!" Autumn pulls me, so I can get inside the house. "I'm not dressed yet." I follow her up the stairs and we get to her bedroom. She's not wrong, she's still wearing pajamas.
"Aren't your parents home?" I ask, since I haven't seen them, even though it's almost midnight on a Wednesday night.
"Both of them are attending work dinners." She's looking for clothes in her wardrobe.
"Would you be alone if you didn't come to the party?" I sit on her bed, looking at her.
"This happens a lot, I'm used to it." She takes out a dress. I hope she's not wearing that to the party.
"What do your parents do for a living?" I got distracted by her hair, which she curled. I can't decide if she looks more attractive with it straight or curled.
"My dad is a doctor and my mom is a lawyer." She takes out another dress. "What about yours?"
"My mother works in advertising and my father works in investigative journalism." I answer and she's done searching in her wardrobe.
"That's interesting." She smiles and she picks up both dresses she took out. "Which one should I wear?"
"None." My voice slippered in a non-friendly tone. More non-friendly than I expected. "Those don't really fit in the style of the party." I try to explain but she's already staring at her wardrobe again.
"What should I wear?" She asks herself. I get up and I'm posted beside her.
"What about this?" I pull out a white top and mom jeans.
"Twyla, this is my pajamas." She grabs the white top.
"No one will notice. I didn't, so that's not a problem." She raises one eyebrow.
"I'll go with this too." She grabs a yellow cardigan as well. "Should I put on some eyeliner?"
"Sure, natural makeup is the better choice!"
"And what do I do with my hair?"
"Do you know what boxer braids are?"

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We got to the party in my mom's car. My mom leant me her car under the conditions that I can't drink alcohol, do drugs or anything wrong. I wouldn't anyway, I need to bring Autumn home safe and sound.
"Wow, the music is... loud." She comments after we park outside the house.
"A little too much, isn't it?" She nods. "Let's go inside."
The first thing we see when we get inside is Olive and the Volleyball team. They're chatting with older dudes and between themselves. We join the conversation.
"Hi!" Autumn waves and they all wave back. Their awkward looks made me feel like I'm the cool friend that had to bring its little sister to the party. I have a feeling this is the start of my boring anti-party personality.
"You came!" Olive hugs her. She's the only one that shows Autumn the same affection as yesterday. People really change in front of others.
"I couldn't miss it." Autumn says while smiling. It's not her usual smile. She's uncomfortable.
"Good, 'cause we were just setting up the Truth or Dare place. Wanna play with us?" If I haven't seen Olive with Autumn, I would've said Olive is one of those people that like to party, drink and even hang out with sketchy guys with moustaches. However, Autumn told me about their tea parties. Either Olive has two personalities or she's just faking to please Autumn.
"Sure! Are you coming, Twyla?" Autumn grabs my hand. She's relieved with the idea of playing a game.
"Autumn, this is not the type of Truth or Dare you're thinking." I'm genuinely concerned about her.
"It can be fun!" She dragged me across the room. Everyone's sitting in a circle, with an empty bottle in the middle. I fit her between me and Olive.
"So, who starts?" A guy asks.
"I start!" A Volleyball girl talks loudly. This is a terrible idea.
"Okay!" When she touches the bottle, I feel fine, but when the bottle slows down in Autumn's direction, I start to freak out.
"Truth or dare?" The loud girl asks.
"Truth." Autumn answers and I can feel a thousand eyes rolling.
"Lame." The loud girl says and others laugh. "No one chooses truth."
"Well, it's Truth or Dare, so I can choose whatever I want." Autumn doesn't sound mad, she just sounds confused.
"Just pick dare already." Autumn thinks for a second.
"Fine. Dare."
"I dare you to do a blowjob to Michael." A guy, probably Michael, gets up.
"We'll do it upstairs." He has the same fuckboy style Dylan has. It disgusted me.
"Twyla..." She whispers in my ear. "What's a blowjob?" I blush and whisper her back the answer. Her expression turns horrified and disgusted at the same time.
"Ewwww, no! No way!" She gets up in quick movement.
"You have to do it, it's the dare." The loud girl rolls her eyes once more.
"I don't want to play anymore!" I get up as well, before she starts crying.
"You can't stop now. You're being a pussy." Others laugh again. Everyone except Olive.
"If she doesn't want to play, SHE WON'T!" I yell before Autumn gets more humiliated. I grab her arm and drag her out of the circle. I can only hear laughs.
"Thank you, Twyla..." Somehow I can hear her whisper louder than the music. I sigh.
"I'm going to get something to drink, do you want something?" I had the sentence «I told you this wasn't the truth or dare you thought.» ready to come out, I chose to be nice with her because it's her first time.
"Anything but alcohol will do." She's holding her own body. She's ashamed and afraid.
"Ok." I touch her shoulders. "I'm going to the kitchen to get you something. I won't take long. You'll stay here and wait for me. Don't talk to anyone, understood?" She nods and I go to the kitchen, leaving her next to a wall. I don't want her to come to the kitchen because almost everyone in there is trying to get their drugs on someone's drink. I can't take that risk.
I open the fridge, ignoring a couple making out on the island of the kitchen, and I get two cups and fill them with Sprite.
I go back to the place I left her. But instead of visioning a beautiful creature waiting for me, I see a beautiful creature afraid of my ex-boyfriend.
"Hey, cutie, are you alone?" I hear him saying while I'm going in full-range mode in his direction.
"I'm here with a friend..." She's compressed against the wall, as far as she could be from him.
"You said that last time, didn't you?" He touches her chin, ready to kiss her, when I grab his arm and push it away from her face.
"Take your dirty hands off her." I bark once. The second time you'll get bitten.
"Oh, Twyla, I was wondering where you would be." He's drunk. And I don't mean like a little drunk, like he had a shot or two. I mean he's drunk drunk, he probably doesn't know his name anymore.
"I'm right here." I give Autumn both drinks. It's hard to fight when my hand is holding two cups at the same time. "And you shouldn't be near her."
"Why not? You're afraid I'm better than you? That she'll choose me over you?" I roll up my sleeves and I close my fists.
"She would never choose you. Because she's not like the dirty sluts you date!" My voice is coming from the bottom of hell. All I want is to punch him.
"But she would make such a good doll in bed." I see in the corner of my eye Autumn shivering, in fear.
"She doesn't want your dirty short dick, Dylan." I get closer to him, standing between him and Autumn.
"It's funny how you say it's dirty and short, while you enjoyed so much getting some piece of it." He smiles like an old man harassing a kid.
"Shut the fuck up, Dylan."
"What did you say?" His smile opens even more.
"SHUT. THE FUCK. UP." My fists move by themselves and punch him in the face multiple times. His eyes turn red immediately and he's lucky I didn't break his nose, but that doesn't mean it's not bleeding. I grab him by his t-shirt and I kick his stomach. He bends and falls, after another kick that had his knees as a target. Or maybe it was just the alcohol in his blood that made him fell.
I keep punching and kicking him until four dudes get involved. Two of them grab me until I stop punching the air and the other two grab Dylan before he can get up and beat my ass.
"What happened?" One of the guys who's grabbing me asks. He has a worried expression. For sure less worried than Autumn.
"My ex is a dickhead." I spit on the floor. "He wanted to steal my girl."
"That's not cool, dude." One of the guys who's grabbing him obviously wanted to punch him too. Both of them let me go.
"Are you okay?" The first guy asked.
"I'm fine." I grab Autumn's wrist. "Are you okay?"
She is petrified. She's not even moving her eyes.
"I-I'm okay." Her face turns white.
"Autumn?" I grab her before she falls and I sit her down. She's still conscious. I gently slap her face to keep her awake. "Did you drink that?" I suddenly remembered I didn't try the drinks before giving it to her. I didn't know if it had drugs or not.
"No." I grab both cups and put them down. The drinks barely spilled. I drink a little from one of the cups and wait a few seconds. Nothing. No drugs.
"Drink it. Your sugar levels may be low." She drinks it with my help.
"Is there anything we can do?" The good guy asks.
"A cup of water would be good." I give him the other cup. "Throw that away." He runs to the kitchen with his friend and comes back faster than expected.
"Here." He gives me the cup of water and I make her drink again. "I'm Harry, by the way."
"Twyla." I answer when I see colors coming back to Autumn's face.
"This is my friend, Bryan." He points to his friend. I look at him and then to Autumn. They can't even look at each other. I can't believe this is Bryan. I mean the actual Bryan. She was right about one thing: they do look alike. He has this fashionable-nerd look: white shirts, college sweatshirts and perfectly pressed pants. "The ones that are grabbing the dickhead are Arthur and Zack."
"Thank you, Harry. And... Everyone." Dylan is on the floor but still breathing, unfortunatelly. Even if he wasn't, no one would care.
"You're welcome!" Harry sits on the floor, next to me. "Are you okay, miss?" I can't believe he just called MY girl miss.
"I'm fine, thank you." She answers, still not looking at Bryan.
"I'm going to take her home." I help her to get up and walk. "Thank you once again."
"No problem." Harry answers in everyone's place.
She almost fell again while I was taking her to the car, so I grabbed her in a bride-style and walked towards the car. I'm not a very strong person but I'm indeed stronger than other girls my age. And the fact that she's light makes my job much easier.
I really meant it when I said she had the body of a bikini model.
I place her on the front seat and I sit next to her, on the driver's seat. I don't start the car.
"Are you okay? Do you need something?" She stares at her own hands.
"Bryan was there." Her voice can hardly be heard.
"I noticed." I start the car and hold her hand with my right hand.
"And I embarrassed you." I stopped looking at the road for a second and I looked at her. Then, I remembered I'm the one driving.
"Autumn, you didn't embarrass me at all."
"But the truth or dare game, the drunk guy and then Bryan."
"Truth or dare is a stupid game and teenagers make stupid games stuppider. The drunk guy is drunk and stupid all the time. And Bryan... is just Bryan."
"I guess so..." I take my hand off hers, turn on the radio and low the volume. "By the way, is the drunk guy really your ex?" I blush for a second and I think about ignoring the question. I sigh.
"He is."
"And did you really had sex with him?" I let the radio fill the silence for a few seconds. I need to be honest with her. The last time I wasn't, she almost cut me off her life.
"I did." I swallow my saliva. "He was a mistake." I don't take my eyes off the road. "I was less cautious about my life back then. I used to drink and smoke. Then I stopped smoking. And then I stopped dating him. And when I met you, I completely forgot the reasons that got me to start drinking in the first place."
"Then, why did you lose your virginity with him?" This is a hard question to hear. And it's even harder to answer.
"I guess I just wanted to be like everyone else I knew. Lose my virginity at a party with a guy I dated for two weeks. Lose it in a random bedroom where the party took place. I'm pretty sure there were at least two couples doing it too in the same bedroom. Probably in the closet, I'll never know." Now that I said this, I don't even know how she's going to look me in the eyes again.
"Did you like it?" She asks in a kid's innocent and curious voice.
"I didn't lie about it being dirty and short. So that's a no." I'm just praying to get to her house as fast as possible.
"If you could go back and change it, would you do it?" Damn Autumn, stop with the questions!
"I would. I'm one-hundred percent sure I would."
"Would you do it with a girl like me?"
The question leaves me so dumbfounded that I forget, once again, to look at the road. I look at her instead. Does that mean she wants to do it with me?
"Why are you asking that?" I blink twice and when I see she's not moving her lips, I look back at the road. I wish I could look at her. She's so much prettier compared to the road.
"Because..." She exhales loudly. "I never thought about losing my virginity. When I started liking Bryan I started thinking that if we dated he would want to do it with me, and I didn't know if I was even ready." Dramatic pause. "And since nobody likes me in that way..." Hum? Excuse me? If nobody likes you in that way, then: nice to meet you, I'm nobody! "I never thought someone would actually want to do it with me." Another pause. "So would you?"
I think for a second. Be honest, Twyla. Just tell her how you feel and maybe you can end this night next to her, on a bed.
"I would, definitely." I try not to sound excited. I think it worked. "I mean, you're pretty, you're kind, sweet and I'm pretty sure you would be the best girlfriend on earth." I scratch the back of my neck.
"Thanks, Twyla. That means a lot." I pull up next to her house. I've never been so relieved to see her house.
"Are you sure you're okay?"
"I guess..."
"Do you want me to get inside with you?" She nods and I turn off the car.
I follow her inside the house and then her bedroom. I help her to free her hair from the boxer-braids. She plays with her nails.
"Can you get me some chocolate from the kitchen?" She asks and I do, even though I don't know where the chocolate is.
When I finally see where the chocolate was hidden, I get a ToffeeCrisp. When I come back to her bedroom, she's already in her pajamas. I give her the chocolate and she eats it slowly.
"I'm sorry I made you go to the party."
"It's okay. I'm glad I didn't get in any bedroom." She smiles and I can't do anything else but smile back.

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And, at night, I also deleted Dylan's follow request on my instagram.