Your Sweet Talk Always Was A Bit Much

            The school year had barely started and it already felt like it was dragging. This was the last year I'd be stuck here, although where I'd go after this I hadn't the faintest idea. I got back home from school early on Friday, dropping my bag on the sofa and throwing myself down next to it. From the living room I could clearly see the kitchen with dishes piled in the sink. I groaned, but at least Damien at cleaned up most of the cups and ashtrays that had been littered around the apartment. Deciding to get the housework done with before I would let myself enjoy the weekend, I pulled myself up and took my sweater off. I started gathering any dishes or glasses and carried them into the kitchen, throwing anything disposable into a trash bag. This was my deal with Damien: I got to live here with him and in exchange I did most of the housework – dishes, cooking, cleaning, laundry. He was hopeless at it, and I didn’t really mind. He was my brother’s best friend and we got on really well, he was almost like a second brother to me.

            As I stood by the sink doing dishes the door opened and the sound of voices carried over. I didn’t bother looking up; our apartment was like a way station for people that Damien knew. Last night we had some people over that turned into quite the party. I was pretty sure that someone was still passed out somewhere.

            “Hey Mads!” Damien’s voice came booming through the kitchen.

            “Hey there. I’m surprised you’re awake this early,” I smirked over my shoulder at him. My gaze shifted from Damien to the three people behind him and I turned back towards the sink scowling. They were from my school.

            Damien was rummaging around the fridge, getting out a beer. “You guys want one?” he asked the two guys and a girl, handing them bottles. They all sat around the kitchen table chatting as I continued washing up and ignored them.

            Suddenly Damien laughed, “Morning sleeping beauty.”

Before I could turn around to look a pair of arms wrapped themselves around my waist and someone pressed against my back. ”Morning,” mumbled someone I was pretty sure was Lex against my shoulder. I turned my head towards him and sure enough, it was Lex. Lex with very bad breath.

“Wow. You are in desperate need of some mouthwash,” I told him, chuckling with my nose wrinkled.

“I don’t have a toothbrush here,” he replied, talking into my neck now to muffle the smell.

“Use mine.”

“Ooh, a whole new stage in our relationship,” he said smirking, pressing harder into me.

I laughed, flicking soapy water at him. He let go of me and stepped back. “I better go use your toothbrush before you change your mind.” I saw Sarah staring at Lex’s chest and ass as he turned and walked away.

Lex was back by the time I had finished the dishes, this time wearing a shirt, and he pulled me to him when I went to sit down, settling me on his lap instead. I sighed inwardly, but let him do it. Lex had been trying to get me for a while now. He was a friend of Damien's and was over at our place a lot for parties. First he had just wanted to screw me, and I had laughed in his face. But he hadn't let up and eventually it was obvious that he really liked me. Not that that made any real difference to me. I had noticed myself being less harsh with him recently; he really didn't deserve me acting like a bitch. So I bit my tongue and stayed on his lap, trying to get comfortable.

“Madeleine, right?” Luke, one of the guys from my school, asked.

I raised an eyebrow. “Right.”

“How do you know Damien?”

Damien chuckled while I answered, “I live with him. How do you know him?”

Blake choked on his beer while Sarah and Luke looked confused. “You live here? But –“ his eyes travelled to Lex, who was resting his chin on my shoulder while his arm remained around my waist.

“This is Lex Harris. We’re friends.” I could sense Lex frowning at that, but I ignored him. “Damien and I aren’t together, we’re just roommates. Any further questions?”

“Why do you live here?” Sarah asked.

“None of your business.”

“Are you like a maid?” She stupidly asked.

I burst out laughing at that, as did Damien when he saw I wasn’t offended. Lex proved to be less impervious to insults than either of us, and he glared angrily over my shoulder at the girl.

“Mads and I go way back,” Damien answered once he calmed down. “She needed a place to live and I owe her from all of her sandcastles that I stomped on when we were kids.” He took a swig of beer grinning at me.

“That’s the least of what you owe me, bud,” I muttered darkly, making Damien laugh again.

“She’s like my really hot little sister, who I love in an unfortunately completely platonic way,” Damien said, although no one at the table appreciated the comment. Lex tightened his grip on my waist, pulling me closer, while Luke, Blake, and Sarah looked stupefied, as though none of them had ever thought to put the thought of me together with the word ‘hot’. Not that I blamed them. I was a completely different person at school than I was with my friends and family. I didn’t like people at my school and didn’t make any kind of effort to bond with them. I had my own friends from my old school that still lived around here and my brother's friends, like Damien. Although most of them had left along with my brother. And I had enough drama from them to last me a lifetime.