I Can't Get Up

Chapter Four: Once A Friend, Always A Friend

"You're Hal," I look into the bright blue eyes that I used to see everyday as a child.

"I-I'm sorry," she stutters, getting a strong grip of my hand.

"Me too," I try to smile.

She returns my smile, "I hope we can still be friends."

"Once a friend, always a friend," I stretch my arms out to hug her and she gratefully accepts them.

She smells like alcohol, as I would expect considering how much she has drank.

"Here," I hand her her drink back as we let go of each other, "Sorry about that. I was just..."

"What you felt when you grabbed my drink was a need of escape. That feeling basically runs with me through my whole life," she takes a huge sip of her drink.

I give a slight chuckle and turn around so that my eyes meet Drew's, "I'm sorry I lashed at you," I wrap my arms around him.

He strokes my hair, "Do you think it's wrong of me to limit my girlfriend's drinking?"

I let go of him and grip him by his shoulders, "No. If you don't, then I'll be a drunk slut. Nobody wants that."

"Everyone has their moments," Drew gives a light-hearted chuckle, then turns to Hallie, who is continuing to drink.

"It's nice to know one of Celeste's childhood friends," he smiles gratefully at her. He's always wanted to know more about my childhood.

She shrugs, "I can see why you fell for her."

"It's kind of obvious once you get to know us," he wraps his arm around my waist as I look down bashfully.

"Hallie!" a voice rings above all the music.

The man who was standing beside her earlier came back and tugs on her arm, "Hallie! Stop all that drinking! I don't want my daughter to be drunk and unable to help around at the club. Just because we own this club does not mean that you can drink whenever you want!"

"You are not my dad! I am not your daughter!" Hallie looks at him with distaste.

"Stop talking nonesense! I may not be your birth father, but I am your father nonetheless!" he declares, "I wish you could be more like your brother. Actually, both of you are really stubborn, so scratch that." He looks over his shoulder to a boy who is listening to music and tapping his foot to the beat.

He looks up, seeing that the people around him are staring and he scans each of us. His grey eyes land on my eyes for a split second longer before returning to his own little music world.

That must've been Hallie's brother. They aren't blood related, but they technically have the same foster parents, so they are siblings.

The only memory about him that surfaces my mind is a really sweet one. I was about seven and Hal and I were having a water gun fight in her backyard. I tripped over a large rock and landed on a pile of little rocks. My knee was bleeding and her foster parents could not care less about us, so when I ask for a bandage, they rejected me. Her brother came out of nowhere and wrapped my knee in a nice felt bandage.

"Carter! Don't you remember Celeste?" Hal yelled to her brother, who has lifted his head and is staring at me in deep thought.

"Is she the girl who always came over when we were younger and everyone thought you two were the cutest?" his deep voice surprises me. The last time I heard that voice, it was high and unmanly.

"I think so," Hal shrugs, "We go to the same university," she informs me.

Her statement caught me off-guard for a moment. Never in a million years would I have thought that her parents would let them go to university. Unlike my parents, her parents really hate them. At least my parents like me. Even as children, I remember them being used basically as servants.