Hold Me Close

Chapter Twenty Four: My Girl

"Yeah, but where did he go?" I asked...again.

"I think he said something about getting some stuff from his apartment. I don't know what though, he kind of left in a bit of a hurry." She replied.

"Oh, well speaking of jumping ship, Jason and I need to go out and get a bottle of champagne." Alyssa said, hopping off of the couch and onto her paws.

"We do? What for?" I asked.

"It's New Years Eve silly, and you always need champagne on New Years. Vive le Français!" She said. New Years! Of course! How could I have forgotten?

"Oh yeah! Okay let's go." I said, also getting up. I slipped on the pair of shoes that I had left by the door and followed Alyssa outside.

It took us about ten minutes to reach the liquor store, then the thought struck me. Neither of us are legal. I knew that my sister was on holiday, so she wouldn't be able to help us, and no one in our little group was above 21 either [Jesus Christmas America, 21? Really? In Canada it's 18.]

"Umm, Alyssa?" I asked, shooting her a worried look. She seemed to know what was on my mind.

"Don't worry about it, I have it covered." She said, opening her door and stepping outside. I followed her example before asking a follow up question.

"You do?" I asked confusidly.

"Mhm, right after Christmas your sis gave me an idea, so I paid an old buddy of mine and he made me a fake ID. So I'm 22, got it?" She said. Dumbfounded I nodded my head in agreement.

"Psychopath..." I said quietly under my breath. But leave it to feline hearing to get me caught, because she heard me.

"Mhm, you knew what you signed up for." She said, pushing the glass door open, causing a little "Ding Dong" sound to chime through the package store. We scoured the isles of spirits, looking for the tell-tale gold foil cap signifying champagne. When we finally found it, we looked along the grouping of bottles and found the most expensive one, might as well. The name of it was completely written in French, something like "Fais Ta Fille." The name seemed to cause Alyssa to laugh.

"I forgot you know French, what does it say?" I asked, honestly curious. Still laughing she answered my question.

"It means 'Do Your Girl.'" She said, making me laugh.

"That's horrible!" I laughed, picking up the bottle and giving it to her. We walked over to the register, where an old, old tan snake was. Alyssa put the bottle up on the counter, also pulling out some cash and a very real looking Identification Card.

"$43.50." He croaked, flicking his y-shaped tongue while he spoke. Alyssa slid a $50 bill and her "ID" over to him. "I also need his." He said, pointing to me. You know that moment when all stages of inner panic hit at once, and you get that cold, weightless feeling in your core? Yeah, that was me, right then and there. I looked nervously over to Alyssa, who was remaining surprisingly calm despite the situation that we were currently in.

"I-I think I left my wallet at home." I lied. But Alyssa, smart and clever as always, came to the rescue.

"Oh don't worry hun, I grabbed your ID on our way out." She said, reaching back into her purse.

"You did...?" I asked, still not sure where she was going with this, I mean, she was the one with the fake ID. But nope, apparently I'm also three years older because she pulled out a license identical to the one she had presented earlier, the only difference was the picture and the information. I decided to play along, as that was the move that made the most sense. "Bless sweetheart." I said, giving out an audible sigh of relief. The cashier looked over both ID's, to ensure that they were "legit" and rung up our order, gave us our change, and sent us out on our merry way.