I'm wishing I'd never given Jamie his stone back. He doesn't half whine. I think the hair yanking pissed him off. The good news is that the banished voices have disappeared completely thanks to Chiku's little cocktail, and better yet, I've convinced Jamie to let me follow him back to the flat. I may or may not have threatened him. The ghoul patrol are under strict guidance to keep the blessed stones on their person at all times, even when in Chiku's house to avoid forgetting them.
It was easy. I told Jamie I'd found it on the kitchen table, and if he forced me back to the house now, I threatened to tell the Medakis he'd left it hanging around. It's kind of funny. He's clearly more afraid of people thinking he's careless than demon attacks, not that I don't think we're perfectly safe. The Medakis have confirmed so, as has Clara, so long as I stay close to a blessed stone.
We're nearly at our uni accomodation now, and to my surprise, Annabel has stuck with us throughout the whole journey. I was expecting her to go and try to rat me out to Sefu or Kato, or try to wake Chiku the second I made a run for it. She's not even asked Lucy, who's stuck with us for the ride as well, to verbally rat me out. She's been acting kind of weird since she caught me crying in the bathroom. She's become softer. It's kind of gross.
"Right," Jamie announces as he grabs my arm, and turns me to face him.
His eyes are boring into mine, and I don't know if it's because him pulling me closer has shortened the distance between the stone in his pocket and me, but I really want to laugh. We're standing outside our flat's door, and there's a heavy beat thumping from the flat opposite ours. I'd kill for a party right now.
"One hour, okay?" Jamie snaps, stealing my attention away from our neighbours' door. He spits a bit. My face is kind of wet. "Then I'm taking you back. I'm not letting your idiocy get me in trouble."
"Shouldn't have let me follow you then."
"You blackmailed me!"
Eh. Details. I tap his cheek a few times, grin, and turn back around to let myself into our flat. He's still complaining about something or other when I head into our kitchen-living area, but there's no sign of anyone. Damn it. I turn around, and make my way back into the hallway.
"Stop moving so fast! We have to stay close!"
I ignore Jamie. As I near my bedroom, the sound of muffled voices distracts me. They're coming from Tom's room. I barge in--probably should have knocked, but hindsight is a useless thing--and stop in the doorway to see Carmen, Ava, and Tom's peepers on me. Carmen and Ava sit on the bed, while Tom is halfway inside his wardrobe with clothes dumped over the floor beside it.
"Oh, hey Felix," Tom says with a wave.
"Whoa, Felix? What are you doing here?" Ava stammers before turning to Jamie. "What's wrong with you?"
"Well, for starters, he uses way too much hair gel. Complains a lot to," I answer Ava.
"Right? " Tom joins in. "Thought it was just me noticing the hair thing. He's posh as hell too, but I guess that's not something wrong, just--"
"Felix!" Ava tries again.
She holds her hands out in anticipation of a response.
"That house is driving me crazy, I just wanted to get out for a bit," I whine as an idea pops into my head.
I can't. I shouldn't. That would be really bad of me.
No, I can't.
"Being stuck in a house, one place, it's just, y'know, it's a lot sometimes. It's just... It makes me think of..." I let my voice trail off, and take a breath for dramatic effect.
God, I'm an arsehole.
Ava's face softens instantly, her dark eyes somehow turning lighter, while Tom's expression twists into a look of confusion. It clicks after a few seconds, and he lets out an ohhh. Even Jamie stiffens beside me, and the familiar look of intense guilt that appears so often on Lucy's face bursts back onto it. Hell, Annabel, who's standing above Carmen and Ava on the bed, even falls for it. Carmen, however, watches me with careful eyes from the bed. Five out of six isn't half bad.
Ava stammers a little, then shakes her head. "Next door are having a party. We were going to head over for a bit, but..." She bites her lip. "It's groovy, we can stay here. Just not long, okay?"
I raise my eyebrows. Party? My expression must be giving everything away because within seconds, the paranoia patrol are all piping up.
"No," Ava demands.
"No way." Carmen this time.
Ten minutes later, all seven of us are heading to the flat next door, ghosties included.
It took a lot of bargaining on my behalf. I've agreed to not touch a drop of alcohol, and the hour rule still stands. I have to stalk at least one of them at all times to stay in close proximity of a blessed stone, which is easy enough.
"Was that bullshit?" Carmen whispers into my ear as we wait for the neighbours to respond to our knocking. "The house thing?"
I flick my eyes to her, and in a hushed tone, say, "convincing, right?"
"Arsehole!" Annabel snaps from behind me.
I don't know why this didn't occur to me beforehand, but turning up at a university flat party as the student who went missing, then turned up unconscious on a road in the middle of nowhere several weeks later tends to garner attention. Within five minutes of being inside the flat, four people have asked me if I'm that guy, while I've caught plenty of others staring.
"We didn't think this through," Carmen shouts over the intense dance music as she, Ava and I find ourselves a space on one of the bedroom floors.
Annabel and Lucy haven't followed us into the room, and it's immediately clear why. The place is rammed, and even though they technically don't need empty space to exist, I don't think a sweaty teenager literally standing inside you is the most pleasant experience.
"It's fine," I call back. "Thinking things through is boring."
"Whoa, maybe we should just take you back," Ava interjects. "My parents are going to kill me as it is, I don't--"
"Felix!" a voice shrieks from the doorway, and the second I meet the eyes of the person the animalistic sound came from, I regret every decision I've made tonight.
Katie, who I've not had the pleasure of seeing since we left to meet Connor in London, bursts into the room. She dives forward and forces me into a hug, crashing against me so hard that I barge into Carmen, almost knocking her and Ava down like a pair of dominos. Once she's done suffocating me, Katie plops herself into the cramped, empty space to my right.
"I can't believe you're here! You're so brave, I can't even imagine--Wow!" Her words are slurred, and she's rocking slightly. "I broke up with Jakey after I found out. It makes you realise, y'know? You don't know what's going to happen. You can't settle." She jabs her index finger against my chest.
Using my near death as inspiration for breaking up with her boyfriend is an interesting approach, but each to their own.
"Carmen's my girlfriend now," I reply, not entertaining Katie for a second after what happened last time she got too close.
Katie shoots forward and turns her head to my left, her blonde hair whipping me in the face as she does so. Ow. When her gaze lands on Carmen, her mouth juts open, and I get the impression she didn't even notice Ava and Carmen sitting right next to me.
"Oh, no way! That's amazing!" Her voice is sickly sweet.
"Groovy. Bye Katie," Ava announces as she jumps to her feet.
Carmen and I follow her lead, and I escape the room faster than I thought possible. Carmen's doubled over laughing as we move between people in the hallway, while Ava sways to the music blasting around the flat with a soft smile on her face. Her eyes are closed, so I have no idea how the hell she's not dancing headfirst into anyone.
"I'm so glad you came," Carmen says through a laugh. "That was hilarious."
"Should I be afraid of her?" I question as we make our way into the kitchen. "I'm afraid of her."
"Have you ever read the book, Misery?" Carmen asks, to which I shake my head. "Stephen King?" Again, I shake my head. "Wouldn't recommend."
What? Now I want to read it. I don't ponder too long on the thought because soon after entering the kitchen, Tom's booming voice catches my attention. He's sifting through a mass of teenage bodies as he approaches us with Jamie not far behind. Annabel and Lucy are standing at the kitchen island we've stopped at, and are they..? They are. Damn, they're talking normally. Annabel doesn't even look slightly rage-fuelled. It's a Christmas miracle, minus the Christmas.
"I call bullshit," Annabel huffs, and wait--Damn, I spoke too soon. I think they're arguing. "As if. You're, like, thirteen."
"I'm fourteen!" Lucy argues back as I stop beside them with raised eyebrows.
"Hey, you," Annabel clicks her fingers at me like a goddamn dog. "Lucy's saying she's been to multiple uni parties before. Bullshit or no bullshit?"
There's a teasing voice in Annabel's tone, and it makes me smile. They're faux arguing. Maybe this is a Christmas miracle, after all.
"You make it sound weird!" Lucy whines. "I've been with my boyfriend's brother. He goes to uni, and he invites--Well, invited me to loads of cool parties and stuff. My boyfriend too, obviously."
"I literally couldn't give a shit if I tried," is my response to Annabel. I turn to Lucy, then say, "no offence. I just--"
"Why do you all move so fast? It's imperative we stay close!"
I spin around and nearly wet myself when I see Tom's face unnervingly close to mine as Jamie, the source of my interruption, rushes towards us. Those in the room who have no idea who Jamie is, or what the hell he's talking about, shoot him perplexed glances. I'm not sure if it's because of what he's saying, or the fact he's the kind of guy to use words like imperative casually.
"Are you drinking yet?" Tom asks me.
Jamie joins us seconds later, and I laugh as the guy literally shoves some random student off one of the kitchen stools so he can sit onto it. I don't even think he knows the kid. Jamie is so accidentally hilarious sometimes, I swear.
"He's not drinking, Tom," Carmen replies in a serious voice.
Tom rolls his eyes. "What? We're not actually doing that, are we? C'mon, Felix is fun when he's drunk."
"The people have spoken," I say with a shrug.
I reach for the plastic cup in Tom's hand, but my arm is smacked away by Carmen before I can get very far. She shoots me a look of disapproval, and it's annoying because if it was any of the other guys, I'd ignore it. Maybe not Ava. She still scares me a bit.
A few minutes later, Tom and I are dancing around the kitchen in circles to Cotton Eye Joe. The prospect of Tom being responsible for a blessed stone terrifies us all, but the risk is worth it. This is great. The best time I've had in literal weeks. Ava, Carmen, Annabel, Lucy and Jamie have stayed at the kitchen island, and the girls are laughing their guts out at us, while Jamie's got a face like a slapped arse. Strangers' eyes are staring at Tom and me as we make absolute arses out of ourselves, but I couldn't care less if I tried.
Ava sticks to her hour rule annoyingly well. Exactly one whole hour after stepping into this flat, she's dragging me out of it. It's literally by the minute. It's pretty petrifying, actually. I'm conscious this lot have well and truly stuck their necks out for me, especially Ava, so I don't fight back, particularly given I made up some bullshit about being traumatised to guilt them into letting me stay.
I was hoping Carmen would be my chauffeur back to Chiku and Sefu's place, but I've been lumped with Jamie. It's the safer option, given Carmen dropping me off would mean her having to walk back here alone. I argued Carmen could take on someone way more successfully than Jamie, but the others wouldn't buy it. They definitely agreed, just didn't want to upset Jamie. I want to grab some clothes from my bedroom before we leave, and they've at least given me permission to do that without Jamie breathing down my neck.
My hand is in Carmen's as we head into our flat, and I never expected to think this, but I miss this place in all its cluttered, cramped glory. I miss the normality of it. I hesitate as I step inside my room. I'd forgotten how messy I was.
"Ew, have you always been this gross?" Annabel mutters behind us.
I turn my head and shoot her a scowl. It's not like I wasn't thinking the exact same thing, but no need to be an arsehole. I try to ignore the mess as I step towards my wardrobe. It's not like Carmen has never seen this before, so I don't know why I'm so embarrassed. She sticks to me like glue as I start searching through the wardrobe, while Annabel perches her dead arse on my desk chair.
"Sit on the bed if you want," I say to Carmen, motioning towards it. "Just move the, uh, the books and clothes and... and whatever that is."
Carmen laughs lightly. "I think it's an empty packet of crisps, one of those big multipack ones." She shakes her head. "I don't know what a safe distance is, for the stone."
"Eh, I'm sure it's fine."
"Due diligence isn't your forte, is it?"
I stop snooping through my wardrobe to look at Carmen. She's standing with her arms crossed, her hair tucked behind her ears. They're small. Have her ears always been that small? It's kind of cute. Why do I find that cute?
"What?" Carmen asks, a playful smile on her face. "You're staring."
"Am not."
"Are so."
"Alright, I'm out," Annabel announces from the chair, but I don't even glance at her.
A grin breaks itself onto my face. I bend down, and before Carmen can even try to question what the hell is happening, lift her over my shoulders.
"What are you doing?" Carmen shrieks through laughter as I awkwardly stumble around the room.
"You said we have to stay close," I reply casually.
I drop Carmen onto my bed, careful to make sure she avoids the textbooks I've left there. I go to turn back to the wardrobe, but she grabs my arm before I can get very far. She's still laughing, as am I.
"Have you taken something since I saw you this morning?" she asks, still refusing to let go of my arm.
"What? Why?"
"You just seem really..." Carmen's eyes move around as she searches for whatever word she's looking for, and her face softens. "Happy." She pauses. "It's nice."
Her eyes ooze into mine, and I dread to think how dull mine must look in comparison to the honey colour of hers. She's right. I don't know if it's Chiku's cocktail deluding me, but screw it, I'm happy. Genuinely happy. Holy shit, I've missed this feeling.
I join Carmen on the bed, shoving a pile of clothes onto the floor in the process, and kiss her. She sits up slightly as she kisses back, and her hands find my face as I pull her closer towards me. Her fingers run through my hair while I start kissing her tanned neck, and I brush my lips against her collarbone.
"We need to get back to the others," she murmurs between kisses.
A few seconds later, she's pulling my t-shirt off over my head, so I take that with a pinch of salt. The idea of this, of even being close to Carmen, to anyone, has been so far away in my mind. Any desire for it just disappeared, as if that part of me got switched off somewhere between Connor's house and the hospital, but now it's been switched back on, it's all I can think about. I keep kissing Carmen as my fingers find their way to the buttons on her blouse, while her own veer towards my flyer.
Then a screech, this one the most horrific yet, pulls all my attention away from Carmen, except no, it's not the banished.
"Felix! Help!"
It's Annabel.