Updated: 10/04/2019

Enjoy, guys!

"Wow, I guess you really can clean up good."

Alex opened his eyes and looked over at Sabina, his hands freezing as they ran gel through his hair to style it. He knew for a fact that he looked crazy styling his hair without a mirror, but being on the verge of a panic attack at the mere thought of having to style his hair in the mirror after the nightmare he'd had the night before meant he had to go from muscle memory.

Though, according to Sabina's compliment, muscle-memory seemed to be doing well.

"Need some help with your hair?"

Or not.

"If you've just come to comment on my appearance, I'm telling you now that your opinion is not needed," Alex quipped, closing his eyes again and attempting to work out where exactly he was going wrong. His hair certainly didn't feel out of place…

There were a few moments of silence from Sabina by the door, before a snort emerged. "Fine. If you don't want my help, I won't give it to you."

"I never asked for it in the first place."

"Don't be an ass."

"It's arse. And I'm not." He opened his eyes to look over at her. "I never even asked to go to this party in the first place. I don't like many people in small spaces."

The irritated expression that had formed on Sabina's face softened, and she sighed, entering the room and sitting next to Alex, helping him out with his hair anyway. "Look… I'm sorry about your predicament, okay? It's just… the cheerleading team won't leave me alone. They keep going on about you. I just want to show them that you're way better than they think you are."

Alex let his hands fall to his lap as her fingers moved his hair about. "And I have to go to a party to prove it?"

Sabina stayed silent, opting not to answer that one. A few moments longer, and she'd finished styling Alex's hair, sitting back to admire her handiwork. "I really appreciate you doing this for me."

He raised an eyebrow. "I thought I was doing this for Chrissy?"

"I'm saying it on behalf of both of us, because I know for a fact that she won't say it to you out of pride."

A small grin grew on Alex's face. Sabina was definitely right about that.

"You all ready to go, then?"

"Just need to grab and check a few things, then I'll be down."

Sabina nodded, standing from the bed and heading towards the door. "I'll call up when Chrissy gets here. Should be in about ten minutes. Be quick, okay?"

Alex nodded, watching her as she left his room, before moving over to his desk to turn on his laptop. A gift from Edward upon entry into the Pleasure family, Alex found himself only using the semi-portable device to do research for homework or the occasional private Skype call. The family PC downstairs was a lot closer to the WiFi router and had a lot more processing power, making it easier for Alex to do things such as play video games on it. Not what it was for, but he used it for that anyway.

Not expecting many notifications once the device booted up, Alex was surprised to be alerted almost immediately by a Skype call. From Tom.

He hadn't arranged to Skype him that evening.

Accepting the video call, Alex grinned as his long-time best friend's screen-illuminated face popped up on the screen, accentuated by a night-dark background. "Hey, Tom."

"Hey Al—hold up. What's got you all dolled up?"

Alex rolled his eyes at his friend's perception. At times, Tom could be the most obvious, but also most forgetful, of people. "Remember that party I told you about?"

"The one you're being forcibly made to attend?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Oh…"

Alex brows furrowed. "What, is something wrong?"

A grin appeared on Tom's face on the screen, alerting Alex almost immediately that he was going to try and irritate him. He didn't disappoint. "You look like a right mug."

Alex scowled. "Fuck off."

"Nah, I'm good."

Alex shook his head, only allowing a small smile on his face to show his amusement. Leaning forward onto his desk, he asked, "What's got you calling me at this time, anyway? I thought it was, like, 3 a.m. over there?"

"4.30, actually." Tom let out a sigh, the smile fading from his face. "I don't know. I just… couldn't sleep. You know, with the house only half full. Even though it's quieter."

Alex understood that. After Ian had died, the house had felt pretty empty, despite the fact that he was often gone on "business trips". Whilst Tom's predicament wasn't quite the same, his mother kicking his dad out after the divorce would certainly have made the place that little bit emptier. "You need to talk about it?"

"I… not really, I don't think. I don't know. Jerry won't come home because of it. And mum's already found a new guy. He's staying the night."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. That's why I woke up, actually. I thought I heard him moving downstairs."

"Well, he's just a guest, right?"

"Right… but I don't like him. I can't pinpoint why. Maybe it's just because he's dating mum."

Alex knew that if this had been a year and a half or so ago, he'd have gone to investigate the guy straight away. Being exposed to the spy world, albeit indirectly, meant that Alex could trust Tom's judgement on character a lot more than most people's. But maybe, in his eyes, Tom was being a little paranoid now. After all, no kid wanted a new parent like this. "It probably is."

Before Tom could speak, there was a loud knock on Alex's door, and he turned to see Sabina stood there, a frown on her face. "Seriously? A Skype call? Now? Chrissy's here and we need to go!"

"I'm just talking to Tom."

Tom waved, his bright screen lighting up the grin on his face. "Hi Sabina!"

Sabina rolled her eyes, sighing. "Hi, Tom."

Alex turned back to Tom, a regretful expression on his features. "Sorry, mate…"

"Nah, it's fine. Really." Tom waved off the apology with a smile. "I'll live. It's just a bit of paranoia, right?"

Hearing Tom say that put an uneasy feeling in Alex's gut. He felt guilty for leaving his best friend like that, awake at night and seemingly too anxious to sleep (he'd heard the wavering in Tom's voice, and didn't miss how he'd been picking his nails at the bottom of the screen – the boy was a nervous wreck). And he didn't miss the saddened look in Tom's eyes, even if he had a smile on his face. But at the same time, Chrissy needed him. There was no way she'd survive that party without someone there to give her moral support.

"I'll call you after the party, though. At a time more reasonable for you," Alex offered, a hopeful half-smile on his face.

Tom snorted. "By the looks of things, a time more reasonable for me would be ungodly for you."

Alex get out a snort at that. "You'd think."

"I bloody know." Tom's eyes flitted to something over Alex shoulder (most likely Sabina), before he smiled. "Go on, then. I'll talk to you later."

Alex sent his friend a quick smile. "Talk later, Tom." After the brief farewell, Alex ended the call, closing his laptop and turning to face Sabina. "We're going now?"

"Yep. Come on."

Alex sighed as he pushed himself to his feet, following Sabina downstairs to where Chrissy was waiting.

"I still don't get why I wasn't allowed to come up and see that Tom guy Alex keeps going on about."

It was getting harder and hard to ignore Chrissy and her constant complaining. Other than the fact that she couldn't just take Alex's word and be done with it, she constantly asked questions and pestered. One would think Alex would've gotten used to it after dealing with her for about six months, but in reality his patience had just got worse and worse.

"There is a reason," Sabina pointed out calmly. "You just don't need to know it."

"But why?"

"Because it's my life," Alex cut in, the sharpness of his tone betraying his irritation. Sabina shot him a look, but he didn't back down until he noticed Chrissy had gone quiet.

The three continued in near silence until they reached their final destination: The house party. Apparently one of the players' parents were away for the weekend, leaving the house free for a party. Or destruction, which was what Alex saw it as.

Hesitating at the sight of already tipsy teenagers leaning out of windows and running across the lawn, he closed his eyes and sighed. He'd never been allowed to go to house parties whilst Ian was around, and even after he'd gone, he'd found no need to go to them. And now he understood why.

Imagine this, but in a country where the age of drinking consent is a whole lot lower. Alex shuddered at the thought.

House parties in Britain must be hell.

"Do we have to go in?" Chrissy asked, voicing exactly what was on Alex's mind. From the look on her face, she seemed just as reluctant to deal with whatever was going on in there as he did.

Sabina pursed her lips. "You guys at least have to show face."

"The problem is, they don't want to see mine," Alex point out.

"You're both coming in, whether you like it or not."

"Can we leave once we see the captains?" Chrissy asked.

Sabina turned to walk towards the house. "You can leave once they see you," she retorted, leaving the other two with no choice but to follow.

If the house party had looked horrifying from a distance, it looked like absolute hell up close. Alex was pretty sure he spotted at least half a dozen pieces of china out on the lawn, broken to pieces, followed by what seemed to be some beautifully broken crystal glasses (they'd probably been part of a set) and a good couple of photo frames, the photos themselves either ripped by the broken glass or sat separately and soggy on the grass. He all of a sudden didn't want to be associated with this place if the police came knocking.

He was startled out of his scrutiny of the building by Chrissy latching onto him, her eyes focused on their path ahead. Following her gaze, he completely understood why she didn't want to let go.

They were approaching the barrage of dancing, sweaty bodies inside the house.

This felt like a nightmare to Alex.

The only thing stopping him from turning away was the sight of Sabina up ahead, who regularly turned to look over her shoulder and beckon the two on. If he just left now, before even trying, he'd never hear the end of it from her.

A light squeeze to his arm reminded Alex that Chrissy was still there, holding on for dear life, and he took a deep breath before plunging in after Sabina, attempting to follow her through the crowd.

The pounding music was what got to him, just before the feeling of claustrophobia. The multiple sweaty bodies pushing against him as he found his way through with Chrissy on his arm made him want to scream, and the smell of alcohol on almost everyone's breath just made it worse. Still, he could see Sabina up ahead, and it wasn't long before they'd passed through the crowd and exited on the other side of the house, into the backyard.

The backyard was significantly quieter, cooler, and easier to breathe in than the house was, and he couldn't help but agree with Chrissy when she gasped for air dramatically. Being out there was far better than in the house.

Then he looked around, and began to reconsider his opinion. There were fewer people, yes, but somehow all the people who'd decided it was their job to make Alex's life at high school a living hell were gathered there, laughing and drinking.

Drunk people could be nicer than the originals. But they could also be worse. And Alex didn't know what to anticipate.

Following Sabina, he hovered not too far from where she lovingly greeted her boyfriend – and he resisted the urge to hurl.

"If I ever get a boyfriend, kick me when I do that," Chrissy muttered from where she was practically glued to Alex's side, lowly enough so that only he could hear.

"That's a big 'If'," Alex muttered to her in reply, resisting the urge to grin when Chrissy punched him in the arm.

Apparently their little interaction had caught the attentions of onlookers, because less than a moment later, there was a croon of, "Christina!"

Chrissy grimaced, and Alex immediately understood why. Anyone who was friends with Chrissy knew that no one called her by her full name unless they were one of her many stuck up great aunts from Surrey, England. Heck, even her cousin from Kent called her "Chris". Anyone who called her Christina had to be out of their mind.

So basically the whole cheerleading squad (save for Sabina, who actually had some sense in that brain of hers).

Alex was pretty sure they called her by full name to put her in her place. Though Alex wasn't sure how well they were doing at that since Chrissy was still ridiculously rebellious when it came to cheerleading and practices. In fact, he was pretty sure she only came today because there was some sort of threat to take her off the team if she didn't comply.

Forcing a smile on her face, the girl moved so that the team could see her fully, rather than half-hiding behind Alex (who they hadn't commented on yet, surprisingly). "Yes, 'tis I. Christina. Chrissy, if you will."

Alex had to hide his grin at the not-so-subtle hint, but all that got from the team were giggles and numerous calls for her to join them. Rolling her eyes, Chrissy moved towards the team, still hanging onto Alex arm.

The male stood his ground.

"Oh no, you're not letting me head over there alone," Chrissy threatened, still trying to pull Alex over.

He rolled his eyes at her. "They haven't called me over. I refuse."

"Hey! Bring over the cripple whilst you're at it!"

At that, Alex tensed.

Following the events of the previous summer, Alex had spent the first five or so months at his new high school hobbling about on crutches. As if being awkward and new wasn't bad enough, he endured his first month being called "the cripple" by any senior with no heart. The fact that he was clumsy with his books and needed near constant help to carry his stuff whilst he got used to moving about in a new environment didn't help one bit, and he'd ended up spending most of his free time cooped up in the library, just studying. Even after he'd met Chrissy (but before she'd forcibly dragged him out to chill elsewhere, with real people instead of his study notes).

The point still stood that Alex didn't appreciate that nickname at all unless he was using it to refer to himself (which he didn't do often), and he was very much ready to turn around and walk out of there. He'd met Sabina's request – the team had seen him. He could leave if he wanted to.

"Ignore them, Alex. They're not sober."

Alex pursed his lips at Chrissy. "That makes it worse. They're insulting me without a filter."

Chrissy scowled a little at that. "And when has that ever stopped you before?"

Alex hesitated. She had a point, but… "This isn't school. The position isn't defendable."

"The position is perfectly defendable if you're looking from the right angle."

Alex raised a single eyebrow, his lips twitching as he repressed a smirk. "And what angle does that happen to be?"

Spotting the twitch, Chrissy had the decency to blush. "Why you little—"

"Christina!" came the croon from the group, and this time Chrissy didn't hesitate before dragging Alex along, ignoring his yelps and protests as she did so. Alex had agreed to accompany her to this party, so the way she saw it, she was going to make sure he accompanied her down to the last word.

Something Alex quickly realised he should have expected the moment he agreed to attend with her.

"I'm coming, I'm coming! Quit your whining, asshats!"

Hope you enjoyed!