I was experiencing a little..problem.

Nothing that couldn't be fixed, of course.

Sunlight was streaming into my eyes, almost blinding me, while my roommate seemed to be dancing around. How the hell was he awake? I quickly became aware of my situation. I suppose I had X-rated dreams—of no particular nature!—and had woken up to a stirring down there. Which is quite issue, obviously, was that if Axel noticed, he would probably torment and tease me. I shifted my legs, and my blanket hid any evidence. Then I nestled back into my pillow, pretending to be asleep, and waited for my body to return to normal.

"He is taking forever," I heard Axel whine. Sounds of rustling reached my ears, almost perking my curiosity.

I waited another few minutes before slowly opening my eyes. And yes! Axel was busy typing something into his computer. Jumping out of bed, I bolted to the bathroom, home free.

I wrestled my shirt over my head, and began to kick my pants to the floor when I sensed something was off. Sora called it My Spider Sense. Sure enough, a large, black spider was crawling up my leg. My heart leapt just as a half-scream escaped my lips, and I began to flail around, kicking the dreaded thing off. It dashed underneath my pile of pajamas, and I was out of the bathroom in the next second.

Axel stood by, confused. "Are you ok?"

"Yep," I managed. "Just decided to not take a shower today."

Axel's eyes went up and down, taking in my panicked state and the fact that I was only wearing underwear now. I might've been embarrassed if I still hadn't felt as though someone was trying to kill me. I had this horrible phobia of spiders…I knew they couldn't hurt me, at least that most of them couldn't, but the second I saw one, adrenaline poured into my veins as if I was staring at an axe murder, not something crawling on the wall that could be smashed with a hand. Just thinking about it makes me shudder, and I repressed the urge to check my body all over.

"Is that so?" Axel asked slowly. "You left your clothes in the bathroom." He was peeking inside.

"Uh, I don't need them."

To my horror, he was picking them up and walking towards me. "Want me to put them in your laundry basket?"

"No!" I backed up to the far corner of the room.

"What is it?" Axel began examining the clothing for proof.

"There's a—oh god." There it was. Now crawling onto Axel's arm.

Axel stared at it for a few seconds then, to my astonishment, he simply lifted his other arm and slapped it. He looked up, grinning, and held out his palm, which was covered in spider guts. "Did you want it?"

"No!"

He got a tissue and wiped it off, and I put my clothing in the hamper. My heart was finally calming. We awkwardly stood there for a few seconds, and then I raced back into the bathroom. After a quick shower, I found Axel waiting for me. He was perched on his bed, holding something on his lap.

"What's that?" I asked suspiciously, rubbing my head with a towel to dry my hair.

"Your birthday present!"

"It's not my birthday."

"I kinda missed it, remember?"

He handed me a small package that was wrapped in..aluminum foil. "What the hell is this? A baked potato?"

"It was all I could find," he laughed. "I didn't even use tape."

I unwrapped it, only a little eagerly, and gave a tiny gasp. The cover was a confusing mix of grays, and the back was blank, save for a few frantic scribbles on the bottom. No doubt about it, it was the new The Sprinkles CD. "How did you…"

"I preordered it! I figured if you did the same, I could just keep it."

"I didn't." I flipped it open, relishing the band's strange style. "I thought it came out next week?"

"When you preorder, you get it early. Didn't you know that, Roxie?"

I paused. "Thanks, Axel."

"You're welcome." He was leaning forward towards me, his eyes bright and happy.

"Do you…you wanna listen to it now?" I asked shyly.

"Yes!" Axel bounced up and we put the CD into his stereo. I had the honors of pressing play.

We both sat down, and I closed my eyes, relishing every sound. The Sprinkles were amazing. They were a band that didn't just release a few songs I liked—I liked them all. And they did everything themselves. They wrote the music, and no auto tune was ever involved. The first song was about loving a girl who was always distant and never noticed the singer's feelings, which was a common theme in music, I know. But mixed with their screaming guitars, and his gruff voice, made it feel like it had never been done before. Axel had started off looking very excited, although now he looked…a tiny bit sad.

"Axel?"

"Huh?" His head snapped up to look at me. I had clearly broken into his thoughts. She stared at the wall every day/It would never be the same/How could I give her up? The song continued a little more violently, with images of white and broken glass.

"You ok?" I asked over the noise. We had turned it up a bit.

"Yeah."

"This happened to you?"

"Oh..uh. yeah something like that." He brushed it off. "Great song."

"Yeah it is," I agreed. "And eleven more to go!"

We sat there through the whole thing and by the time I stood up, my legs were stiff and my stomach was begging for food. We grabbed lunch at the dining hall, and afterwards, stood outside, unsure of what to do next.

The wind was strong today, and was biting my cheeks. "Are you gonna go hang out with Demyx or something?" I asked. I kinda wanted to keep hanging out with Axel, but he usually spent his Saturday nights out somewhere, while I stayed in and read. Not to mention, this was the last weekend at school before the dreaded Thanksgiving break. Dreaded by me, at least.

"Uh…" Axel ran a hand through his hair, something he seemed to do often. "Well there's a party on Maple Street but I'm sure you don't want to go."

"Yeah, not my thing."

"We could always stay and play—" At that moment, both of our phones went off. I had received two texts, while someone was calling him. "Hello?" he answered, before getting into some kind of passionate argument.

My name came up a few times. It was probably Demyx with party plans.

The first text was from Naminé: Want to hang out before break?

That didn't take too long, I thought happily. The next text, however, was from my mom. I'll pick you up Friday, just need to know what time you get out of class.

Sora was supposed to come get me. Oh well. I was capable of driving, everyone in my family had a license, but the cars stayed at home. My dad's, which he used for work, and my mom's, which Sora used half the time. She should've let me take it to college, and then I wouldn't have to worry about getting rides.

"I already made plans," Axel was complaining, agitated. "Fine, fine. Ok!"

He got off the phone, stepping back towards me with an apology.

"What was that?" I asked.

"Demyx," he sighed. "I'm getting dragged to that party whether I like it or not."

"Why?" We started to walk back to our room.

"Well, apparently Zexion can't make it and he needs me to get him in."

"Get him in? What, they have a bouncer?"

"No," he laughed. "Just a lot of people don't like Demyx."

I snorted. "Wonder why."

"So," he glanced at me. "You can come if you want."

"Yeah right."

"It'd be fun!"

"Somehow I doubt that."

"Please?" he begged.

"Why do you want me to go so bad?"

"Demyx gets annoying after a while!"

"Well…ok, but only because you got me that CD."

"Sweet!"

"And you're not allowed to get drunk."

"Whatever you want Roxie!"

XxXxXxX

So I found myself at a another stupid party, identical to the last one. I was determined to spend the entire night leaning against this wall and judging everyone. And trying to figure out why people liked these things. I had a suspicion that they only did it for peer acceptance, because this sort of thing was perceived as "cool." Why else would they blast terrible music, sleep with strangers, and drink until they were ready to pass out? I was in the dimly lit living room, watching people play beer pong on the coffee table. Everywhere were red cups, and couples kept disappearing upstairs. The girls weren't wearing enough, and would shuffle around, usually in groups, flirting and giggling. The guys were loud and always seemed to be chugging a liquid. I knew exactly four people here: Axel, Larxene, Marluxia and Demyx. Larxene and Marluxia were going around, chatting with people, and Demyx had finally managed to drag Axel away from me, to go play pool or something. Now I was alone.

Well, maybe not exactly alone. There was a girl leaning against the same wall. She was a tiny bit shorter than me, with short, neat, black hair. She was either bored or nervous.

I took to ignoring her. A few minutes later, however, she said, "Are you sure you're in the right place?"

I looked at her to make sure she was talking to me and said, "Nope."

"Me too." She reminded me of Naminé somehow. And at least she was wearing more than the rest of the girls here.

"I was ditched," I confessed.

"I really don't like parties."

"Why'd you come then?"

She gave a tiny shrug. "Wanted to try it out at least once, I guess. Maybe I can use it in my writing later on." I couldn't help wondering if she was as obsessive as Naminé, just with writing instead of drawing.

I nodded, and we fell silent.

Thankfully, Axel appeared, grabbing my wrist, animated. "I totally kicked Demyx's ass!"

"Lovely," I said dryly.

Axel noticed the girl and muttered. "Made a friend?"

"I guess."

He was holding a cup, and I shot him a look as he tipped it to his lips. "You said I couldn't get drunk," he whined. "This is far from drunk."

"It smells disgusting."

"You should try it."

"I'll pass."

"Alcohol is bad for you," the girl suddenly put in, checking Axel out.

"Oh yeah?" Axel put his hand on his hip, as if he cared about her opinion.

"Mhm."

"I'll keep it in mind. C'mon, Roxie." He led me upstairs, and we found another, although smaller, living room. There was a single vacant chair, which Axel let me have. I sank into the cushion gratefully. My eyes were starting to feel heavy, but falling asleep probably meant that something horrible would happen to me. "We can probably leave soon."

"Good."

He chugged the rest of his drink happily and I rolled my eyes. Then Marluxia appeared, handing him another one. "Isn't this party dreadful?" he asked.

"A little bit," Axel agreed. "We're heading out soon. Video games at my place?"

Marluxia shook his head, his pink hair swirling about. "Afraid not. Larxene is going to trim my hair a bit."

"Too bad." Axel took a sip. "This is pretty good."

"Isn't it?" Marluxia beamed. "Oh, there's the bitch. I'd better go."

I assumed he was talking about Larxene. Axel and I were left alone again, and I complained about the music. My roommate finished his beverage pretty quickly, and sat on the floor nearby, talking about random things. His voice was only slurring a tiny bit, and I kept glancing at him, worried. Who knew what kind of drunk he was.

"And I said—"

"Axel?" I cut in.

"Wha?" He put his head back to look up at me, grinning.

"Did you seriously get drunk?"

"No, no!"

"You seem like it."

"I only drank weak stuff. It takes a lot for me."

"Maybe Marluxia gave you strong stuff."

He paused. "Oh."

"You're supposed to get your own drinks! Don't you know that?"

"I know! Hey, Roxie, my butt hurts from this floor…" Without waiting for a response, he crawled onto the chair, expertly picking me up and sliding me onto his lap.

I blushed, moving to get off, but he wrapped his arms around my torso. "Noooo…" he whined. "You're warm."

"Get a blanket then!" I struggled.

"No!"

"Axel, you're acting like a three year old!"

"Oh man!" Demyx was laughing in front of us while I was in the middle of squirming. "Axel is so touchy when he gets drunk."

"Oh really?" I glared.

"He hasn't gotten drunk in the longest time either!"

"Can't you get him off me?"

"Sure." Demyx's hands gripped my shoulders, and lifted straight up. I hung up in the air like a doll and I cursed to myself, wishing I weighed a little more. This was ridiculous.

He set me on the ground. "We're going, Axel," I demanded.

"Alright Roxie!" Axel got to his feet ok, and followed me outside. Demyx waved goodbye, too energetically.

It didn't take long to get back, even though it was pretty dark outside. Axel held onto me the whole time, kinda giggling and taking shuffling steps. That drink had to have been strong.

I only managed to turn on one light before Axel made me stop in my tracks. The lone kitchen light fell onto our faces, making everything look a little strange.

"Roxas, I think I like you!"

I finally managed to say, "We are friends now, huh?"

Axel stared at me blankly. Then he hiccupped and threw his arms around me. I pushed away, and a few minutes later we were in our beds.

My eyes adjusted, and I stared at the white ceiling. Axel was snoring softly. He had passed out very quickly, and I wondered if he would even remember this night…not that there was much to remember. I still can't seem to decide whether Axel was gay or not but…what had he meant? Why would he say something so suggestive?

I sought refuge in my mp3. I think I fell asleep around four a.m.

I just returned to school this week, so I am going to be a bit busy. I'll do my best to update quickly, however. Thanks for reading. :)

~KeedaxEmry