Axel pushed a large door open, revealing a long corridor and a door I recognised as Axel's room, 360.
We stopped at his door; I looked at him curiously as he knocked loudly.
"I just need to let my mum know about what I'm doing, or I'm in big trouble!" Axel chuckled. As Axel's mother opened the door, I smiled warmly at her in greeting. I noticed how she looked similar to Axel.
"Mum, can I go below deck with Roxas?" Axel asked, looking up at his mother hopeful for a yes. She smirked at Axel's request, but hesitated silently.
"Well, it depends if you've made your bed, and from the looks of it, I don't think you have..." She smirked again as Axel huffed.
"Fine I'll go make my bed, but then can I go?" Axel pleaded, she smiled as she nodded.
"Be back by 11 Axel, any later than you won't be going to anymore of those parties..." She informed him, pointing a finger at him as she did.
Axel nodded and grinned as he dragged me inside the room. The room was cleaner than it was since the morning. After we left the room and had breakfast we explored the ship for a while, avoiding first class of course. We ended up getting lost in the lower decks, but it was still fun.
"Okay Axel, I'm going to go and have a cigarette. Make sure you behave though, I'll be checking, and if your bed isn't made, you'll be staying in here for the whole of tomorrow, understand?" Dorothy ordered, her eyebrows raised. Axel nodded reluctantly, climbing onto his bunk bed to sort out his sheets.
"Good, you're lucky that I'm letting you go, I don't even know why I trust you!" She chuckled as she exited the room.
"Hey you wanna see this?" Axel grinned as he jumped off his bed and put his hand under the bottom bunk.
"See what?" I asked curiously, Axel got back up from the floor and waved a leather folder in front of my face, and sat down next to me heavily.
He opened the mysterious folder, revealing a sketch of the ocean and a lonely boat placed in the middle. I looked at the bottom left hand corner of the paper, and saw Axel's signature and a date from 2 years ago.
I gasped with shock, "A-Axel, this is amazing..."
Axel chuckled at my reaction, and simply shrugged his artistic skills off.
"I don't really show many people my work; I guess I'm just worried about what they'll think. I only show them to the people I trust, and we're friends right?" Axel asked as he turned the page over. I smiled at the word; Axel was my first real friend. Of course I've met some children at school, but they were never like Axel, they weren't fun and the only thing that mattered to them was their popularity and
"Yeah, we are" I whispered silently, looking up at Axel, as he explained where he drew the beautiful pictures.
"Well I drew this while I was visiting my grandfather in Scotland. It took days to get there; we had to get on loads of trains and even had to walk on foot one time because we caught the wrong train." Axel explained, smiling as he stroked the paper, obviously remembering the moments.
"Axel, if you don't mind me asking, how did you end up in England when you're American?" I asked, hoping Axel wouldn't be offended, but his smiling face still remained.
"I moved to England when I was 3, my mother wanted to move to somewhere that we had family in, and a place to get away from the grief" Axel sighed, he put the leather folder back under the bunk, and sat down on the floor. I joined him, as the next question evolved in my head.
"Axel, don't answer this if you don't want too, but... what did your father do?" I whispered, I knew it was rude intruding on people's lives, but Axel wasn't a stranger, we were friends weren't we?
"He took all our money, apparently we used to be okay, with money 'n' all, but now our life savings could hardly support a rat, let alone my mother and me. My mum had to work night and day, as well as look after me. However, once we managed to track down our grandfather, my mother rested for a few weeks while my grandfather looked after me. He was an artist, the main reason I took drawing up..." Axel looked at me, I looked back at him. We started leaning in closer, Axel licked his lips as my heart began to thud rapidly.
My eyes were open wide, what was I doing? I looked back to his drawings in shock, were we about to kiss? No, I shook away the thought and feel my heartbeat slow down.
"Don't we have a party to go too?" I said quickly, giving Axel's drawings as I opened the door, I walked out into the corridor. I felt my cheeks heat up, and I knew I was about to blush. I could tell by how slow Axel was moving that he shocked about it too, but he didn't say anything about it, or even ask about it. It was just a deafening silence.
Axel walked out and shut the door as quietly as he could.
"Yeah, come on, let's go..." Axel whispered, leading the way.
By the time we were below deck, I could already hear music, and shouting from the people who already had enough to drink. I realised that Axel had chirped up since what happened, I supposed I should too but I can't forget about it. We walked down some large stairs that lead to the source of the loud music.
"Well here it is. A 3rd class party!" Axel shouted over the music, he dragged me over to a table full of people.
"Hey Axe!" a blonde said, greeting Axel with a hug.
"Hey Demyx!" Axel shouted, they both smiled at each other, I looked at Axel, hoping he'd introduce me to his table of friends.
"Oh, sorry Roxas. This is Demyx, Zexion; he's from first class, Xion and Riku. I don't know where Sora is though..." Axel said, looking around for Sora.
"Oh, he's not aloud to come tonight because he came back at 3 in the morning yesterday. He went off with some girl at 12 so I don't know where he went..." Riku explained, pulling Axel down to a stool. Axel patted down onto a stool, gesturing for me too sit. I was sitting next to Axel and Zexion, who was engrossed in a book.
"Evening Roxas" Zexion whispered, I nodded in greeting, knowing that he wasn't going to stop reading to shake hands. I also noticed he had a deep, posh voice that reminded me of my father.
"So how did you end up here when you're from first class?" I asked him, he didn't look up.
"Demyx somehow persuaded me to stay, I don't fit in, but Demyx cheers me up I suppose." Zexion explained, "We're together, you know..."I gaped at him, he liked...men?
"Y-you like men?" I asked him shocked, but Zexion didn't even stir, he must have been used to this reaction.
"Yeah, but I'm still human aren't I?" He said, looking up for the first time.
I looked at the floor absent-mindedly.
"Yeah, but what do your parents think about it? I hope you don't mind me asking of course..." I asked him, Zexion didn't seem phased by the questions I was asking him.
"I haven't even told them yet, but they can kick me out, and they can try and beat out the fact that I like men, but they can't take away Demyx or the fact that I love him..." Zexion said, smiling for the first time.
"Thanks Zexion..." I smiled; Zexion smiled back and went to back to reading, obviously knowing why I was thanking him.
As a new song started, Axel stood up and pulled me off my seat.
"What are you doing?" I asked him curiously, frowning as Axel grinned back.
"We're going to dance, aren't we?" Axel grinned widely, pulling me onto the platform, where the people who were experienced with dancing would usually go.
"Axel, I can't go up there! I can't do this sort of thing!" I fretted, worried that I was going to embarrass myself in front of everyone. Axel just chuckled at my reaction.
"Roxy, neither do I!" Axel laughed, as he jumped onto the platform, heaving me up. He started dancing alone at first, he looked so barmy! While he was dancing, I noticed the small group of people who were playing strange instruments; they were somehow all playing together in a good rhythm and never going wrong in their melody. I was amazed.
"You wanna dance together?" Axel shouted over the loud, folk music.
"What if someone says something?" I said worryingly, Axel rolled his eyes, obviously fed up with my anxiety.
"Who cares? They can go and eat shit for all I care. We're gonna have fun remember? Or have your family made you forget about having fun, huh? Come on and make this a night to remember!" Axel told me, taking my hand and holding it, and placed the other one just below his ribs. I did the same to him, knowing this was what you're meant to do. He pushed us both closer together and I could tell that already, people were looking, but I didn't care. I was having fun, no matter what anyone would tell me.
"Okay, on the next beat we start dancing okay?" Axel said, I waited for the next beat and when it did, we started dancing like mad-men, jumping around and laughing as we did. People started joining us as we danced, the wooden platform was nearly bursting, and the tapping of shoes was enough to make you smile. Let alone dancing when you're doing it with someone who has two left feet.
"Hey, you're good at this" Axel grinned, wiping the sweat off of my forehead with his thumb, "Do you wanna getta' drink?" Pointing the table where Axel's friends and a few drinks were perched. I nodded and walked over to the table. I noticed Demyx was laughing, despite him trying to hide it under his jacket.
"What's so funny?" Axel hissed, giving me a pint of beer.
"You're dancing!" Demyx said, laughing again, "And-and y-your still hold-holding hands!" Demyx cried. The entire table erupted into laughter, I let go of Axel's hand in shock.
"Shut up." Axel scowled, I started drinking my drink, and I could tell that the entire table was staring at me.
"How can you drink that quickly?" Riku cried, cringing at the speed I was drinking. I stopped drinking to gasp for breath, realising I only had quarter of my beer left.
"Who says that a first class boy can't drink?" I laughed, polishing off the last bit of beer. The table began a competition about who could drink a pint the quickest, but me and Axel stood back, watching them get competitive and listen to their slurred conversations. Axel chuckled as Demyx fell off his stool and claimed that he was the winner.
"I am the champion!" Demyx shouted, a cigarette dangling from his mouth as he struggled to get onto his stool. I walked over to him and took his cigarette, inhaling deeply, refusing to cough. "You think your winning?" I blew the cigarette smoke into his face, "Let's see about that, huh?" I smiled, I was going to win, whether my father finds me or not. I don't care.
Riku returned with the drinks, we had to drink three beers in one minute; I wasn't so sure about this now, but I wasn't ready to show signs of regret.
"Drink up!" Riku shouted, taking his first pint. I drunk the first as quick as I could, Axel was keeping time on the clock for me as I drunk, I drunk the first one in 20 seconds and moved on to the second one, I saw Axel grimace and how much I was drinking, and I was already feeling a bit wobbly, despite only drinking three and a half beers in the night. The last beer was more difficult, the smell of it was starting to make me feel sick. However, I finished off the last drop of it and put my fists in the air in celebration, wobbling as I stood up. I definitely wasn't used to the effects of beer yet.
"Hey, don't you think you've had enough?" Axel whispered into my ear as he held me up. I started laughing for no reason, Axel chuckled at me. He ended up holding me in arms for ages, trying to keep me up and to stop me falling onto the floor.
"Roxas Perristone. What on earth are you doing?"
I shoved Axel's hand away and stood up as best I could. I gulped at the sight of my father; his eyes were wide and red with fury.
"Your coming with me, you disgrace of a man." He hissed angrily, he grabbed my hand roughly and tried to pull me away, but Axel tried to pull me back.
"Let go of him!" Axel shouted, my father turned round, his face was red now. He pushed Axel roughly, making him let go of my hand and fall into the table with terrifying force. I gasped and tried to pull him up, but my father gripped my hand tightly, making some of my delicate bones click.
"I don't think so, or you're on the streets once we get to America" My father snapped. I gulped. This was definitely a night to remember, but not in a good way...
A/N: Yeah I know that this chapter is a bit longer than usual, but I had so much to add in! Anyway, sorry if this chapter isn't very historically correct, but I did as much research as I could. So please carry on reading, and I'm desperate for reviews! Stay cool ;)
(P.S; See how quick I updated? 8D)
-HereGoesMyReputation