Things We Don't Normally Do

TWELVE

At half past midnight, Alex's phone started ringing. She picked it up before looking answering with a tentative, "Hello?"

Stella's voice came through, "Babe! Can you buzz us in?"

There was a short pause as Alex tried to navigate to the keypad to buzz her best friend into the apartment. In the background, Stella could hear what she presumed to be Harry, laughing, just before the the call dropped.

Her phone rang again after just a few seconds.

"Alex! Buzz us the fuck in!" It was Stella, putting on a stern mom voice.

"Sorry! Sorry! Pressed the wrong thing." Alex was saying before yelling out, "Har--"

The call dropped. Again.

The phone rang a third time. This time it was Cal's voice that came through first, "What are you two idiots up to?"

"Harry mate!" it was Ethan, "Stop fucking ar--"

The call dropped when Alex finally tapped the right number to buzz their friends into the apartment.

Harry and Alex were a few drinks in and have started to smoke some of the devil's lettuce when Stella, Cal and Ethan came through the door. They had initially knocked, but Alex never locked the door when she and Harry came in, knowing everyone was probably meeting up at her apartment that night anyway.

"Babe, what the fuck!" Stella whined at her best friend. It can be odd sometimes to people who don't know them well, but she and Stella can be so uncomfortably close that a few of Stella's flings have actually been scared off (or, sometimes turned on) thinking that the two girls had something more going on, "The fuck are you two dickheads doing."

"Fucking." Alex bursts out laughing, "Just fucking around."

Alex and Harry emerged from the bedroom, giggling at each other. The god forsaken devil's lettuce, very obviously having taken effect on them.

Alex ran to Stella, giving her a hug, but then exclaimed, "I want to kill you! Why would you bring these idiots over at the store."

"They totally forced me into it." Stella lied, hiding behind Ethan.

Instead of pursuing the conversation any further, Alex started repeatedly slapping both her cheeks lightly as she walked to the kitchen for another drink.

Harry was laughing behind her, "Sorry, she's gone lads!"

"I'm fine!" she yelled out, stumbling over in the kitchen, as she mixed some gin with triple sec and sparkling water, "Come try it. It's gross."

"Nah I'm good mate." Harry refused but she already had the glass up his mouth, "You don't have to actually drink it, just try it."

"What the fuck have you two been up to while we were gone?" Stella looked a bit concerned but still laughed.

"Ok it might have been my fault a bit," Harry was scratching the back of his neck, "Was trying to teach her odds on... but she just can't grasp the concept."

"Not true!" she protested, "He kept insisting I was losing. And because I'm not an asshole, I just took the drink."

Harry woke up in the middle of the night. It would appear that he had fallen asleep in Alex's bed, stripped to nothing but his underwear. As to how that happened, he wasn't sure. But Alex wasn't in bed with him. The night was a complete blur and he wasn't in any state of mind to be able to figure out the whole who, what, when and why.

He was falling back asleep when he heard hushed voices presumably coming from the bathroom, which was located just beside the bedroom.

"Babe, are you sure you're okay?" he heard Stella's voice carry through the walls.