Beyond The Know

'I Hate You'

Alexa had been walking in circles for twenty minutes now, and she only had a few minutes until she was officially late. She'd just turned a familiar corner for the fifth time when a stumbling man approached her, in crinkled clothing and a wad of papers in his hand. He went up to her, and placed a shaky hand on her shoulder. He reeked of alcohol, urine (which would explain the dark patch in his jeans), smoke and vomit. She almost gagged on air, but his grip was tight, and she couldn't shake him.

"Here you go, pretty girl," he almost sung, a goofy grin plastered on his face, "have this. I won it for you!" He shoved the slightly sticky wad into her hand; it was a thick roll of some sort of money, but it stank and had an unknown substance on it, so she decided she wanted to get out of there.

"Thank you, sir." She replied sweetly as he released her shoulder, and carried on stumbling by, muttering "pretty, pretty girl" as his legs crossed over. She half-jogged, half-crept back around the corner in the opposite direction of the drunkard, to find herself at a dead end she hadn't come across. There were three teenage boys leaning against the wall, so she approached them to ask for directions. Usually approaching a group of friends was safer than going up to a single person in The Know; the collaboration was useful.

"Erm...excuse me." She said, and they turned in the direction of her voice. They wore baggy trousers, multi-coloured t-shirts and trainers. One of them wore a cap, shading his face. They nudged each other and began to smirk at each other, but Alexa ignored them.

"Are you lost, little girlie?" One of them asked her, and the other two snickered.

"Yes, actually...could you tell me where this street is?" She showed him the sheet, and his facial expression changed from a sneer to a genuinely intrigued one. He told her where it was, and it turned out she'd been going left instead of right at the second turn. She thanked them politely, and was about to leave when she remembered the sticky roll of money.

"Oh, you can keep this." She handed to the guy who'd spoken to her, and his eyes widened as he realised what it was. His friends surrounded him, and their eyes widened in turn. Alexa could hear "Dude, there's like five hundred bucks here!" as she walked away with a smile.

She finally made it to Blake's door; it was a glossy, navy blue colour. The house was detached, and looked very architectural. She rang the doorbell as she stood in the porch, and she could hear fumbling inside immediately.

"Blake?" A woman's voice called out from inside the house,"Blake! Get the door!"

"Mom!" Blake moaned groggily. Alexa was amused by this scenario, though she couldn't understand why.

"Get the door, you lazy thing. I'm feeding your sister!" His mother called out again.

"Fine!" Blake huffed. Alexa could hear keys fumbling on the other side of the door, and then it was opened. In the doorway stood a teenage boy with extremely tousled, jet black hair, black pyjama bottoms, a Pikachu T-shirt and slippers.

"Hi, Blake." Alexa greeted him meekly as his half-lidded eyes sprang open.

"Shi- Alexa? Er, hi. Sorry, I slept in, erm-"

"Who is it?" His mother shouted, and he rolled his startlingly dark azure eyes.

"It's the girl I'm doing the Science project with, mom."

"Come on in then, don't just mope at the door." He mouthed a sorry as he let her into the house. She stepped inside, and the delicious scent of pancakes filled her nostrils. It was then that she realised she hadn't eaten since the breakfast she'd made for Flora's friends. She knew that Flora would have done it herself, but Alexa didn't want to wake her. She wondered what her friend was doing right at that moment, but her attention was averted when Blake led her into a marble floored kitchen. At a breakfast bar sat a slender woman, her dark hair in a messy bun on her head. She wore a pale blue shirt and jeans, and she was attempting to feed an extremely messy little girl; she looked about three years old. The girl had a syrup stained face, and held a pancake in her hands, giggling and attempting to attack her mother with it. Blake took a few long strides, picked her up and hoisted her over his shoulder. She squealed in delight and began to wipe her sticky hands on Blake's shoulder.