It Starts Here / 𝗯𝘅𝗯 (✓)

11: Alcohol and (no) regrets

CHAPTER ELEVEN
Eighteen years old

Felix passes his driving test the fourth week into his summer vacation and it's only a week later when Ares calls him in the middle of the night, drunk.

The only reason why Felix is still awake to see Ares calling him is because he stayed up watching the final season of a drama he'd just started that same night. He's only twenty minutes into the final episode when his phone lights up, Ares' name displayed.

When Felix picks up the phone he's met with noise on the other side—noise that sounds like incoherent singing and a lot of yelling and music—that makes it hard to hear Ares who has already begun talking.

"—you hear me? Felix! Hey! Hey! Hey! Felix?" Ares yells into the phone before Felix imagines him cupping the phone, whispering, "Felix, can you hear me?"

"I can hear you," Felix replies and Ares lets out a sigh that sounds a lot more relieved than Felix thinks it has to.

"That's good," Ares says. "I'm glad you can hear me—I'm at a party if you forgot where I was going tonight—remember Brenn? It's Brenn's party, remember?"

Felix hears someone yell, "Bottoms up, Sanchez! Bottoms up!" and Ares goes, "Get out of my face, Brenn, I'm talking with Felix," to which Brenn replies, "Who?"

Felix imagines he and Ares roll their eyes at the same time. He thinks Ares will continue talking to Brenn and slowly forget having called Felix in the first place before he returns to Felix, asking, "What are you doing, Lix?"

"Did you call to ask what I'm doing?" Felix asks, checking the time. "At midnight?"

Ares doesn't answer immediately. "I was just thinking of you."

Jesus, Felix thinks, closing his eyes. Show mercy to him now that Ares refuses to.

"Oh," Felix finally hears himself say. "Why?"

"I just did."

"Okay—"

"Wait, listen, I do know why," Ares interrupts. "Freddy named one of the—Freddy told me to say hi, by the way—anyway, he named one of the drinks he made Turtleneck and it made me—well, it made me think of you, of course."

"Oh?"

"Because your favorite animal is turtle."

Felix can't help but laugh as he sits up, leaning against the wall. "Yeah, when we were nine."

Ares doesn't say anything for a while and Felix starts to think that he accidentally dropped his phone or something until he says, "Isn't it still?" as if he'll start crying if Felix says no.

Therefore Felix says, "It is."

"I'm glad I remembered," Ares says and like Felix might've forgotten, he repeats, "It made me think of you."

Ares continues telling Felix about how he met Brenn and that his parents are a lot richer than Ares originally thought they'd be. At some point, Ares stops talking and it sounds more like he's screaming to a song playing and Felix thinks that Ares must've forgotten to hang up before pocketing his phone. Then, Ares is back, yelling at him. "Felix! What are you doing? What? I can't hear you! Everything is so loud! Wait!"

When Felix hears Ares whisper under his breath, "Yes! Bathrooms!" and what sounds to be a door closing, Felix laughs. "You're so gone, aren't you?"

"Uh-uh."

Felix checks the clock. They've been talking for forty minutes, so it's almost one a.m.. Just as Ares yells at someone knocking on the bathroom door, Felix makes the decision to ask, "Do you need a ride home, Ares?"