Life slips through our hands

Chapter 20

The next day, Nina woke up almost at midday. She had brunch and spent the day in bed until Charles called her saying that he was on his way to pick her up. Then she got up, showered quickly, slipped in a pair of skinny jeans, a baggy t-shirt, and put on some make-up.

Nina was applying her mascara when heard the horn of Charles' car outside. She finished as fast as she could, took her purse, and ran outside the house.

"Is it me or you were sleeping when I called you?", asked Charles as they were heading to Back Bay.

"Almost", she chuckled. "I slept a lot today".

"Nice. I'd like to say the same".

"I thought you had practice at ten".

"Yeah, but I had to get up earlier to see my sister out. Her husband came for her this morning".

"Oh... so she went back to New York". Charles nodded.

Karin, one of the maids of the house, received them at the door and said Jacky was playing pool with the rest. So the couple headed there.

Jacky, Jacob, Vicky, and Harry were playing pool while Matt, Jenna, and Henry were talking in the minibar watching their friends play. It was the closest Jacky's circle of friends, the ones that were always there for him. Jenna was the newbie since she was Matt's girlfriend now; she was one of Lara's friends and the only one Nina knew well because they often hung out at school. She only had met the rest twice at the previous parties.

"Hi guys!", said Charles stepping into the room.

"Hey!", said Matt and Jenna. Henry raised his beer bottle as a greeting.

"Charles! I thought you weren't coming", said Harry seeing his friend coming in.

"I told you he was coming", said Jacky hitting the ball with the pool stick. He straightened himself. "Hi Nina", he greeted with a smile.

"Hi", she smiled back.

"I thought Lara was out", said Vicky staring at Nina.

"She is out", said Jacky. "She's coming with him", he said as he tilted his head towards Charles. Vicky looked at them confused and it took her a minute to realize they were holding hands. She frowned.

"Since when do we have kids hanging with us?", she asked. Everyone looked at her in disbelief.

"Ahem, ahem", Harry started to cough. "Do you guys wanna play?"

"I'll have a drink first", said Nina.

"I'll play but let me grab a beer first too", said Charles and headed to the mini-bar with Nina. She sat next to Henry and took a beer. Charles took a beer too and went to the pool table. Jacky was whispering something to Vicky.

The conversation in the minibar was light and lively. Nina adjusted quickly because she knew Jenna and had talked with Matt a lot of the times they have met. She knew Matt was Charles's classmate at uni. And Henry... was nice, he was studying law at Boston College and had really interesting conversation topics like if cereal was soup or not, aliens, and photography. Yes, very diverse.

At the same time, at the pool table, they were laughing and joking around. And every time it was Jacky's turn, Charles and Harry would try to distract him to miss the ball. It was fun to watch and Matt didn't help much as he would shout at Jacky from time to time from the minibar.

"Hey, do you remember that night when I had to pick you up naked at Orient Heights?", shouted Matt.

"Fuck", cursed Jacky. He finally missed the ball. "You're the worst", he glared at his friend. Charles and Harry were laughing hard.