"Oh, you're here," Jonas said in surprise, opening the door further for him to come in.
"You didn't think I'd show up?" Felix asked as he walked inside, looking around the house. "Nice place."
"Thanks, but it's not mine. It's Eva's," he said, closing the door behind Felix. "And, I really didn't know what to expect."
Jonas led him to the kitchen, where there were several bottles of alcohol on the counter. Jonas walked past all of that and took a water bottle out of the fridge, tossing it to Felix, who caught it with ease.
"Uh, well, this is the kitchen, bathroom is down the hall," Jonas told him, scratching his head to try and think of what more he could tell him. "Eva said that bedrooms are off limits, so really, just don't go upstairs or downstairs. Do you have a ride home?"
Felix shook his head. "I drove here."
"You drove here?"
"Yeah," Felix said, then he remembered that in Europe, the driving age was eighteen. "Oh, right. In America, you can start driving as early as fifteen. I've had my license for a while now."
"Shit, man. Chicks are gonna dig you," Jonas said, just as the blonde boy he sat next to in Norwegian class yesterday came up to Jonas.
"Yo, Jonas. There's still some weed if you want to smoke it," he said to his friend.
"Nah, I'm good," Jonas told him. "Isak, this is Felix. Felix, Isak."
Isak nodded his head in acknowledgement. "Hey."
"Hey," Felix greeted.
"You're new here, right?"
"Yeah, I just moved back from the States."
"Nice," Isak said, nodding his head, then stuck out the weed he had towards Felix. "Want some?"
"No, thanks."
"Alright," Isak shrugged, then turned to Jonas. "I'm going to finish this off with Even outside."
"Don't extinguish it out there and leave it in the grass. Eva's gonna kill you if you do," Jonas reminded him.
Isak waved him off and made his way out of the kitchen.
"Hey, I'm serious!" Jonas called after him, but with how loud the music was, he wasn't sure Isak had heard him. Jonas shook his head and turned to Felix, who was standing there awkwardly. "Noora and the others are in the living room if you want to join them."
"Sure," he said, following Jonas to the living room. Felix would have been lying if he said no one was staring at him, but at least they were sober enough to move out of his way.
"Oh, you're here," Noora said, watching Felix as he came into view. "I thought you were too cool for parties."
"I never said that," he told her, sitting down after she made some room for him on the couch. He leaned the crutches on the armrest next to him and nodded to Eva in acknowledgment. "Cool party."
"Thanks," she said with a smile. "I'm Eva."
"Felix."
"Noora said you're an asshole."
"I know," Felix said to the surprise of them both. "You guys are really loud. Aren't girls supposed to have a code or something to not snitch? You know, like chicks before dicks, or something like that?"
Eva and Noora shared a look of amusement before looking back at Felix.
"It's decided," Noora declared. "You're not an asshole. You're just lonely and bitter."
Felix scowled. "I'm not lonely. I think I liked it better when you thought I was an asshole."
"Too late," Noora told him, smiling unapologetically.
"Hey, Eva," the Muslim one called as she came up to the three of them. "Isak and Even are smoking weed in front of your house."
Eva's eyes widened and she shot off the couch, muttering something about how she was going to kill the two of them.
"Were they really?" Noora asked, and the girl nodded her head, taking Eva's previous seat.
"Yep. I told them to knock it off, but they were too stoned, so they can face her wrath," she said, then turned to Felix. "You the asshole?"
"He's actually a lonely, bitter cynic now," Noora informed her. "Sana, Felix. Felix, Sana."
"What happened to your leg?" Sana asked, and there was the question that he had grown to hate. Noora sent her a look, but Sana ignored her.
"Have you been to or seen an American high school football game?" Felix asked her.
"Sure, on Netflix," Sana said with shrug.
"And you know the scoreboard?"
"Yeah."
"Right, well, those aren't as secure as the ones you see in professional stadiums. They aren't mounted on a wall," Felix explained. "They're held up by two poles. They'd installed a new one, and some drunk idiots tried to climb it, but it wasn't secured enough and it fell on my leg at an angle. It sliced through my bone and most of my leg."
Sana and Noora held looks of mild disgust at the sound of his injury, and this was why he hated people asking questions about his leg.
"Did you sue?" Sana asked. "My cousins lives in the states, and they said that American sue anything and everything."
At that Felix laughed a little, because it was a little true. His neighbor had sued a fast food chain for making the coffee too hot and burning her skin when she spilt it on herself. She won ten million dollars.
"Yeah, kind of. People sue for stupid reasons and win for stupid reasons. My parents sued the school district and the company that installed the scoreboard, and we won."
"So, why are you here?" Sana asked. "Taxes are higher here than America."
"I just didn't like it there," Felix said, brushing the subject off.
Noora and Sana shared a discreet look, but they changed the subject anyway.
"So, is the American school lunch as shitty as people say?"
