Call it Fate, Call it Karma

Delivery

"Adam!" I shouted as I frantically knocked on his door. "Open up, man! It's Jade!" I pressed my ear against the door to listen. I could hear muffled music and someone laughing. "If someone's laughing then I guess no one's dead yet." I whispered to Albert, who stood behind me with a raised brow. I knocked again with an exasperated sigh. "Helloooo?!"

"This Adam guy's a bad influence." said Albert.

"Julian himself is a bad influence." I retorted, my cheek still squished up against the door.

"I have an idea." Albert pushed me aside and cleared his throat. "Delivery!" he sang out in a voice deeper than his usual one.

I stared at him amusedly. "Fuck, you're smart."

It wasn't long before the door opened and a confused and wasted looking Adam peered outside. "We didn't order anything?"

I stepped into his line if vision and he gasped. "Adam, you fucker!" I scolded him. "Why didn't you open the door?!"

"Julian said not to." He lazily shrugged. He was either super high, a little bit drunk, or both...most likely both.

"Julian's fucking stupid!" I grabbed Albert's hand and yanked him inside. I scanned the room and noticed Julian wasn't there. "Where is he?!"

"I think he went for a piss." said Adam. "Come chill with us!"

"No. We've gotta get home."

"Take these then," Adam stuffed something in my hand with a grin. "...for your travels."

I looked at my palm to see a sheet of acid tabs. Rolling my eyes, I stuffed them in my pocket because I decided an argument wasn't worth my time.

We stepped inside and Adam laughed to himself as he closed the door and stumbled over to his couch.

"Julian!" I yelled quite loudly and suddenly, making Albert flinch and cover his ears. "Get out here right now!"

I heard a toilet being flushed and then a door opened. I peered down the hallway and saw Julian stumbling over to us. He was so wasted he used the wall for support. When the wall ended, he fell onto his hands and knees and crawled over to us, laughing at himself.

"Ohhhhh, my god." Albert watched with wide eyes as Julian fell onto his back and stared up at the ceiling.

"Adam, what the fuck has he had?" I asked, then turning to Adam, who was now passed out on the couch. I groaned, rubbing my temples frustratingly.

Albert walked over and knelt beside Julian. He scrutinised him for a good minute before making his claim. "I can smell alcohol on his breath and his pupils are waaaay dilated. I'd say beer, acid and probably weed."

Julian had a stupid smile on his sweaty face as he slowly reached his arm up to caress Albert's face.

"Pull yourself together, man!" Albert swatted his hand away and slipped an arm under Julian's waist. "C'mon, Jade."

I trudged over and lifted one of his arms around my shoulder. We then hoisted him up and dragged him over to the door.

"Looks like we're getting a cab." I sighed as I opened the door. "Albert, I hate seeing him like this. I now know how you felt when I was like this every night and I'm so sorry."

"Let's just focus on getting Jules home, okay?" he said, struggling to keep Julian upright.

"Jade..." Julian managed to say in a hoarse voice as he turned to look at me. I was surprised he hadn't passed out yet.

"What, Julian?" I spat as I closed Adam's apartment door.

"I wanna...I wanna go to bed." he slurred through a yawn. "With you."

I chose to ignore the last part of his sentence. "We're working on that right now, buddy." I said as I helped Albert hoist him up again as he'd began to go limp in the legs. "If you'd just fucking cooperate that'd be nice."

"Maybe it'd be best if he stayed over at Adam's and we just get him tomorrow?" said Albert, looking rather fed up. "One or both of us would have to watch him, though..."

"Albert, that's a great idea but I'm tired as well and I just wanna sleep in my bed." I said. At this point, Julian's legs had pretty much completely given out and he started to sink to the floor. "Fuck!" I hissed. "Just sit him against the wall."

Albert complied, and then we both slid down the wall either side of Julian exhaustedly. Julian slumped onto my shoulder and mumbled something inaudible.

"What are we gonna do, Albert? I just wanna go home."

Albert pulled out his phone. "I'll call Fab."

"Please do." I said. I then began to hear coughing beside me and I froze. "Oh, no..." Julian had thrown up, and half of it was all over me!

I jumped up in a fit of anger and Julian fell onto the floor in a puddle of his own vomit.

"Holy shit..." Albert watched wide eyed. "Yeah, hang on a sec, Fab." he pulled the phone away from his ear and watched me pace back and forth, my eyes welling up with tears.

"Are you fucking serious, Julian?! I can't take anymore of this shit!" I looked down at my vomit covered shirt and screamed.

"Yeah, no, no. She's okay. Julian just puked on her and she's already stressed the fuck out." Albert explained our situation to Fab. "Please come and help. Could you also bring a couple of shirts? Alright...thanks man. Mwah! Love you, bye."

I pulled my shirt up over my head and threw it to the other end of the hallway. I then slid down the wall and sulked as I watched Albert shuffle over to me. He took off his blazer and wrapped it around my bare shoulders. Julian was completely passed out at this point.

"How is he gonna proceed with his upcoming career if he's gonna pull this shit all the time?!" I yelped. "I'm pretty sure Ryan's gonna sign you guys but I don't want him regretting his decision."

"We'll sort it out." Albert said with a sigh as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders. I leant into his touch and sniffled, trying to stop myself from crying.

"Everything's so fucked up all the time." I said. "No one else seems to be having as many problems as our group always does."

"Would you have it any other way, though?"

"No, because I don't know what would happen. Like, if you didn't fuck up and hit your head that night...we wouldn't have found Jules again." I explained in an almost monotone voice. "Oh! And if I wasn't crying in the bathroom on that first day back at school, I never would've met Julian, and that means I'd never have met any of you guys."

Albert kissed the top of my head. "Exactly."

We sat in silence for a while until we started to reminisce on past events.

"Remember when Fab got beat up over a bag of weed?" said Albert, starting to laugh.

"That scared the shit outta me, man!" I elbowed him. "And he was cool to go party straight after! Ugh..." I quickly started to laugh along with him. "Okay, that's funny now that I think of it." I nodded. "Remember when you guys took me to my first party and Julian got wasted and then we ran outta gas?"

"And we had to sleep in the car!" he chuckled. "Yeah!"

"We were so dumb back then."

"We still are." Albert said, looking over at Julian.

"True." I agreed. "Should we start getting him cleaned up or just wait 'till Fab gets here?"