Call it Fate, Call it Karma

What If

It was about 20 minutes into my little guitar lesson with Julian when I got a call from Fabrizio.

"What's up?" I asked, handing the guitar to Julian.

"Turns out Ryan wants to celebrate too. He's getting us all into a bar later." he explained. "Free drinks!"

I slapped a hand to my face in annoyance. "...and?"

"And I wanted to know if you guys wanted to come?"

"Aw, thanks for thinking of us, Fabbie, but I don't think that'd be a good idea."

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about that...sorry."

"Don't be. You guys have fun, okay?"

"Alright! Love you, bye!"

"Love you!" I hung up and put my phone in my pocket.

"What was that about?" asked Julian.

"Nothing, don't worry." I said. "Turns out they won't be back 'till really late."

"Are they partying without us?"

I shook my head. "I'm not gonna answer that."

"They are, aren't they?" he said, furrowing his brow.

"Jules it's not good for us and you know that."

Julian sighed, leaning my guitar against the coffee table. "I wanna go out though!"

"You'll get to go out later when we get a call from Albert asking us to help get the drunks home."

Julian got up and started to walk away. "Whatever." he mumbled, disappearing into one of the bedrooms.

I rolled my eyes and sighed exasperatingly as I prepared myself to get up and go talk to him, as I had nothing better to do at the time.

I walked into Albert's room to find him smoking a cigarette, staring out the window.

I gingerly walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jules...?"

He took a long drag of his cigarette, continuing to stare, clenching his jaw once he exhaled. "Mhm?"

"Everything okay?"

"I'm not an alcoholic or a drug addict anymore, Jade...and neither are you." he said, making me tense up and retract my hand. "Sure, we relied on that shit in the past, but it isn't really like that anymore, is it? I just wanna go and have fun. I'm not drinking to forget anything. I feel quite happy with where I am at the moment."

I sat down on the bed with a sigh. "You're right, Julian. But, I'm just...scared."

He turned around and stared down at me with dark eyes. "Of what?"

"What if you wanna party every night and use what you're saying as an excuse...and you don't even realise?!"

Julian sat down beside me. "We can't live our lives fearing the 'what ifs'." he said. "What if I went for a walk right now and got hit by a car? What if this is my last cigarette because I got cancer or some shit?"

"Don't say things like that!" I yelped, slapping his arm. He looked at me with frown and I nodded. "Alright...I get it. I need to stop being so paranoid all the time."

"That's the spirit!" he beamed, his face lighting up. I couldn't help but to study his face again as he took another drag from his cigarette, but I looked away before he noticed.

"Does this mean we're meeting up with the guys?" I asked with a sigh.

"Nah, it's okay." he said with a soft smile. "Next time."

"Thanks, Jules."

"What do you suggest we do instead?" Julian asked, then doing that french inhale thing. The smoke flowed so beautifully it had me mesmerised.

"Fuck, I love it when people do that." I thought out loud. "It's so...sexy." I gasped and clapped a hand over my mouth once I realised what I'd said.

"Are you calling me sexy?" A smirk tugged on Julians lips.

"No." I shook my head profusely. "Like...when other people do it is what I meant to say."

Julian flicked his cigarette into an ashtray on the nightstand, then turning back around to face me. He stared with a quizzical expression, as if he were trying to figure something out.

"What?" I snapped, suddenly feeling quite flustered.

He chewed his bottom lip and shrugged his shoulders as he stared a bit more. It was almost getting a bit seductive.

"I, uhh..." I jumped off the bed as I took a deep breath. "I'm gonna go make some lunch."

As I ate my lunch on the couch, I could soon hear Julian playing Albert's guitar softly in his room. That went on for quite a while. I figured he must've been writing a song or two. I left him to do that and I just watched TV for like 4 straight hours which was quite an unhealthy decision, but whatever. It wasn't surprising for Julian to sit in one place with a guitar, a pen and some paper for hours either.

By the time it hit around 9:30PM, my phone started to ring. I rolled my eyes without even checking the caller ID and I held it up to my ear. "Albert, I'm sure you can get them home yourself-"

"It's not Albert, it's me!" Nikolai's panicked voice made me gasp.

"Niko! What's going on?"

"Albert's fighting some dude!"

"What?!"

"The other guy's drugged up and just went for Albert, like, he punched him and stuff and now they're fighting on the street and everyone's cheering them on!"

"Excuse me, did you say Albert?"

"Yeah man, he's wasted!"

"What the fuck?!" I shook my head in disbelief. "There's four of you! Can't you stop him?!

"Ryan had to go and Nick's inside begging the manager not to call the cops!"

"What's Fab doing?"

"Trying to stop them. Oh my god!" Nikolai shouted. "I've gotta go! Look, I'll text the address in a second. Please come!" He hung up, leaving me to sit and think through what he'd just told me. I've never heard Nikolai so panicked before. In fact, I've never even heard him really shout either.

Once it registered in my brain, I jumped up and started screaming. "Julian! Albert's in trouble, we've gotta go!" I screeched. "Right now!"

Julian sped out of Albert's room with a distressed look on his face and quickly pulled his shoes and jacket on. He didn't bother to question me. I did the same thing, grabbed my keys and we rushed outside to hail a cab.