This Is Hardcore

Chapter 5

For the past few months Hannah and I have been growing the bakery out, and it boomed--big time. We now have 10 branches--London, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Hackney, Sheffield, Norwich, Carlisle, and Bangor. Celebs like Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cambridge, Countess of Strathearn, Baroness Carrickfergus; Ellie Goulding; Jessie J; Reggie Yates; and many more flock in, plus we were featured (once) in theguardian.co.uk's food and drink section, and became the official bakery of the The Games of The XXX Olympiad and TeamGB!

     Also, my love life has grown as well. Danny and I have been dating for weeks prior to The Accidental Mleaegh and have grown out of each other since. He was a nice guy, young at heart, yet very mature in his tastes and likes (dislikes as well). Today, he came into the shop again, in his same style, same pace, and same swagger.

     We got lost into each other's eyes. And what a pair of eyes to get lost into.

     "Hey," he started.

     "What?"

     "Um, I was just wondering, if you could go to my birthday party tonight."

     FCUK! I just forgot that it is his birthday today!

     "It's going to be in my flat."

     "Where?" I asked breathlessly, without time to ponder.

     "What, you mean, like you don't remember?"

     Wait. Oh, yeah--your room. It was where we luvved each other up. (It is an incident to difficult to retell.) I remember it. Vividly. Very vividly.

     "There? In your bed?"

     "Sofa-bed."

     "SOFA-BED!" Gosh, I couldn't remember details.

     "Yeah," he said, his tone starting off declaratively and ended interrogatively.

     "Uh, great."

     "Yeah...you coming?"

     "Hmmm, I think so."

     "Great! See you later!"

     "Thanks!" Then he just walks away. I mean, who just barges in the store just to talk and without buying any of my goods? "Oh, you're not buying?"

     "Oh, sorry. I'm gonna have the--"

     "GET IN LINE, DANNY." I love being dominant with him.

     He rolled his eyes. (Who just fucking rolls his eyes on me?) I laugh, then later he chuckles too, shaking his head.

     He ordered a rolled-pizza bread, smothered with meat sauce, and packed in a styro plate.

     He neared me again, flashing his bright eyes and 100 MW smile (he saves the 1000 MW smile for bed.) Then, he takes off.

     Hannah gets up to me and smiles, whispering, "Be careful. Love kills." I don't understand what she meant about the last part, but what I'm sure about is that I should be careful.

It's 7:30 pm, and I'm at Danny's. I'm in my LRD, and he's in a black shirt from H&M and jeans by Replay. Fucking nice.

     All his dudes (and galfriends) were there, and I was introduced as his girlfriend. The dudes surrounded Danny with applause, and the girls shook my hands and congratulated me. Happy days, oh happy days.

     We had cake, sasso, salad, pasta, sodas, and some Guiness and Absolut. I had Greyhound again. "Hey what's that?"

     I turned around and it was Sara, who just came. "HEY!"

     "So, I hear you everywhere, girl!"

     "Yeah. Trips and bullshit. But I always go back here. London. Home."

     "I understand. Well I should go to the birthday boy first!"

     "You should! He might get angry!"

     She gets to Danny and talks to him. Then she eats her dinner and partied with the rest of the people in the flat.

     We beer-ponged, we drank, we watched films, played more beer-pong; it was a really fun night. Especially because it's Danny's birthday.

9:00 pm. All of his friends were gone, except for me and Sara. I asked Danny, "So, where did you get all these awesome friends?"

     "They're my classmates. At Oxford."

     "Wow. What were you reading?" Sara asked.

     "OxLaw."

     "Really?"

     "Yeah. I graduated, but didn't pass the bar."

     "Oh. So sad."

     "Yeah. But it's fine for me now."

     "Yeah. Well, I should get going. I have a flight tomorrow to Libya. Wish me luck?"

     "LIBYA?" Danny and I both said.

     "Well, what's wrong?"

     "Sara, it's unsafe there," I advised.

     "I'm with AP. I can handle it. Wish me luck!"

     "Okay. Bye!"

     "Bye!"

     Once Sara went, I decided to Danny, "Maybe, I should stay here a bit longer."

     "Great! What should we do?"

     "I don't know."

     Then I looked into his eyes, and he looked into mine. God, they were perfect. Wait. Scratch that. He is super-perfect.

     When we understood what each our thoughts meant were, we grabbed each other and kissed. Except for the pasta and Caesar in our breaths, it was right; so warm, so sweet. This is utter perfection.

     We tore off our clothes, and danced again in the dark.

     I took the pills. It's okay.