String of Fate

Chapter Sixty One

I honestly wish I knew why my boss' son was obsessed with me. He always wanted to hang out with me whenever his mother let him come into work, which wasn't actually that often. I didn't see him that often in work but his mother always invited me for a meal for his birthday for the last few years, since he had convinced his mother to invite me to his thirteenth birthday party. I had usually tried to say 'no', but now I had been forced into it since it was his sixteenth. I hoped that it wasn't going to be a wild party because I could not deal with wild party people.

It had turned into a little reckless party, though, which was my worst nightmare. My boss' brothers had brought alcohol and the only underage was Max, but none of them were actually sober for long, which was the only reason that Max's dad and two uncles were able to get alcohol past Moira to Max. Of course, didn't touch alcohol, but none of the others seemed to care and soon enough, everyone else were drunk.

I didn't know why Max felt the need to hold my hand when he was drunk – and I didn't know how everyone else couldn't notice that he had glued himself to me. Then again, they probably wouldn't say anything if they did notice. I made sure to keep mostly sober but then Moira had given me a glass of water that had tasted a lot like vodka and things had turned a little bit fuzzy.

I didn't really mind too much because Moira had let me stay over for the night anyway but I hoped that I wouldn't have a bad hang over. That was the worst thing about after drinking. I'd had a bad hangover before when I was younger, and had gone on my first night out with my friends, so now I didn't drink that much because I didn't want it to ever happen again. I realised that everyone was probable going to wake up with a hangover on Max's actual birthday, which was luckily a Sunday so nobody had work.

I woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache and someone sleeping next to me. That was a strange sensation. I had never really shared a bed with anyone before. The closest I had ever gotten was a sleepover at someone else's house and that hadn't been a good night's sleep. The guy that I was sharing the bed with smiled at me. "Good morning, Kelsey. Did you have a good night's sleep?"

"What are you doing in my bed, Max?!" I exclaimed, jumping back against the cold wall. He laughed and I looked around the room, holding the quilt tightly against me even though I was still fully clothed. I realised that this wasn't my room, and it wasn't even in my house. Then I remembered the house party from the night before. "Wait a second, this isn't my room."

"It's actually my room. You're in my bed because my uncles couldn't get home so they're in the spare room and I put you in here with me. Thankfully, mum and dad were too drunk to actually care. I could ask you to get out of my bed, but I really don't want you to." Max told me. I looked at him where he was sitting up in bed, noticing that he was actually shirtless. He noticed where my eyes had gone and he laughed a little. "You puked over me so I had to take my shirt off when we were getting into bed. You were actually too drunk to make it here yourself. You have one of my t-shirts on with a pair of my shorts because your dress was ruined when you puked."

"Oh right. Thanks, I suppose. Sorry for exploding." I replied, glancing at my hands. I had a string. I'd waited eleven years but I had a string! I was too excited now to care about the situation I was in and my voice raised itself a few octaves. "Max! I have a string."

"I know. I see it, too." He answered. I looked at him, surprised. He held his left hand up to me and there was a string there. Connecting the two of us forever. I didn't really know what to think about it since I had never seen Max as someone that I could spend the rest of my life with. He seemed really happy about the situation, though. "I'm so happy that it's you. I've always liked seeing you, Kelsey, and looked forward to seeing you when I came to the shop. Don't tell my mother this, but you are the reason that I would even bother coming to the shop."