Metanoia: A Change of Heart

Chapter XXIII~ Thonia

Knocks.

I was woken by knocks.

I immediately opened my eyes but when I tried to stand up, my head hit the roof and I felt a sudden headache. I cursed loud enough to wake me up from my hangover and trance. I was at the backseat of a white luxury car. Oh, shocks! I recalled the flourished memories of last night. This time, I was drunk for real. With... with Joshua Silva. "Hey! Hey!" I leaned to the driver's side and shook Joshua who lay down horizontally on the two front seats. "Wake up!" I told him.

From outside, Asaila was knocking the glass window. How did they found us? I opened the door on my left. "A," I said, Kennard, Fredd and Stephen, who I did not see in Nicole's party, were with her.

"Finally! Welcome back, Sleeping Beauty." Asaila pulled me out of the car. I almost fainted, thankfully, Kennard helped her to supported me. I might be pretty messed up because she stared at me with the mixture of disgust and pity. "Wait," she smelled my breath. "You're drunk!"

"No, I'm not." I said and made little circles on my temples because they were aching.

"Yes, you are, Princess." Fredd waved us and unlocked the driver's side by reaching down from my opened door. "Joshua!"

"What happened, Thonia?" Kennard asked.

"Oh, hell, let me sit for a while, please." I sat sideward inside the backseat but faced them. I took a deep breath and told them what happened, in the briefest possible way. "We were at the party. Then we almost got suffocated because of the smoke and too much alcohol. We decided to go here, to 'somewhere.'" I air-quoted the last word.

"You what?" Asaila covered her forehead with her hand and turned away. After a moment she faced back and whispered to me, "You lost your alcohol virginity to that genius love-hater?"

"A, you're not my mom and it's no big deal." Yes, it was definitely a big deal for me and she knew it.

"I'm still here and I heard that, Asaila." Joshua sat sideward like me and dangled his bare foot above the rocky ground. His hair was a mess. Same with mine, I thought, that was why I scratched my scalp and tried to comb my hair using my fingers.

"Where'd you get this anyway? Stole from the bar?" Fredd was now standing beside Kennard, holding the bottle.

"Or from Mr. Silva' wine cellar?" Kennard took the bottle and was about to drink from it when, Joshua and I said "No" at the same time. They all froze and looked at us.

"I mean, no, you shouldn't. It has high amount of alcohol." I said.

Fredd snatched it again from Kennard and read the writings on it. "A gold label! Sweet! Yeah, it is pretty high." He rolled it and saw the masking tape label. "Josh's--" he read aloud, but Joshua launched and got it from him before he even read more.

"What. Is. Going. On. Here?" Asaila frustratingly screamed. "Okay, we have to go." Asaila grabbed my hand and dragged me to the old pick-up truck that I did not notice earlier. It probably worth nothing compared to Mr. Silva's luxury car. For a brief reason, I wanted to laugh just for Arthur to feel I hated him. His round face irritated me so much.

Halfway to the truck, Arthur came out and tried to support me. No way! Just no way I would let him touch me. I flinched from Asaila's hold and end up nearly falling. Nearly because my best friend had hidden super strength. "She's drunk," my best friend apologized to his boyfriend.

His black hair fixed with too much gel and brown strikes made him look like a drug addict. I hoped the alcohol in me was still that worse so I could tell them infront of him. Unfortunately, I did not want to be the antagonist in my best friend's love story. "I'm not. I just hate you," I said right infront of Arthur. So, the alcohol did not leave completely afterall.