Chapter 3

The night flows easily. We are laughing and getting along without a hiccup. I've learnt that Seb is the clown of the group, whilst Nicks is the quiet one and Cal comes across as the shy sweet one. I can't help but lose my focus regularly as Lakyn steals my attention back every now and then from the group chat.

"Do you go to university here in Sydney?" He asks me.

"Yeah, Im doing a contemporary arts degree at La Trobe. What about you?"

"An accountant and an art student, interesting combo." He almost says to himself, completely ignoring my question. We turn back to the group.

This continues on for most of the night; every now and then Lakyn turns and asks me a question as if adding it to the puzzle of who I am. He usually just completely ignores my questions back, but from what I've gathered he lives here in Sydney as he owns a bar here. He's 28 and has 2 younger brothers, one of which is gay, hence his anger towards Jason. He's considering doing a business degree to help him run his business but it sounds pretty successful already so he's not sure. He has lived here his whole life, currently single, has a doberman named Max but it lives with his parents as his apartment doesn't have a backyard for him.

I continue to sip more and more wine, getting drunker and drunker as my nerves get higher and higher. I check my phone, it's midnight and my anxiety creeps in that the night is coming to an end. I notice that Lakyn gets more and more distant, watching me out of the corner of his eyes. My heart flutters a little bit at the fact that he's not giving me any attention anymore. I don't usually crave attention like this. I like to think I don't require validation from a man, but his sudden lack of interest makes me feel almost... lonely. Sober and drunk thoughts wage war in my head as I sit silently sipping more wine to calm my nerves.

Maybe he doesn't like us anymore? My drunk thoughts pout.

This is a good thing, we said we weren't going to date anymore, sober thoughts argue back.

But he's so pretty, can't we at least sleep with him? He looks like he'd ruin us.

This is your exact problem, you don't know when to stop. We are going home, alone. End of discussion.

"Are you there Charlie?" Seb asks me, clearly amused at my changing expressions as I watch sober and drunk me argue this out, even I'm curious as to which one of them will win.

"Oh yeah! Sorry! I'm just lost in thought. I'm a little drunk." I respond.

I hear Lakyn breath a sigh of annoyance beside me. Geez what's his problem? An hour ago he couldn't wait to get in my pants. I feel more and more of my resolve leaving as I sip more and more wine, my anger building. Who does this guy think he is? What changed his mind? My confidence is slipping and my self esteem is trying to claw it's way up. Fuck it I think as I let drunk me win the internal argument. I lean over to Lakyn and whisper in his ear "Hey, wanna get out of here?" Giving him my award winning smile.

He looks down at me a little apprehensive "I don't think that's a good idea. I'm sorry."

I straighten my posture and try to compose my face not to show any emotion at his rejection, "Oh, yeah, of course. My bad. I got the wrong impression." I say, trying to hide the disappointment in my voice. What an idiot I am.

His eyes go wide, "Wait Charlie," he says trying to pull my attention back to him. I slowly turn, doing my absolute best to seem as if I don't care.

Why do I care? He's just another guy, there's like 4 billion of them, just go find another one to play with Charlie.

"Don't get me wrong" he continues, looking directly in my eyes, "I want to, it's just you're pretty drunk, and I'm not really into the whole drunk one night stand. Especially since I really haven't had much to drink, and I've watched you drink at least a bottle and a half of red..." He trails off.

Oh, well this was new.

"Um, oh, yeah of course. Sorry, I sip when I'm nervous and to be honest this situation had me a little on edge for some reason." I say back.

He gives me a small understanding smile, "Could I maybe take you on a date instead? Don't get me wrong I would absolutely love to see you naked in my bed, but for now I think it's better if we hold off."

"Yeah of course." I reply as I grab his phone to put in my number. He smiles sweetly at me and I feel some of my nerves ease. We spend the next thirty minutes engrossed in a story from Seb about the time he travelled to America and got robbed at grand central station and was too unfit to run after the perp. We're all laughing when the bartender comes over to tell us all that the bar is closing and we're going to have to leave in the next fifteen minutes so they can shut up. I look at Lakyn and he looks just as disappointed as I am.

"Well guys, this has been fun but sadly all good things must come to an end." Seb says whilst giving us a fake pout.

"I have no doubt we'll be seeing Charlie again." Cal sneaks in, giving Lakyn and I a cheeky grin.

"That's if she even wants to see this big man baby again." Nicks chimes in at the end.

Lakyn glares at all of them, turning to me, "Can I walk you to the taxi line, or are you getting an uber..." he trails off.

"Taxi line works, at this time of night an uber is ridiculously expensive. Besides I'm going home with Vanessa and Joshua, my house is out of town so it would cost me way too much to get back."

He frowns a little, "You don't live in the city?".

"No, I prefer to live out a little bit, the city is too crazy for me." I turn to Vanessa before he can bombard me with anymore questions, "Are you two ready to go?" I ask.

"Yeah let's get going." Joshua responds before Vanessa can make a remark about me possibly going home with Lakyn. I know that's what she's hoping for, she's been worried about me not being my usual self. I shoot her a glance saying I'll explain later. She obviously takes the hint as she starts to stand up and grab her things.

We all make our way down the street to where the taxi line is, luckily it's not too busy considering that it's only 1am on a Friday night.

As we make our way to the front Lakyn turns to me, "So I'll shoot you a message. Thanks for tonight though." He grins as he leans down giving me a light peck on my lips.

"Ah yeah, you too. Sounds good." I manage to stammer out as Vanessa drags me into the taxi. I wave goodbye to Lakyn and the boys, a little sad at losing their company so early.

I buckle up in the taxi as we begin to drive off Vanessa turns to me "OK! Tell me everything."

———

The rest of the weekend flies by. We spend the next day hungover eating junk food and watching movies. I don't mind third wheeling with Joshua and Vanessa. They're a cute couple and Josh is always nice to me. I checked my phone non stop on Saturday hoping to hear from Lakyn, but I didn't hear a word from him. I was a little annoyed with how disappointed I was at this fact. How did he have such a pull on me already? We had only spent a few hours together and yet I felt like I had known him so much longer. I stayed another night at Vanessa and Josh's returning home on Sunday to get ready for the work week. As I step in the door I yell out "Hola Abuela!"

The small, frail woman peaks out from around the corner. "Hola Charlie, how was your weekend?"

"Oh pretty boring, nothing exciting. I'm back now, I'm gonna do a load of washing, do you need anything done?"

She raises her eyebrow at me knowing I'm lying, but decided against pestering me. She hobbles out of the living room to go sit back in her seat as I go to get her laundry basket.

I'd lived here for close to a year now. Abuela wasn't my actual grandmother, she just insisted that I call her that. She'd been an immigrant here in Australia for close to 30 years now. Her husband had passed and they had decided against children, any other family was still living in Spain, meaning that she had no family here. I saw her ad in the paper for a roommate, I'm sure most people my age don't even read a paper anymore, but I'm glad I found her ad.

I live here cheaply and in return I help her around the house with cleaning, washing and gardening. She does love to cook though, which is such a bonus and is actually the real reason Josh loves to come for dinner. She's taught me so much in my year here and I've come to love the crazy old thing.

I do a load of washing, cook some meals for the week for my lunches, and I return all of my clothes to their place in my wardrobe. By the time I'm done it's late Sunday. I sit down at my small, marble desk in my room. I lay down some newspaper, setting up my small art supplies, I put my headphones in, clicking on the playlist 'time capsule' and get lost in the watercolours before me.

That night I dreamed of dark eyes and tattooed arms around me, which was a much welcome dream from the usual ones I get.