Chapter 28 - Unity(Part 8)

"Hey, Red! You free right now? What am I saying, of course you are! Come on, let's go to the garden," Xandra burst into my room enthusiastically.

"Don't you know how to knock? And I already tagged along yesterday, so leave me alone," I sighed in exasperation, as I set down my handheld game device.

"Come on, it's not like you've got anything better to do," She responded with a grin, as she pulled on my arm.

"You're exhausting," I replied wearily, trying to get back to my game.

"Socializing with be good for you, you can't say you didn't have fun yesterday!" She pointed out, trying to persuade me.

Yeah, I suppose that's true...I hung out with her, the non-combatant members and some of the younger members, and it was nice. We played card games and stuff like that, and yeah, I enjoyed myself.

But I did also feel pretty awkward...I'm not used to hanging out in a large group, there were a lot of times where I was just sitting in silence while the others chatted away. I felt pretty out of place there.

I'm not good at starting casual conversations, I tend to only speak when spoken to in those situations. I'd much rather laze about in my room and play some games instead. But she isn't going to relent, as I found out yesterday...

"Alright, fine, but I'm taking tomorrow for myself. Give me your word that you won't bother me tomorrow and I'll tag along today," I gave in with a grumble, as I hopped off the bed.

"Hmmm...okay ,fine, I guess I'll accept that compromise," She nodded after a brief pause.

She was planning on making me do this again tomorrow? I'm glad I made sure that won't happen.

I then followed after her as she opened the door and gestured to me to follow. Well, at least I managed to relax and laze about for most of the day. It's 6 PM in the evening right now, I was hoping she wouldn't show up and drag me away, but I guess that was too optimistic.

"Hey, why are you trying so hard with this, anyway?" I inquired with a frown, as we made our way through the mansion.

"Huh? Well, I haven't really thought about it. I mean, we're all living under the same roof, so we might as well all get along, right?" She replied with a shrug.

She said something like that yesterday too.

"Fine, whatever. So, what's the plan? We gonna play cards again or what?" I asked her.

"Actually, we've got something else planned for today. We're gonna chill on the balcony and eat some snacks and stuff, it's nice and windy outside right now," She grinned as she glanced back at me.

"That...actually sounds pretty good," I muttered reluctantly.

"Doesn't it? It'll just be a few of us, the younger ones won't be joining for this," She informed me.

"Yeah? How come?" I responded curiously.

"Because they're too young for this...it's an adults-only kinda thing, you'll find out soon enough," She replied with a smirk.

Huh? Wait, hold on...okay, I don't want to misunderstand this. She definitely didn't mean what it sounded like she meant, right?

Yeah, I highly doubt it...but what else could it mean? Is there anything else that'd be considered adults-only other than sexual stuff?

Oh, wait. Alcohol...yeah, that's probably what it is. It's gotta be...I can't quite think of anything else. And I highly doubt we're gonna have an orgy on the balcony, so yeah, it's probably a drinking thing.

Hm...I've had alcohol a few times after coming here, and honestly, I'm not much of a fan of the stuff. It tastes nasty, drinking too much makes me nauseous, and then there's the hangover the next day. Well, not that I've experienced one, since I can sober myself up if I stop suppressing my resistance to toxins.

But either way, I'll make sure not to drink too much, assuming that's what this is about. Pretty sure it is...though I guess I wouldn't mind being proven wrong and this really is some kind of orgy thing.

"Alright, here we are," Remarked Xandra, as she pushed open the doors leading to the balcony.

A couple of others were seated around the table set by the railing, they're staff members...they don't fight, they're more responsible for stuff like cooking and cleaning.

They're Alters too, but their powers are too weak to be used in combat. I don't see any bottles of alcohol, only a couple of bottles of water on the table. There's also a couple of ashtrays.

"There you guys are, we've been waiting," One of them greeted us with a smile.

Josh Root, he's the cook in the mansion, and his food is great. He's a man in his early fifties, with a bald head, a narrow chin beard and grey eyes.

There were two others here too. One of them was the gardener, Kris Greene, she's a woman in her mid-thirties, with short, light red curly hair, a freckled face and blue eyes.

And the other was the guy who's responsible for keeping the mansion clean, Sipho Mabaso. He was in his forties, with dark skin, short, thick black hair, a thin goatee and yellow eyes.

"Is it ready?" Xandra asked them with a gleam in her eyes.

"Mhm, sure is," Nodded Kris, as she held up something.

Hm? What is that?

"Go ahead and suppress your healing, Red, my boy. You're gonna want to feel this," Xandra advised me, as she walked over and took the thing from Kris.

"Uh, okay? What are we doing?" I responded in confusion.

"We're getting high, smoking weed! The boss usually doesn't like us smoking in the mansion, so we're only allowed once a month at most. It's been a while since the last time as we've all been pretty busy," She grinned, as she formed a spark of flames over her fingertip and lit it up, putting it to her lips and taking a puff.

"Wait, we're doing drugs?" I replied in bemusement.

"Lighten up, the positives outweigh the negatives with this stuff. It might help you relax too, here...give it a try. Since it's your first time, take a slow but long puff, stop when you start to feel some heat at the back of your throat. And then inhale deeply to get it into your lungs, hold for a couple of seconds and then exhale," She instructed me.

"Well, I guess it worth a try," I remarked as I hesitantly took it from her and put it to my mouth, taking a puff like she'd told me.

Oh...it's kinda sour and bitter, but not totally unpleasant. And the smell is strong but sort of nice...yeah, I think I like this. And I don't need to worry about any side effects it might have, I can recover from even lethal poisons, so I doubt this'll give me any trouble. I think I'm starting to feel something...huh, it's kinda pleasant...

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