2.9

The teenager can breathe a sigh of relief when, after prolonged attempts, she manages to push the sleeping Joseph off her. The boy bumps into a wall, but even that is unable to wake him up. He only mumbles indistinct words and presses his face into the pillow, accidentally hitting Hannah with his hand.

The brunette can't stand it and has to lash out, so she pinches his hip.

— I'll kill you, motherfucker — he mutters a little more clearly, but fortunately these are only words spoken in a dream, so the girl does not take them seriously.

She gets up from the bed and surreptitiously glances at Bella, who is sleeping snuggled into Tom's chest. They both look adorable in this position.

Hannah can't ignore it and captures their drunken madness in a photo.

— I'm jealous — she says in a whisper to the sleeping couple. She puffs out her lips and takes as her target the unconscious Jin, who lies in an uncomfortable position by the door.

She crouches in front of him and pokes him in the shoulder to wake him up. When he doesn't respond, she pats him on the face and doesn't regret it at all because she thinks he deserves a decent slap anyway since he hasn't been telling her the truth all this time. He has been playing around with some silly ruse.

— How is this possible? — he says in a whisper as he half-consciously opens his eyes and looks at her face. — How is it possible that you are here with me?

— I'm haunting you as an evil spirit, you nasty liar — Hannah speaks up, slapping him on the knee with her hand. — You will fry in hell if you continue to hide the truth.

— You can't be here, Hannah. Your safety is at stake here.

The teen crinkles her eyebrows when she realizes that this inebriated asshole has recognized her even in such a state.

— What are you talking about? What kind of danger is this to me?

— We will all pay the penalty for your sin... She died because of you.

Her heart goes up to her throat. What does she mean when she says that Danielle died because of her? In what way? How did this happen?

— So it was because of me that my sister died in the accident?

The boy ignores her and heads toward the bed on his knees. Hannah watches him as he climbs onto the mattress and lies down next to Joseph. The friend takes advantage of this and snuggles into him like a favorite childhood toy.

— What am I even talking about with a person in such a state? It doesn't make any sense.

The girl sighs loudly and, having no choice, spreads the blanket on the ground. She curls up in a ball and after some time falls asleep.

*

Joseph wrinkles his nose when, after waking up, Jin's too-close face takes away his joy for the next few hours. Moreover, a headache and a generally bad mood make him not in the best mood today.

— What the hell am I doing here? — he mutters under his breath as he lifts his face and sees his sleeping friend on the opposite side in Bella's embrace.

Where is Hannah?

He rises to a sitting position and pulls his eyebrows together when he sees the girl lying curled up in a ball on the floor.

— Why is she sleeping there?

He crouches in front of her and looks at her sleeping face for a long moment. She is frozen. She trembles in her sleep, so he takes his friend's quilt and covers his younger friend with it.

He puts his hand to her face and pulls away a strand of hair that falls over her eyes.

— For the moment you are my only rose, even though you have the most thorns. — He strokes her hair and his hand hovers in the air. He opens his mouth in amazement as he recalls last night. It was the first time he got so drunk that he and his roommates made a fool of themselves.

Before that.

Joseph croaks when, on the way back from the clothing store, where he and Jin had already decided to prepare for winter, he asks his friend a question. But he looks at the phone screen as if he saw something unusual there.

— Will you finally answer me, or will you continue to stare at this message?

Jin lifts his face and looks at him with confused eyes, then hides the phone in the back pocket of his pants.

— What did you ask me about?

— About your phone number. I'm going to go on a date with you — he replies arrogantly, and his gaze is caught by Tom walking to the tent, accompanied by his roommate Hannah. — As for the date... our friend intends to have a great time. Should we join him and spoil his plans?

— As usual, you are in your element. You won't let him off the hook, will you?

— I have to test all the girls who hang around my friends, so no — he replies as he puts his arm around him and forcefully pulls him into the tent.

Tom's facial expression betrays that the boy is not happy with the company of his buddies this evening, although Bella does not mind at all.

— I miss Hannah here.... — speaks in a sad voice of the blonde as she sets her empty glass down on the table.

As for drinking vodka, she's pretty good at it despite her young age.

— In that case, you could have gone on a date with Hannah, not my friend — Joseph frigidly replies as Tom pours them another serving.

Bella lowers her gaze, not intending to contact him, as she realizes that his eyes do not look friendly at the moment.

— Don't be arrogant. The girls just manage to get very attached to each other — speaks Jin, who meanwhile reads another message.

— You are starting to irritate me with this phone call. — Joseph pierces it with his eyes.

— I just have to explain something.

The next bottles go like a storm, and each of them loses his sense, and in this way they bring themselves to such a state that over time at the table topics that are incomprehensible to others begin to arise.

— Finally, you're not looking at me with those scary eyes. — Bella points a finger at Joseph's face. — They seem much softer after alcohol.

— Nicer? — Tom twists the word.

— Yes, you are prettier — the girl claims, stroking his hair. — Your eyes are friendlier, punchier, and brighter.

Joseph crinkles his eyebrows as Bella, along with Tom, start laughing. If it still made sense, he wouldn't look at them like idiots.

— It's all becoming more and more overwhelming. — Jin pours alcohol into a glass for himself, then tilts it to his lips.

— With you, it's impossible to talk at all lately. Are you depressed? What's going on? — From the corner of his eye, Joseph glances at Bella, who touches the tip of her nose with her finger to see how drunk she is.

Jin rubs his face, and his gaze betrays that he is heartbroken.

— I just want to get drunk and forget everything.

He falls face down on the countertop, which Joseph comments only with a loud sigh.

— I heard you were a dark lord in high school. — Bella becomes interested again in the older student, who instills fear in her. — So let me be the one to pour you another glass, okay?

Joseph doesn't realize even then that this will be the decisive portion of alcohol that will completely knock him off his feet and make him start acting like an entirely different person.

— Just spill it, and you'll be dead — he says to her in a frighteningly calm voice. The girl swallows her saliva harder and as she takes the bottle in her hand, her hands dangerously begin to shake over the glass.

— It was the dark prince. Hannah called him that — Tom says with amusement in his voice, poking Jin sometimes to wake up.

— How dark could your appearance have been?

— Have you ever seen the devil? — Joseph tilts his glass to his lips, not taking his eyes off her. She only shakes her head in response. — In that case, you will not guess what I looked like before.

— Just... looked like the devil with eyeliner on his eyes. — Tom shrugs his shoulders.

Ten minutes later, the conversation takes an entirely different direction.

— You know... I see love in your eyes, but only when you look at Hannah. — The blonde rests her cheek on her hand, laughing wryly as she points her finger in Joseph's face. — You love her, but you are an arrogant bastard who is afraid to admit his feelings.

The boy pushes her hand away.

— Honestly speaking, I would rather that little sassy girl was my sister, then I wouldn't have such a problem with her — he replies grimly, watching Tom pull Jin's nose and cheeks. The friend is already weakly grasping reality, so he tries to rouse him at least a little so that he can get back to the dorm on his own two feet.

— Sister? — queries Bella, although her thinking is slowed down after such quantities of alcohol consumed.

— Hannah's biological mother is the woman who adopted me. We are in no way related to each other, although in this situation I call her little sister anyway. It's complicated in a way, and funny at the same time.

— I don't understand any of this anyway...

— I once watched an amazing series. The siblings were not connected by blood ties and a dangerous love was born between them, for which they fought with their parents. It was only engaging. — Tom puts his hand to his mouth and giggles like an excited teenager. — I won't let you take Hannah away from me, even though forbidden romance is the most passionate. She is my wife! — In a rather short moment, he gets serious and slaps his hand on his chest.

— What is wrong with these twins? Why do they both get into an affair with their stepbrothers? — Jin finally speaks up, before falling face down on the table-top again.

*

Joseph is sitting at the table when the other four finally arrive at the cafeteria. The best looking of the four is Hannah, who didn't drink anything last night, although it's clear, she's sleep-deprived.

For a long moment, she wonders if she wants to sit at the same table with them, but finally decides against eating alone.

The seat falls to her opposite Joseph, which she is not happy about. Last time, he hurt her with his words, and his drunken behavior didn't change anything. She probably doesn't even remember what he said or did...

— How is it possible that we have brought ourselves to such a state? I don't even have an appetite — speaks Bella, who is as pale as a corpse on her face.

— How is it possible that you all ended up in our room and because of you, I did not sleep? You are lucky that no one covered you because I swear I would have killed you with my bare hands. — He directs these words more to Joseph, who only smiles under his breath.

— You panic like an old pregnant woman.

Hannah puts the cutlery down too hard on the table.

— Why don't you say these words to the person who arrives outside the dormitory every day because she can't handle anything? — There is so much venom in her voice that Bella begins to be alarmed by the impending argument.

Tom puts down his spoon because the food doesn't come up to him at all, and Jin continues to massage his throbbing forehead.

— Because this person is not panicking and actually needs my help.

— Apparently, she can't handle anything and is looking for a woodpecker to solve the problems for her, but well... I have heard that such silly girls have more charm in them and guys are attracted to that. Apparently, you are afraid of intelligent women. Does it hurt your pride?

Jin doesn't even listen to her because it's more important for him to give himself a head message to at least relieve his suffering.

— It is no coincidence that the noun maraud is of the feminine gender... — purrs Joseph, putting another portion of breakfast in his mouth.

The nineteen-year-old tightens her lips to keep from saying a few words too much. Let him already have the silly satisfaction of having won. It's difficult to get along with a man.

— Gone are the days when women cooked like their mothers. Now women drink like their fathers — Tom says, looking directly at Bella's face. — It's scary that some can drink more than a man.