Innocent Murderers

[12] successfully evading responsibility

Three weeks.

Three weeks have tumbled past like overflowing lakes since our little visit. Three weeks of tears, smiles and late-night conversations contributing to ever-growing friendships. Right now, the sun is high in the sky as autumn moves forward in its steady march to winter and summer finishes its slow descent like a moon making way for day. My hands find their way to my sleeves as although the sun paints a picture of warmth the cold still bites away at us all. I pull the thick fabric down over my hands and smile to myself. Derek is sat next to me, watching his phone and occasionally laughing at something it shows him. Rose is on my other side, quiet and lost in her thoughts. A state in which I have found myself in an increasing amount for nearly two months.

Two months in New York. And my bank account was struggling until I received all three hundred thousand pounds of my parents' savings.

Except, the money seems to me like something I shouldn't spend. Like a memory, or a keepsake I never throw away for no reason other than I just don't want to.

My hand travels up to my hair, and twists it around my finger.

"Come on, you idle imbeciles!" Lucy's smile bounces into the room before her voice does.

My head snaps up, identical to all the others in the room.

Aaron groans, and she just slaps him upside on his head. This makes me laugh, and he looks at me with a smirk beginning to etch itself across his lips.

"What do you want?" Penny grumbles, awake from her nap which seemed to involve dreams that required a lot of fighting, a hilarious sight.

Lucy sighs, and struts over to the body on the floor. Penny looks up, eyes wide in fear.

"We are going to get drunk." She says, the words escaping her lips slowly, as if read to a three-year-old.

"Again?" It's Jackson who speaks this time.

"Yes, again. Because it's funny." Lucy says.

==

We've been out 'getting drunk' four times, and every time Lucy has reluctantly let me go in my jeans and t-shirt. This time, however, she doesn't let me get away with it.

"Aaron is finally starting to like you, and now you have to push him over the edge." She said to me three hours ago, before I was turned into some sort of pop star princess.

After attacking my face with brushes, and throwing me into wardrobes she was finally satisfied with me.

I brace myself as she drags me in front of the mirror, my eyes meeting the ones in the mirror. The raw pain is still there, but not as overpowering and dampening as it used to be. I still look pale and freckled, my ginger hair making me ugly and yet Lucy has managed to turn it into a less ugly version of the girl I used to know.

Like how alcohol takes the edge off of emotion.

The girl in the mirror is smiling, lips red and cheeks rosy. Her freckles are still there, but less overpowering than they were. Eyeshadow tints her crinkled eyelids, a startling grey that makes her eyes shine an even more electric, startling blue. And her hair, twisted back into a bun that made her face look brighter, bigger.

My hand flies down to the dress, blush satin clinging to my top half, and gently flowing to my mid thigh.

Before I can even register that the girl is me I have flung myself around and at Lucy, her laugh sailing past my ears as she tightens her arms around me.

==

"Hey yo DERRRREEK," Lucy calls into the drunken abyss of darkness. I laugh and throw my beer bottle above my head.
"He's over there!" I point to Derek, who's sipping on a bottle of beer, just like me, and looking at his phone. Lucy somehow skips to him in her glossy red stilettos and grabs onto his elbow, pulling him onto the dance floor.
"You're drunk," He says, smiling at her.
"What? And you're not?" She says, grabbing onto his shoulders and pressing her cheek to his chest. I dig for my phone and snap a picture of them as Derek wraps his arms around her and pulls her closer. She grins giddily at me and I send her the thumbs up, and then over-dramatically wink. She giggles and Derek smiles at me.
"Thank you," He mouths. I grin and turn around only to slam into a black t shirt. Two arms steady me and I look up into Aaron's green eyes. I giggle and point at his eyes. He raises his eyebrows.
"You've got eyes!" I say, and then I make goggles with my hands and put them to my own blue ones.
"So have I!" I call. Aaron laughs and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder.
"You're an idiot," He says in my ear and I poke his muscles like the idiot I am. Just before he bustles me out of the pub door I here Penny talking to Rose,
"Oh my goooooood, Derek is so weird. BUT JACKSON IS WEIRDER. I think I like it," she giggles. I point at her. 4
"You like Jackson," I yell at her and she grins at me. I wave.
"Aaron's taking me home. We're gonna have sex!!" I whisper-shout at her. She nods and sends me a thumbs up and Aaron shakes with laughter. When he finally places me down on the car seat, I grin at him and lean in to kiss him. He places a finger on my lips and frowns.
"I'm not going to do this. Because you're drunk, no matter how much I want to, I will not take advantage of your, state," He says quietly. I lick his finger and laugh at his disgusted expression.

"It's ok. I forgive you," I say, grinning. Aaron raises his eyebrows.

"For what?"

"Putting together an intricate plan to get me drunk and then act heroic. Smart," I say, placing a pale finger on his nose. He chuckles and plugs my seatbelt in, before doing his. Then, he starts the car and we speed down the street towards the youth hostel.

==

Some domestic Kenneron for you, and I tried to write this without stealing but I seemed to have a good talent for making the characters actually feel real and not stiff and weirddddddddd

Anyway, thank you for sixty reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaads and to for saying I'm a good writerrrr

K byeeeeeeeeeeeee