Ten years earlier

It was early February of our sophomore year. Sigrid and I were waiting in front of the school for my parents, always very late, to pick us up. Josh, along with a few of the friends he had made since he'd arrived in the US, joined us without even asking and started chatting with us. He stood next to me and casually rested his leather-clad elbow on my shoulder while speaking to Sigrid, opposite him. He was wearing his shoulder-length hair loose that day.

I had not spoken to Josh much since he'd sat down next to me in English class on the first day of school. I knew he was from Royal Tunbridge Wells, a town in the southeast of England. He'd had to move to the US because of his father's job and would go back to the UK at the end of his junior year. I didn't know much more. He had gotten very popular very fast, what with his accent and his compelling charisma, and did not hang out much with someone as banal as me. The only times we spoke together were the few minutes before and after each of the classes we had in common. He was in AP Calculus too. That didn't give us much time for in-depth conversations.

Most girls at school seemed to have a crush on him and he was loving every second of it. If he had not made anything official with any of them, the rumors said that he had slept with a fair share of the sophomore female population already, and even with a few girls from the classes above.

The conversation still ongoing, he took his arm off my shoulder, reached in his jeans pocket, and took out a bag of tobacco. He skillfully rolled what I recognized as a cigarette and brought it to his mouth. He lit it up with a lighter and blew out the smoke, twisting his lips to the side to make sure the smoke didn't go in my direction. I found the resulting side smirk adorable.

"You all right, love?" He asked me.

I tried my best to ignore the butterflies his words sent to my stomach. British people, I had found out, called pretty much everyone 'love'. For him, calling me such had roughly the same meaning as 'bro' or 'mate'. For me, on the other hand, it was a different story. I couldn't stop my body from responding to what it thought was an affectionate pet name. Each time Josh called me 'love', I could feel my face blush and my knees weaken.

"I'm fine, thanks," I muttered with difficulty. "You?"

"Not too bad," he replied with a wide smile barring his face while he put his arm back on me, this time wrapping my whole upper body and pulling me closer to him. "It's such a ridiculously sunny day for February, how could anyone be anything but happy with such weather?"

"Welcome to LA," I said, and it made him laugh.

He kept taking drags out of his cigarette, still making sure to blow the smoke away from me. I couldn't keep my eyes away from his lips. They made a slight pop sound each time he took the cigarette out of his mouth.

"Do you want a fag?" He offered when he caught me staring at his cigarette for way too long.

I blushed and looked away immediately.

"No, no, I don't smoke."

"Have you ever tried?" He asked.

"No."

"Then you should. Here."

He handed me his half-consumed cigarette. I took it between my fingers without thinking.

"I—I can't," I stuttered. "I don't know what to do, it's dangerous, it's—"

"Shhh, relax," he said, rubbing my arm with his hand to soothe me. "It's really no big deal. Just take the fag between your lips, suck the smoke in, inhale it, take the fag out, and exhale the smoke out. That's it, very easy. Just, whatever you do, do not swallow the smoke. It'll hurt."

I was suddenly very much aware that I had a small audience, whose eyes were staring at me with curiosity. Feeling suddenly brave, I didn't think twice and put the cigarette to my mouth. I sucked the heavy smoke in till it started tickling my throat.

Now what?

Damn it, was I supposed to blow it out right away? No, I remembered specifically Josh mentioning another step before. Shit, what was it? Too late, I was running out of breath, and I needed to do something. I did the only thing I could think of to get rid of the smoke and swallowed it. It turned out to be a huge mistake. The smoke burned like fire on its way down my esophagus and I started coughing like an old man diagnosed with tuberculosis. Everyone burst into laughter, especially Josh.

"I told you not to swallow the smoke, silly!"

I glared at him.

"I didn't know what else to do," I sounded like a chain-smoker, which made everyone laugh even louder.

"Look, love. I'll show you."

Josh took the cigarette from my hand and put it back in his own mouth, illustrating and detailing what I was supposed to do. Instead of swallowing the smoke once it was in my mouth, I was supposed to inhale it into my lungs. He instructed me to exaggerate the inhalation if I was afraid to get it wrong.

I tried again, my hands shaking, and was careful to follow Josh's instructions. I inhaled the smoke as I was supposed to and... nothing. I felt literally nothing except for a slight stinging sensation down my throat. Was that it? Really? Millions of people were spending money and ruining their lungs for that?

"Well done, Abby! You're a champ!" Josh congratulated me and held his hand up for a high five. I smacked my hand in his and looked at him quizzically.

"Is that all?" I inquired. "I don't feel anything."

"Oh, someone's greedy! Just finish up the fag, love, you'll feel the effects soon enough."

I tried to do as I was told but had to stop after three more drags because I started to feel dizzy. Josh felt that my balance suddenly got wonky and wrapped his arm around my waist to keep me steady.

"Feeling the effects now, aren't we?" He teased, his grip on me strong.

I didn't reply. I started to feel nauseated.

He took the cigarette from my hand and finished it.

"You'll be all right. You haven't smoked much, the effects will dissipate in a few minutes. Just bear with me." He squeezed my waist slightly when he finished speaking. The electricity it sent right to my stomach didn't help with the queasiness.

"By the way, Sigrid, Abby," he addressed my best friend and me. "I'm having a party at my house on the fourteenth. It's my birthday. You guys have to come!"

"A party?" Sig asked. "Like, with alcohol and all?"

"Yeah! There'll even be some music and young people having fun. Wild, no?"

He chuckled yet winked at her to soften the burn. She offered him one of her murderous icy looks. He didn't seem shaken like most people would be.

"You don't need to be an ass about it," she barked, her voice acidic.

I knew exactly what she was thinking. We had just been invited to a party. A real party. With underage drinking, smoking, and people fornicating in the parents' bedroom. The kind of party we always saw in movies, but had never dreamt of attending, given our lack of connection with the popular kids who usually attended such parties. She had asked about the alcohol because she was as surprised as me to be invited to such an event, and she wanted to make sure she understood the word 'party' correctly.

"Where will your parents be?" I asked.

In the movies, the parents always had the bad habit of showing up earlier than expected and finding their kids in the most compromising situations.

"They'll be out of town for the weekend. It's Valentine's Day after all. My sister will be here, though. She's cool."

That was the first time I heard about a sister. I imagined she was older and had been put in charge of overseeing the party.

"Will you come?" Josh asked both Sigrid and me, but it felt like he only cared about my response.

"I'll try. I need to think of what I'll tell my parents."

"Please try hard. I would love to have you there."

My heart melted a little. I enthusiastically shook my head yes in agreement. I had to find a way to make it to this party.

"One last thing," he said, "since it's Valentine's Day, the dress code is pink. Don't disappoint me."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A/N: This chapter is a bit late because I was at practice, my apologies. It's also a short one, but the next chapter on the past timeline will be veeeeery long.

Anyway, please vote and comment if you enjoy this story 🙂

Love,
Charlie.