"Uhmm Hey... Hey Kat... How are you?" Felix stuttered, choking on the air he shared with her.

Katarina didn't tilt her head to the yearning of her fan. Her blue orbs were fixated on me. 

With her crooked smile and her index twirling a single crimson strand of hair from a sea of blonde, she moved closer. 

I felt bad for that lonely strand of crimson hair. It was cursed to remain glued to her head, the place where all troubles brewed.

"I heard you punched the professor, huh." She turned to her cult. Her followers - two brunettes, a red, and another blonde - nodded religiously.

During my rebel phase, I had a thing for blonde chicks.

Truth be told, my dick had a thing for anything that was trouble and made me feel unfixable. 

I wasn't proud of the rabbit hole I dragged myself into or stayed burrowed in. When my desire was fulfilled, she was tossed aside.

You can judge me all you want. I do too.

Felix had hammered his glare at her, unwilling to look anywhere or at anyone. 

Katarina was Felix's longtime crush. 

Again, I feel the urge to reiterate that I wasn't proud of betraying the bro codes or sleeping with girls to whom I was a means of revenge for their exes.

Unlike Felix and his benevolent, compassionate personality, Katarina was the stark opposite. 

She was the demented bully. 

Although any bully was a demented version of a human being, Katrina was different. Many were fooled by her alluring persona and the warm smile hiding her perfect pearly whites. 

But deep beneath the inconspicuous, laid her beguiled truth. 

She camouflaged her trap, enticing the weak and the helpless, befriending them and then snap. 

Like the flytrap, her victims wouldn't know how her smile broke them and why her once sweet, caring words now burned like acid on their skin.

Unfortunately, our fathers were acquaintances so the knowledge of who she was and how she operated wasn't new to me. 

Now to the question about why I was still talking to her. 

Well, you see, my friend Felix who was ruled by his dick couldn't help but feel what he felt for her. 

It was my imperative obligation to rescue him from the wretched hold of this woman who seemed to be cemented at her feet.

"Don't believe everything you hear," I said, coiling my arm around Felix who was also plastered in his place.

Her desperate, attention-seeking company whispered something behind her, all too muffled for me to understand. 

Katrina turned to them, an eyebrow hooked up and the other four fell silent. 

It was somewhat of a mystery, how four good-looking and confident girls were mere servants to Katrina, whose only hold over them was her daddy's influence and money.

"Are you coming for the party tonight?" Katrina turned around, flipping her hair and pointing her coloured crow nails at me.

Felix's hand grabbed me, shoving me to his height and squeezing the skin so hard, I felt my pulse vibrating at his hold.

"Yesyesyeshewouldbethere," he blurted, pimping me out, for his carnal pleasure. "We'll be there."

He couldn't muster the courage to look at Katrina directly, no less talk. She was the eclipse who could only blind someone upon direct stare.

Katarina still didn't shift from her position. It was only upon my nod that her march resumed.

There went my Friday plan, of reading and binge-watching the mother lode of shows I had downloaded. 

There was no practice and meeting today, which meant I wouldn't miss anything crucial.

Only my sanity.

After Katrina walked away, I carried jelly-legged Felix back to my place. He was too in love to walk. 

Or so he felt.

~

In my room, Felix dozed off on my bed like a baby who was fed and clothed after a long tiring day of tears. 

This was the only time I had. 

Finishing up my assignment was sort of a distraction. 

I stumbled into my chair and researched, surfing through sites and flipping through pages of my books and more from Dad's collection.

When the greyer sky dimmed its lighting to a darker shade, Felix's whiny cry emerged. "No. No. No, we are late." 

He checked his watch, then his phone. And then his watch again. 

He walked into my closet, with a fresher set of whining emerging from behind the open doors. 

I knew nothing would hang on him. 

"We should have been there by eight." He tossed a blazer over, half twirling in front of the mirror. "Now we are late."

"Calm down." I flipped my book shut, sliding a pen into its gutter. "No party starts till ten."

Satisfied, Felix walked into the bathroom, humming to his heart's content. 

Water gurgling through the exit point of the basin harmonized with his stare in the mirror. 

After a few minutes, a refreshed, pink-tinged version of my pale friend walked out. 

Without a word, he reopened the smaller cupboard beside my closet and doused his head, neck, chest and... there in cologne.

"You don't have to spray perfume over your dick, Felix," I said. 

He ignored.

The inner lining of my nose burned with my eyes watering and my throat drying up. My body assumed it was a biochemical act of aggression.

Fexix didn't care. All he cared about was how he smelled. 

~

The array of red black and navy blue cars parked alongside the road stretched for miles. It was a clear indication of the number of people that would be present at the scene. 

The weather was muggier than usual, overcast grey skies had been warning of rain since noon. 

My collar remained stuck to the back of my neck with the growing perspiration and the breeze wasn't a respite. 

But even with the sticky climate, making my fabric form a second layer over the skin wasn't as terrible as the decision to come out.

Felix smacked the arm of my leather jacket. 

He didn't want me to bring it. But this was my terrible attempt at walking back into civilization. Had it not been for Felix, I wouldn't have come.

Felix was already hopping off on every step. It was hard to keep up with a man who was entertaining weird thoughts of having a chance to kiss Katarina over a slow dance. 

What my dearest friend ignored was the practicality of it. 

Girls like her don't go for good men like Felix. They go for arrogant boys like Andrew, the head of the mooting team. Or me.

I didn't have the heart to tell him about Katarina's current boyfriend. 

Knowing Felix, he wouldn't believe it either until the truth danced in front of him.

This was my first attempt in over two years to step out of the comforts of my home. 

My usual routine of meeting the Doctor or training was set aside for Felix, who hopefully would break the invisible hold of being in love with Katrina after today. 

I was also hoping, his heartbreak would lead him to mop at home, thus resulting in him not inviting me to any more parties.

I was being defiantly selfish and despicable. 

My want of going back to the comfort of my room and my bed was stronger than the need to bare through cheap booze or the hormone-induced pissed crowd.

Somewhere while building a new life out of the shambles, I grew distant from my older self. 

The pang of missing the one person who mattered the most - my mother - wasn't the most convenient of feelings while I stood at the threshold of the party. 

Yet as sentiments usually do, they came at their whim. 

Mum's memory was flushed out of my mind when I closed my eyes and braced for impact. 

It never came. 

What did come was a soft voice.

"You know I don't say it enough but I am happy that you are here." Felix's hands landed over my shoulders, rattling me from my reverie. "I'm happy that you are coming out of your shell. You have to let go of your grief. Aunt is in a better place. You too need to be."

Easy for a man to say who had a mother. Easier for anyone to state, I feel your pain. 

You don't. 

You don't know the shit attached to grief. To loss. To hopelessness. 

So stop trying to sympathize with what you cannot fathom. 

You don't know shit.

My eyes rolled inwards and my head tilted to a side. 

Felix may not be able to relate to what he said, but he meant well. 

"It's too much wisdom, mate." I patted his back. "At this rate, you'd become a saint."

We walked inside.

Katarina's friend's place was buzzing. 

The vibrations of songs from the stereo could be registered on the Richter scale. Dancing lights from a small device, hanging from the corner of the dingy place were effective enough to induce epilepsy. 

Felix clutched my shoulder and navigated me through the booze-soaked crowd.

In the middle of his tug of war, someone hopped onto my back. 

It was Katrina - the devil incarnate - holding my arm and tugging me with such force, my socket ached.

"You came!" Katrina beamed, ignoring Felix who left a puddle beneath him as he drooled. "I'm so glad you came."

I nodded. "That's the point of accepting an invite. Isn't it?"

"Come, let's meet some people." 

She grabbed me with the sheer force of a carnivore on the prowl. 

I turned to Felix but couldn't find him.

Bombastic music pierced through my eardrums. In the arena with strobe lights and bad DJing, I called Felix out but my voice barely made it out of my mouth. 

I could feel it fading into the air.

The dark, ill-lit path Katrina led me through, ended in front of a basin. Secluded. 

Her intentions didn't require clarification. It was etched on her sinister smile. 

My skin crawled further back. My mind played tricks between confronting her or giving her what she wanted.

Temptation was easy. Resistance was hard. 

So imagine my trouble when I said, "I am going back."

A shrill cry hit the inside of my ears. 

I turned to Katarina. She was cradling her arm. 

"What happened? Are you hurt?" I asked, checking her fair skin for bruises under the pale fluorescent lighting.

Her crackled laugh indicated the truth. She was fine.

Tossing her body off me, which was grabbed in concern, I walked away. 

Although I did hear her call my name, I didn't bother to pay heed.

Out in the open, I saw Felix holding his empty beer glass and swaying to the cacophony called music.

He was pissed, having finished half a bottle of gin and two beers, the empty glasses resting beneath his chair. 

I grabbed a beer and sat next to him. 

Seated beside us was an unknown guy with bloodshot eyes and a floating smile, who watched the rotating light display with the amusement of a child.

My distraction was the time Felix chose to hop off his chair and go dance. 

His flailing arm hit George, the tall rugby player who moved aside. 

With the widened gap between him and his surroundings, Felix twirled, the heel of his left shoe sliding gracefully in circles. 

Then he stumbled, clutching the wall and sliding down like a swatted fly.

I checked my phone. 9:30 p.m. 

I tossed back the sour contents of Felix's glass.

"Come on Felix." I grabbed his lapel, pulling his lumpy body from the wooden floor. "We are going home." 

I knew the drill better than anyone. 

If I didn't fetch Felix now, he'd call in a couple of hours, stranded someplace that might not even exist on Google Maps. 

I had been his mama bear long enough to know, this was his optimum level. 

After this, the only persona of Felix that could appear was a bad decision-making, weepy and pukey one. 

With us descending the last step of the entrance, someone grabbed me.

"How dare you touch my girl?" 

And with that, Andrew shoved me using all his might. 

I landed in the wet, freshly watered garden. 

My peripheral vision could plot Katarina's silhouette behind Andrew. 

It didn't require a genius to figure out the plot.

"Andrew, it's not what you think, Mate." I held my hand up. "Hear me out."

My drunk responsibility - Felix - was lying beside me, a soft smile tugging at his face like he was resting on his bed and not on a pile of dirt. 

I was sure Felix might have suffered a concussion for the way he continued his blank stare into the sky.

"Let's talk it out." I knelt on my knees, balancing my arms in front to boost me. "Let me say my peace."

Felix needed medical attention. I didn't want Andrew to be the meat I pounded onto before rescuing my friend. 

But Andrew had other plans. 

In the blink of an eye, he grabbed my hand, twisting it behind. 

It hurt a bit, I won't lie. 

But for a rugby player, Andrew was quite dainty. 

For years of practice on how to scan and block an attack, I was distracted by Felix's motionless body. 

But I was also taught an important lesson.

Do not harm the defenceless.

Sure, Andrew was livid but he wasn't the culprit. 

The puppeteer - Katrina - stood far away from us, her strings tipping her boyfriend's actions.

"Let it go, Andrew. You are making a mistake by believing your girlfriend," I said, my eyes flashing across everyone who stood as an onlooker. 

Andrew tightened his grip, pulling my twisted arm up. 

A sharp needle pricked my side as he continued his hold, murmuring some movie dialogues. 

Something something, never mess with him.

Felix groaned, his body turning to a side and contouring into a ball. 

There was no more time to play.

"You want to play, boy." Unclasping Andrew's hold from behind, I turned and shoved him back. "Play under your own weight."

Andrew scrambled on his steps before coming to a standstill. He watched me from a distance, nostrils flaring with residual temper.

Coiling Felix's arm around my shoulder, I pulled him up. 

He growled in parts, the back of his throat wavering when I pulled him out of his alcohol-induced sleep. 

There was no blood on his body but that doesn't always mean a good side. 

Tugging on the side of his body, my arm coiled over, I managed to make his walk a step when my ears stood up with the buzzing commotion behind.

My chest drummed up the smell of impending unrest, suspended in the air like a rotting carcass stench. 

Before I could turn, a thunderous scream diverted my attention. 

Then I saw a rock flying in the air. It was the size of a medium globe, flipping in the air.

My vision traced its journey. 

The rock landed on Andrew, kissing the side of his head. 

He fell back into the same wet pile we'd been in before. A crimson bruise formed on the left side of his temple. 

But my focus realigned to the broken beer bottle sliding off Andrew's right hand, tumbling away. 

In one instance, I retraced the person who threw the rock that saved me.

It was her. The violinist.

Heaving chest and widened eyes, Mia stood surrounded by a group of onlookers who stayed behind her, murmuring. 

Mia's burning stare never left Andrew's shivering body. 

Mine never left off her.

I never thought I would be the one to say it but I was glad Mia was here. She saved me. 

It was only the first of her many attempts. 

~

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