The car journey back was filled with a stony silence. Alice was sat in the back with her head leaning against the window, not saying anything. I was sat in the front, staring down at my hands and occasionally glancing at Joseph, feeling guilty, as if it was my fault that he had to come get us.

Surprisingly, Joseph was the first one to break the quiet. "So, you want to tell me who that guy was and why you were looking like you wanted to kill him?"

I let out a small huff of amusement, but Joseph wasn't smiling. I rolled my eyes. "Oh, lighten up." I peered back at Alice, who now had her eyes closed, but I knew she wasn't sleeping. "It's probably best if we don't discuss that now."

Joseph frowned, but kept his eyes on the road. "Why?"

"Joseph," I said in irritation. "I mean it."

He looked at me briefly, frowning, but didn't say anything. The car became silent again. I fumbled around with some buttons as I tried to turn on the radio to fill the quiet. Joseph's fingers suddenly brushed mine as he reached forward and simply pressed the 'on' button. I quickly drew my hand back, crossing my arms and turning to look out the window. For a moment, the only sound was the soft melody of a song I didn't know, until Alice announced to us, "I'm going to be sick."

Joseph very quickly pulled the car over at the side of the road, and I muttered, "I got it," before opening the door and jumping out. Alice was already standing outside, hunched over and throwing up. I made my way over to her and held her hair out of her face for her as I rubbed her back soothingly.

"Get it all out," I encouraged. "You'll feel better in the morning if you do." Alice threw up again, and I turned away while continuing to stroke her back. Joseph got out of the car and leaned against it, arms folded, while he waited. I winced as Alice retched again, glad it wasn't me. I hated throwing up, but I didn't mind looking after people when they were sick. I glanced at Joseph, who met my gaze. Then he jerked his head back towards the car. "Let's get going. Nothing more is going to come up."

I nodded, helping Alice as she stumbled over to the car, sitting in the front this time. I went into the back and Joseph started driving again. I couldn't help myself from peering occasionally in the rear-view mirror at Joseph, but he kept his eyes firmly on the road.

The car journey passed by agonisingly slowly, but when we got to the house, Alice jumped out of the car straight away and shuffled inside. I took my time a bit more and ended up walking up the path with Joseph.

"So, before you give me the big brother lecture on how I should have kept an eye on Alice and should have stopped her drinking so much, just remember–" I started, but Joseph interrupted me.

"I'm not going to lecture you. I'm her brother, not her dad," he stated in annoyance as we reached the house and stepped inside. Joseph locked the door behind us before turning to face me. "Alice drank too much and got all emotional. It happens. It's happened before."

I nodded. "Yeah, it has." I paused. "Do you know about Dylan?"

He raised an eyebrow. "Was that the guy you were yelling at?"

"I wasn't yelling," I muttered. "But yeah. That was him."

He leant against the wall, folding his arms. "He and Alice dated for a bit, right? Messy breakup or something?"

I pressed my lips together. "Something like that. Anyway, he just said something to Alice that upset her, which was why I was angry with him. I don't know what he said, but it must have been bad."

"Well, I guess it's a good thing you had a go at him then," Joseph replied, a slight smirk on his face.

"He deserved it. Besides, I'm not done with him."

"I'm sure you're not."

I narrowed my eyes at him, realising he was mocking me. "You're making fun of me."

"I'm not," he denied.

"You know, you're lucky I was there tonight. Our other friends all left before the night had even begun, so if I hadn't been there, who knows what would have happened to Alice," I said in annoyance.

Joseph rolled his eyes. "Fine. You're probably right."

I raised my eyebrows. "Did you just say that I'm right?"

"Okay, okay, don't make a big deal out of it," he said, his voice tinged with irritation. "I just meant..." Joseph noticed my expression where a smug, half-smile was forming. "Whatever."

"If you're trying to say thank you, it's really not that hard," I stated, a teasing tone to my voice.

"And I have yet to hear one from you about me rescuing you," Joseph countered.

I put my hand to my heart in a mocking gesture. "God, you're right. You're my rescuer, my hero. I don't know what I would do without you."

Joseph laughed slightly. Okay, it was more of a short chuckle than a laugh, but still. "You're hilarious, Liliana."

I rolled my eyes. "Well, yeah. And please just call me Ana, Liliana is so pretentious."

"Why Ana?" Joseph said, pushing himself off the wall. "Why not Lily?"

I bit my lip. There was one person who called me Lily, but... "I don't know, my parents always called me Ana." I expected him to stiffen, like everyone else did when I mentioned my parents, but he just nodded.

"To be honest, I think Lily is a better nickname," he responded, and I shrugged.

"Well, if you like Lily, you can just call me that." I turned and began to walk away, but instead of going upstairs, I headed to the sitting area to look through the DVDs.

"What are you doing?" Joseph's voice was much closer than I anticipated, and I jumped, but didn't look behind me.

"I don't really feel like going to sleep yet. I'm gonna watch a film." I picked out 'The Hangover' and waved it in his face. "Wanna join?"

He observed me for a second before nodding wordlessly. I slotted the DVD in the machine before collapsing on the sofa, making myself comfortable. Joseph sat next to me, leaning back and putting his hands behind his head.

"You know, I don't sleep much anyway," he muttered, keeping his eyes trained on the screen as the film started.

I tilted my head at him curiously, but instead of asking why, I said, "What do you do instead?"

Joseph sighed and rubbed his face. "Honestly? I draw."

"You draw?" I said in disbelief, but then realised I shouldn't have blurted that out like that. I clearly still wasn't sober, otherwise I would be being much more careful around him. "Sorry, just... didn't think of you as a drawing kind of guy."

Joseph just gave a light, humourless laugh. "Trust me, Liliana, you don't know anything about me."

"Likewise," I said, pointing a finger at him. "I'm a very mysterious person. But, you know, I feel like we should know stuff about each other. I mean, we are living together. Temporarily."

He raised an eyebrow. "Temporarily?"

"Well, yeah. I'm going to get a job soon, and as soon as I turn 18, I'm moving out. Not that I don't like you guys and all – I love your family. But I don't want to be a burden..." I rambled, trailing off. I purposely kept looking at the TV screen, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that Joseph was looking at me. Because he wasn't saying anything, I for some reason thought it was a good idea to keep talking. "I kind of need to start looking for a job. And I was thinking of getting a flat in the centre of town or something, just a little one. It's good to be independent, right? I know your parents don't mind having me but it would just probably be best if I got my own place." I finally stopped talking and fixed my eyes on the film without taking in it.

Joseph let out a light chuckle. "Man, you talk a lot."

"Maybe if you responded once in a while I wouldn't," I muttered, folding my arms. "I think this is the first time you've ever said more than five words to me in one go."

"Yeah, well, I'm not a people person."

I snorted quietly. "No way."

***

Crashing and clattering sounds woke me up the next morning, and I groaned internally. My brain slowly became less foggy and tried to make sense of the noises around me. I realised I was still on the sofa, in my dress, a blanket draped over me. I winced slightly. I must have fallen asleep in front of the film. I glanced down at myself. At least Joseph had given me a blanket.

Gradually last night came back to me – Sam and Ellie, Dylan pissing me off, Alice getting smashed, Joseph picking us up, Joseph and me having an actual, civil conversation. I rubbed my face and opened my eyes, peering over the sofa to see Mark and Catherine having their breakfast in the kitchen.

Catherine looked over and smiled brightly. "Morning, Ana! Sorry to wake you, we tried to be quiet."

I just waved my hand, sitting up on the sofa. "No, don't worry at all." I yawned and wrapped the blanket around me.

"So what are you doing on the sofa?" she asked, Mark giving a chuckle.

"Oh, well..." They didn't need to know that Joseph had had to come and pick us up. "I watched a film when I got back, and I must have fallen asleep." I slowly stood up, stretching. "We didn't wake you when we got back, did we?"

"Oh, no. I'm a heavy sleeper. I have to be, to sleep through Mark's snoring."

Mark huffed. "Did you know that you snore, too?"

"Maybe, but have you heard yourself? It's like I'm sharing a bed with a buffalo."

I smiled slightly. "Well, I think I'm going to go and take a shower, get out of these clothes."

"Good idea," Catherine said a bit absent-mindedly as she flipped open a newspaper. "Wake up Alice while you're at it."

"Will do." Spotting my phone on the floor, I grabbed it and trudged upstairs, the blanket still wrapped around me. I first went to my room and sat on my bed, unlocking my phone to see if I had any messages. There was a missed call from Ellie about half an hour ago. I decided to call her back since I was very curious about her and Sam.

The phone rang only for a moment before Ellie's voice answered. "Ana, hey! You're up!"

"You're chipper," I said, yawning. "Something happen last night you want to tell me about?"

I could almost see her grimacing guiltily. "Yeah, um, there is. I went back to Sam's house."

"I guessed. And?" I prompted.

"We sort of... slept together?" Ellie phrased it like a question. She then sighed. "Look, really sorry I abandoned you and everything, you got home okay, yeah?"

I didn't answer for a moment. She didn't know what had happened. "Uh, yeah, but no thanks to Alice. She... got plastered."

"Oh god. Why? What happened?"

"Dylan said something to her. I don't know what, I was on the verge of slapping him when Joseph arrived."

"Joseph?" she said in disbelief.

"Yeah, in my slightly drunken state, I thought it would be a good idea to ask him to come get us," I told her, shaking my head at myself. "It was a good thing he did, though. Alice was in a bad state. She threw up on the way home."

Ellie laughed a little. "Classic. She pulled an Alice. Oh well, it happens. Joseph was a good brother, then."

"Yeah. I guess he was." I paused. "I'm not totally sure if I actually thanked him last night. We had a proper, civil conversation though, so that's a start, right?"

"Yeah, for sure. You're bonding."

"I guess. So, you and Sam, huh? How did it happen? What's going to happen?"

Ellie sighed. "Well, it just... happened. We were dancing together and laughing, and he just kind of... kissed me. So we kissed for a bit, and then he was like, 'you want to get out of here?' and I was like yeah, sure, so we went back to his, and... yeah."

"Are you guys going to get together now, or something?" I asked curiously. I honestly wasn't sure Sam was the commitment type, and I was not okay with him screwing Ellie around. He was more of a one-night stand sort of guy. I was definitely going to have to have words with him.

"I... don't know. I kind of just took off this morning without saying anything to him. Got the bus home, had some breakfast, told my mum I'd stayed the night at Alice's because god knows how she'd react if she knew where I'd really been."

"Your mum's back at home then?" I questioned carefully, knowing her mum was a sensitive topic.

"Yeah, but not for long. She's probably going on a bloody boat cruise next or something," Ellie muttered. "Anyway. I don't really want a relationship right now, so I'll make sure Sam knows that. I kind of like the idea of friends with benefits."

"You sure about that?" I said in surprise. I never pictured Ellie as a 'friends with benefits' girl. "What if you start to catch feelings for him?"

"I won't. I know what kind of guy he is. Sam doesn't do relationships."

"And if you do fall for him?"

"Well, I will run away to the mountains and become a sheepherder and never talk to anyone for the rest of my life ever," Ellie announced. "Sound like a plan?"

I thought for a moment. "Brilliant. Can I come join you?"

"Absolutely. Maybe Alice and Ryan can visit us once in a while. But it'll mainly be you and me. Us two against the world."