𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙿𝚃𝙴𝚁 𝙾𝙽𝙴

𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐡𝐨𝐥 & 𝐝𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐮𝐬𝐞

It was a ritual of mine to smoke a blunt before doing anything remotely fun. I would never do anything harder than that. My mind, body, and soul wouldn't let me. Blunt to my lips while my girls on FaceTime are all smoking as well "Har! so guess who we saw walking down by that cafe we love on the lower east side" Blair's voice chimed.

"Ohhh yeahh," Siobhan coughs before she continues "he literally looked so scared to see all of us at once"

"Who?" I said eying the camera with my best side eye. The sun is beginning to fade on the Wednesday afternoon, my brothers in my room journaling away, while simultaneously writing something on his computer. The boy can multitask, "say it isn't so! I know who!" Zak said smiling my way.

"Who, the suspense is killing me" I said rolling my eyes at my favorite eavesdropper.

"CASPER!!" they all yell in unison might I add. Genevieve says, "aka VIKTORRR the one night stand. S T A L K E R he was obsessed with youu"

"he most definitely was" I couldn't deny it.

"remember that time we went to Chrysanthemum Vineyard"

"Oh. My. God. Creep beyond any level of comparison" Siobhan look like she shivered. Blair clapped to signal truth. Gee was telling the story over.

"We took so many photos, those luckily were talking multiple times. Casper appeared out of the mother—fuckkinhg no where. In the bush in the picture, then he approached us"

Blair said, "you looked at him like he had two heads"

I nod, "he kept stuttering that time"

"What did he say to you guys when you saw him last" I asked.

"He was with this new girl who might I add was gorgeous. He said, hello to us. Asked how you were doing, apologized for his behavior saying it was because of you. You put a spell on him. His words" Siobhan spoke.

"Ragazzi, pranzo!" (Kids, lunch!) my dad called.

"Arrivo!" Zak said smiling at me, we make our way downstairs. Mom is doing her daily witchy ritual saging the house in the afternoon. Plus her daily tarot card pulling for each of us.

The girls say the must go and would call me within the week to hear my tales. "love you guys, ciao" making a kiss noise. They scream their see you and love you's to me.

"How was the morning? my precious bambini" (children) my mom asks as she comes to kiss our heads.

"Pretty well, mamma, how about you?" I said smiling at her.

"Eventful, quiet, I miss when you guys were small you'd always run into our room to wake us up" she says as she winks at papà.

"I miss it too, here" papà places our food in front of us. He is a chef and matchmaker for living. So we taste test a bunch.

I groan as the delicious brunch smell hits me, my munchies are kicking in.

"It melts in your mouth, papà, teach me your ways" Zak spoke as he closes his eyes to savor the taste. He smoked too, I am shocked sometimes when he doesn't get the munchies like I do.

"I have something for you, miele" (honey) my mamma said to me.

"Che c'è?" (What is it?)

She's handing me a small box, plus a medium size box.

A necklace is in the medium box, it has a rose quartz in it. It's beautiful. I hug mamma. Whispering "I love it! grazie" (thank you)

"welcome, amore" (love)

"I'll open the smaller box later"

We have a chill afternoon, my card was the wheel of fortune. Changes in my fate, my karma. Which I welcome.

━━━

Zak is smiling at me from my doorway, "ready for your first Kook extravaganza?"

"Not really, I know we live in figure eight but damn this kook and pogue rivalry sucks"

"Because your friends can't come" he says as he side eyes me.

I nod "yes. JJ and Pope, John B, Kie they're real, kooks can be fake"

"I know that but we got invited so... we must go"

"Ok ok well let me get ready" I smile his way.

He salutes me, heads to get dressed himself.

━━━

Dark green solo cups, I smile at that! I have a undying love for forest green. I take my cup of riesling, head to the dance floor and start dancing. Like I'm in my room with no one watching, pretending I'm in only my t-shirt and thong.

It's a Chris Brown song that deserves only sexy dancing. I'm flinging my hair around as some girl says "watch it!" I just stick out my tongue at her.

I could feel eyes on me, as I scan the room ever so slow. Each guy that's paying attention to me has devious intentions behind them. I smirk too myself, my webs calling.

My outfit doesn't help it's Y2K meets 2021. Low rise jeans, my run star hike converse, the corset hugs my curves. It's the tats that are driving them wild, I head to get another drink. I get my drink but head to the back balcony of whoever's house this is to light my second blunt of the day.

I am exhaling when someone wraps their arms around my waist.

"Want some?"

"Yesss. I think this girl is checking me out I don't know if I should approach her or wait"

"Zakkk! approach her prima i ragazzi dovrebbero sempre avvicinarsi" (guys should always approach first)

I continue, "has papà taught you nothing" I ruffle his hair a bit.

He takes his last pull then heads inside. As I stare at the trees whistling only a bit I feel mellowed out. The weed is getting to me I can tell.

One hour passes of me dancing with people, with some guys before I need a break. I go seat on the island in the kitchen. No one is in here. I'm sipping my wine when I see this guy. His back is turned towards my direction, but I could see every muscle contract and constrict as he moves.

He's laughing, it's a beautiful sound, I hear it over the music. He's buff, I'd want to run my fingers along his arms.

Not knowing my body from my mind, I go do just that. His skin soft, warm, "woah who do we have here?" his charming voice spoke.

"Harlow Viotto" I say putting my New York accent on full display.

"Nice to meet you, Rafe Cameron" my fingers gentle on his skin "nice to meet you too" I smile. I hadn't looked at him this whole time. Once I do I almost choke on nothing. He's gorgeous.

━━━

In this moment I knew I was headed down a wayward path of passion, desire, lust, with a dash of the unknown. He was a mystery to me at the time. I took our first meet with a grain of salt. I didn't think I'd ever see him again. To that avail I was wrong.

"Harlow. Interesting name" he sipped his drink as he smiled at me. I'd love to hear him moan my name.

"Let me introduce you to my friends, Topper Thornton this is Harlow Viotto, Kelce this is Harlow"

I wave at them as I said, "nice to meet you guys"

"You too, are you new to the Outer Banks" Topper spoke.

"Somewhat I moved here four months ago"

"How do you like it?" Kelce asked.

"So far so good, I love the beach life, plus I can hug these trees"

"you hug trees?"

"I do because "Trees are poems that the earth writes upon""

"Who said that?" Rafe asks.

"A poet named Khalil Gibran"

He smiles as he moves me away from his two friends. They go back to whatever they were doing.

He takes me to the dance floor, I imagine I'm in a club. As I dance with him, our chests close together. He's only paying attention to me, "why couldn't you hug trees where you were?"

"New york trees aren't the same as palm trees, the trees here seem cleaner"

He laughs, nodding his head signaling he believes me. If I could hear that all the time. I laugh with him thinking of those times.

━━━

After that night I got closer to Rafe.

It was foreign how I was pulled in his direction that night. He checked many boxes for me.