Contempt

We used the same technique as before to get Toshimasa to the front door of his friend’s apartment. We were very fortunate that it was on the first floor; it would have been nearly impossible to get his limp body up a flight of stairs. It was just as difficult to get him out of the backseat of his car. With his lifeless body propped up against my shoulder, Charlotte knocked on the black door that read A 104; just like on the slip of paper. A man with shaggy black hair and a bit of aftershave answered the door. “Yes?” He asked us with a raised eyebrow. His eyes immediately went to his friend on my shoulder and he sighed. I recognized him as one of the men from the restaurant from earlier.

Even though he probably knew what happened, I felt the need to explain anyway, “We found him in the restaurant, almost completely passed out drunk. We found this address in Toshimasa’s wallet and drove him here.” Saying his name out loud seemed a little weird to me. I guess he didn’t really have a name by looking at him; he was just another random customer.

“Yeah… I know… I told Die that wasn’t a good idea…” He mumbled. “Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself, I’m Kaoru. Thanks for bringing him over. And he usually goes by Toshiya; most of us don’t call him by his full name.” He led us inside the tiny apartment and pointed at a couch for us to drop Toshiya on.

“I’m Audrey.” I said smiling and trying to seem slightly hospitable.

“Charlotte.” She said while examining her surroundings.

Another man from the Kaoru’s restaurant group came into the living room. He saw his band mate on the couch and immediately started to laugh - he obviously was very drunk as well. “He finally came back!” He yelled.

“Yes, Die. Audrey and Charlotte here were nice enough to drive him back here. Were they going to close the restaurant with him in it?”

“Actually,” I started, “We own the restaurant. I would have felt terrible leaving him there. We drove his car here too, that way he won’t have to get it in the morning.”

Kaoru smiled at us, he obviously wasn’t nearly as intoxicated as his other friend. “Well, thank you again.” He turned around, “Actually speaking of the restaurant, where even is Kyo? We are at his place and I haven’t seen him at all.”

“Probably in his room, sulking again.” Die drunkenly mumbled out.

We both looked at Kaoru with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, we were at your restaurant for Toshiya’s birthday. We came over to Kyo’s house to pick him up, but after making us wait for like a half an hour, he told us he wasn’t going. So, we all decided to make a ruckus at his apartment when we got back. And Die here thought it would be absolutely hilarious if we left Toshiya. I actually don’t even know if he realized that we left him – he was pretty out of it when we left, which was hours before you guys finally dropped him off.”

For a while, Kaoru, Charlotte, Shinya and I all made small talk on the couch. Shinya decided to join in about halfway through a conversation. None of us seemed to mind, he was friendly enough. He kinda blended in though, he was rather quiet. At this point, I wasn’t really worried about going home to sleep anymore – don’t get me wrong, I was happy that Toshiya wasn’t my problem anymore – but everyone else I had met so far was nice. Well, except Die, he was just kinda off doing his own thing in the kitchen; which might I add was rather noisy.

“Oh, shit! Audrey, what time is it?” Charlotte quickly brought up in the middle of another topic. I don’t know what jogged her memory of the time, I had completely forgotten about going home, or any other place but here.

I pulled out my phone and looked at the time, “Oh… it’s past 1:30 in the morning. I guess we lost track here… I’m so sorry!”

Kaoru chuckled lightly, “It’s fine, don’t worry. Do you guys have any way of getting home?”
I sighed. “No, we left Charlotte’s car back at the restaurant…”

Kaoru and Shinya looked at each other, exchanging glances. “Well, I don’t want to sound too forward,” Kaoru started, “But if you two want you could just stay here for the night. It’s pretty late out, and I think all of us are just going to crash at Kyo’s place. It’s what we usually do when he pulls that anti-social crap on us.”

Charlotte and I both looked at each other. I mean, it isn’t like we could make them drive us home; that was the only way to get back to the house. There wasn’t a bus stop around for miles, and I didn’t really want to be walking around at 1 AM. They all seemed nice enough; one night shouldn’t be a problem. I nodded to Charlotte telling her I was okay with the idea, and she smiled back – obviously okay with it too.

“If we won’t be too much of a bother, I guess I don’t see why not.”

“Don’t worry, Audrey, you won’t!” Kaoru smiled at us.

A shorter man came walking into the room, looking disgruntled. “Why are all of you being so fucking loud?” He mumbled. He walked right past us and into the kitchen, where Die was. I could tell they were talking – the shorter man definitely was not happy – but everything they were saying was inaudible. He shuffled his way back to the living room, and he immediately noticed Charlotte and me sitting there. I guess we did stick out among Kaoru and Shinya. He raised an eyebrow with a questioning glace at Kaoru.

“Calm down Kyo; they brought Toshiya home from the bar. It’s a long story, but they can’t get back home for now. And I don’t think any of us are legally allowed to drive, we are all staying here. You should learn to go out with us sometimes, that way this won’t happen.”

He rolled his eyes, and without any more questions, sauntered back into his room.