Perdetevi.

Dana and Monica were party buddies. They got each other drinks and made sure neither of them did anything stupid enough to end up on the internet. Or worse. They both went to parties for the same reason, a good buzz and lame conversation. Neither bothered much with dancing because the dance floors usually consisted of a rug in a living room where the furniture had been pushed up against the walls. It was always packed with bodies and they didn’t like going home smelling like twenty peoples sweat.

“Mm… I want to kiss someone.” Dana murmured, her head resting on Monica’s shoulder and they sat on the steps of the back deck.

“I think… that sounds nice.” Monica replied slowly.

“No, it doesn’t.” Charlie sat next to her on the step suddenly.

Monica craned her neck to see if Ricky was with him, but he wasn’t. She saw him inside playing a drinking game that looked somewhat dangerous. She was glad he wasn’t there. Lately, she never saw Charlie and Ricky apart. She shifted her gaze back to Charlie. They really looked a lot alike. They both had the same reddish brown hair and high cheek bones. Their faces were rounded, which worked for Monica but made Charlie look boyish and younger than he was. It was their eyes that made them look a lot different. While Monica had their dads big amber eyes while Charlie had their Mom’s smaller, almond shaped, bright blue ones.

“Huh?” Dana lifted her head.

“I thought you two took care of each other at these parties.” Charlie said.

“We do.” Monica replied.

“Then don’t let each other kiss random strangers.”

“What if we want to kiss random strangers, we damn well will!” Dana said fiercely.

“Monica won’t.” Charlie said with force. “I don’t care what you do, Dana.”

“I’m not on your hands, remember?” Monica said snidely and Dana frowned.

Charlie glared. He was good at that; his glares could freeze you over. They might have had a better relationship now, but he was still the big brother who thought he knew everything. “You’re always my responsibility, Moni.”

Hunching her shoulders, Monica sighed. Charlie rarely said such things. If he ever let on that he actually cared about her, which he didn’t do often, it was quickly followed with a ‘but’ or an insult. On one of the more miserable fights their parents had, he had told her that love was a weakness. That showing love was showing weakness. She hadn’t even remembered that until then and she felt her heart clench at the memory.

No matter how good Charlie was at school, no matter what he did right in life, it was all for naught because he was cold. There was an absence of something in him. Monica felt it too, the absence, but probably not as much as Charlie. It would be easy to blame the void on their parents slowly failing relationship, yet there was something more there. Something that not even a perfect family life could fulfill.

“I’m okay, Charlie.” Monica murmured.

He looked at her meaningfully. A look that portrayed worry and a steel resolve, she didn’t know when this happened, this caring side of him. She didn't know how to react to it.

Dana’s giggle drew Monica’s attention; she’d slipped away during Charlie and Monica’s exchange. She was wrapped around a senior who looked like he wanted to eat her face. Dana wasn’t like that so Monica was surprised to see her in such a situation. If anything, Monica was the more likely of the two to do something of the sort.

“Just don’t get pregnant.” Charlie said, having slid back into his cold abyss. “I don’t want you having a stranger’s love child.”

He walked away.