The House of Wolves

Matty's apartment was a two bedroom, two bathroom, kitchen, living room, and laundry room. It was nothing huge and extravagant and I loved how simple it was. As soon as you walked through the door you passed the living room which was adjacent to the kitchen and then there was a door for the laundry room. The bedrooms were down a short hallway, one at the end, and then one in the middle, which now temporarily belonged to me.

It had been a good half hour since we arrived and I was trying to see if I even threw any kind of nice clothes in my suitcase. The only thing I was able to come up with was an old sun dress of mine that my mother owned in her 'wild' days.

It was a dark purple and it had a kind of corset looking top to it with a black and grey knitted pattern. The bottom flowed down to my knees, since I was almost a whole half a foot shorter than my mom was.

I threw on my beat up white fabric flats that I've had since I was in my freshman year of high school and wiped off any kind of old make up on my face and settled with some quick mascara.

By the time I'd gotten out to the living room, Matt was just leaving his bedroom, smoothing down his hair with a sheepish smile.

"Yeh look right nice. 'Specially when yeh don' 'ave tha' stuff smeared on yeh face." He joked and I frowned at him causing him to grin. "'M juss' kidding." He reassured and then walked toward the door, holding it open for me.

I nodded a thank you and soon we were at what I assumed was Tom and Oliver's parents house. There were probably about 7 other cars there besides Matty's and when I stopped to knock on the door, I was more than surprised when Matty just walked through instead.

I followed closely, not recognizing the people who sat in the living room but Matty walked right through until we hit the kitchen where I recognized Tom and Oliver who both had beers in their hands.

"Yeh came!" Tom shouted, throwing his hands in the air and causing alcohol to fly out of the bottle behind him. He stumbled up to Matty first as Matty laughed at his friends drunken behavior.

"Why is he so drunk already?" Matty questioned as Tom moved towards me. Oliver just shrugged and took a sip from his beer as he watched his brother run into the counter and slide until he was sitting on the floor.

"Hello, love." He nodded in my direction and I gave off a small smile before turning back to Tom who was now drooling on himself. It was clear they were going to leave him there and with a quick sigh, I was grabbing a cup of water, and a towel that hung off of the cabinet in front of the sink and got it wet.

I wiped his face off first and in the process convinced him that it was Vodka before he actually drank it. "Tom, I think you should lie down." I sighed and he just groaned and shook his head like a child. Matty and Oliver who were watching me just laughed and took drinks of the beers they were nursing. "Tom, you're really drunk and I think your mom would be more than pissed if you threw up on her floor."

Tom groaned again but put his arm up, signaling that I had to help him up, which I did. He pointed when I had to climb the stairs and when we'd gotten to his old childhood room and threw himself on the full size bed with a big thick grey comforter.

As soon as I'd gotten him tucked in and his glass of water next to him, I sat down at the end of his bed as he dozed in and out of sleep and looked around his room. There were no more posters except for one of a half naked girl on a beach and I sighed, looking back over to Tom, who was half lidded staring at me.

"Yeh name is Ryleigh, righ'?" He asked and I nodded. "Most American birds I meet are a lot weirder than yeh are. Why is tha'?" He asked again and I shrugged.

"I don't know, really. I didn't have very many friends growing up." I confessed with a small laugh and I saw Tom frown. "They thought I was the weird one."

"Yeh 'ad no friends? Tha's bloody fuckin' 'orrible." He slurred, sitting up and smiling at me. "Well, yeh 'ave friends now! I'll be yeh bes' friend, yeah?" He grinned boyishly at me and I felt the knot in my throat as I nodded.

He was drunk and I knew he wouldn't remember any of this in the morning. That's usually how things always turned out and I knew that. I'd just be Ryleigh again tomorrow. "Yeh righ' pretty, lass." I heard Tom whisper from his pillow as he buried his face further into the fluff. I smiled, nodding in appreciation, as I watched his eyes drift closed. "Yeh righ' nice too. Yeh don' look at us like we're a famous band, yeh know? We're normal in yeh eyes and tha's nice."

I cleared my throat standing up and smoothed my dress down as I walked next to where his head lay. "Goodnight Tom. Sleep tight." I saw him smile before I turned and left the room, shutting the door behind me. The hallway was empty and I leaned against the wall as I closed my eyes and sighed. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Maybe I should have stayed in America.

I was probably standing there for nearly 5 minutes when I heard someone clearing their throat, knocking me from my concentration and scaring me. My eyes popped open as I jumped, seeing Oliver standing at the top of the staircase, watching me with curious eyes. "Yeh actually got 'im to lay down and sleep?" He questioned, walking closer until he was leaning against the wall next to me. "He didn' even try teh shag yeh? He added and I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

"I don't quite understand what you mean." I stated and he rolled his eyes.

"It means, he didn' try teh have sex wiff yeh?" He clarified and I coughed, shifting on my feet as I turned to look at him.

"Regardless if he did try, I don't sleep with strangers." I replied shortly and he snorted. I frowned at him and looked around the hallways where we stood. There were four doors total. One was Toms, obviously, and then another I assumed to be the parents, and one that may have belonged to Oliver. "Do you have a bathroom?" I asked, adding probably far too much sarcasm in my words.

Oliver looked at me with a look of pure amusement as he pointed to the door just off my right. "We English folk are humans after all." He replied and I rolled my eyes and nodded at him, walking through the door and locking it as soon as I was safely in the confines of the dark navy blue painted bathroom.

I should have stayed home- Matty's.

There was a soft even knock on the door that still managed to make me jump out of my skin and I turned to open it just a crack only to see Matty. He looked worried and I frowned when he looked at me with sad eyes.

"Oli said yeh' were up 'ere 'bout ready ter cry." He mumbled and the creases in my forehead got deeper as I opened the door farther. Oliver was nowhere to be seen and I huffed before switching the light off and walking out of the bathroom, making Matty back up.

"I'm not and I wasn't going to cry." I snapped and then closed my eyes, calming my boiling thoughts, and opened them again to see Matty with his hands up in a surrender. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I'm fine. Really." I reassured and he just nodded.

"Then shall I get yeh a drink?" He asked with a smile and stuck his arm out in a gentlemanly manor, making me smile. "I'll take tha' as a ya'." He continued and I placed my arm through his as he walked me back down the stairs and back into the kitchen where he got me a beer.

He opened it for me and threw the bottle cap across the kitchen, hitting a wall, and then making it into the trash can. There was a loud whoop from a couple people standing by the back door that I vaguely recognized meeting earlier and Matty grinned, handing me the bottle. I took a drink, a long drink, and suddenly Matty was dragging me elsewhere and pretty soon I was having my fifth beer and having my 3rd shot of Tequila and then I was finishing off my 2nd mix drink and I didn't recognize anyone anymore and I was laughing.

It was the best I felt in a really long time and I was actually having fun.