Happy

[012]

"That was a mistake."

Those were the four words that stumbled out of his mouth the moment they pulled away from each other after five minutes of proper kissing on the couch. They weren't full-on snogging, they were just... Kissing. Just innocently kissing. No tongue involved. Just two sets of lips moving against each other, almost moulding into one with hands gently caressing the skin of the other – the girl with hands tugging gently at his hair while the boy drew small circles on the skin of her cheeks with the pads of his thumbs.

They'd pulled away when Baz interrupted them, licking at their chins – clearly wanting to join in on their kissing. It would've made the both of them smile, under any other circumstance, but in the given situation, it only made them realise that both parties were unsure of the other's feelings towards each other.

"Heat of the moment sort of thing, yeah?" Zooey had asked, a small, hesitant and unsure smile on her lips.

"Yeah." Alex had gulped, nodding in reply as he felt his heart drop in his chest a little.

He couldn't stop replaying the kiss in his head. His heart was thumping furiously against his chest. It was curious – how a simple kiss like one that he'd just shared with her, made him feel so alive. And yet, while slagging around, the moment of euphoria would only last while he was doing it – for the lack of a better term.

The feeling of her cool and slick with ChapStick lips against his own warm and chapped ones was blood-pumping. The cool of her silver lip ring against his untainted and pure bottom and top lip was foreign but something he welcomed immediately, adapting to it and even gently nibbling on it, just for good measure, for he'd never kissed someone with a lip ring before.

They sat in silence then, both of them silently watching Sherlock. Although, they were both thinking about the kiss, and merely pretending to be watching the telly.

"I should go." Zooey spoke up, making him glance up at her, slight disappointment crossing his handsome face before he masked it into a simple tiny smile. "I'm supposed to, uh, meet Ryan."

He frowned. "Ryan?"

If she had a boyfriend and he'd just kissed her... He'd finally stooped to an all time low – no pun intended.

"My best mate." She replied, making him internally sigh in relief. "So, um, yeah. See ya."

"Yeah... Um, see ya." He mumbled, raising a hand in a wave of sorts as she got to her feet and picked up her coat along the way – leaving his flat.

And then he was left alone – to his own thoughts as they replayed the kiss over and over again, only one other thought present amongst those memories. Kiss her again, you fool.

-----

"He kissed me."

"He kissed you?"

"He kissed me."

"He kissed you."

"And I kissed back."

Ryan blinked slowly over at Zooey, slightly frowning. "Did you... like it?"

"Um..."

"You did!" He exclaimed, pointed a finger at her. "You do like your boy toy!"

Zooey groaned, swatting away his finger. "Would you stop calling him that?" She moaned in annoyance. "He's not my 'boy toy.'" She huffed.

Ryan laughed as he flopped back down onto his bed. "But you do like him, don't you?" He smirked smugly, making her groan again as she flopped down next to him on the bed; face-first.

"I dnnh wughn oo."

"What?" The Asian young man laughed.

She sighed, turning her head so that she was resting on her cheek and looking at him. "I don't want to." She repeated with proper pronunciation this time.

"Why? I haven't seen you with a bloke in years."

"I've been on dates!" She defended herself, her lips forming an involuntary pout.

"Yeah, but you've never been interested in them."

"Says who?" She snorted.

Ryan blinked. "How many times have you called me during said dates, pretending that I'm your brother and that I'm suddenly injured or something?"

"Not many..."

"More than ten." He deadpanned.

Zooey laughed. "S'not my fault the guys that I happen to date are all boring fucks. Honestly, the minute they find out that I'm not in college and I work in a bar – they're all for pretending that they're so smart and shit, rattling off textbook information that I already know."

"Okay, okay, we get it. You're a genius." He drawled out, earning a pillow to the face.

"I just like to read a lot, so screw you."

"Oh you'd love to." He winked in an over-exagerrated manner, making her chuckle. "But seriously. Did you honestly just come over to make casual conversation with me after telling me that you and Alex kissed? I get it; I'm your best mate, but you never do this."

She sighed then, running a hand through her hair as she sat up – back leaning against the headboard of his bed. "He said it was a mistake, and I bloody went along with it. Said something about being in the heat of the moment. There was no fuckin' moment. We were only talking."

Ryan raised a thin eyebrow. "Just talking?"

"Well, I mean, we were sort of cuddling, I guess. Then he got upset and didn't want to make eye contact so... – Oh." She stopped, blinking and pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Okay so maybe there was a moment."

Ryan smiled in amusement, shaking his head slightly. "So what's wrong? Why don't you want to fancy him? He seems like a top bloke – from what you've told me, anyway."

"No, see, the thing is: he is a top bloke. But..." she trailed off. "He's in that awkward stage where he just broke up with his ex."

"Oh shit."

"It's not the bad kind of awkward where he's heartbroken and stuff." She assured him. "It's awkward because he said that he never really properly loved her for the past couple of years but he convinced himself that he did just because he kind of figured that they'd be together forever and... Yeah..."

"Ohhhhh." Ryan dragged out, nodding slowly. "But you do fancy him? I mean, honestly. I'm not playing. You do fancy him, don't you?"

"Whaaaat – psshhttt of course n– "

"Zooey."

"Yeah, okay, maybe just a little." She admitted, smirking as she bit on her bottom lip, making Ryan fist-pump the air with a smug grin on his face.

"I knew it!"

-----

The loud music was pulsating around the room, bouncing off the walls as the strobe lights made the place seem to have so much more colour than it actually did. Alex was in a club this time, because he knew that Zooey would be working that night, and although he didn't want to avoid her, he wanted to at the same time.

Confusing, yeah, even he was confusing himself.

He heaved a small sigh, gesturing for the bartender to come over. It was a dude; maybe a year or two younger than himself. He ordered a Long Island Iced Tea – because why the fuck not? He wanted to get drunk anyway. He'd probably just fucked up one of the best friendships-slash-almost relationship that he'd ever had, with four stupid words.

The more Alex thought about it, the more stupid he felt. Why shouldn't he be allowed to kiss her? She'd kissed him first!

Sort of.

Not really.

He leaned in and then she leaned in and the next thing either of them knew: they were kissing. But he knew that he liked it. He liked it a lot. He wanted to assume that she liked it as much as he did, because she'd kissed him back as hard as he'd kissed her.

And then he just had to go and fuck things up with four words.

It wasn't a mistake, he wanted to say the moment she walked out. Come back and let's kiss some more.

Another sigh passed his lips. He downed his drink in less than a minute, flat, then calling the bartender over again. "Get me shot of Jack, please."

The guy nodded, giving him as he'd asked. The guy barely kept the bottle before Alex downed the shot, asking for another with a sheepish smile.

"Rough day?"

Alex nodded. "You could say that."

"Here," he pulled out two more shot glasses, filling them with some kind of vodka this time. "It's on the house."

"Thanks." Alex smiled, raising the shot glass in his direction as he walked away.

He sat there for another half hour, the alcohol already in his system as his vision and mind started to get foggy. He was upset about something, but he wasn't quite sure what it was. A girl. Probably.

He felt his bum buzzing and he jumped, giggling silently to himself as he pulled the rectangular object out of his phone. The name on the screen alit was just a blurry white mess. He slid his thumb across the screen a couple of times before he finally picked up the call.

"H-hello?" He hiccuped.

"Hey, man." Another male voice greeted from the other end of the line.

"Jacky!" He exclaimed before bursting out into giggles. "What is up, my brother?"

"... You're drunk, aren't you?"

"Nahhhhhh, of course not." He scoffed. "What take me you for?" He blinked, giggling again. "That didn't make sense."

Jack laughed. "I'll call you back another time. I was just checking in. Make sure you get a ride back, okay?"

"Mmhmm."

"I mean it, 'Lex." His voice was stern this time. "Get a ride. Don't try to fucking walk back, or if you've a car – do not try to drive."

"Yeah, okay." He mumbled, for he was distracted by now.

There was a woman – a very attractive woman – looking at him from across the room. A straw was sat between her painted lips as she sipped on her drink but her eyes were hooked onto his. She sat her drink down on the table behind her before she grabbed her clutch, slowly approaching him; both of them still maintaing their eye contact.

"Gotta go," he mumbled again, not waiting for a reply from the other male as she finally appeared in front of her.

"Are you going to buy me a drink?" She smiled, her accent not like what he'd been used to since the day he arrived. Scottish, maybe? He grinned; he'd never had sex with a Scottish girl before.

"Do you want one?" He asked, not bothering to put on his natural accent; unlike the other times that he usually did.

"Do you want to buy me one?" She shot back, smirking slyly.

"I..." He smiled, taking the small step forward that made them chest-to-chest. "– want you to take me home, and I want to – " he trailed off, eyes slowly going down the length of her body that was clad in a short and tight dress. As his eyes went back to her face, he noticed the faint blush on her cheeks, making him smirk cockily. "I want to ravish you."

And that was all he had to say, because soon; they were in a taxi and then they were in a mess of tangled sheets – names echoing around the room; lips leaving multiple love-bites on each other's skins as fingernails clawed on bare backs.

When they were both brought down from their high, panting and gasping for breath, Alex only knew one thing for sure in his newly sort of sobered up form: he'd fucked up. Again.