Chapter 4: Chapter 4

"Aah!" I sigh erotically as I drop my sixth empty martini glass next to the prior five and pop the stuffed olives into my mouth. I chew and swallow, enjoying the bitter, spiky hot liquid oozing from it.

As my body tingles with excitement, my hair brushes against my head and shoulders, making it tingle the more.

I can't help but giggle, realizing I don't remember losing my ponytail.

"So stupid." I slurred between giggles as the bartender starts to take my empty glasses away.

"You okay?" He asks as he takes the last glass.

"Okay? Pfft. I'm perfect." I say smiling at him. Why didn't I take alcohol earlier? I've never felt so care free.

Screw you, Jay!

"Maybe you should go home." The bartender says, frowning as he studies me.

"Come here." I say, curling my index finger and he leans in.

"Why so serious?" I whisper to his ear and burst out laughing at my own words while he shakes his head.

"Joker lines huh?" He says and I nod, still giggling.

Why am I giggling again?

Who cares!

"Who says money can't buy happiness? Another dirty martini!" I exclaim and he looks at me with a frown.

"I think that's enough."

The deep voice behind me causes me to jerk a little when I turn but I'm greeted with familiar grey eyes.

"Hey! Look who it is, my very own knight in shining denim." I say smiling at his knitted brows and intense gaze.

"It's time to get you back." He says as he reaches over and pulls me up after dropping money for my drinks

"The name's April. Who are you, my future husband?" I slur as we make our way outside and he hails a cab.

"For your sake, I hope not." He says as he carries me inside.

"Hard to believe, since you're already carrying me bridal style." I giggle and lean on him, enjoying the warmth.

"Jay never carried me, or held me close." I say, playing with the light switch in the car. Griffin does not reply but stares at me for long with a thoughtful gaze.

I giggle at his expression, not the least bit idea why he was staring.

"What?" I slurr. My voice comes out deep and husky.

Dirty martini rocks!

"Who's Jay?" He says.

"My ex-boyfriend who broke up with me on voicemail."

"You should probably stop talking." He says, looking away.

My words hang in my head like a black cloud and the reality I fought to ignore is back.

It didn't work out.

He didn't try to fix it.

"My life should be a reality show..."

"Stop talking."

"I was so good to him. Do you think if I told him I was pregnant that he would come back?"

My hands are already composing the text when Griffin snatches my phone.

"Stop it."

"Ha! Trick question, silly. We didn't have sex...but he felt pretty good nailing my sister." I say, realising the truth of the words as I hear them outloud.

"Would you just. Shut. Up." He says, glaring at me and the driver glances at us briefly through the rear view mirror.

Tears clog my throat and all the emotions I have been fighting, the sadness, anger, confusion, everything pours out.

"What the hell? What in God's name is wrong with you! All of you! Boys are so infuriating! One minute you're yelling at me in a cafe and the next you're helping me! One minute you're saying you never want to let me go and the next you're nailing my sister in my fucking bedroom!"

Tears are streaming down my face now and I'm pulling my hair in the explosion of emotions I had tried to hold in.

"I'm done and sick of this!" I yell as the cab stops in front of my dorm and I push the door open and stagger out clumsily in tears.

"April!" Griffin yells, following after me.

I spot Gretchen in front looking around anxiously.

"Gretchen!" I wailed and staggered towards her in tears.

"April, thank goodness."

She had me in her arms in a second while I cried my heart out.

"What did you do to her?" She questions accusingly at Griffin who hands her my bag.

"You mean other than save her from alcohol poisoning? Don't let her drink on her own, ever again." He said and left in the cab.

"Gretchen?"

"Hmm?" She replies, as she smoothens my hair.

"I got to tell you something."

"What is it?" She asks.

And I puke my guts out.

****

Ethan's POV

I was never one to snap at a girl, ever. And that's because I have barely spoken to any since...since the incident. Apart from Kate at work, Aunt Claire and Trevor's girlfriend,  Bianca.

It was all because of a girl, all because of one person. I had lost the best part of my life.

So when I caught red-head,--April-- staring at my book, my first instinct was to go over and drag the precious thing away before she had a chance to push in away in disgust...like they always did.

But then she opened it.

And I had stood, mesmerized beyond reason as her eyes travelled over every aspect and her fingers scanned it carefully...the look in her eyes.

Like it was a chest of treasures.

She looked at it the way I had never thought anyone would.

With undeniable interest.

My work.

She was interested in my work.

And then she flipped the page over and saw the next drawing...and I remembered.

The picture.

It was in there, where I thought it was safe because no one had ever looked at that book apart from her.

No one.

One more turn and she would find it.

The defense I had always had against girls had snapped in...the subconscious part of me that shuts out emotions when I have to confront them. And it had happened then.

'And stop throwing tantrums over a drawing journal. '

She had said and walked away.

Drawing journal? The fact that I had never seen it that way made me chuckle instead of get mad and I never pictured a girl to be such an enigma.

So I had left for work, the part of my life that I could always hang on to that kept me sane.

Lectures and work.

And more work, then there will be no time to think.

No pictures to look at.

No pain to feel.

But I couldn't brush Red--April--out of my mind, her look when she saw my work. So I had opened my book, to search for whatever had captured her.

Surely it couldn't have been everything...right?

And then I saw the picture....dammit I had forgotten I kept it there.

And then the pain returned, harder than ever. Tightening with every thought, every look at the picture.

When working didn't help, I had left for the bar, after telling Kate I was done for the day.

Drink, get tipsy and numb the pain.

But I only had one glass, and then she came. Face puffy, eyes swollen and her nose red.

She had been crying.

After she had defiantly ignored me...I decided to leave. But I couldn't,...not with the number of guys eye-humping her when she had her fourth glass and took off whatever kept her ponytail together.

But I shouldn't have cared.

Why the hell was I concerned?

And then she had her sixth. Carrying her was easy, I would just get her to her dorm and leave.

But then she leaned on me.

'Jay never carried me or held me close.' She had slurred but I was barely paying attention. I had gone to drink to numb the pain, but immediately her head nestled on my shoulder and she moved close...it was gone.

The pain.

Slowly, at first. Like it was fading.

Then all at once.

Like her warmth had...melted it.

I couldn't believe it, I had to concentrate...figure out what was going on.

'Stop talking.'

Over and over I had said to her but she kept rambling on. Too much personal details, I didn't want to know so much...get so involved, to be the first to hear about the breakup from the look of it. I had to understand.

The pain was gone.

And then I told her to shut up and she snapped. Yelling and crying and pulling her hair. I hadn't even noticed the car had stopped and she had staggered away in tears...taking her warmth with her.

'April!'

But she was already in the arms of some girl.

And now, here I am. Staring at her phone that I just found in my back pocket, as I stand in front of my apartment.

Trevor opens the door.

"Hey, man. I thought you were drunk again after Kate called to tell me you left early." He says, moving back to let me in as he stares at me. He is in a pair of shorts, holding a beer bottle.

"I was going to get drunk." I say, my eyes never leaving the phone as I walked in. My fingers moved over the screen...searching.

"Not anymore." I mutter when I find what I'm looking for.

The voicemail.

"New phone?" Trevor asks as he shuts the door.

"Not mine..April's." I say and look at him.

April.

April.

The name came out swiftly...like I had been saying it since childhood?

"April?" Trevor asks staring at me through brown eyes as he scratches the back of his brown, curly hair.

"The girl at the cafe." I say, remembering the look on her face when she saw my book.

Trevor freezes and I know what's coming next.

His eyes widen as he looks down at the phone then at me.

"You killed a girl and took her phone to hide evidence?!" He yells.

"What?"

"I knew you hated girls, Ethan but this is way over the top!"

"Trevor. I didn't kill anyone." I say to him and he bursts out laughing as he slaps my back.

"I'm just messing you, dude. But seriously, why do you have a girl's phone?"

"Her name's April." I say, letting the name slip out again.

"Forgive me, your eminence. April. How did you get April's phone?"

I finally turn to look at Trevor and tell him everything. Apart from being my cousin, he was probably the only friend I had and the only person that knew every aspect of my life.

He has always been there.

When I'm done, his bear bottle slips out of his hand and shatters on the ground.

"Trevor!"

"Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. You spoke to her?" He asks with wide eyes.

"More like snapped at her."

"And then you helped her." He says in a flat tone as he raises a brow, trying to fix the parts of the story.

I nod.

"And now you're with her phone."

I nod. I left out the part of the break up and the cheating....even I couldn't handle all that news.

"But the pain left?!"

"I'm still baffled."

"Wait. So you don't feel it?"

I nod.

"Jesus sent a miracle!" He exclaims.

"Now, hold on Trev. I still don't know what this means. Is she like a cure? Does she have magic powers? Do we both share something in common? Was it just a weird coincidence? I don't know. I met her today!"

Trevor walks closer, carefully avoiding the shattered glass on the floor as he puts his hand on my shoulder.

"You and I both know you've been suffering this pain since...then. Its the one thing that has got you held on to that incident. You didn't cry, you didn't scream. You just shut out and then the pain started."

He looks at me intently now.

"And now there is an April. I can't say it's just a weird coincidence, it's more than that. I don't know to, maybe it's a sign that you have to stop shutting out. Pucker up, Ethan. You might need to start hanging around with her to find out."

I glare at him but his amused expression does not fade.

"Or she could be a mermaid with powers. Let's not forget that part." He says and I can't help but chuckle.

"There we go. Now come on, I've been waiting for you all day so we can watch the game together on tv. Hold on let me get another bear."

He says and heads to the fridge.

"April." I mutter...just for the sake of saying her name.

Funny how one girl causes all this...

And you have to stay with another to figure this out.

To stay with April.