Chapter 19

Joel embraced Dimitra tightly as they halted in front of the apartment entrance, having returned home from their date that was gonna be their most recent activity together for quite a while as he will leave again tomorrow.

"My love, I will miss you too but you should leave me now because I can't breathe," Dimitra started laughing at the desperate way he was holding her and Joel just tightened his embrace more before he managed to convince himself to let her go and not get emotional.

"You know I love you more than anything else, right?" He cupped her face in his hand and looked her in the eyes with a soft gaze full of adoration.

"Baby, don't worry. I know you do it because you have to and it's not because you want to leave me alone again. I'm not angry, I understand you, so just go and I'll be here and wait for you to get back." Dimitra reassured him as she wanted to support him in her own way, especially in these difficult moments, which his mother was having a hard time with her health - as he had told her- and Dimitra couldn't help but empathize with her boyfriend on the case.

Joel smiled broadly at the words that came out of his girlfriend's mouth, for she had appeared like an angel once more before his eyes, despite the fact that he had lied to her for his mother was not struggling with anything whatsoever.

He leaned in and conquered her lips tenderly leaving the sweetness of her taste to rub his own as if he wanted to memorize them because he will miss them very much. Her tender touch, her warm happy eyes and her cheerful sweet voice. All that was her, he started missing it already despite the fact that she was right before him.

"Have a good trip, and text me when you arrive to let me know you reached well," Dimitra brought her hand and caressed his cheek, her lips tugging to a soft smile as she felt sad inside for she would have liked to keep him too but if she was to admit to that, she knew that it would make it harder for him to leave and she didn't want that.

"I will definitely do so. Good night my ladybug ." Joel pecked her on the forehead right before he took some steps backwards, not wanting to let her go of his sight yet, but the more he did that the more she felt painful watching him getting further away so she just waved at him with a smile and turned around to enter the elevator which was waiting for her. He blew her a hand kiss and she pretended to catch it right before the door closed, making them both laugh at their silly yet lovely actions.

As Dimitra was no longer in his field of vision, he halted his steps and just stood there, taking in the lonely atmosphere that overpowered his emotions briefly then he placed his hand on the pocket of his jacket and pulled out of it a small wooden tile which made him smile bitterly upon seeing it. He felt his chest grow tight as he read and reread the engraved letters on the piece, finding them as sweet as they were deadly.

He quickly placed it back in his pocket as once again he had ended up carrying it around, not finding the courage to give it to her could not give it to her as he inside still hoped that he wouldn't need to hang on to that little message. He didn't want to surrender to his fate yet and so he was gonna fight until the end.

He took off into the coldness of the night as Dimitra entered the warmth of her apartment once she opened the door and found her two friends seated on the couch. Or better to say two-coloured corpses as Lisa was stained all over with purple pain and Sophia had splashes of blue, both being unmoved and staring to the ceiling as if they had no connection with reality.

"Mm, I see. I'm down psychologically and you are down in general. How great." Dimitra commented as she crawled on the couch and sat in between them.

"Will anyone cook, or?" Lisa questioned and the two girls did not even turn to look her way much more made the effort to reply to her absurd question.

"Good point. Pizza it is then." She concluded then pushed herself to stand up slowly, her hands holding her waist like an old lady that had arthritis then grabbed the phone to call delivery.

"You are that tired that you can't walk straight?," Dimitra almost cracked up at the way she was standing, considering it a bit of an exaggeration.

"We did everything today. We brought in the furniture and carried it in its place plus the cleaning and the painting. We are dead meat." Sophia explained as she was still lying on the couch with her eyes zoned out.

"Wasn't the furniture supposed to be done tomorrow? You did everything one a day? WOW, I got lucky that I left apparently.," Dimitra looked satisfied with herself all of a sudden for apparently, she had dodged a lot of work.

After placing the order, Lisa closed the phone and walked slowly towards the door, which after she opened it, she yelled for the girls next door to hear, inviting them to come over and eat altogether for they surely were as tired as they and they definitely were not going to cook anything either.

Her yelling however went to waste as she noticed that their apartment door was closed so they most likely had not heard her, making her walk to their door and knock on it for a few till they finally opened it to her and she tiredly told them to join them over at their apartment.

They did so rather quickly and without much questioning and the delivery thankfully did not take long to reach them, making the girls attack the pizza hungrily. The food sure did its magic as after they ate some of it, they started feeling more energized and their mood started getting better, a thing that brought the atmosphere to light up and the room to get filled with conversations and laughter.

"Girls, do you mind if the boys come to eat with us? Their order is late and they are starving." Sophia lifted her head from her phone where she was texting with Shiro and questioned the girls.

"Some of them are basically worth dropping dead in general but I will not make it an issue because I am the bigger person," Lisa replied while she had in her hands the third piece she was eating.

"What? You? The bigger person? What a joke" Christin burst out laughing and Lisa just muttered under her breath for her mouth was still full with food and her voice could not come off as fully as she intended.

"She is one of those people I would gladly get rid of, for example"

They all laughed at her mean remark while Sophia proceeded to take this as a positive response and texted Shiro to get the boy and come down, she soon standing up and walking to the door in order to leave it open for them.

It didn't take long for the boys to come crashing in, pushing each other in a hurry by the door and fighting over who will get to the table first for once they had heard that there was pizza, they had all started some kind of marathon competition to who gets faster to it. Their childish behaviour brought the girls to laugh a bit more and some to even snatch the boxes of Pizza away, creating a small chase around the house.

The house seemed to become a mess in just mare minutes once they had gotten all tother and despite how noisy that fact was it also appeared to be entertaining for they started conversations over food and drinks that were added after. Drinks that at first were supposed to be just a companion of the food but ended up being the only thing they were consuming after a while.

The alcohol in their veins had brought the level of loudness in the apartment increase beyond Lisa's imagination who found herself regretting the fact that she was left sobber for she disliked alcohol. They were cheering and clapping, accompanying the sound of the loud music they had turned on, the rhythms of were also dancing to, pretty crazily if someone was to ask her.

Lisa tried her best to endure for a while but the situation started getting worse and worse and she ended up covering her own ears, as her patience started running out and in her mind travelled thought of murdering every single one of them just so she can get her peace and quietness back.

"I seriously hate you. Why did you guys have to bring alcohol in this? Look what you created!" Lisa yelled at Shiro who was seated at the other corner of the couch which she was occupying. Him as clear-minded as her, despite the fact that he had drunk multiple beers. He rarely got drunk since he had a high alcohol tolerance.

"I do not remember my friends forcing them to drink, they wanted to drink on their own." He deadpanned, speaking only facts and she just rolled her eyes at how unhelpful he was being.

She crossed her arms over her chest and continued observing silently the chaos that was unfolding until her eyes widened, witnessing Sophia that took hold of her shirt and tried to take it off. Her action made Shiro fly off his comfortable seat and engulf her in a hug in order to prevent her from stripping.

"Now now, baby, don't do such stuff here. We aren't alone?" He spoke in her ear, a part of him joking with her and her drunk state that was his first time witnessing.

Lisa on the other hand let her gaze travel further, soon she to getting up from her seat and approaching Dimitra and Theo that were dancing together again despite the fact that she had separated them twice this far. Of course, there was no harm in dancing with someone but every time she was to witness Theo's hands sneaking behind her back and pulling her closer, she couldn't help but get annoyed and act since Dimitra didn't seem to mind.

"You two better get yourselves together because if you make me come over for the fourth time, I won't hesitate to slam you against a wall." She shouted at them as she wanted her voice to be heard over the noisy music and her threat to be comprehended right for she surely meant it.

Yet the two seemed to not take her words seriously as they laughed and proceeded to ignore her, continuing their up and down jumping along to the rhythm of the music.

"Shiro! Do something, This has become a mess" Lisa demanded as her fists crawled up at the sides of her body, feeling her nerves reached their peak. Joel had barely some hours that had left and here she was dealing with a wasted Dimitra that was letting another dude all over her and two dance students, giving a legit show in her living room, as Jamie and Jay were pretty much performing and giving it their all.

"Ah, are you asking for my help now? Why didn't I hear the word please somewhere?" She replied as he sat back down on the couch as if nothing was bothering him and the truth was that he saw nothing wrong with the situation. They were just all having fun, no harm in that.

"Come on, you damn- We both know I will never say that word to you!"

"Then solve your issues on your own."

As Lisa and Shiro shared a death state upon their disagreement and lack of cooperation, a loud wave of cheers got their attention towards the rest of their friends, that had kneeled down in a circle around Jamie and Jay, cheering for them and clapping as they literally stated getting their clothes off.

"And here I was thinking that it couldn't get worse. They made this a strip show! Get them together !!" Lisa exclaimed with a rolling look as Jamie and Jay and Theo didn't hesitate to join them in the middle of the circle and start taking off clothes too.

Jay seemed to be enjoying the attention he was getting quite a bit however in his hazed drunk mind all he cared was to have Sophia attention on him and that was why he threw at her the shirt he just removed from himself, leaving on him a tang top he had, that was sweaty and was sticking on his firm body in a way that left his body structure appear appealing, and also made him succeed on his mission, for Sophia could not take her eyes off of him at that moment, her mind failing to comprehend well the bold move he had just done.

"Okay... Now that I am rethinking this, I do need to get them together." Shiro admitted as he definitely didn't appreciate Jay's move towards his girlfriend, despite the fact that he did not misunderstand nor blamed him for he considered him wasted. He stood up and took the matters into his hands, grabbing the speaker and turning off the music without hesitation. An action that brought a wave of dissatisfying and complaining phonemes to fill the room.

Lisa did not let them whine for long however as she urged them to get going towards their houses and their rooms accordingly and even went on to help most of them to do so. Shiro ended up helping on the task as he wanted to clean up the mess and get to sleep, unintentionally ending up carrying some of her friends and his friends along with Lisa in order to share the weight of their bodies.

The last one they had managed to get to their bed was Jamie, as they both had left him to plop on his bed and then had walked into Shiro's room that was right opposite his, leaving their own bodies to collapse on the bed for they sure had gotten tired with all that carrying and up and down movement from one floor to another.

"Get out of my bed you will infect it." Shiro's voice was heard after some minutes of silence they shared the one laid next to the other, him breathing heavily still due to exhaustion.

"I'll buy you new bedsheets, what else do you want? Just give me a minute, I'm a corpse. Why the heck do they all have to be so heavy." Lisa complained as she was too out of breath and with a sore back and shoulders.

Silence fell again between them, their breaths being the only sound in the atmosphere as they grew calmer by the passage of time. So calm that Shiro started forgetting that he wasn't alone for especially her breaths, halted rather abruptly on his ears and even though he waited to listen to them again, they didn't echo around.

It was a bit strange of a phenomenon so Shiro ended up tilting his head towards Lisa just to take a brief look at her however when he noticed her eyes that looked stuck at nothingness, not even blinking, her parted lips from which no air was escaping from and the way her chest was not portraying any movement of the breathing process, he panicked and jumped out of his place, as he realizing what was happening for it was not the first time he had witnessed her like that.

"No, damn it! Calm down, look at me, Lisa!"He took hold of her shoulders and pulled her up in a seated position, taking her face in his hands as he unintentionally portrayed his desperate feelings on his face.

"Breathe...You have to breathe !! LISA PLEASE !!"

---- To be continued...