A girl was lying on the fire escape of a standard block of apartments with her legs hanging inside the open window. Music was playing from the stereo and she was softly singing along to Morrissey’s soothing voice.

- Ashe! Lynn is on the phone! She says you and Caleb are late to the club! A voice yelled through the song.

- Tell her we’re going once Bella is done with his Shawshank Redemption act!

The boy sitting cross-legged on the fire escape snapped his head up with an annoyed look, just tittering on the brink of rolling his eyes and sticking his tongue out immaturely.

- Will you drop that stupid nickname already?

- Will you drop that laptop already? She mocked him.

- I’m trying to hack into the local police files, Caleb replied, typing furiously. The motherfuckers actually know what they’re doing. They have this completely crazy router.. I can’t manage to sneak in the worm I created.. Oh, there you go.

He smiled victoriously and turned the laptop so she could see for herself.

- We can go now, I’m done. Tomorrow, they’ll be shitting in their pants.

- I doubt it’ll make them regret putting Guy in juvi last summer.

- No but it gives me some sort of satisfaction so fuck it, it’s enough.

Ashe felt relieved Caleb had thrown away his geekiness for the time being. Nothing was more painful than to endure a conversation about computers, megabytes and all that shit she didn’t understand a first fuck about anyway.

Whenever he wasn’t in front of a screen, Caleb was actually a normal guy. He was intelligent, awesome at skateboarding, popular with the persons he decided were worth taking a shit for and a golden mine when it came to finding drugs or connections to do anything he pleased. As he was generous and always helped if he could, people gratefully paid him back with various little services.

Ashe stayed in her lying position, finishing her cigarette while looking at Caleb packing his laptop. The boy was good-looking in an odd way. He had this particular manner of using his body, like someone who is perfectly comfortable with his appearance, but never really finished any of his movements, as if jerking his arm abruptly would be a too brutal entrance in the real world. That was how he was: walking around like in his own fantasy land no one could enter without permission, a mixture of confidence and distance. His eyes were an imperturbable grey and he constantly had a small half-smile on his face, maybe because he was usually amused by whatever he saw. His dark hair was messy and streaked with red, people were always smoothing it with their hands and gushing at its silkiness, which rather irritated him. –Stop touching my goddamn head!-

They couldn’t recall how their friendship had started –sometime in primary school- but it seemed like people had paired them for their entire lives and talking about or seeing one of them, fatally led to speaking or meeting the other.

Caleb climbed inside and pulled his friend’s hand so she could hop in as well. She peeped inside the living room on their way out.

- Rayanne.. she groaned.

Her older sister was heading towards the kitchen, totally naked. Supposedly, modesty was out of fashion. –Here comes naturalism!- Caleb looked on with mild interest, it was something that happened daily, even in winter. Rayanne just didn’t feel any affinity with clothing. Or shoes for that matter. She often went bare foot to the small grocery shop that stood on the corner of the street.

- Hot bod, Ray, he teased slightly.

- Thank you ‘leb. A compliment is always welcome.

- We’re going to the club with Lynn, Ashe told her. I don’t know when we’ll be back.

- You should tell Mommy dearest, not I, Rayanne replied. See you later, sis and brother-in-law!

- Shut up, you witch, Ashe retorted as she went out the front door.

She crossed the narrow corridor and immediately stepped inside the apartment opposite. Given they were nine in the family, the elder children just lived together in one of the flats and the parents and younger siblings stayed in the other. At least, that was what was planned. They generally switched around according to who was high, who had passed out and who was fighting with whom.

Ashe and Caleb were met by a howl and a flying yellow figure hurling itself at them. The youngest of the tribe: Apolline, otherwise known as Paul or Apocalypse, thirteen and on the border of becoming completely insane. She was supposed to be a boy and her name would’ve been Apollo. Feeling frustrated at having to change their name plans, the parents just decided to use the closest female transition. Of course, admitting it was a completely wacked name or using Aphrodite or whatever was too far-fetched for them.

- Mom is mad at me! Paul chirped. If you’re here to ask for anything, you better beat off and hope that you won’t get caught.

- Come again? Ashe distractedly replied, going in the direction most of the noise was coming from.

- I was watching ‘Battle Royale’ on the telly and I was eating a banana and getting really scared. I guess I had a spasm because I squished the banana against the screen and now, Mom is really, really mad, Paul rapidly explained while skipping next to her sister.

She always sat two centimetres away from the goddamn television.

The surprisingly large kitchen was a battle field. Most of her siblings were there as well as their mother –they all called her Maman- patiently trying to restore peace while making cookies. Ashe and Caleb wisely stayed in the doorway while Paul returned to her movie.

The eldest at twenty, Guilhem, was leaning against the sink, chatting casually with their mother. Blue, the boy item of the fifteen year-old twins, was balancing himself on the rather narrow window sill and eating a bowl of cereal. The girl item, Fern, was sitting against the fridge, apparently trying to complete her homework with the occasional help of her twin who manifestly didn’t know what the fuck she was talking about. -We will not discuss the horrible pun the twins’ names make-

The parents were post-hippy and had the social status of philosopher for the father and poetess for the mother. They were well paid for what they did and lived happily their bohemian life.

- Ashe, Caleb! Care for a cookie? Her mother proposed.

- Sure, thanks.

They stepped over four cats and a turtle before managing to grasp one.

- What the fuck ‘ma? Whose cats are these? Ashe asked after one of them caught her pants’ leg in its claws.

- I think five are officially ours as for the rest.. Some of their friends, I suppose.

Fern looked at their mother as if she were crazy.

- Cats don’t have friends, she said in a matter-of-fact voice.

- In Maman’s la-la-land, they do, Blue retorted, earning a playful smack on the head.

He coughed up some cereal and spit them in the sink next to him.

- Blue, that’s so gross! Fern shrieked.

- How about some incest? He asked Ashe while giving her a full view of the soggy mush in his mouth.

- No thanks, doll. Maman, Caleb and I are meeting Lynn at the club, you okay with that?

- Live your life, darling, their mother absently replied. Just don’t forget to lock the front door downstairs when you come home or Mr. Connelly will come up and lecture about thefts again.

- What a crazy old fart, Blue remarked.

- Don’t talk like that about the neighbours. He’s a sweet old man.

- Talk about getting a life, Blue retorted, rolling his eyes.

The missing brother appeared in the form of a sweaty Noé who had just finished playing basketball outside. He removed his tee-shirt and tossed it at Fern who promptly threw it back at him before swinging his arm around Ashe. She fled over to Guilhem like a vampire from the sunlight.

- Noé just touched me with his sweaty armpit, she declared in fake appal.

- Noé is a disgusting young man, Guilhem answered soothingly.

- Noé, shower! Their mother commanded, pointing in the general direction of the bathroom.

- Gimme some of that, Noé said to Blue, ignoring the others’ comments.

- No, it’s the last bowl of cereal in the house. Mine!

- Don’t be such a dick!

- Get your own food, asshole!

- None of that language in my house, their mother sternly butted in. And Blue, don’t throw that apple at your brother! I saw you, stop trying to look innocent!

Noé made a move towards Blue’s bowl but was rapidly quenched by a wave of milk over his head and a kick in the knee. –Get away from me, bastard shit!-

- You are cleaning that mess up, young man!

- But Maman.. It was his goddamn fault.

- Hey man, got some skittles? Noé queried, turning towards Caleb.

He tossed the pack he had in his pocket and the elder boy disappeared out of the kitchen.

- How about we jet from here? Ashe proposed.

She was already getting a headache amidst her noisy siblings. Caleb nodded and smiling goodbye, they walked out of the capharnaüm.

- I’ll just drop my laptop home, okay? Caleb asked once they could hear each other.

She pushed the button on the elevator and they went up a storey to where Caleb and his father lived. It felt so lonely up there, Caleb just loved Ashe’s family and how boisterously fun they were.

- I’m going out! He carelessly said as he entered.

- Don’t forget the condoms!

Caleb rolled his eyes but didn’t say anything. Whenever his father was in a good mood, it meant he was drunk. It didn’t exactly bother Caleb as his father was particularly detestable when he was sober.

- Hi, Ashe smiled when Caleb’s father came in view.

- Oh, hello my fair lady, he grinned.

- You should clean a bit, the table’s a mess, Caleb commented, nodding to the full ashtray and various empty beer bottles.

- Yes, yes, boy. You go and have fun, right?

- Right, Dad.

- Container!

Caleb sighed then took two condoms out of the big plastic bowl that was lying on top of the dresser. He showed them to his father before putting them in his pocket.

- Alright, let’s go.

---

Another fresh start. This is to help me build the characters for the novel I am plotting in French. Hopefully, it’ll help.

Oh, and in case you had trouble memorising Ashe’s family:

Guilhem, 20. Rayanne, 19. Noé, 18. Ashe, 17. (it’s not Ashley, just Ashe) Blue and Fern, 15. Apolline, 13. What can I say, their parents must be sexually active.