These Things Do Happen

Ayakaishi Fei

Chapter One: (Alex POV)

I think there are only a few moments in your life that you can never truly forget - moments which, regardless of their length, stick with you; your first crush or your very first kiss for example. Not that those memories are always good ones – you never forget the first betrayal by a best friend, or the pain of having your heart broken, no matter how much it fades. And of course - you never forget making love for the very first time. Maybe I have a better memory than most, but I remember details upon details of the night I lost my virginity - perhaps because of the repercussions, but still…

I remember the song that was playing as we snuck into one of the bedrooms - I remember putting Leon's hand on my chest and whispering, 'my heart is going boom boom boom' as the song played in the back ground, and thinking what a good song it was to be making love to, despite the fact that it was just a crappy techno song at a bad teenage party. I remember the way the light from outside the window lit the room just enough for me to see the shadows on Leon's face and the hints of red in hair that (like every other Asian’s in our class) was otherwise as black as coal. I remember the way he tasted when I kissed him - like beer and pretzels, and wondering if he would be offended if I asked him to chew a mint, and embarrassed that I might taste like the sickening cruisers I'd been drinking all night.

I remember that my nail broke the condom when I tried to roll it on, and I remember the exact timbre of my own voice when I said "Oh forget it, it's not like we have any STD's". I remember it hurt when we started, but after the initial pain I don't remember if I moaned because it felt good or felt bad. I do remember that it didn't last long - and I remember vividly the way the sound reverberated around the room when Leon's best friend knocked on the door to ask for a lift home - thunderous in the silent aftermath. And I remember crying when Leon left me alone in the bedroom, shaking from the shock, and not exactly sure of what I'd done.

If you'd asked me then, why I'd done it, I would have told you it was because we were in love. If you asked me now - I would tell you it was because it felt like the only thing left to do. We'd been dating for perhaps 6 months - a lifetime in the world of high school dating, and we'd been

in the same social circle since I'd moved there at the start of grade 11. We had heated make out sessions, we sat together at lunch and recess, we occasionally went out “together” on the weekends or after school, but usually we hung out with Leon's best friend Aiden and played video games or networked our computers together and played online RPG's at Leon’s (he was the only one with broadband), the 3 of us stuffed into his tiny room - though we all told our parents that we were studying.

To put it bluntly, Leon and Aiden were nerds, and I was a nerdette. In hindsight I don't even know how we ended up at a party, but even nerds like letting loose occasionally, I suppose.

I guess, in a very real way my story starts that night; the night that I lost something I should have treasured more, and gained something that changed my life.

By the time Leon returned from dropping Aiden home I was dressed and there was no way he could ever have guessed that I had cried over what had happened. I wonder sometimes, knowing what I know now, if he ever regrets that night - or wishes that he'd “saved himself”.

I firmly believe that everything happens for a reason though, that every decision has consequences, and that nothing in life is ever really as simple as it seems.

You want to know if I regret it?

My fingers are shaking as I write this because I don't know whether I do... I wish... I wish I could say I didn't, that I wouldn't change what I did, but if I had my life to live over, would I be tempted to wait? I think I would, though my heart aches to say it, Leon and I... should never have even happened.

"Alexandra," My mother’s voice draws my name out in its habitual high pitched holler, "Get out of bed this instant or you'll be late for school."

"Mrff," I mumble into my pillow, my whole body groaning into wakefulness. The back of my hand comes up to rub my eyes, displacing the grit and leaving my vision somewhat less blurry. I half roll-half fall out of bed, stagger towards what I assume, in my still half-asleep state, is the door to my walk-in-robe - somehow managing to not only get it open, but also find and don my school dress and school blazer – all without fully waking. And then I stumble towards the kitchen, hoping I'll have time for a coffee before my mother forces me out the door.

My mother appears in the doorway of the kitchen just in time to see me pour the boiling water into my mug and clicks her tongue at me, as she walks towards the sink, just as she has done every morning since I first started drinking coffee, "That stuff will stunt your growth."

I snort, giving the same answer I’ve given every morning since I took up the habit, "So what. It's not like I was destined to be tall anyway."

I don't actually look that much like my mother, but it has been obvious since about second grade that the one thing I did inherit from her was her height. She frowns at me from the other side of the kitchen, her short black hair cut in a stylish bob, and her slanted eyes narrowed, then turns to the sink and begins to methodically clean the dishes. I run my hands through my short orange-bleached hair, pushing it into a stubby ponytail at the base of my neck so I can snap an elastic band around it and gulp down the rest of my coffee. The rush of caffeine and sugar does its job and wakes me up fully. I take the cup and place it on the side of the sink, and dutifully kiss my mother on the cheek.

“Alright, I’m off then.” I inform her, snatching my lunchbox from the counter and scooping up my school bag from the shoe-rack by the door (where I dump it every day when I get home from school) before pulling on my knee high socks and toeing my feet into my shoes.

It only takes me about 5 minutes to walk to Aiden’s house, as it’s only a few streets away, but Leon is already there when I arrive. He and Aiden are waiting in Aiden’s admittedly crappy car.

Aiden is sat in the driver’s seat, his messy russet coloured hair perpetually looks as though it needs to be introduced to a hairbrush, and his mouth is just a little too big for his face, which

wouldn’t really be too bad, except for the way it draws attention to the fact that he’s got braces; not that there’s anything wrong with braces… unless you spent the entire 10th grade being called metal mouth. But… yeah, aside from these small imperfections, Aiden’s actually pretty hot, in that messy, geeky, “I'm a badass who could effortlessly hack into the school computer network” kind of way. Not that I would ever tell him that, of course.

Leon is sprawled out in the passenger seat, his legs resting in Aiden’s lap, while he plays his Nintendo DS. He is the complete opposite to Aiden, in terms of geeky good looks – he’s short for one thing, though he’s taller than me, despite every attempt I’ve made to defy my Asian gene (singular – the short gene is apparently the only one I inherited) I have not yet managed to surpass the 5’0 mark, I was 4’10 and a half the last time I was measured. Leon likes to joke that he towers over me as he’s 5’5, but he’s got the F-ing “short” gene too, so he’ll probably stay 5’5 till he gets old and starts shrinking.

He’s also got that whole neat and nerdy look, with little square, stylish glasses, dead straight black hair, and a slim, almost weedy build – despite eating copious amount of junk food and doing no exercise other than insane 16 hour non-stop DDR marathons once a month. I think if you’ve ever met a half Chinese, half Viet, gaming obsessed nerd, then you can probably picture him. My mum loves him though, because he’s such a kiss-ass – he always says ‘hello aunty’, in Vietnamese no less, when he sees her, not like “that rude white boy” as my mum calls Aiden.

I can’t help the grin that comes over my face as I see them, both still oblivious to me, Leon completely engrossed in whatever game he’s playing (I’m guessing it’s Puzzle Quest) and Aiden completely absorbed by his own PSP, just kind of co-existing inside the little universe of Aiden’s sedan.

I deftly make my way towards the car, careful not to make any noise so that I can surprise Leon, and hopefully make him shriek like a girl. Cautiously, I open the car door, and then pounce into Leon’s lap. The response is better than expected, Leon yelps and his foot jerks up to kick Aiden right where it hurts, which in turn makes Aiden howl in pain – with Leon cringing in sympathy, and me, victor and conqueror of the boys perched triumphantly on Leon’s lap.

“Hi,” I chirp cheerfully, pressing a kiss to the side of Leon’s mouth.

Aiden glares up at me through his hair, and gripes through gritted teeth, “I hate you more than usual today.”

“I love you too, Aid-to-poo.” I reply with my usual charm and wit, as I toss my bag into the back seat.

“So Xan, how are you feeling after your antics Saturday night?” Leon interrupts, knowing if he doesn’t that our name calling is likely to escalate into physical violence.

“Not bad, not bad at all,” I shift my weight with a deliberateness that not even Leon will be able to miss, “How about you?”

Leon leers at me, “I’m feeling good.”

“Hey, hey now!” Aiden cuts in, “No procreating in my car you guys! Alex needs to grow some boobs before she can star in a porno directed by yours truly.”

I give him the finger as I lean in to kiss Leon more deeply. Aiden groans at the display.

“Get your fat ass into the back seat Alex, before I kick you outta my car.”

I laugh as I clamber into the backseat, flashing both boys a glimpse of the aforementioned fat ass, “Yeah, yeah, toss me your PSP Aiden.”

“Beg for it, bitch,” He retorts grinning.

“Please, please oh red-headed prince-of-psp, bestow upon me the privilege of playing your game.” I concoct, snatching the game out of his waiting hand before he has a chance to taunt further.

“Impatient wench,” He teases as he starts the car, but I’m too busy loading my game to bother exchanging any more insults.

Playing Lumines pretty much keeps me quiet for the whole trip, aside from a few uttered 'oh... crap!'s and 'oh yeah!'s - and it's with reluctance that I return Aiden's PSP to him as we all pile out of him car. I asked my mum for a PSP for Christmas, but she's heavily discouraged my video game addiction (ie, my tendency to spend hours playing DDR, and to waste a week’s worth of bus money on one session) ever since the time I had a sleepover with the guys when she was out and we played Aiden's PS2 on her brand new 50" plasma, which left a burn in image that's still there today. I apologised, but ever since then she's refused to buy me a single gaming console - she won't even let me have a Wii.

I've been trying to get a job so that I can actually afford one, but most of the places where I live want young kids who look older, not old kids who look younger (cause they have to pay me a 17 year old wage but it would look like they were hiring a 13 year old). Thankfully I've got a laptop and a desktop computer to keep me occupied - though our internet leaves much to be desired. Not dial-up (thank god) but I'm not allowed to download anything (I even got in trouble once for patching my eTO!). It's kind of depressing, but better than nothing.

Leon takes my now empty hand and leads me towards our lockers so that we can stash whichever books we don't need and grab those that we do before we head for homeroom. I only need to dump one book and grab a textbook so we end up arriving at homeroom a few minutes early.

Welcome to another boring day in the life of Alexandra Lam Nguyen.

People always say stuff like 'these are the best days of your life' when you're at school. And when you're at school, you're like 'oh fuck! Can my life possibly get any crapper than this?'. What they should say is 'these are the simplest days of your life, cause after you graduate everything will be a hundred times more complicated'. Once you finish high school there's university, getting a job, getting married, having kids - which sounds all cut and dried, but it's not. You fuck up any of these things and the rest of your life goes to hell.

Not that your life can't be good after you finish high school, it can, and probably will be more enjoyable than the thankless task of showing up and having your entire worth determined by how well you can critique a stupid book you didn't even want to read, or whether you actually understand the principles of Einsteins theory of relativity. I guess after high school it's like, you can't go home when the bell rings - you can't ask to 'resit a test' if you mess up with your kids. It's not simple anymore, and that's the simple truth.

Aiden pokes my arm to get my attention, drawing it away from the picture I'd been grafitti-ing onto the table. "Shmetard, the bell's gone. We can go eat now."

I blink at him blankly for a moment before his words sink in. "Oh good. I wonder if Leon's got any chocolate for me to steal."

In one quick movement I swipe my books into my backpack, slinging it over my shoulder and follow Aiden out of the classroom. He strides towards our groups' "spot", a manky looking pair of benches set under the shelter of a classroom awning and a gigantic oak tree. Leon is already there, chatting idly to Aoi, who is pulling a face at him and ignoring the fact the Sam is using the end of her long thigh length jet black braid to tickle Mark.

“I’m hungry,” I inform Leon with a pout, “Feed me!”

Aiden rolls his eyes as Leon reaches into his bag to throw a fun size snickers bar at me.

"Em yêu anh!" I say with a grin as I unwrap the chocolate that was formerly Leons, "Yummy!"

Leon wraps an arm around me as I sit down next to him and I rest my head on his shoulder as I nibble at the chocolate listening as Aoi continues her tirade about the virtues of Hayate as opposed to Ein.

I finish eating and lick the remains of the chocolate off of my fingers, before closing my eyes. For some reason I’m feeling tired – like I wanna take a nap for a few hours before going back to my math class.

I can feel Leon’s fingers brushing my loose wispy fringe behind my ears and I smile, looking up at him. He smiles back at me, all perfect white teeth and dark gold skin, and brushes my cheek with the back of his hand. The intimate gesture sends heat pooling at the base of my spine and I lean up to meld our lips together – much to the contrived revulsion of our gathered friends.

“Ah! My virgin eyes!” Aoi yelps, covering her eyes playfully.

“Yeah! Keep it in the bedroom horn dogs,” Aiden chimes in grinning.

Mark ardently disagrees with the others, “No, no keep going. This is like live action porn, only with midgets instead of porn stars.”

I flip him the bird.

It’s kind of funny, when you look back at your teenage years, you have to wonder… What the hell was I thinking?

I mean, did I really think I looked good when I wore knee-high socks over fishnet stockings? Who the hell gives teenagers the totally false idea that they can actually pull off ridiculous fashion statements.

And as for my behavior – it’s totally incomprehensible to me now. What was I thinking that I actually believed my mother would actually believe me when I told her that the birth control pills she found in my school bag belonged to Aoi?

The ancient Greek philosophers believed children were incapable of rational thought. Obviously they’d never encountered a modern day teen.

I barely notice the remainder of the day passing, not paying any attention to anything beyond the notes I am passing to Leon and Aiden. We do get reprimanded when the teacher sees, but we’re good students generally, and most teachers will overlook a little inattention when it’s balanced with “straight A” grades.

I skip out to Aiden’s car when the bell rings, eager to get home and log onto eTO, impatient to get in a good grinding session with the boys tonight.

I peck Leon goodbye before I clamber out of the car, and walk up to my house. As soon as I’ve managed to wrestle the door unlocked I kick off my shoes (automatic to take them off in the foyer), dump my bag and lob my lunch box at the sink. It misses and knocks my coffee cup from this morning into the basin. I wince and slink towards my bedroom, and my waiting computer.

I log in as soon as my computer allows me to bring up the sign in screen, a grin spreading across my face as the familiar text pops up in the chat box.

Guild member, LamBee is online

[GBankai : Bee-chan! you're on!

[GLamBee : heya kai

[GLamBee : what are u doin?

I type in the chat window immediately, but it takes Kai a few minutes to respond.

[GBankai : grinding my way to lvl 90

[GBankai : 52 to go

[GBankai : i keep dying cos of this b!sh lion

[GLamBee : lols u suk

[GLamBee : whats a good exp quest for sheep?

[GBankai : swamp shark?

There is a lull in our conversation as we both concentrate on trying to level up, and then, as if we’d never stopped talking, Kai resumes our chat.

[GBankai : come grind with me Bee I need magic for royal

[GLamBee : kk, imma afk to eat, then I'll come

I sit back in my chair and stretch. I swear I spend as much time talking shit to random people as I do actually leveling up, and given that I've just hit level 101 - well that's a lot of time wasted on pointless conversations. Well watching soapies on TV is probably equally pointless so I don't feel too bad.

I hear my mum calling my name from the kitchen, yet again, so figure I'd better get my butt out there before she comes looking for me, and realizes that I was actually playing games rather than writing an essay like I'd claimed earlier.

My mum sets a bowl on the table as I walk in and looks at me critically, "You look tired."

"I stayed up late doing homework last night." I explain off-handedly as I start to shovel pho down my throat so that my mum will give up on the conversation. She nags me all the time, I mean it's probably just her way of showing that she cares but it’s so annoying. 'You look thin, have you lost weight?' or 'you look tired, have you been up late playing games again?' or 'Why don't you wear a nice dress instead of those jeans. You look like a boy.'

My mum sighs and picks up her briefcase from the bench; she turns to look at me as she leaves the room to finish up her work for tomorrow, "Don't stay up late tonight Ally. You have school tomorrow."

I roll my eyes, even knowing she can't see the gesture and carry my bowl to the sink to wash it up and then tip it upside down on the side of the sink to dry. Idly I peer into the fridge before going back to my room, wondering if there are any good snacks for me to steal - ideally something chocolate. Finding nothing - stupid mum - I settle on pouring myself a glass of juice and walking back to my bedroom. Time to waste a few hours trying to get to 102... Only 94.8 to go.

Authors note:

Yes – I know, this is the first thing I’ve posted here in what, 4 years? And it’s something new and random? Yeah well this is where my muses led me.

I doubt I will ever continue anything else on my account, unless I severely overhaul it and rewrite it, as I’m just totally not in the same headspace anymore.

I hope I do get some reviews for this, even though I am very aware not much has happened so far. Please give me some constructive criticism as I haven’t written in a long time, and need all the help I can get. Thanks.