:). It's been a long time, folks.

Step 14: Get Handcuffed

"I'm worried you didn't eat enough," Louis mutters, watching me carefully as I try to get a ketchup stain that was the result of Eli out of my jeans.

"What? Just because I didn't eat the meat?"

"Exactly."

"Whatever. I'm annoyed that none of you take me seriously."

"Well when you come up with rash decisions like that..." He leans by the wall and raises an eyebrow. "Come On, Cerise, we're going to be late. Everyone left around ten minutes ago."

I glare at him harshly. Any sane person should know not to hurry me when I'm irritable- which is most of the time.

"What's the point of going to circle? I can't believe I've stopped taking my painkillers just for this."

"You really don't want to go, do you?"

"No. No, I don't. In fact, I'd be happy here just to stay with you and not have any of my family bothering us."

"Well then," he says cunningly as he walks over. "Let's just not go."

He touches my shoulder which instantly stops me from furiously dabbing my leg with the tea towel.

"Think about it," he goes on, grinning smartly. "We'll pretend you've been taking your painkillers and can't drink. We have some precious time to ourselves for once, we'll just face the consequences of not going tomorrow."

I turn to face him, reading the glint in his eyes. He's made such a fabulous point that even I'm finding it difficult to hide my beam.

Three weeks ago if you'd have told me that I would be in France making out with Louis of all people then I would've probably punched you in the face for suggesting such a thing. Now I couldn't be happier. He's even taking care to not to bother my ankle.

"Cerise! Cerise!"

Of course a blissful moment can't last for too long when you're Cerise Waverly.

"Oh for f-"

"Shhhh!" Louis whispers. "Don't let her hear us."

"What are you d-?"

He grabs the blanket and covers us both, kissing me to shut me up. It shuts me up.

"Cerise."

The light goes on.

"Don't think I'm stupid enough to not see you both under that blanket," Daisy's voice shrills. "Ugh- are you naked?"

" No," I groan, pushing the covers away. "What do you want?"

"I was sent to come and get you."

"We're not going," says Louis defiantly. "Cerise can't drink."

"Well that's a lie, because I've been keeping her painkillers hostage. Alcohol is the best painkiller after all!" She practically shrieks, laughing away. No one else is laughing. "Anyway- you don't have a choice, unless you want to be punished at next circle just so you two can have some lovey-dovey time now."

"Well it's a risk I'm willing to take," Louis mumbles quietly.

"Louis- where you at, mate?"

Oh no. This isn't good. Sage looks a cross between horrified and severely ill.

"Right... um, are you two done? Simon's going mental."

"Fine fine, we're coming," Louis groans irritably, helping me up while Daisy tries not to smirk and Sage avoids eye contact.

Um... awkward.

"Did you see the look on Sage's face?" Daisy tries to ask quietly. "It was hilarious!"

"Quiet, Daisy," I plead for the fifty-forth time.

She won't stop going on about it, and we've just got to the bar for circle and I really cannot face anymore embarrassment when I'm about to face doom. Marcel, one of the barmen who always works here in the summer is already smirking because he's overheard some of Daisy's comments.

"If you two are going to be getting up to that sort of stuff all holiday then please make sure it's not when I'm around or..."

"Daisy I am telling you now-"

"CERISE WAVERLY!"

Oh no. It's started.

I turn to face the circle of family and family friends, who are all looking at me. Simon, with his usual power-hungry look, is glaring at me.

"COME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE CIRCLE NOW!"

No no no no no no no no no.

Meekly I do as I'm told, standing- or at least, balancing on my crutches- in one of my least favourite places in the whole wide world. The middle of the family circle.

"Cerise Waverly can you please explain why you were late to circle?"

Well this is just not fair. Louis was late too- but then again, it's not like I'm going to tell them the real reason so maybe it's better he's not standing here too.

"Well?"

"I was talking to Mum about something..."

"LIAR!"

"LIAR!"

Oh for goodness sake. Here they all go with the 'liar' thing. Having several family members screaming at me is something that I'm used to but still, this takes the biscuit.

"Oh really? My sources tell me something different."

"Who the bloody hell are your sources-?"

"Quiet!" Simon bellows at me. "First off, we do not accept lies at circle, do we?"

"Oh for the love of-"

"FEED THE GI-IRL, LET HER KNOW IT'S DRINKING TIME! FEED THE GI-IRL, LET HER KNOW..."

And the chorus which has cruelly manipulated the kind words of that annoying Bob Geldof Christmas song starts. One by one every member of circle has to approach me and pour a little of their drink into an empty glass. This is disgusting- I'm getting concoctions of the foulest smelling drinks imaginable- and Myra's drinking red wine for heavens' sake! What kind of fifteen year old drinks red wine in these kinds of situations? Seriously?

Daisy is cackling like a deranged banshee as she approaches, and Sage is just shaking his head, mumbling 'idiot' as he pours almost half a can of beer in. Louis would look almost apologetic as he approaches- if he wasn't smirking like an a-class git.

"No Louis- you stay there," Simon orders.

Oh gosh no. This is going to be mortifying.

"See, everyone, the real reason Cerise- and Louis- were late to circle tonight was because they were having some special alone time together!"

No please no.

All the girls are giggling away, apart from my cousin Denise, who is so obviously jealous it's unbelievable. She's never been able to hide her scowls well.

"So, before Cerise downs her drink..."

"I'm not downing this, Si-"

"QUIET!" Simon actually looks like the demon headmaster.

"Make her take another one afterwards, Si!" Kai, one of my idiot cousins twice-removed or whatever the term is for mother's-cousin's-son shouts. I make a mental note to knock him one later.

"As I was saying," Simon smirks, looking back at me. "Before Cerise downs it, Louis can you please come forward?"

I have no idea what's going to happen but I know that it's going to be another cruel method of degradation. I can't believe I've somehow ended up in this spot again.

"Here, take these- you two are now drinking mates... and maybe you can use those later when the time is more appropriate for your alone time."

Everyone bursts out laughing and I only figure out why when Louis turns around to face me. Handcuffs. Classy. So bloody classy.

And now we're drinking mates, so whenever Louis drinks, I drink, and vice versa. This is going to be the worst circle yet. And you know what's worse- Louis actually has the audacity to laugh!

"What's so funny?" I seethe at him. "Circle's only just begun and we're already being humiliated..."

"Don't worry, it's all fun, isn't it?" Louis grins, and he grabs my hand to put the damn handcuffs on nearly causing me to fall flat on my face.

"Oh- guess I'll have to be handcuffed to the handle of one of these crutches then. Oh well, you never know, these may just come in handy later..."

"But before you put those on, Louis-" Simon calls. "Cerise must do her punishment alone."

I stare at the glass in front of me. It's a really bizarre coppery colour and it's making me want to hurl. I've got to refuse.

"OHHHHH, WEEEEEE, LOVE TO DRINK WITH CERISE, CAUSE CE-RISE IS OUR MATE..." They've started chanting, it's too late now. "SHE'S INTO FORNICATION, AND LIKES TO MASTURBATE- GET IT DOWN, GET IT DOWN, GET IT DOWN..."

Peer pressure is never good guys, but in this case, it's like its own bloody method of survival.

My cousin Simon is an absolute arse for making me and Louis wear these damn handcuffs. I have almost fallen over around thirteen times now- granted, Louis caught me all those times but the idea of him being attached to my right crutch is simply unintelligent and I don't know how the hell we're going to make it through the rest of the night.

Ok, so after the brutal torment that I suffered through at the beginning Simon did go a little easier on me, and picked on everyone else more. Cousin Debra's thrown up at least twice from what I remember and Jason's friend Navi had to be carried back to bed by two people cause he's pretty massive and couldn't move. So maybe I got off pretty lightly, even though I am almost hurling at the smell of any more alcohol.

No worries though, 'cause Uncle Randy came to save the day and ended circle for the night. It wasn't a moment too soon. The only difficulty now is walking back to our apartment building. Without crutches I'm pretty positive I would be swinging around like a tramp, let alone struggling with these stupid things. Oh, and Louis attached to me. And these two stupid girls who are gaggling along with us just so they can flirt with him. One of them is called Jadene, and she's another one of those cousins twice-removed or whatever, and the other one's a new friend she's brought who has a really annoying laugh. I kind of want to punch her.

"Hey, Cerise?" Sage suddenly asks from beside me.

For the record, Sage is really drunk. If it wasn't for the fact that he saw me and Louis he would have probably gotten lost and ended up passing out and drowning in the swimming pool.

"What?"

"I have a question for you. A really serious question..."

"Ok. What is it?"

"You and Louis, haven't, you know..."

Oh what?

"What? Haven't what, Sage?" I snap quietly as I hobble along. I look to my side to see if Louis' listening. He's not, the girl with the dreadful laugh is distracting him.

"Because if you're going to say what I think you're going to say I'm going to take this crutch and whack you round the-"

"Hey... I was just asking- he may be my best friend but you're still my sister and when I saw you earlier..."

"Shut the hell up!" I hiss. This is wrong on so many levels. Even if I'm drunk I have no intention of ever answering that question to my brother. Ever. Besides, it's pretty obvious that we can't anyway because my bloody family are always everywhere being interfering busy-bodies like Sage has just in fact proved.

"Alright," Sage snaps back at me, almost walking into a tree in the process.

"And if you dare ask Louis..."

"Ask me what?"

Oh. His attention's back on me.

"Nothing," I mumble as the two stupid girls go back to walking at a normal pace rather than the extra slow pace that I annoyingly find myself hopping in. This is so bloody difficult when I'm drunk!

"Ok," Louis accepts happily. He is not taking care of his pace enough, I'll tell you that. With every yank of the handcuffs I get closer to taking an extra long slide so he falls flat on his face... except that would bring me down with him.

"Did you get the key off Simon?" He suddenly asks.

"What?"

"The key."

"The key for what?"

"The handcuffs."

Oh.

"When was it my job to get the key?"

"Well I dunno, I'm just asking. Did you?"

"No."

"Oh. Me neither."

We both stop walking.

"Wait, so what are we going to do?" he asks.

"I dunno."

"Should we go find Simon?"

"He went with Uncle Randy- plus he's on the other side of the bloody village."

"Oh. What about your mum?"

"What the hell is my mum gonna be able to do? It's not like she can magically pull a key from a hat!"

"She could use a watchamacallit- the thing that's like tweezers, or a toenail clipper..." Sage says from somewhere around me.

"You should've saved it from the last toilet break!" Louis exclaims.

"Me? Why me?"

"I dunno- cause you're the one smart enough to think of these things!"

"Obviously not," Sage mumbles.

"Well what are we supposed to do now?" I ask in despair. This could only happen to me. Really.

"Well we're just going to have to sleep together."

"Say what?"

"Are you kidding?" I ask, ignoring Sage. " You're attached to my crutch."

"Wait- did you just say attached to your crotch?" Sage asks in horror.

"Yeah I figured it's not going to be comfortable but what else can we do?" Louis replies, shrugging. "I guess it'll have to be your bed. Mine's a top bunk."

I groan loudly to unleash a fraction of my frustration.

"Fine. Fine. Guess we're stuck like this then," I eventually admit.

"Ok ok... if it's the best option," Sage adds like he's part of the conversation. "But no sexy time."

Louis gives him a funny look ad then turns to me.

"Did he just say 'no sexy time'?"

"Unfortunately. "

Louis looks at him again and bursts out laughing. Typical of him to find humour in something that's plain annoying. I smile though, just because I'm starting to find his laughter quite cute rather than insufferable now.

"Mate, I promise, my intentions are strictly honourable... if only for tonight anyway," he laughs, and then he turns back to me and grins slyly. "Alors, Cerise, my dear, our bedchamber awaits."

"Cerise Waverly. Get up now."

Today the beautiful sight that awakens me is that of my mother looking down at me with her arms folded and a slightly angry- yet more so bemused- look on her face. Beside her stands my darling little sister, who has her mouth wide open in confusion.

"H-hi, Mum..."

"Would you like to explain to me what Louis is doing in your bed and why you are so strangely handcuffed together?"

Beside me Louis is still sleeping away, unaware of this new wave of humiliation. I can just see Myra awakening on the top bunk above Daisy- who may be snoring...

"Well?"

"S-Simon made us wear them at circle last night... I'm not sure why we're still wearing them..." Come on memory!

"Oh yeah. We forgot to ask for the key," I mutter dimly, looking away from Mum's glare.

She glares on at me for at least half a minute, and then guess what? She laughs, so loudly that she ends up waking everyone else in the room up, including Louis who almost whacked me round the face from the shock. I'd rather she just yelled at me.

"Well that's a story for the books!" she giggles like a child. "Good morning Louis? Sleep well?"

"Huh?"

"Good, good." Mum looks back at me. "Well you two can't go to breakfast looking the way you do. I'll go and find Simon. Come on Alana, let's go."

"Were you two naughty at circle?" She asks me.

"I'm sorry?"

"Bad people get handcuffs for being naughty."

"Yes, Alana, we were very naughty," Louis answers, not looking at anyone in particular but making his presence felt in the usual way. Mum gives him a look but says nothing.

"What did you do? Did you snog?"

"Something like that-"

"Alright, alright, come on Alana," Mum interrupts, giving Louis another look but chuckling as she ushers Alana out of the room.

"Louis around my mother- and my little sister for that matter- sometimes you need to keep your mouth shut."

"Whatever you say," he grins before kissing me on the forehead. "These bloody crutches. Are they normally so uncomfortable to sleep with?"

"Well I don't normally sleep with them , you id-"

A flash disturbs me, turning to my right I see Daisy- looking just as messed up as we probably do- taking a delightful early-morning picture of us.

"Oh I can't wait to put that one up on facebook."