16

We left his house together and stopped briefly as he pulled out his cell phone and typed something with a grin.

"So, let's go," he then said and without knowing where to go, I nervously walked beside him and concentrated on the surroundings instead of worrying further.

Only when we arrived at a prefabricated building after what felt like an eternity did nervousness and ignorance spread through me again and when I also felt Micah's hand briefly on mine, my coolness was completely over.

"What are we doing here? Do you want to buy drugs?" I asked him in a whisper while carefully looking around.

"Nonsense! I would never do that, you know me," he said and I heard a small reproach in his voice. "I'm getting a piercing, I've wanted to do that for a long time."

I widened my eyes and carefully took his arm. "You can't be serious? I'm getting all sorts of diseases just looking at this area! Besides, you're not of legal age yet," I warned him, but he just grinned stupidly, putting his arm around my shoulders and leaving him unresisting I lead myself from him to the glass house door. I felt the adrenaline rushing through my whole body and was amazed that I even liked being there for something forbidden in a way.

When he then took his arm from my shoulder and pressed one of the countless doorbells, he suddenly looked at me even more beaming. "I'm not doing it alone, you'll get one too, so we'll always be reminded of our friendship."

I laughed overwhelmed and then saw the seriousness in his eyes. My eyes immediately fell excitedly to the door, which hummed at the moment and was pushed open by Micah. Had he lost his mind?

With weak knees and shaking hands, I followed him into a cramped elevator that looked so old it might take us straight to hell.

As the yellow doors closed and the bright light flickered overhead, I looked at him gravely and took a deep breath.

"You really want to do that? Here? Things like that can catch fire and worse," I explained, but he just grinned at me and wrapped his hands around my waist. His touch made my heart stop and I nervously held my breath as he came closer and closer and I didn't have a chance to dodge backwards.

"Don't be such a coward," he winked, then pinched my cheek, laughing. Was he playing with me? Like Kiyan, did he know how to upset me? Looking into his warm green eyes, I realized that he too had changed since the kiss, but I still trusted him blindly and somehow he was right. I was really a coward and should do something that would upset my mother at least once. She deserved it.

"All right," I smiled at him and when he grinned playfully, the elevator opened.

I followed Micah down the narrow, dark hallway and together we entered an apartment that really didn't look good. At least she fit in with the rest of this run-down house.

"Hey Micah," I heard a man's voice as we entered the dark living room and when I saw the guy, I couldn't believe my eyes at first.

It was this brown-haired jerk who kept pushing Cody around, and looking around the cramped space, I also noticed the blond surfer guy sitting on a beanbag chair at a small wooden table, busy on his cell phone.

"This is Zayn and Adam," Micah introduced the two of them to me and then I turned my gaze back to Zayn, who eyed me with amusement.

"You got lost, babysitter," he grinned and I didn't understand why we were even here. After all, Micah said at his party that he hardly knew these guys and even protected me from them. But he probably just wanted his piercing.

"So, do you have the money?" he turned back to Micah, who put some bills in his hand and then this Zayn disappeared through a shabby door at the end of the room.

Micah sat down on the yellow couch next to Adam and I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at the floor nervously. A stained brown carpet that suited this mean guy.

"Come here," Micah said, pointing to the seat next to him, but I was pretty sure I wasn't going to sit on that filthy piece of dirt.

I walked over to him and leaned down slightly to whisper something in his ear. "The couch looks like alcohol, blood and vomit aren't even the worst things that landed on it."

He looked at me thoughtfully and before I knew it, he had grabbed my waist and carried me onto his lap. I was glad I didn't have to look him in the face, otherwise he would have seen the blush in my cheeks and, frozen, I looked more closely at the wooden table in front of us.

Among other things, there were cigarettes, papers and the green one in a transparent bag, which I simply identified as marijuana and took a deep, startled breath.

"Are you okay?" I heard Micah behind me and turned a bit towards him on his lap. His hands rested very calmly on my thighs and when I looked at him from the side, stunned by everything, he pushed a strand of my loose, brown hair behind my ear and gave me a warm look, as if we weren't going to hell condition.

"We should go," I whispered, almost pleadingly, but then I heard a door open and a woman who just looked like a prostitute entered the room with Zayn.

Her neon green hair was tied back in a loose bun, while she wore only a mesh top, revealing her black bra underneath. That had to be a dream, I thought, and when I heard someone come into the apartment with a key and suddenly their cold, brown eyes looked at me in shock, my nightmare was complete.