Meeting Charley's friends

And so, five hours later I was standing in front of a pretty sizeable house in North London holding a six pack of Asahi, already pretty drunk.

A girl I didn’t know opened the door and immediately gasped. “Oh my god, Charley. Your stepbrother’s kind of cute.”

Charley came up behind her and rolled her eyes. “Please don’t be weird.”

“I’m just saying, I never thought I was into younger guys, but …” The girl raised her eyebrow as she looked me up and down.

“Awful,” Charley sighed. She shot me an apologetic look, but we ended up eyeing each other for a moment too long and both had to avert our gaze awkwardly. Clearly, I didn’t drink enough.

“Sorry Luke, just messing with Charley.” the girl laughed. “I’m Abigail. You remember me from school, right?”

Obviously I didn’t, but I smiled and nodded anyway. “Yeah. Nice to see you again.”

“Well, come on in.” I followed them both inside, while Abigail gave me a quick tour. “Kitchen – you can get a drink in there. Everyone’s in the living room, There’s one toilet down here, and the stairs here lead to the bedrooms and another toilet.” She pointed at each of them in turn. “I’m hoping at your age, you won’t find anyone to use any of the bedrooms with tonight.”

“I’m twenty,” I laughed.

“Aww. Just a baby,” she giggled. Charley didn’t care to comment on that apparently and was checking something on her phone.

Abigail quickly glanced at her to confirm she wasn’t paying attention and leaned in close. “I wasn’t joking about the cute part though,” she whispered.

Apparently, she hadn’t been as sneaky as she’d thought, because now Charley turned around and stepped between us. “Right – that’s enough. Abigail, go call your parents or something and reevaluate your life.”

Abigail laughed and held her hands up, winking at me as she walked off. “He’s all yours.”

Charley turned away, but not before I saw her blushing slightly at Abigail’s last comment. I couldn’t blame her, given recent events. “Luke, come grab a drink and I’ll introduce you to some of my more … respectable friends.”

Once we made it to the kitchen, she sighed as she poured me a vodka lemonade and topped off her own drink. “Thanks for coming. I think it’ll be good for us.”

I smiled at her, doing my best to hide my doubt. “Yeah. I think so too.”

She looked up and smiled back at me, and in that moment, I appreciated the two hours she and her friends had spent getting ready.

She looked incredible. She’d curled her shoulder length blonde hair, and it framed her face perfectly. Her cheeks were tinted red, though from **** or makeup I couldn’t tell, and her lips were a deep shade of scarlet. Her black eyeshadow framed her almond shaped, light brown eyes. Smoky hot yet somehow still classy – just like her to pull some shit like that off.

Luckily, I didn’t have time to form any inappropriate thoughts about my stepsister. Drinks now made, Charley took me by the arm and led me into the living room, where a crowd of people had already amassed. We walked up to a group of five or six people standing near the fireplace.

“Hey everyone,” Charley announced as we joined them. “This is my little brother, Luke.”

One of the guys, good-looking with frizzy brown hair, smiled at me. “Oh shit, the stepbrother, right? I’m James. I was on the football team in school, Charley said you were too. Yeah, we heard about you guys three years below, you were pretty good.”

I nodded. “Nice to meet you. Yeah, we weren’t so bad. But you guys went undefeated in your last season, no?

He shrugged, feigning modesty. “Eh, what can I say? We did alright for ourselves.”

“If only you could have replicated that in your A-levels,” Charley commented.

James laughed. “Uncalled for, man.”

The other people around the circle introduced themselves. All nice enough, but very much people I would never have met or talked to in my time at school because of the age difference.

Just then, the doorbell rang. “Oh. that’s probably Eloise, I should go say hi,” Charley said. She shot me an apologetic glance and rushed off to greet another member of her legion of friends.

James draped an arm around my shoulder. “Guessing you don’t really know anyone here?”

I laughed nervously. “Yeah, not so much.”

“No worries man, we’ll look after you. Can’t imagine it’s easy being Charley’s younger brother.”

I shook my head. “Oh, you don’t know the half of it.”