Morgan drags me through the crowd of sweaty bodies, her hand grasping mine tightly so we don't lose each other. I squeeze my tiny and petite body through the cracks in the throng. My chest tightens as I do so and sweat starts to leak out of the glands in my body.

Crowds made me nervous.

The pounding music vibrated the dance floor like an earthquake and I struggled to keep my balance.

Loud noises made me nervous.

The dance floor wasn't particularly packed, I didn't feel like a sardine in a can the way I imagined, but there were still a lot of people. A lot of people jumping and shouting and singing and dancing... if that what dancing was.

People made me nervous.

This right here was my worst nightmare. Metaphorically of course, my actual worst nightmare was a dream I had when I was being chased by a shark on land. I don't understand how it worked but it did. The shark won.

As I'm squeezing myself through a crack in the crowd, the body next to me tumbles and I lose my balance. My sweaty palm loses the stability of Morgan's comfort and security and I fall, the body on top of me.

I feel the air being squeezed out of me and my lungs crushing and thinning to the width of a plastic bag as the heavy weight flops on top of me like a dead fish. After a minute and a lot of fumbling, the body gets up and helps me up, a quick apology and a remorseful awkward hug, before leaving me in the crowd, alone. The only good thing about that exchange was that a lollipop fell out of their pocket, right on to me. Finders keepers.

Panic shoots through me and I try to search for Morgan but I can't find her anywhere. My eyes dart through the dark, the flashing lights illuminating faces for the briefest second but they aren't the one I'm looking for. Instead of standing in the sardine packed dance floor, and allowing the panic to spread on my body like a wildfire, I push my way out to a clearing where I can finally breathe air that isn't contaminated with sweat, fog and hormones.

I give myself a small pat on the back for thinking on my feet and not allowing myself to get trapped in a situation that would have caused the biggest panic attack in years.

I follow the hallway that leads off the dance floor, walking further and further away from the panic attack waiting to happen, hoping to find either Morgan or an empty outside area where I can be alone until I gather the courage to find the exit.

The hallway was dimly lit, a small light in the ceiling every few feet, and completely empty. Doors were open on each side of the hallway and when I peeked in, the lit rooms were empty, some holding furniture but void of people. It was extremely eerie and it felt like the perfect place that someone could sneak behind me, pull me in to one of the vacant rooms and do stuff that shouldn't be done in a club- or anywhere for that matter.

Yes. I'm talking about murder.

Voices sound from the other side of the hallway and a group of men in suits stop at the corner, talking and holding beers. Every instinct in my body tells me to turn away, to run because being lost in the crowd with sweaty bodies is better than being alone with a group of drunk men in an empty hallway, but I don't. Maybe it's because I'm stupid or maybe it's because I'm smart. Smart because I'd rather be in an empty space than a place where claustrophobia and panic attacks form. Or stupid because many different things could happen in an empty hallways when a group of drinking men feast their eyes on a petite, forsaken woman that has no weapon to defend herself with.

For some reason, my mind glazes over the last part and my feet continue forward.

My light footsteps catch someone's attention, the man facing me. His dark eyes find mine and a smile lights my face. I recognise him. Zeus' bad parent. The owner of the dog that my dog has only ever wanted to befriend. Surely he wouldn't hurt me after his dog sniffed my dogs butt.

I lift my hand to wave but it's abruptly stopped when his eyes widen, realising who I am, then narrows in to slits. He slips away from the group, handing his beer to one of them, fast walking to me where he grabs my wrist, I flinch from the action, pulling me in to one of the rooms with an open door, slamming it shut behind us.

This is what I was talking about.

"What are you doing here?" He hisses through gritted teeth.

My smile falls when his grip tightens and I try to pull my wrist away but he doesn't let it, increasing his strength by the second.

"You're hurting me." I pull at my wrist again, my anxiety building up.

His eyes drops where he's still holding me, his grip loosens until it lets go fully and I rub my wrist, trying to soothe the red fingerprint marks that have started to appear.

I bruise like a peach. That was another one of my fathers sayings.

"Sorry." He mumbles before his eyes narrow again. "Are you following me? Is that it?"

"Why would I follow you?" I ask him, tilting my head and scrunching my face up in confusion.

He's really tall. My neck hurts.

He glances around the room, his jaw clenched. "I don't know. Why are you here then?"

"My friend Morgan dragged me along. I didn't want to come but we kind of have an agreement that says if I go out with her once a month then she has to leave me alone for the remaining twenty-nine or thirty days. Or twenty-seven or twenty-eight days in February, depending on if it's a leap year or not." I smile.

He stares at me weirdly. "Okay... what were you doing in that hallway?"

"I lost her on the dance floor. Someone fell on me. I'm not sure who but they gave me a hug and I found a lollipop after they fell on me. I'm saving it for later." I grin, taking the red lollipop from my back pocket to show him before securely pushing it back in. "I lost her and I don't do well in crowds and I found the hallway so I was following it. Until I found you. Hi."

Part of me couldn't believe I was talking so much but I could feet the adrenaline and the panic running and coursing through my veins, propelling me to release it in this conversation.

I was calm with him. My dog was friends with his dog.

I was okay.

He was still staring at me weirdly. "Yea. Hi." He rolled his eyes. "Just stay away from me, okay?"

I nod surely. "You stay on one side of the dance floor and I'll stay on the other."

I didn't see the need to mention how I would be staying as far away from that place as possible.

"Great." He snaps. He spins on his heel, heading towards the door and grabbing at the handle. Only, the door doesn't budge. He tugs and tugs, yanking the handle and shaking it murderously but the door resists, refusing to unlock. After a few minutes, he lets out a loud shout, kicking and punching the door and then steps away.

"I think it's locked."

Slowly, his head turns, glaring at me. "I can see that."

With my light footsteps, I try the door handle, wiggling it a little before giving up. Yep, locked like a jar of sauce, forever shut.

"I just...." He groans loudly. "You saw me try that!"

I nod. "I know. I was just checking myself."

"You're insufferable." He grumbles.

Again, I nod. "I know."

He pulls out his phone, fumbles with it before punching the door again and yelling. "It's dead! How is it dead?"

"The battery life has expire-"

"I know how it's dead!" He roars, glaring furiously at me.

I shrug, pulling out my lollipop, unwrapping it and sticking the wrapping back in my pocket and the lolly in my mouth.

"Your phon-" He glances at me, staring while I hold the lolly in my mouth. "Never mind."

Shrugging, I turn, walking around the room curiously. It looks like an office. A desk on one side of the room with two chairs either side of it but the dark desk is empty, nothing on it, not even a scratch. Completely vacant of any previous owners. On the other side of the room is a black leather sofa which I go to sit down on, enjoying how I shrink in to it and become cradled by the leather, like a caterpillar in a cocoon. All I need now is Loki.

Speaking of Loki...

"How's Zeus?" I ask, taking the lolly out my mouth.

"Fine." He grumbles, stalking over to the desk and siting on the spinning office chair.

"Have you become a better parent yet?" I smile at him from across the room but he ignores me, glowering and shifting his attention to the floor.

His long, spider legs stretch out underneath the desk, his feet coming out the other end and touching the other chair.

He had unusually large feet. Like a yeti's. I stared down at my own feet, they were so small compared to his, like a clown fish next to a Great White.

Nemo. Marlin. Bruce.

"What are you doing?"

I answer without taking my eyes off my sandle clad feet. "Thinking."

"About what?"

"About feet and fish." I glance up at him, not at all surprised by the dirty look on his face.

"You're so fucking strange." He rolls his eyes.

I nod, smiling lightly. "My mum always said it was better to be strange than ordinary."

He rolls his eyes again. "Your mum sounds great."

I could hear the sarcastic tone in his voice but I ignored it, and the slight clench it sent to my heart. "She was."

He froze. "...was?"

I nod slightly, smiling as I pictured her face in my mind. "Yea. She died when I was seven."

Guilt pools on his face, his eyes not as horrible and judgement filled. "I'm sorry."

I shrug. "It's okay."

His face contorts, like he was having a civil war with himself. He stayed like that for quite a while, looking pained until his features smoothed out. "My mum died when I was fourteen."

"That must have been hard, especially as a teenager when you're already going through so many changes." My voice is small, knowing how heart-breaking and misery inducing it is to lose a mother.

"It was." He stares down at the ground.

We sit in silence for a while, the silence not uncomfortable. We're in our own minds, not concerned with one another.

"What's your name?" I suddenly ask, breaking the silence once I realise I have no idea what his name is.

He exhales, meeting my eyes and this time I am shocked by whats in his eyes. It isn't malicious or dirty or mean, it's understanding and calmess, something I haven't seen in his eyes before in the two times I've met him. "Alex."

"I'm Oaklee." I smile and I'm even more stunned when one side of his lips turn up the slightest bit. It's kind of a smile. I go to say something else but I'm interrupted by a ring tone. My ring tone.

His calm eyes change, a storm of rage and annoyance swirling inside them, darkening his already dark eyes. "You had your phone with you all along?" He grits out, clenching his fists underneath the table but I can still see them.

I pull my phone from my back pocket, seeing Morgan's name flashing on the screen. "Yea. You never asked if I had it."

He leans forward, banging his head against the desk repeatedly, the loud thud echoing through the empty and cold room. I watch him wordlessly. "Answer the fucking phone!"

Right. Phone is ringing.

"Hey Morgan!" I yell excitedly, stuffing my lolly back in to my mouth.

"Where are you?" I hear her shout over the deafening and glass shattering music.

I look around the room. "I'm in a room."

"Oh for fucks sake!" Alex yells, throwing the office chair back and standing up. It slams against the dark carpet, a thud and rattling echoing through the room. He strides over to me angrily, rage clouding his features and he looks like a lion going in for the prey.

I wonder who the gazelle is.

He snatches the phone from my hands, glaring at when I open my mouth to object. "Hello.... I don't give a fuck who you are. Look I'm stuck with your idiot of a friend.... shut the fuck up and walk down the hallway just off the dance floor and let us out of the room... it's the only one with the closed door!"

He hangs up, throwing my phone on the sofa and I pick it up gingerly. "It's not nice to yell at people."

No Oaklee. You shouldn't have said that.

"I didn't yell."

"That's your normal voice?" I stare at him weirdly, my voice slightly incredulous but mostly curious.

He shakes his head, a look of frustration on his face. "When I yell, it is louder than that and people usually cry. I didn't yell."

"Well you weren't very nice. We're people. You shouldn't talk to us like that. You shouldn't talk to Morgan like that." I chatiste lightly, a stir in my stomach settling when I remembered him telling her to shut up.

Why was I still talking?

Oh yea... because he was mean to Morgan.

I may not spend much time with Morgan and I may spend most of my life locked up in my apartment but that didn't mean I didn't care for Morgan. She was my oldest friend, my only friend and he couldn't speak to her like that.

"Whatever." He rolls his eyes.

I keep quiet until Morgan opens the locked door. Alex walks out without a second glance or even a thank you and I follow Morgan.

"We should go dance." She grins. Her smile falls when she sees the look on my face. "You want to go home?" I nod silently, an apologetic expression on my face but she waves me off before I can even speak.

"Let's get you home."