The Innocence is Gone

mysterious

April's POV

"I'm back."Marcus announced once we reached his apartment. Everyone turned their head excitedly to look at him until they spotted me next to him and their faces dropped and were suddenly filled with confusion. Everyone except Alex. He did not even look at Marcus when he told everyone he was back. His attention was deeply buried in his phone.

Marcus noticed everyone's silence and smiled. He dropped the bags of snacks in his hands on the floor. Later, he grabbed the bag of snacks in my hand and dropped it to where he dropped the rest. Then he placed his hand on my shoulders and he pushed me forward gently. "Everyone, this is April. She's in my class."he told everyone who was just staring at me. I just smiled like a fool while they stared at me. I hated every single second they did. It was very embarrassing.

"So, April this is everyone." Marcus said then he pointed at a guy who was at the far end of the couch. He had a girl on his lap. The guy had a few strands of his hair dyed purple matching with the girl that was in his lap who had whole of her hair dyed purple. From a far I could spot a few facial piercings from both of them. They had a certain unique sense of fashion and they eluded a certain type energy. "That is Felix and his girlfriend Skyla. They have emo kind of vibe."Marcus whispered the last statement and I thought it made more sense now.

"You can say it loud Marcus. It's not like it is a secret we are emos."the girl Marcus said her name was Skyla told Marcus with a cold tone voice. Her and Felix, her boyfriend, were the only ones, apart from Alex, who had no emotions on their faces. They were staring at me but they seemed so uninterested.

Marcus went ahead to introduce me to his other friends. " That's Leo."he said. The guy named Leo had blonde hair and his facial features were handsome. He seemed like he had a cheerful personality.

"Nice to meet you April."Leo told me with a smile on his lips. I was not wrong about his personality. I smiled back at him.

"Nice to meet you too."I told him.

" Okay enough with this introduction nonsense. I am Olivia but my friends call me Liv." a girl with a short natural blonde hair and ocean blue eyes said with a smile. "He is Maverick." he pointed to the guy next to her. " She is Maddy and the guy next to her is her boyfriend Parker."Olivia introduced the rest of the guys.

"Hi."Maddy waved and I waved back. I was still smiling and it was getting tiresome at the point.

" Okay April, that's everyone."Marcus said walking past me and he jumped on the couch Olivia sat on.

"You forgot Alex." Maverick said.

"They already know each other." Marcus pointed out and everyone looked at Alex who had not once looked up from his phone. "April, come join us." Marcus gestured for me to join them but I got hesitant. "Don't worry everyone here is nice." Marcus told me but I doubted that. If Alex was their friend, I doubted they were nice.

I nodded walking further into the room and I sat next to Marcus. I thought it would be awkward if I just sat down next to any other person who was not Marcus because I knew nothing about them.

"What did you bring?"Felix asked Marcus.

"What everyone asked."Marcus replied pointing at the hip of bags of snacks laying on the floor. Leo jumped off the couch and went to take all the bags in his hands. His biceps were visible due to the lifting of the bags and to say he was muscular was an understatement. The guy was super huge. He had to be hitting the gym quite often to be jacked up like that. If I was comparing sizes of every guy in the friend group, he was the most muscular. Alex was muscular but not as muscular as Leo for sure.

He dropped the bags on the floor close to everyone and they all dug in except for Alex. Okay,why did he like isolating himself so bad? He was the different one even amongst his friends. "Aren't you picking your snacks?"Marcus asked me and that's when I realized I had been staring at Alex. He was just so mysterious it annoyed me.

I looked for my bag of fritos chips in the bags but I frowned when I did not find it. I looked around only to see who had picked it and I saw maddy in possession of them eating them.

Oh, wow. I just pursed my lips not able to say anything and then I took the only snacks left which was a bag of mixed dried fruits. I loved fruits just not the dried ones but I had no choice. I let Maddy eat my favourite snack without me saying anything to her. Now I was getting bored being around everyone already.

" What were you guys doing after we left?" Marcus asked looking at everyone.

"Just playing games. Truth or dare." Olivia said excitedly. "We need more alcohol for this game guys. Leo, go get the drinks. I know Marcus has tones of different drinks in his kitchen cabinets." Olivia told Leo and Leo cheered happily getting up and soon he came carrying plastic cups and drinks in his hand.

"Yes, where were we?"Maddy asked looking around at everyone.

Marcus looked at me with a goofy smile. "You know how to play Truth or dare, right?"

"Of course I do. What do you take me for?"I asked him annoyed. He had an understanding of a certain version of who I was and I did not like it.

He then suddenly took the snack I had and frowned looking at it. "You chose dried fruits? I swear I saw you choose something else other than a bag of mixed dried fruits."

"I am fine with fruits."I said taking the bag back. Then I saw Marcus look around and I sighed. Couldn't he just let it go already?

" Maddy, that snack is not yours. Give it back to April."he said and I felt like beating him. Why did he say that? I was angry my favourite snack was taken but I was also a people pleaser sometimes and that was why I did not say anything to Maddy.

Maddy looked at me but she made no effort to be remorseful. "Really? It's not that deep April. It's just a snack." She told me and everyone looked at her. Alex who had no interest in what was going on looked up and looked at Maddy too.