KAES POV

        “Yea nice to meet you Caspian” I reluctantly shook his hand and my hands were introduced with his meeting a stark contrast with mine. While mine were slightly rough just due to hand maintenance not being exactly my top priority, I was surprised to feel such well-kept man’s hand feel notably… well, the same. “Huh,” I said while maintaining my hold on his hand having my eyes observe the top surface which looked soft and neat, fingernails trimmed evenly and buffed slightly. Appearance wise Caspian’s hands looked perfect yet his palms were slightly rough to the touch telling me that this man does indeed have some amount of normalcy.

        “Normal huh, ill have you know I’m anything but that my dear”, the silky voice reverberated back to me with Caspian’s eyes now looking towards our hands still in each other’s grasps. I realized id said the last couple of words out loud and let go of his hand while fixing the jacket he had placed around my shoulders.

        “And I’ll have you know Caspian that I can spot mundane when I see it,” I said coolly not paying attention to his wide-eyed expression, and smelling the slight waft of  rose perfume behind me with Cal placing her chin on my neck sticking her tongue out at her brother while linking our arms together.

        “That’s my wonderful Kaelene always the amazing male repellent!” she giggled as we made our way to the cashier and Cal spun me around every which way getting all the tags taken off and scanned, whipping out her pink wallet and took out her infamous black card and paid for my new set of clothes. I leaned my neck over to view the total price with multiple zeros and caught my friend looking at me with a reassuring smile as she threw over one of her “Classic Cal” winks at me when I then couldn’t do anything more than sigh reluctantly and accept her generosity as it came. We made our way out of the store when I forgot the clothes, I came with were still in the dressing room where I had left them.

        “Oh wait, Cal, I forgot my clothes in the dressing room,” I said pointing back towards the shop.

        “Kae we just got you an adorable outfit no need to revisit old habits now, even though I love that today you tried to put an effort wearing a skirt and all”. My ears got warm and I nudged Cal in her stomach and ruffled up her hair a bit. She immediately inhaled with a gasp and ran to the nearest building with glass to manage her appearance while I cracked up on the side watching her writhe in agony because some of the waves in her hair became limp. Caspian who was seemingly left behind in the boutique came out carrying a shopping bag and stood next to me.

        “You know she’s going to be looking at every piece of glass she sees for the rest of the night now that you’ve made her all self-conscious with her precious hair,” he said eyeing me with his eyebrow arched and a slight smile tugging at his cheek.

        “That’s exactly what I want her to do” I replied wiping the tears from the corners of my eyes meeting his and giving a bright smile “after all that’s what best friends are for hell, she embarrassed me so I got her back! when you're this close to someone it's completely acceptable." He looked slightly surprised and made his way towards his sister reassuring her that her hair was perfectly fine and was met with her pointing at a piece of hair and her scolding of how he of all people should notice the difference of volume in her strands. I then too made my way towards Cal as she gave me the equivalent of a death stare which I then returned with a peck on her cheek.

      With a big sigh and cheeks puffed out, I knew affection from me being my Cals weakness could melt her instantly. “Oh, I could never stay mad at you Kae,” Cal said sweetly whilst taking my hand in hers and pulls me along the sidewalk reminding me of my transportation I had initially arrived with “Cal what about my bike? I completely forgot about it”

        “Ah, no worries I’ve informed your no fun brother he probably picked it up by now but no need to worry about such things we are going to have fun tonight!” Cal replied chipperly. Just then a sleek black Italian car pulled up beside us with Caspian then tucking his phone away in back pockets and opened the door revealing a female chauffeur in the front seat with burgundy enveloped the entire interior.

        “Well there’s no need for transportation ladies I’ve already got you covered after all the night can be a dangerous place to wander off alone” he spoke as he glanced over in my direction, subconsciously reminding me of my encounter with the woman in the alleyway. It sends shivers down my spine just thinking about it.

        “Ah yes what are brothers for” Cal rolled her eyes and shimmied her way into the car helping me get in after her with Caspian closing in uncomfortably close next to me closing the door after him, with the chauffeur then asking her employer where too and Caspian then shot a wicked grin replying “ Where else? The usual spot.” The employee then gave a nod and we were off to a night out with encounters that pretty much changed my life, possibly for the worse.