"I'd rather have a cigarette," I said and Ciara pulled out blunt from her pocket with a exaggerated flourish.
"What else to you have in there?" I asked with a chuckle and she pulled out another for herself.
I leaned over and held the roll over the burning candle and placing it to my mouth as I did the same for Ciaras. Daniel took a swing from the bottle, hissing in disgust when the bitter content hit his tongue.
"Taste like it's turned bad," he gasped and Hades laughed as he took a slip.
"It's meant to," he replied and I took a few more puffs of the cigar before handing the blunt to him, watching as he blew a few smoke clouds into the air with a sigh.
"My mother would kill me if she found out I smoke." I leant against a tree, talking more to myself than my friends.
"That's enough Ciara," Daniel grabbed the bottle that she was chugging down and threw it away from us with a resounding shatter.
"There was still some left Daniel," she whinged.
"You won't be able to get yourself home if you drink anymore." I cautioned her and Daniel nodded in agreement.
Hades suddenly began to pat down his pockets, searching frantically around him for something.
"What's wrong? Did you lose something?" I asked.
He turned to look at us with a sudden sound of victory, holding his stupid flute.
"No," I groaned, "I thought you lost that thing ages ago."
"I learnt a new tune the other day, I have to show you guys." He stated and began to play just as terribly as he always did.
"Stop, you're taking my ears out," I cried, holding the side of my head. "I keep forgetting to burn that thing."
"I don't know Earl, I quite like it," Ciara began to sway to the dreadful sound and clambered to her feet clumsily. She held out a hand for mine with a suggestive waggle of her eyebrows and I slipped my hand into hers.
Ciara began to dance and I joined in with a laugh, waving my arms above my head as she pranced up and down, stepping on my feet numerous times. We pulled Daniel onto his feet as well, ignoring his objections and Hades also jumped into the fry, twirling me around around with one hand as his other held the flute to his lips till I become dizzy and clutched at him for support.
We must of looked like a sight, the four of us dancing around drunkenly like three legged deers to the screeching sound of broken flute that was being played by someone who didn't even know how to play a flute.
Ciara grabbed my hand and we spun around with loud screams, the stars above us morphing into creamy, gleaming swirls as we quickened our pace. The trees faded away and I could only see Ciaras laughing face as she squealed in eagerness, her cheeks flushed prettily with excitement.
We stopped a abruptly when we heard the sound of vomiting, looking to see Daniel bent over behind a bush, heaving with tears streaming down his face. Hades was oblivious and continued to play his flute whilst skipping around the candles, somehow managing to not knock over a single one.
"You had one slip Danny," I told him as we collapsed back on blanket, shuffling over to make space for everyone.
"I don't do well with those drinks," he replied with a groan. I handed him some water and we lay in silence for a minute of so, trying catch our breaths.
"That was fun," Ciara sighed. "It's always fun being with you guys."
"I'm fun in other areas too," Hades joked and Ciara sighed.
"You always have to ruin things don't you?" She muttered.
"Isn't the sky so beautiful," I held up my hands, gazing at the crescent moon through my fingers.
"You find everything beautiful Earl." Daniel stated with a dismissive yawn.
"But the sky looks so pretty tonight, so clear without a hint of clouds." I let my arms flop back to my side and smiled at the inky heavens with its constellations of twinkling stars that stretch above us like a dazzling, intricate painting, alluring and magnificent in every way possible.
"I was wondering," Daniel murmured and we turned our heads to look at him, "what our fatal weaknesses are? I was reading a book the other day and one of the characters died because of it."
"What do you mean?" Hades asked, "I don't have weaknesses."
"Oh yes you do buddy." I sniggered and he propped himself up with his elbow with a frown.
"Oh yeah? What's that?" He asked coldly.
"Well, you're impulsive and reckless and impetuous and unpredictable," I began.
"And cocky, you never really think things through and you can be awfully rash." Ciara added.
"You hardly ever care about consequences and you let you anger blind you in matters that require extreme thinking and planing." Daniel dropped his two coins in thoughtfully. "And you always want to get even with people."
Hades stared at us for a moment and opened his mouth to say something but sighed and flopped back down beside me.
"I feel attacked." He muttered. "I think Ciaras a lot worse than me, at least I actually do things with the right intentions."
"Hey! I wasn't the one who put a hole through the towns water tank and almost flooded the entire city." Ciara snapped.
"That's an exaggeration and it was an accident, I was trying-,"
"To create a tap so you could drink of out of it," we chorused together.
"We know, you've told us a thousand times," I laughed.
"And you could've just climbed up the ladder and filled a bucket." Daniel mused, "that's what everyone else does."
"I had good intentions," Hades snapped. "Who builds a water tank without a tap anyway?"
"Don't forget the time he fed Adrians horses sleeping dusts when he was meant to run in the race the next day because he called Hades a fool." I added.
"And the time he ran after a carriage which he thought was headed to Devora but actually went to the Imperial district, dude stayed on the entire time to see what that place looked like." Ciara shook her head in amusement.
"He carved out shiny stones afterwards from their houses and remember when we tried to sell it in the streets of Aleand, telling people they was jewels?" Daniel chuckled, "nobody brought it."
"Okay, okay, I get it." Hades held up his hands. "No need to recount every time I did something stupid, I know."