Dan's alarm woke up him with a start. He sat up quickly in bed, the harsh beeping noise attacking his ears at this early hour. He picked it up and the digital face blinked 7:47 AM at him. Cursing silently to himself, he jumped out of bed and threw some clothes on. Running a hand through his ruffled hair, he tried to remember the events of the night before.
It had been his 18th birthday, for all that meant. He'd spent the night walking through the town alone, trying to bluff his way into a couple of bars, unsuccessfully of course. Dan still couldn't grow a beard, and his fresh, young face didn't make him look any older than he was. He and his family had moved here a year ago, and he still had precisely zero people he could call friends.
He'd eventually found a liquor store run by an old Middle-Eastern man who had sold him a fifth of vodka, which he had mixed with some Coke and drank alone on a park bench. Dan didn't even think that was his worst ever birthday, at least he hadn't stayed at home for the birthday party his twin sister Anna had thrown.
Anna had never had any trouble finding friends, she was young, preppy and sweet, and had quickly been accepted at their new school by even the most popular there. His sister had of course wanted him to be at the party also, but Dan couldn't think of anything worse than being ignored by a bunch of idiots in his own home.
Once he was dressed he left his room and knocked on Anna's door.
"You still in there? We're gonna be late for school." he called.
A muffled sleepy noise responded.
"Anna?" He asked, opening the door.
His found his sister sleeping the wrong way around in her bed, her feet up on the pillows while her head and arms draped over the foot of it. Her hair and makeup were a mess, he could see, and clearly the effects of last night's party were still taking their toll. She strained her eyes blearily at the light coming in from the open door.
"I'll follow you in later," she slurred, before pulling the cover over her head to hide. "By the way you look quite hot this morning," she added almost absent-mindedly.
Dan snorted, and shut the door. She must really be drunk still, he thought to himself, she'd never called him "hot" before. She'd told him he could be handsome if he put more effort into this hair and clothes, but that was about it.
He skipped down the staircase and grabbed an apple quickly from the kitchen before going out the door and jumping onto his bike.
As he cycled into school, he started to remember what he had done after he'd finished his bottle of vodka the night before. He wandered around the town feeling buzzed, until he'd come to one of those gypsy, fortune-teller type places. He'd gone in expecting some crazy old foreign lady lying through her teeth, but instead it had been a gorgeous, young woman, only a few years older than him. She'd had dark skin and darker eyes, but she spoke in unaccented English. The shop had been her mother's, she'd explained when he pressed her about it, being more interested in her than he was in any silly fortune. They had chatted for a while, and he had told her all about his move, and the problems he was having, and it being his birthday.
Eventually she had asked whether he wanted a reading, or if he'd prefer the extra service since it was his birthday. Dan had laughed then, it had sounded almost like the 'extras' they did in massage places. She'd laughed too, showing her pearly white teeth and sweet pink tongue. He'd wanted to kiss her then... kiss her...
He stopped his bike then. He *had* kissed her, or rather she had kissed him. How had he forgotten that? He'd asked for the extra service, even though it had cost him $50 dollars, and she'd said she would pull cards from her deck, and that whatever came up would be his reward for having had such a terrible year.
She'd pulled the card out, and in her sultry voice had named it "The Fool".
"It's not a bad card," he remembered her saying, smiling when she saw his reaction. "On their own there are no bad cards."
"What does it mean then?" he'd asked.
