Partners In Crime

9• Illicit affairs

=2 Days Left=

It had just turned midnight and the bachelorette party was only two incidents away from homicide.

At least their plan was working. At least something successfully went wrong. It was almost a win, excepting the fact that while all of Solana's cousins were brawling with the two Kane cousins, and all the extra random women from the hotel that were invited were almost comatose from alcohol intake, Marina found herself in a three way borderline physical argument with both Solana and Erin.

She struggled to recall how this happened. It was almost certainly a slip of the tongue of her innermost thoughts, but the string of events leading to the loosening of the cannonball were special because she'd rather die than admit anything about Alex to anyone.

How did it start? Ah, she thought of Alex. Just a single thought.

She thought of Alex yesterday, saying what he did, making her whole world melt. Sometimes, he just didn't make any bloody sense. And it ticked her off, putting her in a rubbish mood for the next few hours.

He was right about one thing though, and he said it quite bluntly.

The thoughts stayed and set up shop long into the night, after many glass flutes of champagne, and the gradual inviting of whichever girl walked by the suite who felt like partying, because the party with just the cousins was an absolute hellscape.

She noticed that every time Clara Kane threw a dirty look towards Sydney Madaki, a rush of bitter champagne flew down her throat. And it happened when the music kept switching between two different genres, so repetitively that she felt the same way one does on a train ride that took an uncomfortable amount of time. Which led her to wander around the corridors picking up any girl she could find, just to put collateral between them.

Erin checked up on her every now and then, checking to see if she was okay from earlier, offering her glasses of water. Marina shrugged it all off, as per usual, still annoyed with her from the night before. Meanwhile Solana was slouched in a corner, a bottle of champagne in her lap and a tired look on her face.

One of the random women who had been invited offered a drinking game, guaranteed to leave a black hole in your memory, according to her. It came as a relief, wanting to forget everything for another moment.

She couldn't remember when, or how, but at some point Solana emerged from the corner, joining the game. Marina could see she was blinking quickly, trying her hardest to not let a tear fall, but her mind was so foggy she couldn't think of anything to do to make her feel better. She was overwhelmingly powerless as she sat cross legged on the floor.

But Erin wasn't. No, Erin was just overwhelmingly there.

Erin was there to sit beside her, Erin was there to put a small white veil in her hair, Erin was there to make her laugh even when she insisted she was fine, Erin was there to tell her how beautiful she was. Marina felt something ugly cross her mind. A smoggy, polluting train that reached destinations into overcrowded, grey, dangerous areas. She noticed Erin could also keep everyone cool and could make everyone, and she meant everyone, like her and get on with each other for her sake. She was doing Marina's job ten times better.

It then reached the point where Marina found herself nearer to the corner, on her own, while everyone was buzzed and dancing, slouching and knocking back a bottle she'd picked up. Her mind got static while her body struggled to want to be involved. Well, she couldn't. She had to ruin it. She watched Solana and Erin dancing together, feeling the need to punch them both, figuring out how to ruin the party in her own way and ignoring whatever Alex might have suggested. But she didn't enjoy physical violence.