Dying to Breathe

9.5: To be Different

A/N: Welcome to a spiraaaaal of a chapter.  There's about two more parts I think. WE JUST GETTING STARTED KIDS. Please listen to this song, the vibe is literally Penelope beginning to lose it while in denial lmao

Chapter 9, Part 5: To be Different

"New girl and Wyatt, get under here!" Wren called, "I dare you!"

"I'll pass on that one," Penelope laughed as Nina grabbed her hand and started to pull her towards the doorway.

"Sorry, Wren, we're dancing!" Nina took as many bottles of booze as she could carry off the counter as they giggled, running away with Coraline, Wyatt, Juliet, and Poppy following closely behind.

The girls and Wyatt all ran between the sweating bodies—their hands eventually all attached (Penelope holding Nina's and Coraline's hands with Nina in the lead). The lights swirled around them, and the atmospheres changed drastically with every room they crossed. The house was impossibly huge, always another section to go through as they ran through the halls and up the stairs and down more halls and down more stairs. Finally happy with the destination at the back of the house, next to large windows that overlooked the view of Elliot's glowing backyard pool, Nina stopped—everyone out of breath and laughing. They were in a lounging room with a platform; instruments waiting to be played all set up nicely.

Penelope looked around at the dark room. It was cast in fading blue and purple hues with white balloons scattered along the floor and dark streamers hanging down the empty spaces, creating shadows in the lights and giving the aesthetic a rich texture. Blue, pink, and yellow neon signs with all sorts of words and animated pictures lit up in the background, the light illuminating on the white backdrop of the streamers. The music was almost faded completely, the party environment calm rather than overwhelmingly loud and demanding. Smoke illuminated in the blue and purple lighting swirled in the air as people sat in groups on the couches, smoking weed and who knows what else while laughing and talking. The smell was strong and tempting, even to Penelope who never smoked.

"Wyatt, come on!" Poppy dragged the reluctant boy up to the empty platform, his eyes flickering over to Coraline with a desperate expression on his face. "Oh, come on, don't be a drag—you and I both know you can play those drums." She chastised, pushing him into the drummer's seat. "Nina, you too—you're not bad on the guitar."

"Yeah, acoustic guitar when no one is in the room." Nina scoffed, opening a bottle, and taking a quick swig that screwed up her face in disgust, "You're crazy—call the boys if you need to be the center of attention."

Rolling her eyes, Poppy set her sights on Penelope, "How's your voice? Juliet's is atrocious and I need a background girl."

"It isn't that bad!" Juliet pouted, skipping unevenly up to Wyatt and hitting a symbol. Her strawberry pink dress and brown wavy hair swished around her as she giggled and tapped another drum, making Wyatt actually genuinely smile for the first time in front of Penelope while showing her the proper way.

"It is. And you're also a terrible light weight, you'll be asleep in twenty minutes tops." Poppy smiled amusedly, turning back to Penelope, "Come on, Penny. You can't possibly be worse than her."

"I don't know..." Penelope glanced around at the people starting to notice Poppy, hitting their friends to get their attention. "Why don't we just go dance instead like Nina said?"

Nina nodded, preoccupied by the drink she lightly swayed with.

"Boo. Boring." The blonde scoffed, "Why don't you live a little? You're not dead yet, right?" Poppy hummed, making Penelope inhale sharply as she heard her sister's voice without warning. "And what in the hell is up with that outfit, Penny? If you didn't have the means to buy something suitable, I would have happily given you something for the night." She shook her head, "You look just awful next to us."