All at Sea

10: Strobe Lights

Content Warning ➙ attempted non-con; unsolicited sexual advances;  underage drinking and druge use

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Percy really couldn't tell you how she found herself in these situations. She didn't quite follow the chain of events that led her here, standing on a carpet puddled with ungodly liquids. The air felt sticky and uncomfortable around her. Goosebumps ran up her arms when the party frenzied people would brush up against her.

The afternoon leading up to the party had been a blur. A group of girls had decided to take Percy under their collective wing and dress her for the party, which is why she was tugging at the white crop-top she wore, trying to cover some of the skin that was left exposed when paired with low-rise jeans. Percy didn't wear low-rise jeans, especially tight ones: they were uncomfortable and too tight in all the wrong places and impossible to sit in. Because of this, she found herself pondering why on Gaea's green Earth she was wearing them, and why she kept getting compliments on her ass (was this supposed to be a normal comment to get?).

Not long into her awkward standing in a corner, Kennedy came up to her, previously loose hair was tied up and sweat drenched the hairs at the nape of her neck. "Aren't you like, having a blast? Ugh, I knew you'd love it here! It was like actually super hard to get you in here if it hadn't been for Theo, so you should, like, thank him extra. I told him where you were--no need to thank me--but like have fun, kay?" Her words were laced with drugged buzz, Kennedy was leaning over and yelling into Percy's ear, trying to be heard over the loud music.

Percy nodded in response and Kennedy trotted away, joining the crowd that was bouncing to the rhythm of the music. She moved to have the wall against her back, she would have tried to sit had it not been for the couches being taken up by people on each other's laps. 

"You must be Percy," she strained to hear the voice despite it being at her ear. "Kennedy was telling me about you." Percy looked over to see a guy, probably Theo, with bright green hair pushing a plastic cup into her hands.

"Thanks," she mumbled as she swirled the liquid around, bringing it up to her face to smell what it was. Percy wrinkled her nose as she felt the liquid's pungent smell.

"So," Theo stepped closer, "It's kinda loud down here. This is my buddy Daniel's house, so I know a room or two that should be quiet." In hindsight, it wasn't Percy's brightest idea to let herself be lead by the wrist into a nondescript room, but the pounding of her head was in tune with the thumping of the music and she was desperate for a quieter situation.

"Grace had to practically beg to get you into this party--on her kees and everything, if you know what I mean--you know, 'cause of her crush on that Todd guy," Theo told her once they got into the room. The music was significantly lower with the door closed, though Percy still had to raise her voice slightly to talk with him.

"I talked to him, and he seemed very uninterested. I'm not even sure why I'm here in the first place, I just wanted to tell Grace what Jason told me," her throat was dry, but she wouldn't dare take a drink from the mystery substance, not after she saw the kitchen table being used to crush prescription pills. She settled for looking at her distorted reflection in the liquid as she swirled it in the cup.

"They're not important right now, though. Not what a pretty pearl like you is with me," his voice grew louder as he stepped closer, a slimy hand rubbing up against her arm. She took a calculated step back. "The news didn't say much about you, princess, so I guess I'll have to figure you out all on my own."

Percy looked him up and down with a scowl, who did this guy think he was. She put her drink down on the bookshelf beside her, "look, man, I don't think we're on the same page here."