The Speech

Chapter 2

Theo's POV

      I watch as Jayden carry Avery out of the house, laughter trailing them the whole way. He uses Avery's house to his advantage every time her parents are out, which is frequent. It's the ultimate party pad in his head, a constant parent free zone with so much booze that not even a cop could tell if some ever went missing. He doesn't seem to notice how the lack of parental adults negatively affects Avery. She doesn't like to talk about it much, but we had a conversation about it one night when Jayden was using her house to host a viewing party for a boxing match. She was drunk enough to have a word slur here and there but you could tell she meant every one. She talked about how she didn't like her house, that it was lonely. Everyone was far away from each other due to the size of the house, so even when her parents were home they didn't really see much of her. Jayden thinks having people over helps fill the void, she thinks it makes it worse.
"Don't tell him I said that. He thinks he's helping." She said.
"Helping himself, sure." She laughed a little at my response. That was the end of the conversation though, she got tired and I carried her up to her room. She begged me to stay in there with her so I ended up sleeping on her bed, she cuddled me all night.
Jayden? Passed out wasted on the living room couch.

I shake the memory out of my head and leave to find Jackie. I take one step onto the stairs and see her waking down in a John Lennon artwork t-shirt.
"That's new." I comment. She rolls her eyes.
"It's not mine. But I kinda dig it." She strikes a pose and I laugh.
"Come on, Jayden and Avery enlisted you for their after party." I state. She huffs.
"Why does there always have to be an after party with those two." I just shrug.
"Riding with me?" I ask. She nods yes and we head out.

Dylan's POV

I close the the door behind us and she props herself up on the counter. I stay quiet waiting to see if she'll speak first, but finally break.
"Well?" I ask her. She fiddles with the sleeve of her shirt.
"What?"
"What was that all about? What did you even buy from him?" I blurt at her. Her attention now captured, she hops off the counter.
"It was nothing, honest. I just bought weed off him and his prices were higher than they should be so I didn't pay them. I just gave him what I give to any other dealer. He was just a baby about it." She grabs onto my hand.
"Come on, don't make this bigger than it needs to be."
I let out a sigh.
"Dealers have prices, you dont get to choose them. Your lucky that Pez is a friend of mine. Most guys aren't like him." I tell her.
"Don't worry, I've learned my lesson. I'm sorry I even got you into that mess." I hug her back.
"Let's just forget about it. Come on, we'll go back to my house and watch a movie or something. Sound good?" I say. She opens the door.
"Perfect." We start walking through the house to leave, but then May whips around.
"Wait my jacket, it's in the kitchen." She says and takes off for it. I hang out by the door, waiting for her to come back. Pez spots me and walks over.
"What's up man?" I ask him. I'm not really in the mood to stay on the May subject anymore so hopefully this conversation will be quick.
"I just wanted to see if you and May were good?" He seems a little off. I just nod.
"Yeah her and I are fine." I state simply. He nods a little, but doesn't say anything. With a breathy sigh, he speaks up.
"Look, I know I'm gonna sound like a hypocrite and all cause you know I deal but your girl, is on some shit. And I'm sure she's not telling you everything and I think you're a decent enough dude so I'm gonna."
I roll my eyes at him.
"You're full of shit man." There's no reason for him to make shit up like this.
"I'm her fucking dealer, I know what she bought from me." He shouts.
I stay quiet, what is there to say. Like I said he's got no reason to bullshit, why would he make something like that up. He takes my silence as a que and says one more thing.
"Look, sorry if I over stepped. Just thought you should know." He says and walks away.

Avery's POV

"Drinks already? The rest of the crew ain't even here yet." Jayden says when he spots me behind my parents bar. It's got it's own separate place right in the corner of our living room, with mirror walling from left to right. The bar itself is made of mahogany wood, and lined with a black marble counter-top, with thousand dollar crystal glassware stacked on top of it towards the back wall.
"You mean you don't want an old fashioned?" I ask him. He shakes his head.
"I don't know how you drink those. The only person I know who actually likes an old fashioned, is my grandfather." He states with distaste. I plop a cherry into my cup.
"Guess I'm an old soul." I take a whiff of the whiskey right before taking a sip. Jayden comes up to me and lifts me into the air. I think about Theo doing the same thing earlier this evening when I won the game. Jayden lowers me back down but I wrap my legs around his waist.
"How long do you think we have before anyone gets here?" I ask. He raises his eyebrow.
"Long enough." He says with a smile, right before attacking my neck.
"2013 Carrie manages to rip off the original and make its own horrible renditions all at the same time. It's the worst remake I've ever seen." I hear a whiny voice come from the kitchen and pull away from Jayden. He groans.
"May?" He asks, already knowing the answer.
"And therefore my brother." I hop of the bar counter and fix the straps of my shirt. Dylan walks in with May lingering behind him.
"I figured you'd be out longer." He says, reaching behind me to the mini fridge. I shrug.
"It got crowded, so we decided to come back here." I step around to the other side of the bar and sit at the stool. Dylan starts to make himself a drink.
"I don't blame you." He spots my drink.
"Dad's glass?" He questions. I just nod.
"Careful with it okay? You know how he is with his shit." I roll my eyes.
"It's just a glass. It's not like he doesn't have a dozen more lying around somewhere." I retort. Before he can respond May peaks up from behind us.
"I'm gonna run to the restroom real quick. Movie after that?" She asks Dylan.
"Yeah I'll set it up in my room." She nods and turns quick on her heels to the bathroom.
I hear the front door open and flowing conversation between Theo and Jackie.

Jackie's POV

I close the front door behind us.
"You can't say that, you weren't there." I state to Theo. He rolls his eyes.
"He's a guy, we basically all share one brain. I didn't need to be there to know he was trying to make a move." He says.
"You're disgusting. That's Avery's brother, and he has a girlfriend! So not only are you wrong but you're also a pig." We step into the living room where Avery, Jayden, and Dylan already are.
"Greetings and salutations." I say in my best Christian Slater voice.
"Gosh, I can hear  Slater die a little every time you do that." Dylan says as he starts to walk off to the kitchen.
"You're just jealous cause I do a better impression than you." He just shakes his head and keeps walking.
"Jackie dear, join me in a drink?" Avery says in her fancy people voice. I giggle.
"Well of course darling." I walk over and make myself a Redbull and vodka, then clink the glass to Avery. Jayden puts the song "Angels and Demons" on the stereo, Avery's favorite song. She gets up to start dancing when she hears more people come through the front door.
"Did y'all bring someone else with you?" She asks, looking back at Theo and I. We just shake our heads no. Jayden sits down on a bar stool, grabbing his drink.
"I invited a few other friends from the party." He says nonchalantly. Her happy mood seemingly seeping away, she says
"What happened to vip's only?"
In walks Haley Savellini, Bryn Knox, and Andrew James. There's nothing wrong with any of them, fairly nice and fun to hangout with. Mostly they just tend to overstay their welcome, not leaving till the wee hours of the morning which I think is what Avery dislikes about them.
"So does this after party have shots involved?" Haley says, helping herself. Jayden joins the other two guys on the couch, Theo starts to follow when Haley pipes up once more.
"Theodore, come on do a shot with us." She lays out four on the counter, I hand one over to him and nudge one towards Avery. She detaches her eyes from the couch and turns towards us.
"Here's to after party's." Avery says lifting the shot to her lips. All of us follow in suit.