Magnolia (p.t.v)

Chapter 3.

           The party was raging, the music was deafening. The scene was chaotic. Dancing and drinking abound. There were billiards played by boys, distracted by the noise. Couples were making out, and were inhibited. Sweltering bodies crowded the enclosed space, their hips moving in emphasis with the pulsating music. The floor was being trampled upon by tipsy teens as they danced with each other.

It's a big, raucous house party of drunken high school students.

          I sat on this leather couch, wondering how Curtis had atleast more than half the school fit in his goddamn house. I'm not even going to bother looking for those dumbass friends I have. Mike's probably trying to snag a girl for the night, Jaime's probably pantless by now, and Tony most likely came out of his turtle shell, and running wild.

While I'm still on this leather couch.

I don't know why I even agreed to go to this party, ugh.

         As long as my earbuds were blasting Stevie Nicks to block out the drunken stupidity of underaged teens spreading, I guess it was fine. I watched the house turn into a zoo, and helped myself earlier, eating chips. A can of beer blocked my view, and a person along with it. I looked up, and there stood Vic, waving at me, holding two cans of beer. He stretched out his hand, and offered one. I peeled a hand from my jeans, and clasped the can in my hands.

"Thanks," I murmured.

"No problem," He replied warmly, his chocolate eyes connecting with mine as a small smile spread across his tan face. "...Mind if I sit next to you?"

I scooted over and he sat besides me, opening his can of beer. I did the same, taking a sip.

"I thought you weren't coming?" I glanced at him, as I took the earbud out of my ear. He grabbed it and stuck it in his, sighing.

"I thought I wasn't either, until Mike pressured me into it," He stated. "Stevie Nicks, huh?"

"Hell yeah!" I beamed, and he chuckled.

"Nice," He smiled.

        Listening to the music blaring in my left ear, I wasn't sure how to talk to Vic. I felt anxious, like I was as a freshman. I'm usually fine with talking to people, but I felt myself choke up around Vic. What the hell is wrong with me? Jaime's cheering echoed, and I furrowed my eyebrows, turning around. Next thing I know, he's cartwheeling through the living room, terribly. He staggered around, pantless. I groaned, rubbing my forehead and taking a big gulp of beer, and Vic sighed.

"They're all insane, aren't they?"

"Extremely," I remarked.

"Hey...do you wanna go outside?" Vic asked, digging in his pocket, pulling out a small ziploc bag with cannabis inside. I smirked, and followed him to the backyard. I sat down on the concrete but to my surprise he kept walking to the tall treehouse. Leaves surrounded the tree house like a barrier. There was poles attached to ropes to help climb to the very top of the magnificent structure that was made.

He turned around, and gestured for me to come. I raised my eyebrows and did so.

"Are you sure we're allowed here?" I questioned, watching Vic climb up the ropes.

"Trust me."

I scoffed, "How can I trust someone I recently met?"

"Recently met?" He grunted, "You've known me for years."

"We knew who each other were, but we didn't know each other," I remarked, and began to climb, grunting. "Curse my tiny body," I muttered under my breath.

At the very top, it was almost like a miniature home, with the windows that didn't have a single smudge. I noticed a sign on the wall that said,

CURTIS AND VICTOR'S TREEHOUSE! No girls allowed!!

Curtis Peoples. The guy whose party we're at, the bastard I unfortunately call my ex-boyfriend.

"You and Curtis Peoples?" I asked.

"We're practically brothers, known him since I was four."

          I pursed my lips, and scratched the back of my head awkwardly. It was terrible enough that even if Curtis was my former boyfriend, my friends still hang out with him, while I pretend he doesn't exist. Hopefully, Vic didn't know we dated, it was after he was sent to the ward. Even Vic and him are friends - "practically brothers." But, we did have flings before that... Vic fumbled around drawers, in search of something, "I stopped talking to him after what he did."
          I raised my eyebrows, "After he did what?" He continued to dig around the treehouse, and with a soon realization of what he wanted, I whistled and took out my handy-dandy lighter. He turned around and caught it after I threw it at him, smiling. He sat down on the lavender carpet.

"What did Curtis do?" I repeated, as I sat cross legged across from him. He stared at me, furrowing his brows and then looked down placing the grinded marijuana in the paper filter, rolling it.

"You shouldn't ask me what Curtis did, he did it to you, after all," He replied, focusing on the joint.

I widened my eyes in shock, "Did it to me? You know...? How?"

"Like I said, we're practically brothers. I've known him since I was four," He lit the joint, taking several puffs.

"But that doesn't answer my question. How did you find out? Weren't you in the... - ," I halted, shutting my mouth. Fuck, that's a sensitive topic! "Sorry."

          He glanced at me, and shrugged, "It's okay. Anyways, Curtis would visit me atleast every week or every other week. I know before I left, you guys used to hook up and stuff. He told me what he did to you, and it was a shitty thing I never would've really expected from him. He didn't even regret what he did, Magnolia. No one deserves to be cheated on, and be treated like shit." I could feel the empathy from just his eyes, he seemed so deeply concerned, I just gazed back. He passed the joint to me but I was completely distracted by his odd nature.

I don't understand him.