❝Kid, don't do that!❞ It was as if I could almost feel him smile-Hear it in his voice, let the warmth of it deluge my heart.
❝Why not?❞
❝It tickles, Allan.❞ I looked into his eyes as he chuckled. Just then i noticed a strange spark of uncertainty a...
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We were standing below a building. Not sure why but pretty sure that there was a lot of noise coming from the rooftop.
We were standing outside a dessert bar named The Devil's Diet. We followed Rene and Quin into the building. The board outside read The Novella.
Iheard Quin gushing into Rene with a bunch of questions. They were far ahead but I heard something about some Gabrielle and the words get through. The music only kept increasing as we took every step upwards.
We walked onto a crowded rooftop with people gushing all over the place. "Is this some sort of a party?" Jace asked, standing beside me.
"Rene?" A 20 something guy with a red cup in his hands stood in front of Rene blocking her from walking any further. Behind her at a distance, we all stood in confusion.
"Gabrielle!" If she was trying to sound excited, she had certainly failed.
"How do you always end up barging in here?" He looked amused. "Have you forgotten you don't live here anymore?"
"Cut the crap, Gab-" Quin spoke but he was instantly shut by Gabrielle's finger pointing towards him.
Or somewhere totally different.
"Who are these kids?" He asked, pointing towards us as his eyes were keenly stuck on Ashley. I could feel the entire lot becoming uneasy. As if Maddie was already heading back for the staircase and Bram was fidgeting with his phone. I agree we were all the coolkids at Hamden High but in front of all the Yale 20 somethings, we were pretty much nothing. Or at least that's how we felt.
But Ashley had something completely different going down in her head. She swayed across the place moving swiftly to stand right between Quin and Rene. "What is it, guys?" So she planned to act clueless all along. Smart.
"Gabrielle here doesn't really like us." Rene spoke without looking away from him.
"But I was excited about this!" She cried in an enigmatic way.
"About what?" Gabrielle seemed to have taken the bait.
"It's my eighteenth birthday," She looked at him with puppy-wide eyes. "Rene promised I could celebrate here, in town. I've heard college parties are really fun."
Gabrielle looked at the girl standing in front of her in a short crimson cocktail dress glistening from every edge, accentuating her raised collarbone and setting out her sleek straightened black hair turning into an impressive shade of garnet red at the ends. His face almost shot up with an immense curiosity. Ashley did that to people. "They are." He agreed with her.
"Would it really be an issue if we stayed for a while?" She asked as if knowing exactly what Gabrielle would say. I turned around hoping Gavin wasn't really noticing any of this happening but there he was, staring at the guy, probably picking out ways to punch him.
"You can stay." He almost sounded interested. He slowly walked towards Rene, leaned in, and whispered something none of us heard. Whatever Gabrielle said surely took off the brightness from Rene's face.
