False Confidence

Another Party

Azriel Huang

"I heard they're gonna have the expensive shit too." Aniya purred, tossing a chip in her mouth as Nora leaned in, already getting as excited as possible.

"And let me guess, I'm gonna have to be the one that stays sober." Griffin droned, sipping from the school juice-that surprisingly enough, wasn't that bad today. It was always a gamble.

"I'm always the driver for Wren's parties, and those two get hammered no matter what job you stick em' with." I defended, giving Nora and Aniya a nasty glare. I remembered countless parties we were stranded at because of those two during freshman and sophomore year, Griffin and I had learned our lesson finally, now trading shifts like it was a damn job.

"Y-O-L-O." Aniya squealed in a very cheery manner that let everyone know she was being sarcastic. That didn't stop Nora from gagging, and Griffin barraging her with a wave of "boo"s.

I gazed around to find that no one had come to bother us at our lunch table today, thankfully. We were kinda occupied on planning our night around Benny Gomez's party. It was a little inconvenient, since the party was on Monday, but he could throw it on fucking Christmas and there'd still be a shit ton people. Mostly because of the liquor he offered, all of it being graciously donated by his uncle that owned a successful bar-but also because all his parties were held at his cousins roomy house that was right on the outskirts of Chicago. Which meant a variety of interesting people were bound to be there. In this suburban town, with a pack you have to see constantly, the parties got a little lame at times.

"Benny's parties are always good." I hummed dreamily, anticipating the euphoria that was waiting for me tonight.

"Ugh, he shoulda thrown the Halloween party." Nora complained, inspecting her newly done nails that peaked about half an inch over her finger tips, looking like polished pearls imbedded into her nail beds.

"Talk about it, instead that dick's throwing it." I grumbled, my mood souring just by thinking of Wren.

"Well, it's also his birthday so if I were hi-"

"How is roomie life with Wren?" Aniya cut in, silencing a fuming Griffin.

"Irritating as hell. On Friday, he was annoying me in my room and Alex walked in out of nowhere. He was convinced that I had been cheating on him." Nora gasped sharply as Griffin's brows shot up. "I explained it to him though, so we're good." I added, watching as their faces went slack with relief.

"You mean you lied to him." Aniya snorted, sipping from her iced coffee that she not-so-discreetly door dashed.

"It's not like I can tell the truth." I muttered while rubbing at the nape of my neck.

"I know, I know, just messing with you." Aniya assured, clapping me on the shoulder harder than necessary.

"Hands off, asshole." I hissed, peeling her fingers from where they gripped onto my shoulder. She only gave me a smooth smile, retracting her hand while cracking her knuckles.

"Anyways, let's prepare at Azriel's house." Nora insisted, clapping her hands together with finality.

"Just invite yourself over like you always do." I muttered threw gritted teeth, pinching Nora on her forearm as she screeched dramatically, causing momentary silence as the whole lunchroom followed the source of disruption. None of us shied from the attention, only continuing as if nothing was wrong. This wasn't the first time our table had been unnecessarily loud, it tended to happen often when our little group was mainly comprised of 2 obnoxious idiots and 2 baby sitters. Almost as soon as it came, the silence ceased and the lunchroom began to swarm with noise once more.