The Summer I Met The Girl

seven

"Do a shot, Matty!"

Matt laughs and throws the shot back. The alcohol burns his throat and his whole body warms. The house is vibrating with the music. There are bodies everywhere, and Matt is drunk. To be fair, none of them are driving, so every single one of his siblings and cousins are hammered.

This is usually the one night they all get supremely trashed. And they're having fun.

Crew and Katie are curled up on the stairs, kissing and laughing. Mallory brought her dull boyfriend, Aaron, and to Matt's surprise, he's actually winning at beer pong. Cassidy is filming all of it for Tik Tok. Henry is with some girl in his bedroom, doing God knows what. Beck, Jude and Grant took a bunch of people out to the pool to play volleyball, and they've beaten everyone they've played so far.

Matt ducks out of the kitchen quickly to avoid anyone else shoving a shot on him. Just as he's escaping to the bathroom, the front door opens and Mason walks in carrying another keg.

"Here you go!"

Matt fist bumps him, "Thanks Mase."

Mason sets the keg down, "I think I'm getting too old for these parties."

"You started them." Matt says with a smirk.

"Regretfully so."

"Oh come on, don't be the older guy that refuses to have fun with younger people. There are plenty of single girls here, go make out with one of them."

Mason shakes his head, "You didn't invite one of your latest conquests?"

Matt doesn't answer. He could have invited Bethany. She probably would have made the drive. But he's been secretly watching the door waiting for the mystery girl. "Nope. I'm a single guy tonight."

"I'll give you a hundred bucks if you wake up alone tomorrow morning."

Matt nods, "Deal."

"You're an idiot." Mason says as he walks away.

Matt chuckles and goes to the bathroom, thankfully no one has started using the upstairs one yet. But it's only 10:30, it'll happen eventually.

Matt's phone vibrates in his pocket.

"I'm like an hour from Cousins at some stupid thing for my Dad. Can I swing by?"

It's from Landon. Matt types back immediately.

"Yep! The party is just getting started."

Landon writes back immediately, "OMW!"

Matt is glad Landon is coming. He could use a friend here. Not that he doesn't know every single person here, but it'll be nice to have one of his closer friends around.

Matt plays Flippy Cup, Ride the Bus and Quarters before getting kicked out of the games for winning. He moves outside, people have abandoned the pool volleyball game and now are just floating on rafts. He's trying not to think about how long they'll have to clean the pool tomorrow.

Cassidy walks up to him, her phone in his face, "Say something for my reel, Matt!"

"Hey." He says softly.

She glares at him, "Come on!"

"Our annual summer kickoff party is tonight. Everyone is wasted and we're all having fun!" He says with fake enthusiasm.

She cocks her head with a smirk, "That's fine asshole. You just became the intro."

He chuckles, "Whatever Cass."