care for each other • paxton hall-yoshida

partying

fallon's outfit had been giving her problems since she put it on. yes, she wanted to look hot and make joe jealous, but maybe a denim mini skirt wasn't the most comfortable or practical option. as her and devi approached the door, fallon began to have second thoughts.

"are you sure this is a good idea?" she asked her friend, glancing around at the drunk teenagers strewn throughout the lawn. this wasn't her first experience with stuff like this, but she knew this had never been her scene. she almost hated parties entirely, but it was her boyfriend that had always dragged her to them.

"i don't think we've ever had a better one." devi replied quickly, before knocking on the door. her mother had made her bring a gift, something that fallon had made fun of her for basically the entire way to the party.

trent opened the door, giving devi a confused glance, "oh, hey. what are you doing here? did you forget your calculator or something?"

fallon looked over at devi, wondering why she had been greeted so strangely. trent had texted the girl earlier inviting her to the party, and she figured devi had gotten the same text. she wanted to look into it more, but paxton approached the door with a calming normalcy.

"woah! guys, you came, and you brought california brittle! this slaps. come in." paxton opened the door wider, and allowed the girls inside.

at first glance, this seemed like any other party the hot-pocket had thrown. there was nothing that interested fallon about the night. she was looking around the room, pretending that she didn't want to see joe. in reality, that was basically all she was looking for. paxton led devi and fallon to the kitchen, setting devi's gift on the counter.

"i like your shirt, paxton," fallon smiled, looking at his blue button up, "it's cute."

a smile appeared on paxton's face, as he tried not to read too much into the girl's compliment, "thanks, fal. you look good, too."

paxton truly meant that, barely able to look at her once she came in the door. he was trying to play it cool, like he always had, but something about her was making it extremely hard.

"you're too kind." fallon smiled, causing him to chuckle. devi, who had been watching this all go down, was disappointed that no one said anything about her looks, but made no effort to comment on it.

"want anything to drink?" he offered both the girls, gesturing to the array of alcohol.

"oh, yeah," devi replied immediately, wanting to seem effortlessly cool, "beer me. i love that bread soda."

paxton opened up a bottle, handing it over to her, "do people call it that?"

"i can't imagine that they do." fallon answered, causing the boy to laugh. she walked over to the fridge, deciding to let the pair talk. she figured paxton was the only reason devi wanted to come anyways, and she didn't want to interrupt her game.

she grabbed a bottle of water, and went to see if she could occupy herself elsewhere. most of these people were very welcoming to her, at least while she had been dating joe. since that had ended, most of them chose to act like she didn't exist. it wasn't like she had become a pariah, there just wasn't a place for her among this crowd anymore.

she turned the corner to trent's living room, only to see joe sitting on the couch alone. fallon froze, trying to figure out what her next decision would be. she had been hoping to find him like this since she walked through the door, but didn't think she actually would. she had an ideal situation in her head of how this interaction would go, but now that it was actually in front of her, she couldn't quite gather the courage.

luckily for her, she didn't have to. the boy looked over at her, a blank smile on his lips, "fal, what are you doing here?"

she looked around, hoping there was some sort of excuse she could come up with, "um... trent invited me, and i figured it was no big deal."