The Love I Needed

Chapter 2

Avery POV:

The weekend came pretty fast. I spent the entire week organizing a Student Council event, and with a film project for my photography class, so I had barely any time to hang out with Jake. He was busy anyways, but that's just another reason why I was so excited to go to the fall party. Emelie Randorson threw the most amazing parties that everyone talked about. Even weeks after! She always found some random excuse to invite a bunch of people to her huge mansion and get everyone drunk. At her legendary Back To School party a few weeks ago, someone jumped off the roof into the pool while wearing a pink unicorn costume. The video went viral on social media and there were some rumors that Emelie got into trouble with her parents, because they didn't know she was hosting a party. People were debating whether she was able to throw as many parties as last year or if her Saga had come to an end, but everyone was super excited when she announced her fall party, with the words: "I can't let you guys down, can I?"

Now it was 8 pm and I was standing in Jade's room getting ready for the party. My dress was light blue and skin tight paired with white converse. My friend curled her red hair and put on a dark green dress. She looked stunning, like a gorgeous forest fairy. I simply pinned half of my hair up with a white bow and Jade curled the rest into brown waves. 30 minutes later we were ready to go and waited for Jake to pick up our friend Collin and then drive us to the party. Only a few minutes of cute animal videos on Instagram and Jake texted me that he was outside. The air was starting to get colder when the sun went down but there was still a glimpse of the warm summer nights from a few months ago. Jake and Collin were waiting as we walked out the front door and hugged both before getting into the car. Jade and I were sitting in the backseat singing to the music coming from the radio and dancing as much as we could with our seatbelts on. "Whatever you guys had before we picked you up, I want a double," laughed Collin. He had turned his head to us from the passenger seat. "We didn't have a drop of alcohol yet, this is called living,"said Jade while still dancing. The drive wasn't long, only about 15 minutes or 5 Taylor Swift songs later we arrived and parked a block away from the Randorson house. When we got out of the car, I was already able to hear the bass of the music and I just got more excited. Jake took my hand and followed the others. The white house with the massive wooden entrance door and a freaking water fountain as a roundabout in the driveway, was even bigger than I remembered. I was already glad I picked converse instead of heels, because while a few months ago I still would have come in 3 inch heels, my feet were happy when I decided to go for comfort instead of aesthetic. The music got ear splitting loud as we walked inside. Jake pulled me to the bar and I mixed two cups of a light Malibu passion fruit for Jade and me, while my boyfriend got 2 beers out of the cooler. There were many people in the house already but it wasn't too crowded, so we relatively easily found our friends sitting in the living room with some others from our grade and sat down next to them. The couches were placed in a circle and Jade was sitting next to Brittnay and Gianne, two nice girls who were with Jade on the soccer team. While Collin sat next to two boys I only knew from the hallway. We talked about the new drama and Harper, who I had a few classes with in the past but mostly only ever talked with at parties, told us about her new boyfriend from university and how her 2 exes (also from university) are total sluts and cheated on her multiple times. After getting asked if maybe she should switch back to High School boys she shook her head and laughed, "No way. Believe me I tried that Brit' but what can I say, I like 'em mature and smart." "They can't be that mature if they cheat on you," I countered. "Guess I am just unlucky," she drank another sip out of her cup, "but hey, enough about me, when did you two get together." "Only a week ago," Jake leaned forward and drank from his beer. It was his second bottle already and I was thankful for Collin who decided to take the DD role. Jake's hand had been on my knee the entire time but now he pressed my leg twice and moved his hand only a little bit up, but I already felt more uncomfortable. I brushed the feeling away and smiled at him quickly. "Aww you guys are so adorable," came it from a cute girl that was sitting opposite us. "Yeah you are right, soo cute." "You should kiss." My head was jumping back and forth, not being able to tell who said what but suddenly everyone started chanting "KISS, KISS, KISS" I glanced at Jake who just sat next to me in amusement while I didn't know what to do. We hadn't kissed that many times and I didnt know if I was comfortable here, but I felt his hand squeeze my leg and before I could even react I felt his lips on mine and his other other hand on my neck. His lips started moving on mine and I had no clue what to do. I tried to shut the party noises and the cheers out but it still didn't feel good. Nevertheless I didn't want anyone to notice so after a few seconds I slowly pulled my head back and ended the kiss. I laughed, "Happy?," before drinking the rest of my cocktail. I wasn't feeling well and it felt like Jake's hand burned into the skin on my leg and I was convinced if he left his hand there for much longer, his handprint would show. When he stood up to get us more drinks, I had to resist a sigh of relief. Which already made me feel guilty for feeling the way I did, so I tried to act more like a loving girlfriend when my best friend came back. He handed me a cup and I smiled, "Thanks!" before taking a sip. It was the same I had before but with way more alcohol and at the moment I was actually glad about it. I don't know how long we were sitting on the couch but before I knew it more and more people came and crowded what seemed like every centimeter of space. To my surprise it didn't bother me at all. The alcohol started to kick in after drink number three and even Jake's flirting didn't seem too bad anymore. After a while we walked outside, exactly at the right moment to watch three sophomores getting thrown into the pool. They were laughing and everyone around them cheered so we joined in while we walked to the garden launch. It was far enough from the crowd around the pool to actually be able to talk, so we sat down. Jade was still inside, drunk dancing with Harper and Gianne. But Collin, plus the two guys whose name, as I found out, are Ethan and Henry, and Brittany, the cute girl, who I still don't know the name of and a handful of other people followed us. Each with at least one cup in hand. The air was chilly, but the alcohol in my blood warmed me. Jake's hand felt heavy in mine, just like everything else in my body, my bones, my muscles and even my brain. I knew that I was getting close to my limit, because my vision and my responses came delayed, but I thought I still had my body under control and had the ability to make reasonable decisions. We started playing "Truth or Dare" and it began pretty easy with questions like "Who is your celebrity crush?" to which Brittany answered Louis Patridge, or "Who was your first real kiss?" and "Who out of this group is the most attractive?" The normal teenager stuff. Questions I knew from other parties. Then it was the cute girls turn to choose truth or dare, her name as it turned out is Larissa. "I already answered a question, so Dare." she responded before taking another sip of her Vodka Coke. "Kiss a person at this party you always wanted to kiss," grinned Henry and I got the feeling he knew something that we didn't. The color of Larissa's cheeks turned into a light pink as she took a big sip of her drink and walked over to Ethan and placed her lips onto his for a splinter of a second. The look on his face was a mix of surprise, relief and happiness. I couldn't help but smile, when Ethan reached out his hand to grab the girl's arm as she was on her way to her seat to pull her on his lap and wrap his arms around her. Larissa started laughing and quietly thanked Henry, who sat next to them. He just nodded with a warm smile on his face. A few minutes later it was my turn again and I picked dare. Brittany smiled and said, "This is an easy one, Kiss Jake." She was right, it was an easy one. I was drunk and determined to be a better girlfriend to my best friend, so I turned to Jake and innocently kissed him. But he placed his hand on the back of my head and pulled me closer to kiss me more intensely. Still in shock I slowly pulled away and shucked the rest of my drink down, the cheers from the others faded into distance until Jake placed his hand on my leg and brought me back into reality again. The others didn't seem to notice my surprise and not even my boyfriend looked at me twice. I put a smile on my face and stood up with the excuse to go to the washroom. Only then I realized how much I had drunk the last few hours. Concern was on Jake's face as I tumbled just from standing up, but I told him I would be fine and that I just sat for too long. With a slightly blurry vision I made my way back inside, where the stuffy air hit me without any warning and worsened my ability to find the bathroom. I stumbled through the crowd in the living room and almost fell into a couple that was making out next to the kitchen. I heard some voices in the background and even my drunk brain knew they were talking about me but I simply didn't care enough to think anything of it.