Fall for me

Chapter two

Tristan is sitting on the bathroom floor completely ready waiting for me. "Come on dude it's already 7:15." I nod my head as I look in the mirror. "I don't know how to wear my hair, I was thinking maybe a loose side braid but I don't know." I say while still looking at myself. I'm wearing the same outfit I wore to school. It's going to be cold, and I would rather be warm than look cute. Lindsey turns on the sink and the water pouring out makes every bone in my body ache. I hear voices around me talking but they are all blurred out and all I can focus on is the water falling. The palms of my hands get sweaty and my breathing increases as I can't tear my eyes away from the running water. The sounds of rushing water echo inside my head, bouncing off every wall. I feel hands wrap around my shoulders and aggressively shake. "Erin what's wrong with you dude." Tristan yells while staring at me. " Sorry, I don't know what happened. Sorry."
"You really freaked me out dude. You like completely zoned out or something. Wear your hair in the loose side braid, It'll help those bright green eyes pop. Especially with those red highlights. Also add a bit of black eyeliner to your eyes, Stiles will be on his knees for you by the end of the night." She says as I swat at her. "Stop, you know it's not like that between us." She laughs, "It's not like that for you, however it is very much like that for him." I look at her straight long blonde hair, and how it makes her light blue eyes pop. She's wearing a light orange crop top with black leggings and a beige colored cardigan. She's wearing minimal makeup like me but she has the longest eyelashes I've ever seen. She's beautiful.
I look across the room at Court who has jet black hair that goes down her back. She has it pulled in a low ponytail at the base of her neck. Her icy blue eyes look daring in comparison to her dark hair. She's wearing a black tshirt and black leggings with white converse. All she has on is mascara but I would kill to look like her. She has a petite figure just like all of us do, but it looks the best on her. Unlike Court, Lindsey is the complete opposite with how she dresses. She has bleach blonde hair, almost yellow because she hasn't gotten her hair done in awhile. She has the brightest white teeth, and she's for sure the tannest out of everybody. She's wearing a white sequin mini skirt, and a light pink sparkly halter top. I add a thin line of black eyeliner around my eyes. "Okay, everyone ready to go?" I say to them. "Hells yeah, party time!" Lindsey says.
We all piled into my car because I agreed to be the DD for the night, like always. It doesn't bother me, I don't drink anyway. I look in my rearview mirror and see Charli, she recently just cut her long straight hair. It now hovers over her shoulders, but somehow she pulls it off. She is pale, but has freckles that cover most of her face, and deep brown eyes. Charli is the tallest out of our friend group, as I am the shortest. She is 5'9 and Court, Lindsey and Tristan are all in the middle. As I bring up the end as 4'11 and three quarters. Yes, the three quarters matter.
It takes a little over 15 minutes to get to Chase's house, and I pull in and park next to Stiles. He's sitting on the hood of his jeep looking down at his phone. "Wow Erin, I wish I had a guy waiting outside for me like that." Charli says almost under her breath. "Yeah no kidding, miss hot stuff" Tristan adds. "Stop guys, you know it's not like that. You're embarrassing him." I say while rolling my eyes. Honestly, Stiles has never once made a move on me or even flirted in the whole 17 years I've known him. There's no way he likes me. Yeah he gets a little flustered sometimes but I think it's because of how my friends act and talk around him, making him feel uncomfortable.
I get out of the car and lean on his jeep next to him, " Hey Stiles. What are you doing out here?" I blurt out while looking around at the people scattered around the very big well manicured lawn. He looks down at me and smiles, "you know waiting for you guys to get here. Didn't want you guys to have to walk in by yourself." He breaks eye contact and looks around at all the people. "You guys don't really know anybody." I give a small smile and look towards Tristan. " Awh, how sweet of you Stiles. I wish our boyfriends were as sweet and thoughtful as you." She says while squeezing his cheeks.
"Yeah they were actually just out here, but Auggie had to go help with the sound system and they went with him to see if they could do anything to help." He says while motioning us to follow him. "Yeah...sure they were." Charli says, again; under her breath. I look back at her to let her know I heard her. But put my focus back on following Stiles. I don't know what her deal has been these past couple of days, but she needs to figure it out. Tristan told me that she and Chase haven't been doing the greatest, and he was hanging out with Lindsey in the library during homeroom last week. Which you would think is completely innocent, except Charli doesn't like any female talking or even looking at her boyfriend.
We find the guys in the kitchen pouring shots. As Chase is laying down shot glasses he sees us, "Yes shots for everybody." Laying down more cups, I interrupt him. "Actually, none for me. I'm driving tonight." "Come on, you didn't drink at the last party. Now that I'm thinking about it...I don't think I've ever seen you drink. Just let loose and have some fun girl." Landon says while putting an arm around Tristan. "I seriously can't drink, unless someone else wants to take over the DD position?" I say looking around at my friends. "Yeah, I didn't think so." I say hoping it would end there. "Yeah me too." Stiles says, smiling down at me. "Wait, why can't everyone just sleep here? My room is definitely big enough. My bed can fit like three or four and I have a pull out couch and bean bag chairs." Chase says while holding up a shot of tequila. I look at my friends and Tristian speaks up, "I mean you told your dad you were crashing at my place so it's not like we'd get in trouble or anything."
I look up at Stiles and he shrugs his shoulders. His dark brown hair is longer than it normally is but still short. I look into his carmel brown eyes and my eyes dip down to his gentle lips and I see his lips curve into a soft smile. "Fuck, fine let's do it." I say as I take the shot directly out of Chase's hand. "Let's do it." Stiles breathes out, and picks up a plastic shot glass. Everyone follows suit and picks up a shot. "To being young!" Chase yells. We all cheers and throw back our glasses, or well; plastic cups. The strong stinging hits the back of my throat before I can even swallow. I instantly look down for a chaser and see a cut up lime sitting on the counter and grab a slice and suck every drop from it. "Wow, that was disgusting." I say to no one in particular. "Yeah that was actually pretty bad." Stiles says while throwing the lime he had sucked away.
I look around and realize that I don't know anyone else at this party. Everyone is two or more years older than us. Looking around there are mostly guys here, other than my friends and I there are only about ten other girls here. Chase has the biggest house out of all of us. His dad is a surgeon and his mom is a pediatric nurse. I could fit our entire garage into their kitchen and still have room. "Okay everyone has to do one more shot, I have already poured them all so don't try to get out of it." Auggie says from behind the counter.
Obviously they started drinking before we got here because Auggie is normally very quiet. That's probably why he and Court get along so well, the quiet ones of both groups. They're also pretty private so I wouldn't be shocked if they were already dating and just didn't tell anyone. Court never even told us they were talking; we just noticed things change. They would walk together to class: talking, stand a little closer, and sit next to each other at lunch. When Lindsey finally said what we were all thinking all Court said was "It's not a big deal" and we left it at that.
"Okay but after this you have to give me a minute, I seriously don't think my stomach can handle it." Tristan says while holding her stomach for effect. "Do you guys have anything other than tequila? I mean come on." Lindsey says while looking down at her phone. Chase reaches into the cabinet behind him and Stiles and I pick up our shots and our limes and throw back another shot. As I start sucking on the lime Chase starts pouring something into a bigger cup and the sound of the water is banging into my head. The whooshing overtakes my body and I reach for the closest thing to me. "Woah, you okay? Want to go outside for a minute?" Stiles says as I hold my death grip on his arm. I can't pull any words from my throat so I aggressively nod my head. We push past a few people to get through the wide completely glass doors. Still hanging onto Stiles he sits us down on an old porch swing that's rusting and looks like the oldest thing they own.
We sit in a comfortable silence. That's all there ever has been between Stiles and I. Comfortability. He's my longest friend, someone I've hung out with almost everyday for most of my life. Stiles must catch on to me looking around at the swing for like ten minutes because he starts, "Yeah, it's pretty old. Apparently it was Chase's great great grandmothers. She was the first one in her family to own her own house and this was the first thing she bought for it when she did. Very sentimental, has been passed down generations." Listening to him talk and the quietness outside has calmed me, and I can finally speak. "Oh wow, are we supposed to be sitting on it?" I look up at the chains holding it up. "Last week I saw Raken do about five lines of coke off of it. So I don't think it would matter too much if it did break. But I think it can hold us up." I shyly nod and feel very nervous all of the sudden. "Sorry for being weird back there. This is my first time drinking, and I've been super weird around water today." Shock takes over his face and he stutters for a second before starting again, "really? You're first time drinking..and it was tequila! That's crazy you took it like a champ!"
Stiles has always been the upbeat friend, never down and always got us out of any trouble we'd get into with our parents. Our moms have been best friends since high school and were pregnant at the same time. He is actually only three weeks older than me. My mom used to tell me about how we would always lay together in the crib and cuddle each other to "soothe" one another.
"So I don't know if your mom tells you stories about when we were younger or not but; a few months before my mom passed she was going through an old photo album and came across a picture of us when we were about five years old. We were having a sleep over at your house and your dad had made us a big fort in the living room with a bunch of couch cushions, sheets, and twinkly lights hung up. We were laying on our stomachs right next to each other with flashlights in our hands in case the power went out. Sorry, I was just wondering if you remembered that." Stiles explains while looking at his hands. I laugh, a genuine laugh and he looks out into the woods; looking upset. "Sorry, no I'm not laughing at you. It's just.. I have that picture hanging on my mirror at home. I came across it one day and thought it was super cute. I never brought it up because I didn't think you remembered." I said with a small laugh escaping my lungs.
"Oh yeah, I remember it like it was yesterday." He says while letting out a sigh. Hopefully I'm not keeping him from the party. Earlier today it seemed like he didn't even want to come. Now it seems like I'm keeping him away from the best party of the year. I hate to be a burden to anyone. "Sorry, I didn't mean to take you away from the party. You can go back in if you want, I'm fine out here." I say while looking down at the decaying wood under me. It is mid March in Oregon, the air is cool and there's a soft breeze blowing across my cheeks. If my face wasn't already red from the embarrassment it definitely is now.
"Wh-What? No, I'm fine, I uh- I didn't even want to come to this party." He blurts out. "Then why did you?" I ask. I look up at his chocolate eyes with hope. I've had a crush on Stiles since I was like five. Even though Tristan swears that he has been in love with me since then he has never made a move or ever given any indication that he liked me more than a friend. So why would I ruin an awesome friendship for nothing. "Because-" He starts. "Dude, what are you guys doing out here? You've been gone for like 30 minutes. We're doing more shots, come on." Chase says and then walks back inside before we can respond.
I look over to Stiles and he lifts his arms in the direction of the door, "after you." Is all he says. Without another word I stand and don't wait for him to follow. Once I get inside I head straight for the bathroom. I twist the knob and walk forward walking straight into the wooden door. Someone is in there, great. I think back to the three times I've been here before and try to remember if I know where another bathroom is. Before I can get anywhere the door opens and a girl with the same color hair as me, almost in the exact outfit comes out wiping at her eyes. I don't get a glimpse of her face because she makes an immediate turn to the stairs leading up to Chase and Raken's rooms.
Of course she's one of Raken's followers, which makes sense why she was crying. Raken has always been the bad boy out of the closeness of our families. He was in juvie for trying to stab a kid, the summer before his freshmen year, I was in 7th grade at the time and was scared out of my mind. Luckily my mom forbade me from going to Chase's house until I was about seventeen. She never really gave the okay, but I also just stopped telling her where I was going. She always assumed I was with Tristan or Stiles, which technically I was. I make my way back into the kitchen and everyone has a shot in their hand. Great, they were waiting for me. "Hey, I had everyone wait for you." Stiles says as soon as I walk up to the counter. "Thanks" I say as short as I possibly can. I pick up my shot, raise it, and toss it back. "Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about girl!" Tristan yells over the crowd of voices that suddenly just got louder, and everyone takes their shot.