Lacuna(1)

Chapter 13

Parties were never a new thing for Evelyn. Because of the many work parties her parents dragged her, Max, and James to attend, she was used to the crowd of drunk people pushing each other. Calamity parties in particular were definitely not a new experience with Max having hosted some of his own. Apparently, the look of the Hastings' large home was very appealing to underaged drinkers.

Evelyn had met Lauren, Cara, and Pip at the front of the house, confidently walking into the house once the door had opened. Evelyn immediately made a beeline for the beer, popping open a bottle before chugging half of it.

"Slow down, jeez," An annoyingly familiar voice said beside her. She turned to find the green-eyed boy holding a large bottle of wine.

"It's you, again, Jameson," Evelyn said distastefully, his hand soon coming to cover her mouth.

"Shh," he hissed, "I'm going by a different name right now. I am now Noah Francis," he said confidently.

"Seeing you was only funny the first two times," Evelyn said flatly. "Two questions, why are you here?"

"Well, earlier during our trip to New York we ran into these two boys who took my brother's hat." Evelyn froze at the realization of who said boys were.

"You're the short cowboy's brother?" Evelyn asked bewildered.

"Wow." Jameson placed a hand on his chest. "I'm extremely offended for my brother."

"It's just a fact." Evelyn shrugged. "Question two, where did you get a bottle that big? That is not human."

"I don't share my secrets," Jameson said, smiling mischievous and looking around the room.

Evelyn took another sip of her beer in place of words. Those words being, Go away.

"Oh. My. God!" A girl from the crowded kitchen squeaked. "Is that Jameson-"

Before she could finish, he made his way straight out of the back door. Evelyn watched as he hopped the fence in the backyard into a separate backyard.

The girl who had loudly stated who he was ran up to Evelyn, squeezing her arms. "Do you know him? Do you have his number?"

"No." Evelyn shook her head violently, wiggling out of the girl's grasp.

"It's okay if you tell me. I won't even text him," she said quickly, heavy breathing showed her current drunk state.

"I don't even know who that is," Evelyn reassured the girl, putting her hands up to make space in between them.

"How could you not know who he is? He has, like, the richest-"

The girl was soon shoved away by a new guy. Evelyn could barely make out the color of his eyes due to both the lighting and the pure lightness of the man's eyes. He was very light all around. Light hair and he was very pale. He also donned a light gray suit. That raised Evelyn's suspicions. A suit at a high school party?

"Did you perhaps catch the name of the boy you were just talking to?" He asked, his voice deep and demanding.

"Noah Francis," Evelyn blurted out.

"Noah Francis?"

"Yep."

The boy furrowed his brows, moving his way through the crowd toward the back door the same way Jameson had before, the screeching girl he had shoved before chasing after him now screeching something to the effect of "Jason Hampton".

Evelyn made her own journey to see why everyone was suddenly scrambling into the backyard. She hadn't spotted the two boys from before anymore, only Pip sitting on a wall taking a picture of a random guy which Evelyn couldn't name's phone. The random guy was on the ground—looking like he might be high— searching for something. Soon, he came back up with a lit blunt in between his fingers. He proudly walked back over to the wall where Pip sat, attempting to hand the blunt over to her. Pip waved him off, scooting away from him.

Before Evelyn could blink, the guy had grabbed Pip's face, pulling it toward her own. Pip quickly shoved him away, jumping off the wall as he grabbed her wrist. She squeezed her hand around his wrist as he screeched a very loud screech. As Pip retreated inside, the boy called out after her. Pip slammed the back door shut, locking it behind her. Evelyn watched the whole show, even watching as the guy banged on the door to be let in. Because of the loud music, no one could hear him.