Let Me Explain

S I X T E E N

THE weather had continued to drop as winter rolled around. It seemed like it was just fall, but before I knew it, it was December.

Although time seemed to move on and the seasons changed, it didn't stop Laken's house parties.

But it did stop my desire to go.

"Come on," Weston repeated for the third time in the past five minutes. "The one time I feel like going out, you don't want to."

"I guess I'm burned out from all the times I went out."

Weston stood beside my bed. Her black hair was dangling down her shoulders and she wore a white long sleeve shirt with blue jeans.

Her makeup was done too. It made her brown eyes look darker from the black eye liner in her waterline.

"Are you seriously playing that line?" She looked down at me. "You can't go out three times a week and suddenly feel tired now."

I didn't answer her and instead chose to remain on my phone and scroll aimlessly through Instagram. It didn't take a second longer before Weston leaned over and took my phone out of my hands and turned it off.

"You haven't even told me a real reason why you don't want to go out," Weston put my phone in her back pocket. "It's gonna leave me to believe that you're scared of seeing my brother there."

"I just don't feel like seeing a disappointment."

"Who said you had to look at him all night?"

Sighing, I realized that there was no way out of this. It wouldn't take long to head out since I was already ready anyways.

I stood up and moved my brown hair behind my back. Heading out of my room, I turned off the lights to ignore the smile growing on my best friend's face.

I was wearing jeans with a black body suit. The jeans I wore were low, showing the exposed skin on the sides of my hips from the cuts in my body suit.

My makeup was already done and my hair was in its natural state. I would've curled it had I felt motivated tonight.

Now I just wanted to go to the party and get the hell up out of there.

West followed behind me down the stairs. My parents weren't here at the moment. My dad was at the courthouse, arguing an ongoing case. My mom was at one of her clients houses.

It left the house empty and the freedom for me to go wherever if I disregarded the AirTag in my car and the location apps on my phone.

I unlocked the door to my house and opened it to let us out. Weston headed out first and unlocked the doors to her since she was driving there.

It was the first time that she had been out in a while, so I could already tell that tonight was going to be a long night.

It was days like this when I wished that I was in a permanent sleep.

***

Laken's house wasn't packed, but it was filled with a good amount of people. It always was.

His Christmas tree was already up in the large, open foyer in his home. Just a few more decorations were up. Mistletoes, garlands, and lights were hung up, but the place didn't feel or smell like Christmas at all.

It was filled with the smell of weed and the sound of music lingered with it. People were talking loudly, hanging out with each other, and playing drinking games.