Langour ・❥・Joost Klein・❥・

10.

The car pulled up to the house where the party had already started. Cars were parked along the street and the quaint house had become the livliest premises in the neighbourhood. The late hour would no doubt spring complaints from the other houses, but no one seemed to care as they spilled out the front to greet the party's main event.

'Joost Klein! What a big, fucking surprise!'

A curly haired man lead the people that piled out of the house. Seemingly sober, the man embraced Joost who was the first to step out of the car. Smacks sounded as their hands pounded on each other's back. Joost's infectious laugh sounded as he pulled away and couldn't resist dapping up the man's whose teeth shown brightly in a grin.

'You started without me? At my own house? What is this?' he said.

'This is just pres, bro!'

'Pres for the afterparty?'

'Hell yeah!'

Stuntje and Teun joined the greeting and received the same treatment from the curly haired man. Apson waited until Hanna and Fenne had made it out the car before he thanked the driver. He then joined the group of young men with a cry of profanities to suit the rowdy bunch.

Fenne and Hanna were in disbelief. They had never seen so many cars on one driveway and were fearful that the house's music would cause its bricks to dislodge. Base deafened their ears even from the outside and lights could be seen flashing through the living room window. Fenne watched a girl stumble towards the pitiful garden down the side of the house and vomit up her dinner. A group of girls rushed out after her and started their ritual of comforting her.

It seemed that Joost had left one small detail out when talking to Fenne; him and his friends knew how to party.

'Jesus Christ!' Hanna cried when a football came flying out the front door. She leapt to the right, collided with Fenne and the two gripped each other to stabalise themselves. They watched the football hit a car door and roll down the street.

'Sorry, ladies!' a man rushed out the house and picked the ball up. With no shirt on and a sweaty brow, the man eyed the two shamelessly before running back through the front door.

'What is this, Project X?!'

'Almost,' Apson appeared beside Hanna and swung an arm around her shoulders. 'More like Project W. Or V.'

Hanna wasn't overly impressed but seemed content with being against Apson's side. Fenne raised an eyebrow at the two and added her friend's behaviour to the mental note that would be brought up tomorrow morning. It was unlike Hanna to be lenient towards men being immature and rowdy, but in this instance, she appeared to push down her irritation in the face of a certain grinning man.

As Apson steered Hanna towards the house, Fenne looked up to see Joost heading her way. The smell of cigarettes greeted her as he took her hand that was by her side. While blowing out the smoke, Joost guided Fenne over to the group.

She could already feel the nerves of speaking to someone unfamiliar creeping into her belly. She had met Teun at Shelter and he was level-headed, something that Fenne liked. But the first impression of the curly-haired man whose laugh boomed from something Stuntje had said was daunting.

'Fenne, this is my friend from Belgium. He's spending the summer here so he can come to Lowlands,' Joost introduced and kept Fenne's hand in his free one. 'Nathan, this is Fenne.'

'Oh, hey, nice to meet you!' the curly haired man beamed with enthusiasm. 'I knew Joost from his YouTube days. Bet you haven't shown her that, have you, Klein?'

Joost retorted a crude curse and Nathan snickered with Stuntje and Teun. Fenne did her best to laugh along and found herself relaxing as the seconds went by.