Begin Again - A.I

twenty.

"CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!"

I watch in absolute fascination as Luke downs a vase of beer, a literal vase. He took out his mum's flowers, poured out the water, and poured three bottles of beer right in. And he swigged the whole thing back in under a minute.

The boys all cheer and hoot, making boy noises and being all boy-like. They had been doing this for the last twenty minutes and I didn't know if they would ever stop, to be honest with you. In fact I completely regretted coming here at all. But of course I couldn't just leave. I was trapped.

"You want a drink, Ella?" Luke holds the vase out to me and I just stare at it.

Was he serious? "Are you serious?"

"Come on, El." Ashton slaps my back, almost winding me. "You wanted to be one of the guys."

"I never did," I counter. "And I don't drink."

"You don't drink?" Michael scoffs.

"You were drinking at the party," Luke says.

I don't want to tell them that I pretended to because I didn't want them to have another thing to tease me about. "Alcohol is poison for your body," I say stiffly, crossing my arms.

"So is love," Michael says, looking right at me. "But people do that all the time."

I roll my eyes. If they wanted to spend their time smoking and drinking and turning into total wasteoids then fine, but I wasn't going to be involved. I may be in another country with completely different rules from what I'm used to, but that doesn't mean I should put an end to my ambitions. I was going to make it out of here alive. And soon, hopefully. Very, very soon.

"Come on, Calum. You're up next." Luke hands the vase to a very apprehensive looking Calum with an eager grin. I roll my eyes as Calum, yet again, doesn't stand up for himself.

"Do I have to drink the whole thing?" Calum asks shyly.

"Duh. That's the whole point, Hood. Come on, don't be such a pussy."

"Yeah. Calum. Don't be so Asian for once."

"I'm not Asian."

"How about if you do it, El will?"

I look up in fear. "What? No!"

Calum looks hopeful. "Will you?"

"No!" I cry again. "Ashton!"

"What's the big deal, Stanford?" Ashton teases.

"Yeah, Stanford?" Michael mimics, shooting me a playful grin. I just ignore it.

"I am not putting that shit in my body," I state. "You can't make me."

"Oh, can't we?" Luke raises his eyebrow and looks at the other boys with a menacing glance. I eye them all carefully.

"W-What ... are you doing?" I start walking backwards as they all close in on me.

"GET HER!" Michael yells and suddenly they're all pouncing on me and I'm screaming like a god damn psychopath. Ashton heaves me over his shoulder whilst the other boys grip me tight and Luke holds the vase up to me.

"Drink it," he forces.

"No!" I shriek. What the god damn freak of nature shit was this?

"CHUG, CHUG, CHUG, CHUG!"

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU ALL?" I screech. "Ashton, put me DOWN!"

"Not until you drink it!" Ashton cries.