Jack held his drink high as he navigated through the crowd. It was as if the room were made of nothing but elbows as people pushed past him and poked into him, the threat of beer being sloshed onto his clothes an all too real danger. He jostled past Phillips, all dark bushy hair, and he smiled at him, stopping a moment on his way to the back of the house.
"Killer party I put together here, huh?" Phillips said over the dull drone of people talking and the music flooding in from the dining room. Jack nodded, grinning a little, using the back of his hand to push his glasses back into place. "It's so good to see you out of the library. Finals are torture!" he laughed and Jack shrugged, pulling his drink down to chest level now that he wasn't moving so much. "Tell me about it."
"You think you did ok?" he said, stepping closer. Jack could smell the Brown Man's cologne, probably put on just to attract a certain Hunter. "I did as well as I could. You?" he answered, watching Phillips roll his eyes to the ceiling, moving one shoulder casually. "Same, I guess." he suddenly smiled, pushing the blonde boy slightly, "But don't be so modest, we all know you aced." Jack could feel the blush creeping up and coloring his ears as he thought to himself 'completely ludacris' and continuing to shrug the compliment off.
"Well, enough talk about school. I'm glad you're having a good time," his eyes darted as he looked around the room, "there's lots of girls here, you know," he pushed him again with his hand and Jack laughed nervously. "Yeah," he trailed, looking around. He was right. There were plenty of girls. "Here," he stepped forward and straightened the blue eyed boy's collar and his tie a little, smoothing his hands over his shoulders, "and remember to smile, you could get lucky tonight!"
"I doubt it," Jack coughed, and the brunette let his hands swing back down by his sides. He gave him a long look and smiled. "I don't know," he sing-songed, "Come on, for you it'll be like shooting fish in a barrel!"
Jack chuckled, taking a sip of his beer while he looked at Phillips. Finishing his swallow, he was just opening his mouth to say something else when there was a displaced roar from the front of the house. Several people turned to look, some fidgeting apprehensively.
An engine gunned and from the archway to the foyer, Jack could see a bright beam of yellow light spearing through the front window.
"Cops?" someone said, a girl, her voice shaking. A friend shushed her and everyone was quiet, the music pouring out of the dining room seeming louder than ever in the gathered silence. A group of guys moved to the window, and though he could barely see over them, Jack craned his neck to watch as they crowded around it, their hands on the glass.
"Who the h*ck invited him?" one of them said, pulling back from the pane to glare behind him at the party goers. Jack frowned as the engine cut off, the light going with it. "He parked right on the lawn!"
"I can't believe he showed up," Phillips said, and Jack turned to see him shaking his head, sighing as he crossed his arms over his chest. He looked at Jack and raised his dark eyebrows. "If you heard it from me, I told him not to come tonight. It's going to be nothing but trouble." "Who?" Jack asked, looking back to what little he could see of the foyer.
"You'll see," Phillips laughed, and when Jack turned to continue speaking to him, he was already half way across the room, slipping away into the kitchen. Jack blew a breath out of his mouth and then glanced back, still curious. Two girls had replaced the boys at the window, and were whispering to each other as he approached. He stared over their heads, but it was too dark to see from his distance what they were looking at.
"Did you see him?"
"Don't look!"
"Oh, I can't help it! He's so bad! Would you look at that bike?"
