It's Complicated

Chapter 47: The Calm Before The Storm

It's been a few hours & everyone has been drinking, even me. I haven't really talked to anyone, I tried keeping to myself & sat in the living room sipping on wine coolers, playing games off my phone & Facebook stalking people. Lauren makes her way to the living room & sits down next to me. "You okay Annie?" She asks as she drinks a can of Miller Lite. I nod my head & smile. I don't want anyone to think I'm being anti-social so I turn off my phone & stand up. I extend my hand to Addison & drag her into the kitchen, "Come on let's take shots & then go jump into the water!" She agrees & pours us two double shots of Fireball.

"One!"
"Two!"
"Three!"

We slam down the shots & make silly faces due to the alcohol burning our throats. We laugh & run hand-in-hand, headed straight for the dock! Once we hit the end, we jump into the water, which instantly took our breath away because of how cold it was. "Holy shit, I didn't expect it to b-b-be that cold!" We shiver & swim to the ladder on the side of the dock where Brennan greeted us with towels. "You two really thought it was going to be warm?" He says as he helps Lauren wrap herself up. I twist my towel & swat him, "Hey, that hurts!" He whines back at me, Addison laughs. "Don't be such a baby, you weirdo!" I say as we all begin to walk back, Brennan standing in the middle of us both.

Walking back up to the house I notice that Daniel is sitting next to Addison, sitting fairly close to her. I begin to look around & search for Dominic, her boyfriend, but he's nowhere to be found. I walk towards them & sit down on a beach chair next to her, "Hey guys!" I say as I sit, she timidly pushes her hair back & waves at me before getting up & walking away. "What was all that about?" I ask as I laugh. He covers his face with his hands & rubs them up & down before letting out a huge sigh. "Was that necessary Julianna? Fuck, man!" He gets up & walks away from me, I assume he goes back looking for her, but I'm too distraught to even care. I see him fade into the distance & well, she's nowhere to be seen either. I sit back in the chair & begin to wonder what went wrong.

Time seems to pass quicker than I noticed, Brennan walks up to me & hands me another wine cooler. "You okay there, punk?" He says as he sits in a chair next to me while he pops open another beer. I sit & struggle to open the bottle before I surrender & hand it over to him, "Yeah, I'm fine." He hands me the unscrewed bottle back & he chugs the rest of his beer, crushing the can with his hands before he throws it into the trash can like a basketball. "He shoots, he scores! B-man for the dub! The crowd goes wild!" He waves his hands in the air & then quickly stops to nudge me, "I said, the crowd goes wild!" I laugh & begin screeching in a weird voice, "Thank you, thank you ladies & gents all be here all weekend!" He then does his ritual "dab" move; typical Brennan.

I sit in the chair fidgeting with my bottle, I still wanted answers as to why Daniel was with Addison! "Brennan, I don't want to sound overbearing over Daniel, but I need to ask you a serious question." He sits up in his chair & takes off his sunglasses, making direct eye contact with me. "Sure, what's wrong?" I try to avoid looking at him by watching the sun set over the river. "It's just, I saw Daniel sitting here with Addison & when I looked for Dominic he wasn't anywhere here. So then, I sat down next to them & she walked away.. He kind of got upset.." I feel kind of pitiful asking if anything is going on between them but I need to know, for my sanity. He grabs my forearm & pats it, "Addy & Dom got into a fight, he left. Maybe Daniel was just trying to console her. He loves you, right? I'm sure he wouldn't do anything to upset you."

Brennan is right, I don't even really know why I was stressing out over this. I finish my drink & head inside to look for Daniel while the rest of our friends sit outside & party. "Daniel, where are you? Daniel?" I'm buzzed, I won't lie, but I'm probably 3 shots away from being terribly drunk. "Babe, where are you?" As I stumble down the hallway, I open every door looking for him, but he's not here. I make my way towards the stairs & attempt to climb up when I notice clothes on the ground, surely it wasn't what I thought it was. The idea of it being something heartbreaking sent me straight back to being sober. I try to shake it off & pull myself up the stairs, walking past several articles of clothing. At the top of the stairs there's a bedroom, the door just so happens to be slightly open. I peek in & see someone in bed alone, it looks like Addison. I shut the door & begin to walk away when I hear a male voice in the room. I press my ear against the wall, but I can't make out the voice. I can hear the footsteps begin to approach the door & I quickly scurry down the stairs & run back outside to the backyard.