2 | ONE MORE | MINIMINTER

SIX

SIX

Dallas seemed to get swept into the crowd as she and Violet arrived. They'd been there barely an hour and already she was lost between unfamiliar faces and dancing strangers. It was hot in there too. Too hot. The heat stuck to her skin, burning her, closing in tighter and tighter every time she took a breath.

Straightening her dress, she careers around the crowd and makes a bee-line for the drinks table. Maybe a drink would cool her down.

She picked up bottle after bottle looking for something that wasn't alcoholic, and after every bottle that was alcoholic she begins to regret offering to drive. As she finally finds a bottle of lemonade and starts to unscrew the lid, she hears her name.

"Dallas?" A voice calls, surprise in their voice. She whirls around, coming face to face with Ethan and Josh. "It is you!" Ethan laughs, yanking her into a hug. She could smell the alcohol on him, but she squeezes him just as tightly and then hugs Josh once she's released from Ethan's grasp.

"Congrats on three years, guys," Dallas says, smiling awkwardly. "Sorry I wasn't there for it, but you've done pretty well for yourself."

"Thanks," Josh replies, looking merry but not wasted. "It's something we really enjoy doing. These years have flown by. Anyway, how've you be-"

Josh is cut off by Ethan. "What the fuck? Dallas Edlen is drinking lemonade at a party? What happened to you?" He exclaims, pushing past her to the table and beginning to pour out a drink very heavy on the alcoholic side.

"I can't," She says, grabbing his wrist to stop him before he poured out the vodka. "I'm driving me and Violet home."

"Shut up," Ethan says, pulling his arm away from her. "Get a taxi. You're drinking."

"Ethan."

"We haven't seen you in years. Party with us like you're making up all those years in one night." Ethan moves to continue pouring her a drink, she doesn't stop him. "Here," He says, handing it to her.

Dallas looks from him, down into the cup, up to Josh and then back to the cup before shrugging her shoulders and gulping down the drink in seconds. "Better?" She laughs and he can barely contain himself as he takes the cup from her hand and fills it up again.

"Definitely better," He replies, but her smile is gone as her eyes lock onto the one she thought she wanted to see.

And he was looking right back at her with wide eyes.

Underneath the strobe, he looked as good as the day she'd left him.

Dallas presses her lips together, looking to Ethan to tell him to hold her drink, but when she looked back again Simon was gone and now her mind was spinning like a carousel, except one ripped straight out of a nightmare.

-

468 words
sorry these chapters are short, but it's kind of the style I'm going for and not having too much in one chapter means that I can update more often.