Trust Your Instincts

-15- Chicken Ken

Jack stepped out of the shower and checked the time on his phone. He still had an hour until Mark's party started, and truth be told, he was genuinely excited. He smiled to himself when he looked in his bathroom mirror. A party! he thought. You've been invited to a party! With alcohol... and more than ten people!

For the first time since moving to California, he didn't feel like a total loser, an outcast. His worry was almost cast aside as he walked from the steamy bathroom to his bedroom, the cool air streaming through the window causing him to shiver uncontrollably, since he was bare apart from a towel wrapped around his waist. He entered the room and turned on his hair dryer, blasting the green strands on his head with hot air. It was his first party after all. He had to look good!

The next half hour was spent looking through his near empty wardrobe, flicking past every item of clothing at least thirty times, before he finally decided on a nice blue button down shirt, spending even longer deciding whether to roll the sleeves up or not. He figured it was best to do so. It was a humid night, and he normally never showed any more skin in public than he had to. He wanted to make an impression this time. He was determined to prove to Will and everyone else that he could be fun and outgoing just as easily as he was reclusive and temperamental. Confidence flooded over him, he was eager to flip his less than desirable reputation on its head.

He must have spent a hell of a long time styling his hair, making sure that it stood perfectly, not a strand out of place. When he looked down at his phone, the time read 8:01pm. He was already a minute late, and he wasn't even wearing shoes yet. There was a message notification on his phone, a rare sight for Jack to see in all honesty...

"Hey sorry I headed to Mark's earlier to help him set up . I will see you there Jack!!" The text from Josh read. Jack smiled slightly at the fact that Josh had thought to text him and let him know, but he was a little upset that he'd be walking up to Mark's himself. His nerves hadn't completely vanished yet!

He decided there was no point waiting any longer. He left the apartment after spraying about half a bottle of cologne on himself. He got to the bottom of the stairs of the apartment building, and realised he had no jacket, but assured himself that he wouldn't need one, it was cloudless outside, heat still lingered, left behind by the setting evening sun. And it was a house party.

--- (30 minutes earlier)

Ken stood in Mark's kitchen, he had agreed to help Mark set up, but only because he was forced to by Will. All of the others were there too, Pete, Eli, Slim Jim, Blake and Will stood in a circle at the other end of the kitchen. Ken hated them. He didn't realise how much he could loathe a group of people, until he heard the plan in its entirety.

He was still confused. Why would someone go to such lengths to ruin the life of an innocent, albeit somewhat strange, teenager? He knew they were planning it over there, he noticed that Blake kept giving him side glances, trying to catch his attention, to silently pull him over and become part of the conversation, but Ken was more than happy setting up beer pong and filling shots for people to take when they wanted with Josh. Josh had also turned up early of his own accord, which made Will curl his lip downwards in frustration, but he eventually saw it as a blessing. He would keep Mark company while they set up Jack's fate.

Ken sighed when he heard Pete bark his name, and left Josh to blow up balloons on his own (Mark thought balloons were a great idea, and so he bought loads). He forced his way in between Blake and Eli, earning a deadly glare from the latter. Will looked to Ken, a slight glare shown on his face too, he didn't particularly like Ken, he never did, but Blake did, and so he tolerated him as much as he could.

"Okay Ken," Will grumbled, clearly disgruntled, "since you thought it was more important to blow up balloons with the target's number one than hear the final plans, I guess it'd be best if you just went on lookout with Blake. Does that sound like something you could do?" Will asked sarcastically, perhaps intending to hurt Ken's feelings, but not succeeding. Blake elbowed Will hard in the ribs, urging him to play nice, which Will silently agreed on doing.