STATIC; JR [2]

1.7

I was never really known as a nerd, even though I was Andy's best friend. I genuinely believed that in this universe, he'd never drop that label. Blake was quite cool, so that instantly made me a likeable person to most of the people in my school. After our two week long trip to the forest, we'd all come back a little more popular than before. A large majority of the attention was focused on Sam and Jake, whereas Felix and I just kind of slinked to the background anyway. Andy was treated poorly, much to my dismay. Trent was stupid, and I didn't believe that you could make him smarted by telling him to be nice.

When we walked up the path toward the party, Oscar told Jake that he could make his own way there. The blond agreed, then smiled gracefully at me. Without any words, he took my hand. Sam was rambling about how awesome the get together would be, and he kept using phrasing it as our party. Technically, it was our party. I never expected that we would get a whole Welcome Home party dedicated to our return, but here we were.

As we entered the party, Jake gave my hand a squeeze. I smiled, because if he was being this public with our relationship, he really did like me. I wasn't sure how many people knew about us, but it no longer mattered, because now everybody would know, and I was okay with that. The space wasn't overly crowded, and it really only consisted of students from our class and one of Sam's older brothers. Just like I had imagined, Jake and Sam were tackled straight away. There were so many bro hugs happening, I had to get out of there. I let Jake's hand go, nodding at him once as the grin grew. "I'll find you in a minute." He promised, before being swallowed into the arms of his football buddies. There were a couple of arms thrown around my shoulders by various people, some belonging to people who I didn't even know that well. But I suppose when something like our disappearance happens, you're just glad they're back and safe. Like I said, instant friends. I was pleased with the amount of affection directed toward me, and I interacted with that group of teens before following Felix to a calmer section of the party.

We were stood of to the side, and when Felix saw Ellen, he waved her over. I smiled at her when she approached, and I was a little too surprised that she actually smiled back. She probably noticed the shock on my face, because she narrowed her eyes. I didn't know what I thought she would say, but I really didn't think that she would laugh. "You know I don't hate you, Edith." She said, her hair being gently thrown around as she shook her head at me. "You're actually okay." I smiled, trying to mask the snort of laughter that was about to erupt past my lips.

"That's good." I told her. "Same to you, I guess." After that, she and Felix spoke about the party, and how it wasn't really Ellen's thing. Although they were politely including me in the conversation, my mind was elsewhere. My eyes found Andy, who was also standing toward the edge of the party. He'd been shoved out of the way, something I'd only just become aware of. I tried to get him to call his name, get him to stand with me, but he never looked at me. I wasn't sure if he was ignoring me, or if he just couldn't hear me over the noise of the chatter. After my third go of unsuccessfully gaining his attention, I stopped trying, because somebody took my own.

"Edith!" I turned to the source of the sound, my gaze landing on a familiar face. I took in her outfit, mentally notice how good she looked. She wore plain leggings, a simple singlet and her signature denim jacket. A lot of times when I saw her out of school, she was wearing that jacket. I said her name with a girly squeal, as a way to greet her. A mumbled see you later left my lips as I approached Emma and left the two Goth teens. She embraced me in a warm hug, her arms gently wrapping around my shoulders. When I pulled away, her smile was even brighter than before.

"You look good, Emma." I told her, giving her upper arm a friendly squeeze before taking another glance at her outfit. She giggled, waving me and my compliments away playfully.