I Promise || Adopted by Peterick

_21_ANOTHER PARTY

"Right there." Echo points over me, out the window in the backseat of the car. Pete and Patrick were dropping us off at James' on their way to a dinner party with some friends. Pete swerves the car over to the curb of a decent- looking house. Its fairly sized, one level with the potential of three bedrooms.

"Ok, see you kids later." Patrick glances back at us. Echo already has his seatbelt unbuckled and he had scooted over to the middle seat next to me. Pete looks up in the rear view mirror, shooting me a look.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't." I chuckle and shake my head.

"So tequila shots and whiskey it is." Pete shakes his head at me, smiling a little though Patrick is giving him a look.

"Text me when it's over."

"K, bye."

I push myself out of the car, Echo right behind me. I twist around to see Patrick wave at us before they take off down the street. I face Echo before we go in. He grins at me, taking a small step towards me.

"Ready?" He asks lowly. I nod as he dips his head down a little. I bite the inside of my cheek, I still get nervous when he gets close to me. He brushes a hair away from my face, showing his teeth as he grins.

"Hey, 'bout time!"

I leap away from Echo as we both look up to see James hanging out of his front door. My heart skips a beat as his smile falters for a moment. I look up at Echo to see him still grinning, a little less suggestively, but grinning nonetheless.

"Hey," Echo says as I wave. We make our way up to the door to see James standing there smiling.

"Glad you could make it." James says as he opens the door to reveal a sparsely decorated interior. There's minimal furniture, save for a sofa and some bar stools. There's also quite a few taped boxes around, just the aftermath of packing. As the door closes behind us I see what I assume are James' parents come up behind him.

"Hello, so glad you could make it." I'm at first surprised at her accent after getting used to the muted version James had taken on. She looks just like him though, tall, thin, dark curly hair that hangs to her shoulders. "I'm James' mum, Amy. You must be Lucy, and Echo, of course. So nice to finally meet you." She smiles warmly down at us for a moment before the man to her right speaks.

"Hello, I'm James' father." His dad has a deep voice that makes it seem like he has to clear his throat all the time. "Everyone is in the basement if you'd like to head down." He nods curtly before James leads us to a staircase.

"Sorry about that." He says,"They like to talk." I chuckle a little a how he's embarrassed about his cute parents.

"I like them." I assure him as we reach the basement. It's fairly sized, one main room with what looks like a bathroom off to the side. There's a couple other guys there that I recognize from school. They all sit around on the couches or mess with the speakers in the corner. Echo and I sit on an couch with another guy. He immediately starts up a conversation so I turn to James instead.

"Where are you moving again?" I ask as he picks at his handful of pretzels.

"Nevada."

"Oh, well I'm sure I can come visit when we move to L. A." He nods and gives me an unconvincing smile. "C'mon, it's not all bad," I try to talk him out of his bad mood. "You get to to the capital of casinos and gamble all your money away." He smiles a little making me copy him.

"Yeah, I guess." I grin, happy that I made him happy.

The next couple of hours or so is a blur of sugar and James' sisters coming down to talk his ear off and steal his candy. They're pretty cute, no older than nine. They're both wearing dresses with big skirts and headbands with big bows. James just seems annoyed though I happily follow them in bugging him. At one point they bring down a tube of red lipstick which they help me put on him by pinning him down, all the while Echo recording to post later. All in all it's a good last night in Seattle for James.