Me & Mine

5. The Other Side of Paradise

"Oh my god, this is my favorite song!" I scream as I pull Harley and Ann with me into the wooden lake house. There's a bunch of people that I vaguely recognize from school, all too drunk to care that we were never formally invited to this party. Richie and Amory trail behind us, shaking hands with boys from the football team on the way. I smile as I hear the familiar tunes of Kehlani's Gangsta blasting through the house.
The hallway leads to three different doors. The one straight through goes to the dining room, the one on the right to the kitchen and the one on the left to the living room. The music seems to come from the living room, so I pull the girls with me and scan the place quickly. The room is styled like a lodge, even though the two-story house is way bigger than your average lakeside shed. From the ten-something people that are in the room I only recognize two: Travis and Kane. They are sitting on the burgundy sofa in the corner, while the rest of the party people are moving on the beat around the stereo speakers.
I pull the girls to the middle of the room and lift my hands in the air. I rhythmically move my hips to the beat, a big smile on my face and my eyes closed. The next song comes one, some European DJ's summer hit, and the uptempo beat takes me back to reality. Ann and Harley are hardly moving, more like alternating on which leg to put their weight, and it makes me smile. I still cannot believe that these girls never have been to a party before. Harley notices my staring and smiles back at me. I laugh and take her hand, lifting it up high and making her twirl. She laughs and hides her face behind her other hand. But it seemed to have worked, she starts to loosen up a little. She starts copying my moves and we start dancing back to back with each other, rolling our shoulders and pumping our bodies up and down on the beat of the music. It doesn't take long for Ann to let go too and together we laugh and dance as if no one else was in the room. But of course we weren't alone. Soon enough people joined us, stared at us, or, in the case of the boy standing in front of the burgundy red sofa right now, smiling at us. My eyes fall on Max' muscular body and his fiery red hair, only to have them sink into his. He smiles at me, raising his red cup. I smirk back at him, putting slightly more effort in moving my hips, before returning my attention to the girls again.

Amory and Richie return bearing gifts. Amory hands Harley and me a beer and Richie gives Ann a coke. "Richie!" I yell over the music, pulling the boy closer. "Dance with me!"

"I don't dance!" He yells back, smiling from ear to ear. "But I can make you a better offer."

I smirk and raise my eyes. "I'm all ears."

He stands closer to me and nods at the dining room. "They're playing truth or dare over there," he says, "wanna join?"

I smile and bite the inside of my cheek. Truth or dare is always fun. "Yeah!" Harley and Ann are game too, but Amory politely refuses. "The last time I played truth or dare with that one--" he nods at me, "I puked for days because she made out with some guy right in front of me. That's not something you want to see your baby sister do."

"You're five minutes older, dude, get over it!"

Amory shrugs and joins some of the football guys in their drinking games in the kitchen. I fetch Harley, Richie and myself a refill and follow them into the dining area. All the furniture had been removed from this room, but it was stacked with pillows and blankets. There were people doing the traditional party business in pairs all over the room - kissing, groping, grinding, licking, you know, the R-Rated stuff. A small group of people were sitting on the pillows in the corner, laughing and occasionally yelling and screaming. There's three boys in Letterman jackets and two -- aha. "Richie." I state sternly, and he faces me immediately. "I know, I know," he says, noticing how I glance over at the two girls sitting in between the jocks. Cammie and Keira. I smirk. "You thought it would be fun to let us play truth or dare with them?" Richie laughs and shrugs. "Yeah," he admits, "I mean, come on, Fay! My life was so boring before I met you and now we're at this party and I just want the drama!"