Typical.

Chapter 12: Coming Back

When I got home, I remember just flopping into bed and not waking up until five PM, when my mom was telling me to wake up.

“Love, wake up. Spend time with us.” My eyes fluttered open to see my mom’s smiling face. “Where were you this morning, love?”

“Nowhere. I’ll be out in a second,” I said, flopping over in bed. I took a scorching shower and rubbed my eyes. I slid on a new, fresh outfit and felt instantly rejuvenated. I spent quite a lot of time catching up with my family over my favorite dinner, the family pasta recipe. When everyone went to sleep, I slipped shoes on my feet and snuck out the front door. It was only 11 by the time I got to Noah’s, but the party had begun. I recalled Noah saying something to the point of, “the real party begins at midnight.”

So I had an hour before the “real party” began? If this wasn’t a real party then… what was?

There were kegs everywhere, I saw drugs being passed around the music was blaring and there were probably over two or three hundred people. What was the “real party?”

I ignored that and wove through people, looking for Evie. I thought that I probably wouldn’t get anywhere looking for her because she could easily blend in with any other skinny brunette I saw. I had this terrible thought in the back of my head that I knew she’d be with Noah. I hated the thought of it but knew it was true.

“Liam,” said a voice I recognized. I turned and saw Michelle, who was, at first sight, drunk off her ass. You see, Michelle had always expressed an interest in drugs and alcohol. I’d kind of kept her at bay with my responsibility and all, but when I left, she, as Evie had described, went off the deep end. Apparently, she pulled Kate, who pulled Noah into some pretty deep shit. “Liam, I missed you,” she said, pulling me into a hug, jutting her shoulder into my neck, choking me for a moment.

“Hey, Michelle, where’s Evie?”

She giggled. “Evie’s with Noah, don’t you remember, Liam?”

“Yeah,” I said sadly. A small fraction of me wished that she wasn’t even home, that she was waiting on my front porch steps for me to come home. “Yeah, I know.”

She began to stumble away and I chewed on my lip and, without much to do, followed her. I followed her through the kitchen out to the back yard, where she threw her arms up in the air. She flailed her arms and kicked off her shoes as she ran to a huge bonfire in the middle of the big, grass yard.

The fire burned brightly and its smoke masked that coming from the people smoking various substances. The light given off by the flames illuminated all the faces and gave brilliant silhouettes. In the light, I saw a few familiar faces.

And then I saw Evie’s. She wasn’t smiling, but she also wasn’t frowning. Her eyes were open wide, as if taking in everything around her. There was a blanket wrapped around her shoulders and her hair was tied in a braid down her back. Noah was with her and so was Kate. I watched Michelle wobbly join them. Michelle said something to them and pointed my way.

I quickly hid myself behind a mass of people, then peeked out to watch them. Noah did nothing but put something—a joint—up to his lips and pull Evie to his chest. She seemed to resist for a second, then gave into him. She said something to him and he looked upset. Or maybe he would’ve been more than upset, angry, even, if he wasn’t high. He said something that obviously bothered her and she took the blanket off his shoulders, shoved it onto his chest, and then walked off towards the house.

I was shocked by what she was wearing. She was wearing my t-shirt. Well, of course, she’d taken the liberty of cutting it up to fit her style, but nevertheless, I knew it was mine. She’d cut tassels on the bottom, and with every step, they swayed from side to side. Her skirt was black and short, she was wearing red converse. She crossed her arms over her chest and before I knew it, she’d stepped up onto the deck, not five feet from me.