Happier

Chapter 22

           

April sixth, the day on which Violet McLaren was born eighteen years ago. April tenth, the day on which Archie Andrews was born, also eighteen years ago. What better way to celebrate two birthdays than a kick-ass party? Plus, it's spring break, which means they can party all day, every day. They had planned it for over a month and both are equally as excited. The party took place at Archie's place, seeing both his parents would be gone for the weekend. He'd restocked his dad's liquor cabinet, bought red cups, and a bunch of snacks for everyone to munch on.
"Babe," Cole's voice sounds behind Lacey as she stands in front of her mirror to check and re-check her outfit, "Are you sure we shouldn't be there at nine?" Lacey rolls her eyes at her boyfriend and turns around to face him.
"No, honey. Parties only start around ten or eleven nowadays," she informs him while adjusting the hem of his shirt. "But, if it'll calm you down a little, we can leave in five minutes and we'll help out with snacks or something," Cole sighs, defeated by how fast the girl noticed what was going on.
"Thanks," he whispers, averting his eyes away from her. Lacey smiles tenderly and grabs his face to force him to look at her.
"You'll be fine, honey. It's just a small house party. Nothing too bad," she says, but at the same time, she's wondering if she's telling the truth or not. Hoping she was telling the truth. You never know with Archie and Violet. They stare in each other's eyes, hoping to find some comfort, some assurance. It seems like he's found it when he leans in to kiss her.
"Are you guys ready?" Stacey asks, causing the couple to break up the kiss. The two look at the smaller Goldberg, who's accompanied by a broad, tall boy. Dark hair, dark eyes. Kinda cute, kind of a senior. Sam Evans. Lacey gives her sister a weird look. She's all dolled up. She's not going to this party, is she?
"Yeah, we are. We're about to leave," Cole tells them, taking his hands off his girlfriend and putting them in the pockets of his pants.
"I can give you guys a ride. I'll be the designated driver," Stacey tells them whilst rummaging through her purse to find her keys.
"You're coming to the party with us?" the eldest questions.
"Err-yeah," Lacey shakes her head. This sixteen-year-old is going to a party with a bunch of eighteen-year-olds? How is their dad okay with that?
"Did dad give you that permission?" Cole watches the whole scene and smirks a little. This is the Lacey he hates to see when it's towards him, but when she's loopy Lacey. With the pouty lips, the furrowed eyebrows and the hand on the hip. He smirks and goes to stand with Sam.
"I call this Loopy Lacey," he whispers whilst his girlfriend stares her sister down, "See the furrowed brows, the pouted lips and the hand on her hip. It's an irrational state that she clearly only ever reserves for me and her sister," Lacey gives him an eyeroll, but doesn't say anything, not to him.
"Dad told me I had to go after Sam told him about the party," Stacey answers finally. Lacey's eyes widen, completely shocked at dad's sudden looseness.
"Okay," Lacey breathes out, calming down, "I'm not going to fight with you right now. Tonight is about Arch and V. Let's go," she takes her jean jacket and purse before leaving the house with Stacey, Sam and Cole. They take their mom's car and drive off to Archie's place. There are no cars parked anywhere near, neither do they hear the music coming from inside yet.
"I told you parties don't start at nine," Lacey whispers to Cole as they walk towards the door, hand in hand. Stacey rings the doorbell and it only takes a few seconds before Melanie opens up the door.
"Oh hey guys!" she exclaims excitedly, opening up the door a little more to let her friends in. "You're early," she closes the door behind them and follows into the kitchen where Archie and Violet are putting snacks into bowls.
"Hey guys," Violet nearly shouts as she runs over to her friends to give each of them a hug, even Sam.
"Let's get this party started!" Archie yells, handing everyone a filled cup. Stacey declines however.
"Designated driver," she smiles and so does he.
"Chug on three," he demands, bringing the cup up to his lips, "3,2," he counts down. Everyone glares at one another, ready to take this, "One." All of them start chugging down the beer, Cole and Archie finishing at the same time.
"I thought you'd never gone to a party before," Lacey tells him, amused.
"The talent runs in my family, Lace," he replies with a smirk.
All of them help out with the snacks and all the liquor until the people start arriving and the DJ Archie hired starts the music. It's a dude from school he could afford. He's quite good. With his great remixes and the music loud enough, the party can officially start. Everyone is dancing, drinking alcohol and some try to have a conversation. Lacey is in the kitchen, getting drinks for her and Cole when she finds Sam without her sister.
"Where's Stace?" she yells towards him, pouring him a drink as well.
"Bathroom," he answers shortly as he takes the cup from the girl. He takes a sip, the liquor burning down his throat. Lacey watches him. She wonders how a guy like Sam ended up with a girl like her sister. They're both attractive, yes, but he's a senior and she's a sophomore. They're not supposed to mix. But then again, her sister doesn't do labels.
"Can I ask you something, Sam?" she yells over the music. He looks up at her, brown eyes filled with fear. The fact that his girlfriend's older sister wants to ask him something, doesn't mean any good.
"Sure," he tries to act confident, but Lacey can see right through his act. She chuckles lightly.
"It's nothing bad, Sammy. I just wanted to know how you met my sister," his expression relaxes a little, puffing out a breath.
"We actually met via Tinder," Lacey's eyebrow rises a little, surprised at the beginning of the story, "We matched on Tinder and we started talking. I had seen her in school and stuff, but I was afraid she had no idea who I was, so I never mentioned it until she did. She once texted me during lunch, telling me she saw me. Our eyes met and we both just smiled. After that, we just texted a lot, and we would say hello when we passed one another in the hallway, but we never really spoke," Lacey is intrigued with this story of her sister. She had no idea what was happening in mini Goldberg's life. "Until one day I asked her out. I had to pack up all of my courage to ask her out, but it was the best decision I have ever made," the blonde's heart melts at his words. Her sister deserves someone like Sam. He cares and would do anything to keep her safe, Lacey can tell. It's in the way his eyes light up when he talks about her and in the way his face is completely relaxed. "That day of the shooting, I was honestly terrified that I had lost her, even though I had never even properly spoken to her. I was terrified that I could never talk to her. But when I saw her with you, I was so relieved, you have no idea," a smile appears on Lacey's face. This boy is head over heels over her sister and it's the cutest thing she has ever witnessed.
"Believe me, I have an idea of what you felt that day," Sam chuckles a little, feeling stupid for the words he'd used, "I'm glad you had the courage to ask her out. You make her a better person, I can tell," that makes the corners of his mouth curl up into a smile. Lacey looks out into the living room, watching all the teenagers dance around, some of them are clearly drunk already.
"I'm going to go find Stacey," Sam tells her, but then Lacey gets an idea. She stops him by putting a hand on his muscled arm. 
"Hey, do you want to take shots with us?" she asks, completely ignoring what he said before. She grabs a bottle of tequila, salt, a lime and a couple of red shot cups. The boy nods and follows his girlfriend's sister into the living room. They gather her friends around the table, and get ready to take the shots. Everyone has a cup, filled with tequila and salt on the back of their hand, a slice of lime in front of them. Except for Cole. He sits out on this one and just watches his friends. To be fair, he doesn't really want to be here. Not anymore. He was excited at first, but now, he doesn't care as much anymore. He's seen it. He's seen it all. Strippers, weepers, the gigglers, the angry girls and the clingy ones who suck their boyfriend's faces off. There's nothing fun about that. Nothing at all. He doesn't even feel tipsy yet and he's had a fair amount of alcohol already. 
"Ready?!" Violet shouts. Everyone stares at her, anticipating the countdown, "Three, two, one. SHOT!" and with that, they all lick up the salt, chug the liquor down and take a bite of the lime.
"AGAIN!!" Melanie shouts, hands up in the air in excitement. They all get ready again and take another shot. And another. And another. Until everyone has crossed the level of tipsiness.
"BODY SHOTS!" Violet now yells, throwing her hands in the air.
"Body shots?" Cole asks. And he thought he'd seen everything. Clearly, he hasn't.
"Yeah, let me show you!" Melanie tells him as she unbuttons her shirt, revealing her pink bra. "V, give our greenie the example," she commands whilst lying down on the table in front of them. Violet nods and gets the salt to pour it across Melanie's belly. She then fills up her cup with liquor and takes a slice of the lime.
"Ready, Mel?" Violet asks and when she gets the nod, she licks the salt up from her best friend's belly, then chugs the alcohol and bites into the lime. Her brows are furrowed from the sourness of the lime and the burning feeling of the tequila. Then, without anyone expecting it, Violet dips down and kisses Melanie full on the lips. It's a deep, passionate kiss with clearly a lot of tongue. Everyone around them cheers and laughs, except for Cole. He shakes his head and gets up to go somewhere else. On the sofa, he finds Stacey between a pair of face-sucking couples. He chuckles a little, then goes to sit with her.
"You okay?" he asks. The girl looks up, clearly shaken out of a daydream.
"Yeah, I'm just here for Sam, I guess," she shrugs, staring into her red cup of Coca Cola. Before Cole can say anything, someone throws herself on top of him. He realizes soon enough it's Lacey and wraps his arms around her drunk body. She reeks of alcohol. It's the most sickening thing he has ever smelled. She giggles a little, pressing her lips onto his cheekbones and into his neck.
"We're going to play spin the bottle," she informs them, "you guys want to play?" Cole shakes his head, but Stacey contemplates it. If she plays along, she can get an opportunity to kiss Sam and remind him that she is his girlfriend. Or it's an opportunity to kiss someone else and make him jealous. The girl nods and gets up, helping her sister up too. The latter looks at her boyfriend.
"Come at least sit with us? I don't want you to be here all by yourself," she tells him. He sighs and gets up too, following his girlfriend towards the others. They all sit down on the carpet with in the middle of the circle a chessboard and an empty bottle of whine coolers.
"I'm starting!" Violet yells drunkenly and reaches out to spin the bottle. All of them watch the bottle spin and spin until it stops. They all look at who is pointing.
"Stacey!" Lacey shouts, the rest clapping their hands. The two girls get up on their knees and crawl closer to each other. Both of them smile nervously. Stacey had never kissed a girl before. Violet grabs Stacey by the cheeks and brings her closer until their lips meet. Violet tilts her head a little, deepening the kiss. Everyone around them stares, some of them cheer. Even Sam cheers a little. He can't help but get turned on by his girlfriend kissing another girl. Melanie however, isn't so happy with what is happening.
"Okay, I think we've had enough of that!" she yells, breaking the two apart. Lacey looks at Melanie, confused as to why she'd be so jealous of Violet kissing someone else. Her drunken mind can't really set anything straight. Nothing makes sense.
"That was hot," Sam mumbles and brings his girl in for a kiss.
"My turn!" Stacey yells when she breaks apart from her boy's lips. She spins the bottle around, anticipating who it's going to land on. When it lands on Lacey, everyone cheers and laughs.
"No matter how drunk I am, I'm not kissing my little sister, guys. Sorry," she declines with a giggle.
"The person to her left then," Violet states, pointing at the ginger boy who's sitting next to Lacey. He shrugs and leans in forward to meet Stacey.
"Hey, a reminder, this is my girlfriend," Sam points out, half-threatening Archie.
"And my sister, so watch those hands!" Lacey adds, giving the boy a warning look. The lips of the two chosen ones connect. They just stay like that for a couple of seconds, not really deepening the kiss. She has a boyfriend, for crying out loud and she's sober.
"Alright, Andrews," Violet interjects the kiss, "your turn," the boy nods and reaches over to spin the bottle. His head is spinning, anticipating the moment the bottle stops spinning. His head doesn't. The bottle stops at Lacey. Their eyes meet and for a minute, Archie feels stone cold sober. The love of his life is the one he's about to kiss.
"OOOH!" it sounds from around them, but it's distant. Archie can't really make any voices up out of the cheers and yells and wolf-whistles. They inch closer to one another, breaths hitching in their throats. It feels so natural, like this is what they're supposed to do. Their human instinct. Cole watches, a pained expression on his face. His girlfriend is sucking off his best friend's face. Swallowing one another. It's sickening. Heart wrenching. Like they're both ripping his heart out of his chest and tearing it in half. Each one half in hand. Like he's stabbed in the back by Archie and in the heart by Lacey. Everything hurts. He can't watch anymore, so he gets up and walks into the kitchen for some liquor. He has to feel the burning alcohol through his throat. He needs to feel something, because right now, he feels empty. Is this cheating? Or shouldn't he be so upset about it because it's just a stupid game? A stupid, heartbreaking game.