Virtual Attraction [COMPLETE]

9| The Party II.

Holy crap. Panic filled my brain, as I stood in the doorway shell-shocked, my heels glued to the ground. How had he even had time to hook up with a girl so fast? And why did it have to be freaking Brooke Smith, for the love of God?

Suddenly the tall window I'd eyed on my way in was looking like a really tempting escape route. If I just did a quick sprint, they'd never recognize me. I guessed there were enough people in the backyard to see my 20 feet fall and call 9-1-1. And after I had broken every bone, I could take a six-month high school hiatus while I was healing.

Adam's voice cut through the silence, "Blaze?"

My body tensed and I knew I probably looked like a deer caught in headlights.

I tried to open my mouth and say something and save myself somehow, but my tongue felt heavy and clumsy.

"What's wrong?"

My face began to burn red in anger. What's wrong? He was the one who'd basically forced me to come to this stupid party. Then once I got here, he'd ditched me to make out with my ex-best friend? Granted he probably didn't know anything about the drama with Brooke, Payton and Khloe. But still, that was a pretty selfish thing to do, just leaving me all alone in this environment of people I knew nothing about.

And then Brooke. There was no doubt she'd run to tell Payton and Khloe that she'd seen me, the skinny-bitch as they liked to call me.

"You can't be serious," I heard Brooke say, her raspy voice cutting through the air in the dimly lit room. She started pulling back up the sides straps of her shirt that Adam had pulled down while they'd been dancing.

The tone of her voice sounded like she'd just lost all her money and possessions in a freak fire accident. It felt like her narrowed eyes were throwing fire darts at me. This all did nothing for my sudden onset of paralysis.

Adam turned to Brooke, lifting his eyebrows. "You two know each other?"

"Yeah," she replied, pulling her loose sweater over her arms.

When Adam turned back to me, I figured it was my time to speak, so I forced out some mumbled words that sounded incoherent even to me.

"W-well you just l-left." I sounded pathetic, like I needed him to stay with me at the party.

"Wow," she said, starting to get up.

"Well yeah," Adam replied slowly, as if I couldn't speak English. "You're supposed to mingle...that's what parties are for." If he was trying to make me feel like a complete idiot, he was succeeding.

"Excuse me," Brooke said, pushing past Adam and I and re-entering the party. He called after her, but in a few seconds she was gone, swallowed by the maze of students inched tightly together in the basement.

Adam looked at me like I was a nuisance, his eyes twisting in a way as if he regretted even coming here. He thumbed his forehead.

"Fine," he said, irritated. "She's gone now, what do you want to do?"

After the way he'd acted, I didn't really want to be around him.

"Actually I think I'm just going to go home," I replied, pulling on the cardigan that I had folded into my elbows.

"You've got to be shitting me," he answered, coming closer towards me. "You interrupted me just to tell me that you didn't want to stay?"

As he neared, I could faintly smell alcohol on his breath. He'd been at the red cup table I'd seen on my way down the stairs.

"Jesus Blaze, what is wrong with you?"

The weight of the words hit me in full force. Everything.

"I was just trying to help you out..."

"L-leave me alone," I answered.

"Get you off your phone and into the real world."

"Shut up, Adam," I mumbled.

"I mean you seemed lonely, like you needed a party."

"Nobody asked you to h-help m-me," I mumbled again. He wasn't listening to me.

"I didn't think you'd be such a downer."

"Well, sorry for the in-c-convenience," I replied, angrily.

"I didn't think—

It was over so quickly; I almost didn't believe I'd done it. But the confirmation was in the red, palm-sized imprint that was visible on Adam's right cheek.

I didn't even leave time to hear him wince, before I spun out of the dark room, back into the throbbing pulse of the crowd.

This time around it was if the crowds of screaming party-goers didn't exist. My mind was too focused on what had just happened, I couldn't concentrate on my surroundings. On my way down it had felt like my eardrums were going to burst in protest of the loud music. This time, I could've been in solitary confinement. I just wanted to get out of the house as fast as possible and pretend this whole event hadn't happened. Pretend I'd never slapped Adam, pretend I'd never seen Brooke, pretend I'd never even been invited.

Once I got up to the top of the stairs, I searched for what would be the quickest exit out of the house. The front entrance and back entrance were both by hordes of teens, and never felt appealing to me. I scoured the mansion, knowing such a huge house had to have a side door of some sorts.

It took ten minutes to find, but after passing through what felt like endless hallways, the numbers of people started to dwindle down. Until I found a mesh, screen door along the back of one of the quieter rooms in the house. The glass portion of the door had been slid out. I ducked my head into the room and

headed to a bathroom nearby. Pulled out my cell phone, I tried to call for a taxi or Uber to pick me up near Mason's house. As I sat on the edge of the bathroom tub, I realized I didn't even have enough battery to make a call. The screen read 2% and sent my stomach plummeting.

My mind was racing with options for how I was going to get home, when a deep familiar voice boomed from behind me.

"You made it."

I'd never been so thankful the hear the sound of someone's voice in my life.

It was Elliot.