Life's Fear

Chapter Twenty-Two

The lounge was almost deserted surprisingly.

There were a few couples making out in the corners and the music lay unattended to just skip onto the next song, whatever that would be. Cliché crimson cups were left discarded on the floor and some stains were even materialising. Crumbs were absolutely everywhere and there was even a ripped condom wrapper on the floor by the sofa.

"Are house parties normally this dead?" he asked, eyes roaming around the place.

"No," I said back, shaking my head. "Don't sit on the sofa," I instructed to Jason, pointing at the circumstantial evidence. The music wasn't loud enough that if I whispered to Jason he wouldn't be able to hear.

He nodded, a smirk growing on his lips as I directed him to what I presumed would be the kitchen. Instead it was the dining room, and two girls were getting it on in the corner. Jason seemed to stare at those more than the couple who ran past us outside, but I immediately turned around and hurried to locate the kitchen, grasping Jason's hand and leading him away.

The kitchen was vacant of presence except Jason and I. We shrugged at one another and poured ourselves whatever the pink concoction was in the large fishbowl into two clean red cups. "Is it customary to take a look around?" Jason asked, eyebrows raised as he brought the cup to his lips.

"Why not?" I retorted.

We found the downside bathroom – it wasn't in the best of shape. There was even a bedroom, though it was occupied, and Jason and I didn't require entering to find that out. The noises were enough. And there even seemed to be a slapping noise. "Let's move away," I instructed as soon as I heard it.

Jason's cheeks were flaming red as we travelled upstairs to find the upstairs bathroom. Astonishingly that one was quite clean, though there seemed to be some sort of mess in the bath tub. It then made sense why the door was shut, because the stench was absolutely repulsive. So we exited and shut the door at once. There must have been four upstairs bedrooms and each one was occupied. Consequentially our snooping was cut short.

"Let's go outside," Jason suggested. "I don't think it'll be as noisy out there, and I don't particularly like this music." Neither did I, though I just wanted to be with Jason and spend as much time as I could with him. And we hadn't spotted Max yet, so maybe she decided against coming. Who knows what she'd say if she saw us together.

The doors to get outside were through a little room past the kitchen, though there were shelves of stacked books and even a little table with useless things on such as cardboard boxes from purchasing the supplies for this party. I wasn't entirely sure what the room was labelled as when it constituted of that, so we just slipped out through the sliding doors and shut them behind us. It was still cold out. I hadn't realised how warm it had been in the house until we were outside.

The garden wasn't too vast. There was an unsteady-looking shed at the back and a trampoline, but not many flowers or trees like the front. Vines were growing along the white wall of the back of the house as well, I noticed when I turned to the side. The front of the house was white too, but it was devoid of vines. We leaned back against the wall. No one was out here and you couldn't hear much of the music thankfully.

"Is it living up to your expectations?" I asked him.

He took a sip of the drink. "Well, you still have to dance with me, so I can't give you an answer until you do." He glanced down into the cup and said, "I'm almost all out. I don't think I'll be having anymore though."

"I agree," I said, downing the rest of mine, though I winced as soon as I had and immediately regretted that choice.

Jason emulated this and we put our cups down on the stone next to us. There were stones that encased the house before it was just grass. But the wind could pick up at any moment, so whether they'd still be there when Jasper would be cleaning up, I had no idea. Our intentions were in the right place, however.