Hooked ~A Student/Teacher Love Story~

Chapter 20

I hate parties.  Truly, I have not once enjoyed a party of more than four people.  As a kid, I didn’t like to host or attend them.  My mother often tricked me into going to my friends’ birthday parties when I was a toddler.  She would promise me Dairy Queen and drive me to Bethany’s house, and then I would be forced to sit in awkward silence as Beth laughed and giggled with her loud friends, playing games and ripping open presents.  As I got older, I still attended them, more out of respect than actual desire to do so.  If I could find a way out of it, I did, but sometimes I still had to go. 

The Saturday of Evan’s birthday party, I had no excuse to use.  This was Evan’s eighteenth birthday, and as much as I loathed parties (especially with his obnoxious senior friends), I had promised him I would go.  I knew it was important to him, so I decided to grin and bear it.

Bethany came over to spend the afternoon with me, so we waited until we saw Tori and Jace’s car pull up before we headed over.  I greeted the siblings quietly.  Tori replied, but Jace was too busy kissing Beth to answer.

We walked up to the door as a group and knocked.  Evan answered, beaming like an idiot.

“Hey, guys! Come on in, the party started without you!”

I entered the living room — and my jaw dropped.  The place was crawling with seniors, all of them with beers in hand.  Funny-smelling smoke came from the hallway.  Music blared from the speakers around the room.  The bottom of my stomach fell out.  This was not good.

“Oh, you got me something? Stella, you know you didn’t have to!” Evan exclaimed, snatching the gift bag from my hand.  He pulled out the book I’d bought him, the latest written by his favorite author.  He’d been gushing about how much he wanted it in Creative Writing, so I preordered him a signed copy.  I thought he would’ve been excited, but he just chuckled, dropped it back in the bag, and ditched it on the photo table by the front door.  “Thanks,” he told me absently.

I sat down on one of the couches in the living room, trying to ignore a senior couple getting frisky on the other couch.  Tori sat next to me awkwardly.

“We should get out of here before someone calls the cops,” she muttered, eyeing the beer on the table with a sickened expression.

“I know,” I mumbled in reply, “but I promised him I’d come, at least for a while. We just have to stay for an hour or so, and then we can go back to my house, okay?”

Tori agreed.  She scooted closer to me when the girl from the couch threw her shirt onto our couch.

“I have to hand it to you, Evan, this is pretty cool. I thought your party would be lame,” I overhead Bethany telling Nave.  They both had beers in their hands.  I hadn’t even had anything to drink and I felt sick to my stomach.

“The lameness is over,” he announced.  “I decided I would throw a decent party for my eighteenth birthday.”

“Well, you did a great job,” Beth commented, winking at him.  Evan chuckled and joined a different group, which was probably for the best.  Jace looked ready to punch him if he got any closer to the blonde flirt on his arm.