Chasing Blue

#12: Fifty Feet Drop.

"You can only be young once. But you can always be immature."
- Pat Monahan

. . .

Present

Austin

I repent for agreeing to help Aiden prep the house for the party. I should've known 'assisting' and 'volunteering to do all the work alone' mean the same in his dictionary. I greet some people on my way up. The house is filled with people who all collectively know Aiden and it's nerve-gripping. 

I recognize only some alumni who were in his class. The rest of them are just his friends from work and the gym. I wave at a few Seniors from our batch. Aiden gave us the freedom to invite twenty people of our choice. Liam sent the invitation to a WhatsApp group of 50 participants and I'm sure the invite is verbally spreading now. 

Steven looks at me from the kitchen. He's sipping from a red cup. I don't know how I could've done this without the staff's help. We cracked a deal with them when I turned 15. As long as they keep this a secret with mom and dad, they can enjoy the party too. It works in beautiful coordination now.

"Please change your clothes. You look miserable." Steven says as he raises his red cup. 

My nod almost looks like a whine as I climb--no scratch that, crawl my way up the stairs. I enter my room and my closet looks like it survived a hurricane, barely. My clothes are lying on my bed, on the couch, some of it is on the study table and some of them is on the floor. 

"What the fuck?" I eye all my clothes and immediately apologize for the disaster. 

Allowing Liam and Jason to wear my clothes would've been less chaotic if I'd just selected shirts and given them to them. Now my room looks like the messiest trial room.

"You have the most basic clothes. Remind me to take you hipster style shopping." Liam tells me as he rolls the sleeves of my black sweatshirt that matches his dark grey pants. "Your life needs patterns, bold colors, and variety." 

I plop down on the bean bag, too tired to worry about my outfit. I'm wearing the same shorts and sleeveless hoodie I've been wearing since morning. I don't really want to change looking at the mess they've made of my room. 

"Remind me to put you both in cleanliness classes." I brush my fingers through my hair.

My bathroom door unlocks and Jason steps out of it. He's wearing my grey vest shirt on his black denim. They've literally chosen two things that I remember stacking on the top of the shelf. 

I hate seeing two people wearing all black, I cannot imagine what a crowd wearing all black would look like. This theme is so depressing. It's like I've put on a monochrome filter in my eyes and everyone's either black, white, or grey. 

"We're trading closets." Jason snaps his fingers at me. 

I roll my eyes as I drop my head to the bean bag. I remember May whining about not coming prepared. Her pastel yellow top was the opposite of what this theme wanted. Izz suggested she tried her clothes on and they're doing exactly that in the guest room for the past 58 minutes. 

I watch the both of them put on perfume and set their hair. Liam finishes a lot before Jason's done with his hair. As Liam sits on my bed, we both stare, and Jason puts so much effort into trying to tame his hair. 

Believe me, when I say this, I wouldn't ever have the patience to put in even half the effort that Jason Cody puts in while getting ready. "He's really got the hang of it," Liam tells me after thirteen minutes.