Adopted by Stromae

quatorze

"Apparently it's one of the biggest parties thrown around here, how did you not know about it?"

Maelle rolled her eyes as Kaydee had made fun of her once again, lovingly presumably, leaning against the girl's locker. "I don't know, okay? I'm not really someone who goes out to parties or anything."

Kaydence laughs, shaking her head. "I knew it before you did, and I'm supposed to be the new girl here. Anyways, you should definitely come with me. We can get ready together! My parents are gone on a business trip, it's perfect timing."

Maelle looked at her friend as if she had grown a second head. "It's tonight. That's not even a day's notice."

The younger girl had sighed, and lowered her voice so that people passing in the hallway couldn't hear them. "Maelle, you need to put yourself out more. If you don't want to again, fine, that's cool, but at least come once. It's really fun, and you meet a lot of cool people."

It felt nice that someone cared about her, even though people had been proving it to her during her entire life— she ate up attention like there would never be enough. She smiled, succumbing to the pressure of her friend's pleads. "Fine. Pick me up at twelve, I'll text you the address."

+

Maelle felt a little uneasy about sneaking out once more for multiple reasons. Those being, clearly, that Paul had caught her when she had tried to pull a stunt like this. She knew Max couldn't be there to save her ass every time she decided to leave in the middle of the night. Also, she didn't exactly have a great reason this time, either.

Or, maybe that's what she wanted to try and convince herself.

In all reality, she wanted to forget. All about her past, all about her mother, all about what her father has done and what he's been doing without her knowing. Even if subconsciously she knew that this was definitely not a permanent solution and she was no better than her father— she was willing to take the risk of stopping that low.

Still, she had promised her only friend she'd be coming and she couldn't disappoint. She had decided to wear one of the only dresses she owned, which was semi-casual. Maelle didn't have the faintest of clue how formal this thing was, but she assumed if a party thrown in the house of a senior, people wouldn't really be paying attention to how she dressed.

She checked her phone— it was quarter to eleven, so she grabbed a jacket and made sure her door was locked. Maelle had forgotten to do that last time, so she reminded herself to double check this time. Soon, she saw a car roll in through her window and she slowly pulled up her window, crawling through ungraciously and closing it behind her.

"Looking good," Kaydee comments as soon as Maelle hopped into her car.

"Thanks," she laughed dryly. "We stopping by yours first?"

"We were going to," she says, shrugging. "I decided it'd be best if we got there earlier, though."

She didn't question her judgement, and they had an entertaining— to say the least, car ride of listening and screaming out the lyrics of whatever song came on the radio. Maelle hadn't let herself have this much fun in what seemed to be years, but she couldn't let herself be a bore while her friend was out having fun. When they finally parked in front of a very large house, with about ten or more cars loitering in the driveway, she was already high on adrenaline.

As she walked in the house with Kaydence, the first thing that she smelled was alcohol. It was definitely stronger than anything else, and surrounding her were teenagers that she probably didn't know the names of. She paused, motionless, before her friend impatiently grabbed her hand and pulled her further. "Come on, we don't have all night, Maelle."