Runaway Man

Chapter 35: Planning

Chapter 35: Planning

Diana and parties were never a good combination. Personally, I dreaded them even when she mentioned the word, which for me was a "nope", popping the p. And if there was alcohol that meant that there would be drunks. If there were drunks, everything would just go down the drain.

"Do you think we could hire a beach?" Diana lay on her bed, examining piles upon piles of scattered magazines whereas I sat awkwardly in the corner.

"Isn't that going to cost a lot of money?"

A smirk played on her lips, "Not if we crash it." I swallowed some salvia and thought to myself that it wasn't a clever move. For all we knew, we could be invading someone's back garden or worse. Obviously then, it would get reported and the police would show up and we'd wake up sober in the back of police vans. Well, maybe not me but the majority.

"Can't you just use your house again?" I sighed, because this was obviously being way too complicated than it needed to be. Her bright red hair fell over her eyes and she sat up, pushing it away.

"We could, but invite only."

I hated how she used the pronoun 'we', as if I was hosting it with her, when really I had as much to do with it as the rest of the guests. Plus, her invite only parties never worked out to be like that. Last time, everyone and anyone came in like they pleased - like Joey did. I shuddered at the thought, wondering if he would even bother to crash it again. I still needed to figure out why he showed up when he didn't even know Diana but obviously, this would have to be the test.

"So, good idea or not? I'll invite on Facebook," Diana wiggled her eyebrows and I got up and punched her in the arm, "Ouch!" She clutched it dramatically when realistically, I hadn't hit her hard. This just made us both burst into hysterics.

So, there was no way out of this one. 

I joked, "Are you going to make sure there's orange squash for me?"

"Of course, I'll make sure that's it's labelled as yours," she sniggered. I bit my bottom lip to prevent myself from laughing again. 

After all, we were still both sixteen. Her birthday had been a few months ago now and mine was coming up in two or three months. The thought of being seventeen actually freaked me out a bit, because then I was one year off official adulthood. My rights as a human changed then, and that made me realise that my childhood was over. 

I watched as she scrolled through her friends' list, selectively choosing the people that she did not dislike. She pretty much liked most people though, but there were a few that were out of question. However, her mouse hovered over a certain girl's name: Linda Daniels. The white triangular shape danced around the letters, swirling and making mysterious patterns.

"Are you inviting her?" I asked. Well, Linda's new transformation had happened and although she had did some horrible things to me in the past, I figured that sometimes it's best to forgive rather than forget. That's what mine and Diana's motto had always been. Besides, I was pretty sure that she would question why she wasn't a guest if Diana didn't check her name. But I knew she didn't like her and everyone that she didn't like was out of bounds.

"Nah, she's your best friend, not mine," Diana said and she went to the next name... the box next to Linda's name unchecked.

Annoyed, I snorted, "She is not."

"She is, don't deny it."

"You know she isn't. I hate her."

She added Pete to the party list, "If you hate her then you wouldn't want to include her in this."

"We could inspect what she really is like now if she came," I whined. She was manipulating whatever I said and that made it all that much difficult. Running a finger down my pale arm, I simply sighed.

"Sureee," she stood up and wandered over to her bedroom door in some really small shorts, "I'm going to the toilet so I'll be a sec, yeah." Slowly, I nodded and waited until I heard the lock on her bathroom door click. Once it did, I crawled over her bed like I was a spy and checked Linda's name. if she wanted me to get involved in her party, then she could have at least let me pick one person. It wasn't going to kill her.

So Diana didn't get suspicious when she came back, I pulled out my phone. Joey had texted me a reply from something I said to him earlier. Weirdly, I rarely ever talked to both Joey and Mason at the same time. It was either one or neither, and their turns alternated. I wasn't sure if they did that on purpose but this is what made it harder to decide which one was my favourite.

My friend returned and flicked her slightly wet fingers at me. The water droplets splashed into my fair hair, and I screamed by instinct. Then, she plodded back down onto her duvet to get back to what she was doing. Hopefully, she wouldn't notice what I did or when she did notice, it was far too late to do anything about it. Linda might not even bother to turn up, anyway.

"We'll need to pick music, food, drinks, clothes, hair styles," she counted on her fingers enthusiastically, My mum is staying overnight for work that way too so the house will be free until the morning so you can sleep over afterwards, if you want." Sighing, I texted Joey back again. Dressing up for these sorts of things was the worst thing about it. And I'd have to lie to my mum (which I hated doing) and pretend that I was just going for a sleepover then hope that she didn't hear the loud music radiating out of Diana's house.

Other than that, the rest was okay and flawless. The turnout was always strong with too many people coming than expected, bringing their own drinks to add to the large collection. Her boyfriend, Pete, would obviously bring some additional people too and maybe keep her tamed.

Hopefully, everything would go to plan and not go wrong. 

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I am aware that this was a filler chapter (and that it was a lot shorter than the recent ones) but I really need some interaction between everyone so I thought that Diana having another party (because she loves them) was the perfect time to do this.

Also, I am currently pre-writing a new story called "Dream Catcher". I will probably post it sometime in August so for some people, I hope that's something to look forward to.

Remember to vote (I am so close to 1,000 votes) and comment!