Shadows From the Abyss

Party on, Cool Kids

After Shawn got home from California, he didn't leave the house for a week. As bad as he wanted to see Art, he preferred to lie in bed snuggled up with his dog and watching movies to help come back to center. It was nice just being alone and drinking tea in front of his laptop, not talking to anyone besides his grandparents. After the trial he had deleted his Facebook account and he rarely ever used Instagram since he hardly knew anyone who followed him. It truly is amazing how fans of your father will follow you and try to talk to you thinking they know your relationship or try to claim to know you, thinking you're some type of way in to the circle. That's also a quick way to get blocked. His Dad had called to check in and make sure he was doing okay, but otherwise had given him plenty of space, which he greatly appreciated. He was just relieved that Art had been so understanding and supportive of him staying home and decompressing.

So when Saturday night finally rolled around and Art invited him to an 'End of Semester/Excuse to Drink' apartment party his building was throwing, Shawn was beyond ecstatic to go, finally feeling ready to be around other humans again.

"Be a good girl," He cooed to Bayley as he scratched under her chin, "I'll be back for snuggles tonight."

"So, is there gonna be a lot of drinking there tonight?" Papa Dave asked, pushing the back door open for Shawn to leave the small kitchen.

"Probably, why?"

"Well, if you're gonna drink, I'll give you a pass on curfew tonight and you can stay there if you need to. If you decide not to drink, that's totally fine too, but if you feel you're safer staying there I'll forgive it."

Shawn's face lit up. "Seriously?"

"Seriously. I just want you to be smart about it, okay? Pace yourself." Dave pulled his grandson into a hug. "I love you. Now go have fun and get out of my house for awhile."

Finding parking was madness when Shawn arrived at the brick apartment building, but he finally lucked out when someone was leaving and he was able to steal their space at the very edge of the packed parking lot. When he got out he could tell everything was in full swing and it was going to take forever to get past everyone and up to Art's apartment.

The building was so close to the UNCG campus that the majority of its residents were students, Art being one of the few exceptions. Blue and gold balloons were tied to the railings of the small balconies on all four stories, a 'Congratulations Spartans' banner hanging over the front entrance. Clearly though, this party had grown from just UNCG graduates to students from all the colleges in the city. Shawn saw decals and parking passes for A&T, Guilford College, Greensboro College and Guilford Tech as he walked towards the building. Every window was lit up above him and loud music and conversations rained down, making him a bit worried of how many people were actually here. Art had already told him to just come straight up to the apartment, so at least he had a destination to make it to and wouldn't just aimlessly wander.

As he took a breath and prepared to pull the door open, it burst open in front of him, causing him to jump back as two drunk girls fell forward arm in arm, laughing hysterically. He grabbed the door as they stumbled away and peered inside. The lobby was packed wall to wall with people, all different levels of drunk and fucked up, swaying to the music as The Weekend's Starboy played over the Bluetooth speaker on the hall table beside the keg. All he had to do was make it to the stairs and he'd be in the clear.

As he made his way through the crowd, the song changed from Starboy to Humble by Kendrick Lamar and everyone lost their mind, jumping around and slamming Shawn around. Nope, can't do this shit! He pushed through harder and faster, finally bolting up the stairs to what he thought would be a much calmer second floor. It wasn't. The second floor was just as packed, but instead the crowd was more clique groups with different parties that had all spilled out into the hallway. Instead of one lone speaker, every apartment had its door propped open and music was drifting out. As he pushed through to the back stairs he heard Panic! At The Disco, Luke Bryan, NSYNC, Bruno Mars, Kid Cudi, Bring Me the Horizon, even Holiday from one room, all mashing together with loud conversations and laughter, forming the perfect soundtrack to an introvert's nightmare. Finally he broke through and reached the back stairs case, stepping around a drunk couple bickering about why they shouldn't day drink.