Hurricane

Chapter 8

Izzie had encountered a few uncomfortable situations in her life, as one usually does. But she'd never, in her entire life, felt so out of place like right now, sitting in the backseat of Evan's car while he drove them to Quinn's party. Not even when she got to Clayton. She felt like a freking kid sitting alone in the backseat, being completely ignored by the other two, who had fallen into easy banter and conversation. What Izzie failed to notice was that Casey was constantly looking through the rear-view mirror to check on her friend. She wasn't exactly sure how to include her into the conversation.

"Izzie, I can't remember how to get to Quinn's house. Can you tell Evan the way from here?" was her pathetic attempt.

"Sure," Izzie answered like she couldn't care less. Evan took every turn Izzie instructed him to take and soon enough they were parked outside Quinn's house. "You don't really have to stay, you know?" Izzie told Evan from the backseat. "Is a small get together for the track team after all. I'm not sure any boyfriends are invited."

Even though Izzie tried to make it sound like he shouldn't stay cause it was going to be boring for him, neither Casey or Evan missed something weird in her tone that made it seem like he was actually unwelcomed.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine," he answered, feeling a bit confused. Besides, someone has to take you girls home later."

"No need. We can stay here and Quinn or Penelope can take us home tomorrow. Ain't that right, Newton?"

"Uhh..."

"I would really prefer it if I'm the one to take Casey home," Evan said, interrupting his girlfriend without even realizing. "You can stay if you want, but I have to make sure Casey returns home safe."

That weird silence mixed with the electricity before a storm filled the car while Evan and Izzie looked at each other defiantly. Casey's eyes jumped from her friend to her boyfriend and back to her friend a couple of times before she decided that she needed to say something.

"Okay so, clearly no one is gonna blink soon and I kinda want to go to the party so, can we?" she said, signaling the mansion behind her with her thumb. The other teenagers held their eye contact for five more seconds before getting out of the car.

As they entered the house, it became quite obvious that this was not the small get together Izzie had mentioned earlier. The house was packed with students from Clayton. Well, Evan assumed they were all from Clayton, but even Izzie couldn't recognize half the people there. This party was even bigger than the last one.

"So, this are the girls from the track team?" Evan asked Casey as he took her hand. Casey turned around to give him an awkward smile as a reply, but he was too busy taking in his surroundings, just like herself the first time she went there. "This is clearly no small thing," he said, now talking to Izzie, even if he didn't look at her. She knew he was talking to her though, so she just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

"Girls! You made it!" a clearly intoxicated Penelope cheerfully greated them as they entered the kitchen.

"Hey, P," Izzie said back. "Where's Quinn?"

"Oh, she and some boy dissapeared like half an hour ago," the girl answered, like it was no big deal.

"I'm assuming she was just as drunk as you are."

"Oh no," Penelope said before trying to put the straw from her drink in her mouth, failing three times before being able to take a sip. "She was fucked up."

"Jesus, P. And you didn't think to check on her? Do you even know the guy?"

While Izzie talked to her friend, Evan took Casey away for a second and leaned into the kitchen counter.