The New Kid

Chapter 28

Sylvia and I take my car to get to the party. I instantly regret it when there's no parking for blocks. "We should have taken a Lyft," Sylvia says. "You're so right, this is nuts," I respond.

We walk blocks in our heels to get to the house. They're not that tall or stilettos or anything, but still! My feet are already getting sore. I'm not used to this.

It's all lit up, a white and gray mansion with plenty of landscaping out front and hanging lights and torches like you see at fancy restaurants. There's a deck and we can see people inside through the lit-up windows. It's not too loud, but as soon as we walk in, a cloud of smoke hits our faces. "Smells like weed," Sylvia says in my ear. "How would you know?" I ask her. But Sylvia just shrugs. She grabs my hand and we make our way toward the kitchen. There's an island in there lined with a ton of drinks to choose from, booze, sodas, energy drinks, water. There's even a couple of kegs. A handful of kids are there mixing their own drinks. 

The kitchen is bright, but all around us in the other rooms, it's somewhat dim and a lot of people are dancing with solo cups in their hand, some are grinding. "This is basically what I expected," I shout to Sylvia over the loud music. To my surprise, she's pouring herself a cup of beer, "Do you want one?" she asks me. "Nah, I say, I'll have an energy drink, I need to drive later." I grab an ultra-blue Monster and we make our way out of the bright kitchen.

There's quite a lot of people crammed in the living-room, and it's the darkest in there. I choose not to go in. There's an entertainment room where it's more low-key and some people are just sitting and drinking and talking. A lot of the weed-smoking is going on in one of the corners. In the dining room, a crowd of people are watching a game of beer pong go on and cheering for the winning team.

 Sylvia is right behind me and we go through the sliding doors that lead to the spacious backyard. Before us, there's a pool and a hot-tub with several people in it on the wooden deck and a decent-sized bonfire beyond that. The whole backyard is fenced in by tall, wooden slats. Some guys out there are adding more firewood and chatting it up with some girls that are huddled around to keep warm. No wonder they're cold, I think, they're only wearing mini-dresses and mini-skirts.

 Anyway, the scene isn't too crazy, besides the dance-room. Sylvia asks me, "Do you want to go find someone to dance with?" I shrug my shoulders, and we go into the rather large living room after all. We pass a couple making out heavily in the hall by the stairs on our way in. I don't even want to know what's happening upstairs.  

Sylvia doesn't set her cup down, to my relief. Who knows what could be going around, drug-wise. She asks a random guy to dance, who's rather cute, and him and Sylvia dive into the mix of people. 

I'm left alone and feeling very uncomfortable. In my head I could handle this. 

I ask a guy who's standing by me by himself if he wants to dance. "I'm Avalon," I say loudly. I didn't catch his name but he grabs my hand and leads me to the middle of the room where we start dancing. But not a minute later he starts touching my hips and tries pulling me closer to himself. "Um, no thanks. I'm not into that. I have a boyfriend." I say at his attempts to grind with me. "Oh come on, everyone else is. You're no fun," he whimpers. I can smell now on his breath that he smells like beer and something else. "Are you drunk already?" I straight up ask him. he doesn't seem to hear me, he just keeps dancing and starts looking a little wobbly. 

 I keep dancing with him for a little bit, but when he attempts to pull me closer again, I ditch him. I go over to Sylvia and the guy she's dancing with and dance with them. 

After awhile, I ask Sylvia, "Want to go check out the bonfire?" She nods her head, and her dance partner and another guy he calls over join us outside. There's a lot of couples out here at the bonfire now, some of them are doing shots at the patio tables. We all sit on a couple of benches surrounding the bonfire. The guys introduce themselves as  Chasen and Logan. Sylvia flirts with her dance partner, Logan, so I'm left making small talk with Chasen, a bronzed and attractive guy with dark hair. 

"You come to these kinds of parties often?" I ask him. "I've been to a good amount of these. I'm a junior in college, by the way." I smirk at him, "What are you doing at a high school party," I ask. He responds, "I'm Charise's older cousin. Charise is the one who lives here and is throwing the party. I guess...it's her first larger-scale party so I'm here to look out for her." I look at him all amused, "Wow, that's nice of you, I guess. This is my first party ever, so." I debate whether or not I should tell him I work with his other cousin, Meghan. I decide on no, considering he's a complete stranger who would then know where to find me at the Full Mug. He smiles at me and takes a sip of his beer, "Is this what you expected, then?" He raises his full brow at me. "Haha, I mean...basically yes," I say. 

Chasen is an interesting guy I find, and he starts talking to me about normal stuff like what he studies in college and what some life essons are that he's learned already. Our conversation gets interrupted when Logan picks Sylvia up out of nowhere, and starts running her toward the hot tub. "Ohmygosh no!" she giggles at Logan, "Put me down right now!" He does, but by dumping her in the hot tub and creating a splash, earning him a couple clamors from the small crowd that was in it already. I'm not sure if I should interfere or not, but Sylvia is now soaked, and she's got black mascara running down her face.  

Logan jumps in almost immediately to join her and she is now deemed scandalous in my eyes. The others get out and murmur as they go inside to dry off.  Sylvia takes her dress right off and she's just sitting in the tub in her bra and panties. I cover my face with my hand in embarrassment. What is my friend doing? "You're a crazy one, Sylvia!" I call out to her. She gives me a two thumbs up to show she's doing fine. Chasen looks amused and equally distracted by his friend's sudden behavior. 

I turn my conversation back to him. "Is Logan a college student too?" I ask. He nods at me, "But sometimes he doesn't act like it." I glance back at Logan and Sylvia chatting it up with each other. "My friend is a freshman in high school. He's kind of old for her." Chasen waves it away, "Nah, Logan's just flirting. He doesn't mean anything by it." 

That doesn't necessarily comfort me.

"Do you want to get out of here?" Chasen asks me. I'm slightly taken aback at his direct question. "Oh, um...no. I have a boyfriend and I'm probably gonna leave the party soon anyway." Tim shrugs his shoulders and gets up to go back inside. "Nice meeting you," he offers.