The Fading Darlings.

Chapterfourtyfour

I scoped the room for Paul. My eyes laid on him, he was sitting on a worn down couch with a bimbo looking blonde. He was hitting a bong, his eyes met mine when he came back up to gasp for air.

He waved his hand, motioning for Vince and I to come over. Making my way through I sat on the couch next to Paul and Vince stood.

Pauls eyes were bloodshot, and his face was flushed. "Hey Mary, bout time you get here!"

Laughing I said "You look so baked!"

"Oh I so am! I feel great! How do you feel?" Paul asked enthusiastically.

"That's awesome, I'm doing great as well." He was so excited, I tried being very enthusiastic so I wouldn't kill his positive buzz, even though I'm almost one hundred percent sure that if I was a negative Nelly I doubt I could make him any less positive.

"You wanna hit this?" He referred to smoking weed.

I thought about it for a moment, last time I really smoked was with Jacob and Steven. We can all agree I got fucked up, and now I was at The Square, the party that is known for hardcore drugs and spiking drinks with date rape drugs. Would it really be a smart decision to smoke?

"No thanks, I'm good." I said casusually.

Paul gave me a confused look, I'm not sure that it was because he would have thought I'd be a stoner and take the free weed, or if he could tell by the expression on my face that I had put much thought into my decison of not smoking. Or maybe he was just so baked he was to confused about everything.

"Hey I'm going to go look around for a bit, I'll call you." Vince said.

I nodded giving him approval, I really didn't want Vince to leave. I didn't want to be left alone with Paul because he was so baked that he wasn't fun, I didn't want Vince to get to fucked up because then I would be the one who has to take care of him and deal with his nasty drunk attitude that he gets when he drinks to much.

I walked out of the room leaving Paul. I scoped my sourroundings and saw a familiar face, it was Jack. The guy that Austin had introduced me too.

Jack was tall, brown shaggy hair, and dark brown eyes. He had some acne, and nice cheek bones. He looked cute, but not my type.

His eyes glanced upon me, and we made awkward eye contact, I smiled and he walked over to me.

"Hey, you're Mary right?" He asked, when he clearly knew who I was.

"Yeah, and you're Jack?" I tried making small conversation.

"Yeah, I'm surprised you remembered my name." He added.

"Of course I did, how could I forget?" I added.

"Well, we didn't really talk."

"Well then, how do you remember mine?" I asked.

"Because you're pretty." He smirked.

I ignored the compliment like he didn't say it or I didn't hear him. "Oh so you wouldn't have remembered my name if I was ugly?" I laughed.

"Probably not, plus I've heard a lot about you." He added.

"Oh like what?' I asked curiously.

We walked over to a couch down stairs and sat down by one another.

"I heard you gave Sean a hand job in Austins bed." He laughed.

"Oh my god! That's so not true." My face was burning with embarrassment.

"Rightttt." He laughed.

"Who told you that?" I asked curiously.

"I don't know." He lied.

"That's a lie." I punched him in the arm.

"Hey, you hit me your hardest!" He repeated an inside joke between Austin and him that I never did understand.

I shook my head. "Do you want to go outside?" Jack asked.

"I don't want to get up." I groaned.

"I'll give you a piggy back ride?" He offered.

I thought about it. "Okay." I agreed and climbed on the back of him.

He trotted through the crowd of dunk druggy people, into the back yard.

Jack put me down by a big old tree. He sat next to me on the cold mildew grass.

"So, I hear about how you break everyones heart huh?" Jack stated.

"No." I replied, I didn't know if that was a lie or if I didn't think I was capable of hurting people like that.

"Really?" Jack gave me a confused look.

"I can't name one person whose heart I've broken." I stated the truth.

"I can." His puppy dog brown eyes lowered to my green eyes.

"What about Austin, Sean, Shane, Jacob or Paul?" He added.

I thought, how did he know about Paul?

"I don't know." I frowned to myself. "And for the record, Shane broke my heart. I could never do that to him."

"Oh really? He's been worried sick about you." Jack said.

"How do you know that?" I asked.

"He's been asking everyone where you are, I was hanging out with Austin and Sean today and he kept blowing up Seans' phone asking where you were. Then when Sean left, Shane came over to Austin's and interrogated us trying to find out where you were." Jack took a breath. "It's creepy, it's like he's obsessed with you or something."

"He's the one who let them guys hurt me! He's the one who fucked Amanda while I was in the hospital half unconscious wondering where he was." I started sobbing.

Jack's eyebrows raised. He scooted closer to me and wrapped his arms around me.

"It'll be okay. Stay away from him, he's obviously a nut job." He rocked me back and fourth.

My head was burried in Jack's chest, his shirt was getting soaked from my tears, yes I am exaggerrating a wee bit.

He lifted my face up too look into my blood shot eyes.

"You're okay now." He let out a smile.

I wiped my tears away, and combed my hair with my fingers.

"Thanks Jack." I choked out.

"Anytime."

There was a moment of silence. "Can I have your phone number?" Jack asked.

I smiled. "Of course."

Jack pulled out his phone and handed it to me, I typed in my number and put my name in.

"I think we're going to be great friends Mary." He let out a smile.

I returned the smile then looked around the yard, throw up going left and right, others intoxicating themselves with drugs and alcohol, this was my generation. Druggies and drunks, tonight was the type of night where I should be getting drunk and doing drugs to allow myself to make memories and escape this depressed reality I am facing but I decided for the better. No, I am not going to give in to this, though it was tempting, I'm not. I didn't need weed and vodka to make me happy and to forget about all the bad, I needed to do all that on my own, why would I think that vodka and weed would help? It would only worsen me into getting into more trouble or atleast with a few bruises and a hangover the next morning.

"If you see Vince, take him home. I think I'm going to go. It was nice seeing you, text me sometime."

"Will do." Jack nodded.