Underage

[49] Game Over

[49] Game Over

It's been an entire summer since I've seen this place. Three months since we made out among the oranges and slept by the fire. When I had my first real conversation with Trevor Green. When I lost my weight in sweat from our matching onesies. When I was reinforced to the idea that beer tastes like piss and dark liquor is more my style. When I realized that if anyone was going to break my heart at the end of the summer, I wanted it to be him.

Now, lights are hanging on the bushes that make out the trail from the road to the clearing. The dirt's been packed down so my heels don't sink into the dirt. Not that they're going to last much longer on my feet.

Everyone's dressed nice. A complete one-eighty from before graduation. The boys are in black pants and button up shirts. The girls are in formal dresses and heels. My hair is elegantly twisted into a bun at the back of my head, a few tight curls hanging to frame my face. Ethan gelled his hair to fall to the right side of his face and wore my favorite aftershave. His deep red tie matches my dress.

With his hand in mine, we make our way down the long lit pathway into the clearing. Like last time, there are tents set up around the fire, but our names are on none of them. We aren't planning on staying long. Not when this is my last night in Ethan's arms.

Someone hands Ethan and I a drink of what looks like a light colored beer, which we instantly pour onto the ground. The guy beside us, Andrew Thompson, groans when he looks down at the puddles of beer at our feet.

"You could have at least given it to me. You didn't have to waste it."

"I'll keep that in mind," Ethan tells him before pulling me away from the fire.

Cooper and Grace are here somewhere, having disappeared the moment they parked the car in which they demanded that Cooper drive all four of us. I even see Trevor and Kyle slipping through the orange-less groves as they head in the direction of the lake. No doubt towards all the couples who are starting the night off in the quieter part of the party.

"What do you want to do first?" I ask the boy beside me, whose hand has yet to loosen around mine. There are a lot of people here, shoved into the tiny circle that is the main clearing. An entire ring of people are around the fire, standing shoulder to shoulder, as they pass around the sticks they found to roast marshmallows. People keep throwing their empty plastic cups into the flames before watching as they shrivel down to nothing.

He doesn't hesitate to answer my question. "Leave."

"We've been here for five minutes."

"And I don't want to spend five more with these drunk idiots."

I roll my eyes, but drag him towards the fire. I can feel the warmth as we begin the second ring around the flame. Everyone around us is holding beers and downing them quickly. As if they can't get it down quick enough.

"Grace made me promise to let them have their fun for an hour," I remind him.

"Not a minute more."

"Not a minute more."

It's not like this is where I want to be on our last night together. But Grace was adamant that we stay for the entire first hour. She's been acting weird for the last two days; always taking calls, even when all of her friends were in the same room, and walking away from me. She's keeping something from me, but I haven't pushed her about it. Mostly because I've been preoccupied, busy with Ethan and doing everything we possibly can before he leaves.

It's just as we step out of the clearing of people and into a secluded pathway when we find Trevor and Kyle. The former is pressed against the bushes, their lips together, and their hands roaming the other's body.