Loving Under the Influence

Four: "A Knife to a House Party."

Dani was still acting like an escaped convict with the cops on her trail, Kaylee seemingly more amused by watching her constantly glance over her shoulder than the party. She wondered what happened between the two students since it was obvious there was something there, despite Dani saying maybe.

"Dani, are you going to act like this the whole party? If so, we should just leave before you have a panic attack."

Dani finally looked calm from her tense state in the past twenty minutes, puffing out some air and nodding, "Yeah, yeah. You're right but Rue's in there and-"

"Just tell her you're heading out." Kaylee shooed her away, Dani holding her hands up in surrender with a chuckle as she walked back towards the house.

She blended with the rest of the teens, slipping between the cracks in the huge crowd to find the couch she had left Rue on with Fez. Of course, not surprising in any way, Rue wasn't there, so Dani went back into the crowd to find her.

She pushed at hands that mindlessly grabbed at her, probably to pull her into a dance or whatever they thought to be a dance in their drunk or high state. She couldn't wait for school, just to see how everyone would be able to hide their hangovers tomorrow morning durning class.

A hand wrapped around her wrist, a force pulling her to the side before she could get her hand free. The corner was secluded, well as secluded as a crowded house would allow, and she looked up to see Nate glowering down at her. She ripped her hand from his hold, glaring back at him, even if she was a couple inches shorter. His jaw was clenched, a tick behind his skin giving her a hint of how angry he was at her presence.

She didn't care though. She wasn't here for him. If she had known he'd be here, she would've stayed home. She would've stayed as far as Leslie would let her from this house instead of coming with Rue and being trapped in his mindset and his presence.

"What are you doing in my fucking house?" He growled out, making her laugh condescendingly at him.

"I didn't know it was your house. Do you honestly think I'd be here if I had?" She questioned back, making the muscle in his jaw tick once more in agitation.

"Then why are you here? Leave."

"Yeah, why am I here? It's not like there's a party going on right now," She snapped out sarcastically before adding, "And maybe instead of being so obsessed with why I'm here, you should worry about Maddy getting fucked in the pool."

She turned on her heels and stalked off before he could respond again, only quickly looking over her shoulder to see him barreling through the guests in the house to get outside, probably to see if she was telling the truth or not. She swore under her breath at him, rolling her eyes and rubbing at the skin of her wrist that was a little burned from the pressure of his grip and his act of pulling her like a rag doll.

She sighed when she finally saw Rue standing in the kitchen, going over to her and wrapping her arms around her waist. Rue jumped with a yelp, pushing Dani off quickly before seeing it was only her cousin and relaxing back into her drug induced dazed.

"Hey, I'm about to head out. Is that cool?"

"Yeah, it's cool." Rue nodded as she brought Dani in for a hug, "I think I'm gonna talk to the new girl."

Dani glanced over Rue's shoulder when the girl told her where the new girl was, eyeing her shortly before smiling, "You should. She's cute." Dani encouraged.

She left after a few minutes, going back to find Kaylee right where she had left her. She gave the shorter girl the confirmation that she was free to go, hiding her hands into her hoodie pocket as she rocked on her heels. Kaylee was waiting for someone to pick up her call as she explained to Dani what happened after she went in and Nate stormed out. Dani nodded as she spoke, Nate obviously having lost the argument before Kaylee had even gotten to the ending by the scene of Maddy still in the pool with some random guy and Nate having stormed back into the house.

The girl ended her call after a minute so so of speaking, grabbing Dani's hand and telling her that they were going to get picked up as they went back into the house. Their attention was drawn towards the kitchen, the new girl and Rue both standing their as Nate stood with his hands up. Dani let go of Kaylee's hand, moving closer to the scene and being beside Rue to see the other girl holding a knife as she threatened Nate.

The dilemma ended just as soon as Dani had came to see what was happening, the girl dropping her knife and briskly walking away. Rue didn't even seem to notice Dani as she followed after the girl, not a blink in her cousins direction as she left. Dani's looked back to Kaylee with a shrug, got back beside the girl to walk out of the house. They kept talking about random, Dani mostly pushing back all of Kaylee's questions back onto the girl. She didn't want to be know as a druggie and Kaylee didn't seem to know in the first place, so what's the harm in not bringing it up?

A car rolled up after a few minutes, the window rolling down to reveal a olive skinned boy in the driver seat and a fluffy haired boy closest to them in the passenger seat. Kaylee stood first, smiling and pressing a kiss to his forehead before motioning for Dani to get in the car. She did so, buckling up and smiling when both teen boys looked at her before Kaylee spoke up.

"Dani, this is Calum and Carl. Boys, Dani." She motioned between the three of them before buckling herself up.

"Nice to put a face to the one Kaylee was going to punch when I first walked up," Dani mused, watching Carl shake his head and look at his girlfriend, who only laughed and shrugged as Calum pulled off.