SOLACE

two

          Finding something to wear can be really hard when you haven't been shopping for new clothes since last year. Well, I don't really like spending money on clothes. I would buy in thrift shops, where you can cop more decent clothes at a cheap price.

I found a red satin cami top and paired it with high-waisted denim jeans. I put on a light red lipstick before waiting for Cali to pick me up. Mom wasn't home yet, probably decided to work overtime again and it made it easier for me to go out. 

She doesn't even care if we eat or not and it has been going on like this for weeks. She would sometimes not go home for a day or two and when we see her it's like nothing happened. We didn't dare to ask since we don't even have a stable relationship to ask about her business.

A few minutes later and Cali's car is already in front of our house. It was already almost 9pm and the crescent moon shines on the corner before I enter Cali's car.

"Oh someone's ready for a party, alright." Cali teases and chuckles at me before she continues to drive to Franco's house.

"Franco said the party already started an hour ago. I hope they're drunk already." Cali says as I change the song to her car and rest my head on the window.

"I hope Eli's not there because if he is, I'm immediately ditching the party because I won't be in the mood to even drink." I sighed and observed the streets we're driving to.

"Oh, Adeline. It's Franco's party. He wouldn't have the audacity to go there because he knows Franco is our friend. Plus, Franco would not let Eli join the party, that's for sure." Cali shrugs and looks at me briefly.

"Fair enough," I say and Cali pulls up in Franco's house and I already see the people outside drinking.

As we headed inside, we saw some familiar faces that I see in school and the others that are maybe Franco's friends. Franco immediately greeted us with a hug when we reached the end of the hallway entrance.

"Here's a tequila shot for the both of you. Just in time. Just grab some more in the kitchen." He says as he gives me and Cali a shot of tequila and I quickly drank it.

"Seems like Adeline's eager to get drunk. Let's grab some more?" Cali laughs and drinks her shot. I nodded as I laughed at her sour face.

"I'll be outside, meet me there. Some of my friends are there too, Ady." Franco teasingly winks at me and grins before he left. My eyes scanned the room looking for nothing in particular. Maybe a guy. Maybe not.

"Wanna chug this one?" Cali cheekily smiles at me as she carries the vodka with a sprite on her other hand. I slowly grinned and grabbed the bottle of vodka.

"Not gonna pass on this one, Cal." I removed the cap and chugged for five seconds and Cali hands me the cup of sprite to me and switched the vodka.

"Your turn," I say, I looked for another drink and I heard the music in the living room started to get louder and people began to laugh. Seems like they're having fun.

I chugged for another five seconds and another one before we decided to head to Franco's backyard. My eye caught Franco immediately, his arms wrapped around his current fling. 

He's holding a red cup in the other hand and talking to some of his other friends I'm not familiar with.

"Still bought the vodka in case you want to drink some more," Cali says and I laughed since she still brought the bottle from the kitchen. 

I felt I was a bit tipsy for already chugging vodka within the first thirty minutes we just arrived. Yet, I chugged again before we headed outside and sat in one of the benches near Franco while Cali heads somewhere to entertain other people.

Just a few minutes of sitting and I see someone approaching. A guy that is one of the friends Franco was talking to a while ago. He smiles at me before sitting beside me.

"You smoke?" He says while offering a cigarette in his hand. I grabbed it and put it in between my lips.

"Thanks..." I say and then he lights my cigarette, "Dacre, and your?" His eyebrow lifts as he still maintains his smile while lighting his own cigarette.

"Adeline but you're welcome to call me Ady if you want. Thanks again." I lift the cigarette from my lips and exhaled the smoke. "For this," I say referring to the cigarette, he smiles once again and rests his back to the bench.

"No problem seems like you needed one." He says and I look at him with my eyebrow arched as I exhaled another smoke.

"Do I really look that stressed?" I say while grinning at him and he immediately became defensive.

"Oh no, I didn't mean to offend or anything. Just thought you needed one and a person to talk to, maybe?" He teasingly says and I chuckled at him.

"Hmm, maybe," I say as I puffed another smoke and observed the people at the party. He leans and rest his arms to his knees and looked at me.

"So what school do you go to?" Dacre asks and I looked at him briefly. Can't help but notice that he looks good in his wavy brown hair and I'm swooning while I'm a bit tipsy.

Finishing my last puff, I stepped on the cigarette as I answer his question, "Same as Franco's." looking away from him again. "How about you?" I asked.

"I'm currently a Freshman in Uni but I was a graduate in your school too. That's how I met Franco." He says and before I could say anything else. Dacre stood up and greeted someone.

"Kai! I didn't know you were coming. Did you already grab a drink?" I was dumbfounded in my seat and remained quiet while observing them and suddenly, Kai looked at me for a moment and answered Dacre.

I didn't notice they were done talking when Kai walked away and Dacre asked me to go get some drinks and I nodded and followed him inside. We passed the messy living room where a lot of them where dancing and wilding out from the music.

"Didn't know you also knew Kai." I chuckled lightly to casually ask the question to Dacre. He looks at me while preparing our drinks.

"Yeah, we also met before I graduated. It kinda sucked he had to repeat his senior year. We could've gone to the same Uni. I don't know what happened." He shrugs and gives me a cup with a mixed drink and I immediately drunk it all without hesitation. 

I'm just gonna pretend Kai's not here. It's not like it's the first time we've been to the same party.