NATALIA HAD LOST COUNT of how many drinks she had had at about four, now she was wondering around noah's house trying not to throw up. yeah, it was possible that maybe she'd played one too many rounds of cup pong (for the record, she won 6 out of 8 games) and now she was wasted.
stumbling through the various rooms, she finally bumped into sadie, who had a cup of some brown liquid in one hand.
"oh, hi natalia!"
sadie grinned, planting an air kiss on either side of natalia's face.
"hey, sadie."
natalia slurred, smiling back at the red head. reaching over to the girl, she made an attempt at grabbing the cup she was holding.
"nuh uh."
sadie wagged a finger at her and lifted the cup out of her reach.
"you're already way drunk. i can't stay long, though. i have an interview with vogue."
sadie pulled natalia over to the couch.
"stay here. and NO drinking."
she said sternly. and with that, sadie sink was off to her interview.
oh please. did she really think that a finger wagging was going to stop the unstoppable natalia theodosia parker? no way was that going to happen.
natalia determinedly sat up from her horizontal position on the couch, already prepared to get back up again.
that was like a punch in the gut. natalia's head swam and she felt loose, like a rag doll, and for some strange reason, this made her laugh. she giggled, bursts of laughter escaping her mouth as she stumbled through the throng of people that she sort of knew.
she passed jack, sophia and caleb doing shots off the bar, lilia, noah and his sister watching some random movie, and natalia was pretty sure that wyatt and his girlfriend erin were hooking up in the corner. or maybe that was from her beer goggles, natalia didn't know. that was also pretty funny, and the girl laughed some more before finding herself outside, standing right at the lip of the pool.
she was very wobbly, and the bright blue water taunted her, blue ripples that for some reason made her want to jump in. she giggled, extended a foot over the edge and waving it in the air above the pool, teasingly.
"woah, woah, woah."
a voice from behind her said, grabbing onto her arm and gently pulling her backwards, away from the edge of the water.
natalia frowned and turned around, trying to see who had just ruined her fun (and probably just saved her too, the clothes she was wearing were expensive AS FUCK and as far as she was concerned, they needed to stay dry).
"wait, y-you're jae bae from the g-group chat."
natalia couldn't stop laughing, barely able to finish her sentence. something about "jae bae" was really funny. jaeden's eyebrows creased and his dimples appeared for a second in an attempt to fight a laugh of amusement.
"okay, natalia. i think you need to go home."
"wait how'd u know my name? you c-creepy stalker."
natalia obediently followed jaeden inside and through the party to the door of noah's house.
"uh, you're in our group chat, remember?"
natalia laughed hysterically and face palmed.
"oh yeahhhhhh."
"you're SO drunk. who let you get this wasted?"
jaeden muttered, opening the passenger seat to his car and gently shoving the red head into the vehicle.
"jaeden, where are we g-going?"
natalia hiccuped, laughing crazily and reaching over the console to ruffle jaeden's hair on impulse. drunk or dead sober, it looked soft. and she was feeling reckless, so there was that too.
jaeden gently removed natalia's hand from his head and put the keys in the ignition.
"what's your address?"
the next morning, natalia parker woke up with a terrible headache and a bunch of messages and missed calls from her friends. 7 calls from jaeden, 3 from stella and archen apiece, 8 messages from kitty, and a couple texts plus a call from sophia and wyatt. there was also about 20 from the losers group chat asking where natalia had been.
her memory was fuzzy, so natalia couldn't really remember what had happened last night. she looked down to see that she was tucked neatly under the covers, still wearing her clothes from last night.
wait.
7 calls from jaeden? did jaeden martell take her home?
natalia pondered this strange thought for a bit while answering all her messages.
jaeden pulled off his hoodie and threw it on the couch, flopping down next to it and grabbing the tv remote. as he opened netflix, out of the corner of his eye he saw a piece of paper sticking out of the pocket of his hoodie. frowning, he pulled it out. how did this get in here? he asked, squinting at the picture.
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it looked old and pretty ripped at the edges, but it was definitely her- the girl he'd found wasted last night and prevented from falling in the pool, the girl who he'd taken home.
jaeden didn't know if he'd ever see her again. that halloween party at noah's could have been the only time- it wasn't like they were close or anything. the closest they'd get was with 83828472947 other actors in the group chat.
jaeden would be lying if he said he didn't find the girl attractive. just looking at this picture made his heart beat faster, his gut get a little fluttery feeling that was hard to stomach. the boy longed to see her again, talk to her when she wasn't drunk, get to know her.
somehow jaeden knew, a picture of the girl wasn't going to be enough for him.
