The Ghost Of Us (HWGA sequel)

It is What it is

Saturday came along quickly and I was getting ready with Austin at his place.

  "I'm so happy you decided to come!" He chirps looking at himself in the mirror as he fixes his hair.
  "Yeah...." I drift. "Sam kind of convinced me," I nod. I didn't want to go today, until earlier when Sam said how it would be fun, and it's senior year and this whole spiel about how it wouldn't be fun without me there blah, blah, blah. So I gave in.
  "Yeah!" He nods. "I'm surprised he's so into partying with us lately," he grins. "It a new side of him."
  "Yeah," I mumble. It was a new side, he was usually like me when it came to parties, he didn't usually like them. We always considered them to be a cliche type of thing with a whole bunch of drunk teens.
  "I like your makeup," he tells me.
  "Thanks," I say. I put on some light makeup and I decided to just wear some black jeans and a light green, long sleeve crop top.
  "So, Andrew..." he drifts off looking toward me. "You guys are getting close," he adds and I nod. "What's up with that!?"
  "Andrews cool," I shrug. "And he's normal, which I never really thought before," I laugh a little bit. "I don't know, I just like him," I say. "We're friends."
  "Yeah," he says. "He's not too bad," he nods. "Now what do you think of my hair!?" He asks.
  "Perfect!" I tell him and he grins. "Oh and Andrew offered to drive us," I add.
  "Okay," he nods. "Meeting Sam there?"
  "Yeah," I say.
  "Cool, cool," he says. "I'm gonna get us some bread to eat before we get DRUNK!" He sings out and I laugh as he leaves the room. I add my mascara as the finishing touch and put my makeup away running my fingers through my hair. It was now just past my shoulders since I've let it grow out.
I hear Austin's footsteps and he walks in and rolls his eyes.
  "My mom's home," He mutters. "Surprising right?"
  "Really?" I ask and he nods.
  "She's done work for the day," he shrugs. "I'm just gonna tell her I'm going to yours tonight kay?" He asks passing me a piece of french bread.
  "Yeah," I shrug. "Anything for the bestie!" I add and he smiles sitting down next to me.
  "Love ya, Jo."
  "Love ya too," I nudge him with my shoulder and he nudges me back, and we both laugh. He wasn't close to his parents. They were there, just worked a lot.
  "You gonna get drunk with me tonight?" He asks as we chew on the bread each of us with a big piece.
  "I don't know," I admit. "Maybe, maybe not."
  "You don't ever get wasted with me Jo," He whines. "Come on!"
  "I'll see Austin, I don't want to have to be stranded at a random person's house," I say. "Let me see how I feel when we get there okay?"
  "Fine, fine," he waves me off.

~

We step into the house, and the smell of weed and sweaty drunk teenagers just makes me cringe immediately.

  "Drinks!" Austin grabs my hand turning to me. I shrug and then I turn to Andrew who was looking around, so I grab his hand and pull him along with us too.
We find the table of alcohol and the kegs outback and it quiets down just a bit out here.
  "I didn't know we were at the hand holding level in our friendship Jo," Andrew chuckles and I push him away.
  "I was just bringing you to grab a drink, idiot," I say. "Don't get ahead of yourself.
  "Too late," He shrugs and Austin grabs some red solo cups filling them from the keg.

Some random cheering starts from a group of girls and guys and I turn to see a girl shotgunning a can of something, I couldn't tell if it were a beer or something else. She was bending and chugging the liquid down with ease. She drops the can and throws her hands up in the air and the people around her cheer loudly. I then notice Sam in that group, he throws the girl over his shoulder and cheers for her and she laughs. The sight kind of felt like a weird punch in the gut, even though I just knew it was nothing, he was just being friendly Sam.
Although I haven't seen Sam this friendly in a while. He puts her down and she nudges him making him laugh. I felt a surge of jealousy shoot through me and I hated that feeling.
I trusted him, so I doubt he was being flirty, he was probably just being nice to her.
  "Here," Austin passes me a drink and I turn back to them feeling my cheeks flush like I was embarrassed to be seeing my boyfriend like that with another girl.
  "Thanks," I say and I notice Andrew looking at me. "What?" I ask taking a sip of the cold beer, the bitter taste of it wasn't fulfilling. I wish I had an ice-cold coke.
  "Nothing," he shakes his head and Austin passes one to him too. "Thanks," he mumbles and looks off, int eh direction of the group cheering for each other.
  "Sam, it's your turn!" A guy yells and I look again and someone passes him a can of something. They all start cheering for him and he punctures the can and opens it and starts chugging the drink.
  "Is that Sam?" Austin asks the obvious question.
  "Yeah," I nod.
  "Shotgunning a drink?" He laughs. "How weird is that," he starts walking closer to the group.
  "Weird?" I question.
It was a normal teenage thing to do with friends, chug alcohol and cheer together.
  "It's Sam," Austin glances at me and we all approach the loud group of people cheering for him and he drops the can and laughs satisfactorily. Seeing him like this wasn't hot in any way. At least to me. I didn't find it impressive when a guy could drink a lot, or be loud and obnoxious at a party.
  "Yeah," I mumble. The girl he cheered for nudges his shoulder with a smirk and I felt my insides coil.
  "Who's that?" Austin pretty much scoffs and I shrug.
I didn't want to be bothered by this, it was the typical teenage party. I can't expect him to just do nothing? It's his life. I just didn't like the flirty stares the girl was giving him.
His eyes happen to land on me, and his smile widens when he sees me. His normal, Sam smile with his slight dimple. It almost made me smile too. It was so contagious.
He walks over.
  "You're finally here!" He exclaims his words slurred, he was already pretty drunk. He pulls me into a sloppy kiss and I hated it. I never hated one of Sam's kisses, I didn't like this one. It tasted like a mix of alcohol and mint, it wasn't a good taste. I pull away from him and he smiles.
  "You're already drunk," I step back.
  "Noooo," he shakes his head. "Just.... tipsy."
  "You're drunk," I tell him and he laughs.
  "A bit yeah," he nods. "Who cares! Did you see me shotgun that?" He questions. "I did pretty good huh?"
  "Yeah," I nod just trying to be nice, he was drunk, everyone was foolish when they're drunk.
  "You wanna try?" He says. "How hot would you look doing that? Am I right?" He adds and something about that just bothered me. How hot would I look shotgunning a beer?
"Want to try babe?" He asks with wide eyes.
  "No, I'm good," I shake my head.
  "Boo," he chuckles. "Come on, let's go sit down," he grabs my hand and I notice Austin was talking to someone already and I turn to Andrew who didn't seem to know what he was doing, so I wave him with me.