Journals ❦ m. finnie

4. adorn

The music was playing and the smell of alcohol was heavy on Margarita's breath as she leaned into Benny.

As it turned out, as soon as she disappeared she reappeared, with a drunk Jasmine beside her. She herself wasn't drunk, but there were enough people around her who were to make up for it.

Left and right teenagers given an unsupervised outlet to do nothing but grind on each other and get drunk and Benny couldn't say it was his forte. But it was nice being around people, he thought.

It was odd how different everyone was when they had a few cheap beers in their systems. They were all much chattier and less aware of who they were taking to.

He'd never seen this many drunk teenagers all in one place. It wasn't like this in Texas, it was harder to do stuff like this with everyone's parents having more time to be at home.

Here, the neighborhood was bigger, too big for everyone's parents to know each other and have a network to keep up with everyone.

So, moments like this seemed like second nature to everyone here, even Olivia had settled onto the arm of the couch with Monse. The both of them drinking beers and whispering about something.

Seeing Monse so care free after knowing she was stressed all day was nice. Even if it was the alcohol that brought the relief, it was better than the worried expression and tension.

"So, how've you been liking Freeridge," Margarita asked.

"It's been cool. More laid back than Texas I guess."

"Yeah. So what are your plans for Halloween?"

"I don't know. What do people usually do for Halloween around here?"

"There's always a few parties. Not much trick or treating because people like to roll up on kids and steal candy."

"Kids? For fun sized snickers?!"

"I know...I know," Margarita laughed, "But I was thinking we could go to a party together. It could be fun. Jasmine will probably have too much to drink and I'll have to drag her home when she gets too drunk."

Benny pointed over to where Jasmine was smothering Ruby, "That's no different than what you'll have to do tonight."

"Right," Margarita laughed.

Suddenly, the music changed to something more upbeat.

"Wanna dance," Margarita asked.

"Sure."

They dance slowly and a little awkwardly.

"Benny? You okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. It's just...something feels off. Like someone's missing."

"Missing? Missing how?"

"Like somebody's not here."

It was then that he looked up to see Olivia looking around for Monse, who's gone missing along with Cesar.

"It's Jamal."

"You mean the one who's always...twitching?" She smiles, "Why? You wanna dance with him instead?"

"No! Of course not. It's just I feel like it'd be a little more chaotic with Jamal and...alcohol added to the mix. You know what I mean?"

"Kinda," softly, Margarita rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, "Benny, you're really nice."

"Thanks...uh you are too."

Margarita hummed hazily close to his neck, "I mean, it's been really hard for me to find a guy who actually likes me. You're nice and sweet and...really cute."