Finding Amity

Chapter 32

A group of frat boy types turned up once it was dark with bottles of tequila and vodka and the determination to get absolutely everyone drunk. Hadiya stayed sober, along with Noah, but the rest of us took shots like our lives depended on it.

We had slowly been pushed off our log and now walked around with the rest of the campers, talking to everybody and making new friends. Birdie had run off with a boy named Tony at the start of the night, and was currently taking her go at a keg stand. Pippa and Sadie were dancing next to a portable speaker blasting rap songs, while Marley and I watched in horror as a guy we just met named Aaron started chugging a disgusting mix of every kind of alcohol known to man.

Aaron spluttered and gagged, but manage to hold down his liquor and throw his arms in the air in glorious victory. "Bow down to the party king!" He screamed into the sky.

My phone started buzzing in my pocket, so I excused myself and walked away from the group and pulled out the mobile. Cooper's name blinked from the screen, so I slid answer and held it up to my ear.

"Who is that guy?!" He shouted through the speaker. I yanked the phone away from my ear and winced.

"What?" I asked.

"I was looking for a photo in your tagged pictures on Instagram and there's a photo of you with some guy." He explained, the fury still present in his voice.

"Wait a second," I clicked out of the call and opened the Instagram app. Sure enough, I had a notification that I had been tagged in a photo. Dustin had taken a couple snaps of me bowling and the final scoreboard and posted them with the caption "Bowling with the one and only @amityharper (take a guess who won)".

I liked the photo and commented, "so no mention of the air hockey game where I demolished you?", before returning to the call, ignoring the uneasy feeling having a photo taken of me without my knowledge gave me.

"Yes?" I dared him.

"You're too young to date." He declared.

"You didn't used to think I was too young." I spat back. "Look, I'm seeing a guy called Dustin. He's nice and I really like him. Stop stalking my Instagram account and get used to me being an adult."

I felt proud of myself. Cooper had a tendency of being over-protective, and I always let him have that role. But I am an adult. I don't need his protection.

"He's not good enough." Cooper muttered, but I just ended the call on him. Screw that, I'm having fun and I don't need his bullshit tonight.

When I turned back to the party, my drunkedness got a rude awakening and I realised the girls were getting messy. Pippa and Sadie looked like they were about to start making out, and though I don't have an issue with two girls together, I did have an issue with Pippa breaking Cruise's trust. Birdie was stumbling around, dangerously close to falling into the fire and Hadiya was trying her best to keep her standing. Aaron was now vomiting on the grass and Marley was trying her best to ignore the sight and sound and smell of that disaster.

I rounded up the girls and we marched into the tent, zipping up the entrance and attaching a lock. I changed into a some leggings and thick sweatpants and a fluffy jumper.

"Hey, Hadiya?" Pippa called out. "You and Noah were getting pretty close there." She noted.

Hadiya's cheeks glowed bright red under the tent lanterns.

"I don't know." She mumbled.

"Did you at least get his number?" She nodded sheepishly in response.

"I mean, I don't think anything is going to happen." She sighed.

"Have you ever dated anyone before?" Marley asked.

Hadiya turned down to her hands. "No." She muttered.

"I know how you feel." Marley sympathised. "Before Danny, I'd never dated anyone either."

"Yeah, but, when did you start dating? I feel like it's weird to start dating for the first time when you're an adult." Hadiya rushed. I could see she was feeling embarrassed when she really had no reason to be.

"I met them three months ago." She laughed. "Pippa didn't date until university either."

"Its true." Pippa confirmed. "My parents are mad strict. I wore a purity ring until I graduated."

"Why'd you stop?" I asked. I knew Pippa's parents were strict from the way she had dressed when she walked into our dorm room wearing normal-people clothes.

"Well, I didn't know anyone here but Isaac and Cruise. So I started hanging out with them. One day I met some girl Isaac was sleeping with. She had bright green hair, had more piercings than me, like half her face was metal, and she had this insane steampunk style. She looked like straight out of an anime. I told her that I thought she was the coolest thing I'd ever seen and that I wished I was bold like her. She just turned to me and was like "so, do it". It sounds so dumb, like, I hadn't realised that I could disobey my parents. Then, I started to find that I didn't want any of the things they raised me to want. I didn't want to dress like them or study economics or wait until marriage."

I tried to ignore the small prick in my chest when Pippa mentioned Isaac sleeping with someone else, instead nodding along with her story.

"I understand having strict parents." Birdie sighed. "My father is Mormon, and my mother was raised Amish. All my clothes I've cut at the knees and tie-dyed, or I've made them myself."

I couldn't imagine not getting along with my parents, when they were alive. They were truly my best friends.

"What about you, Amity?" Birdie asked. I gulped, initially thinking they were asking about parents. "Did you date in high school?"

"Oh," I realised. "Um, kind of. I had a thing with one guy... But we never actually dated."

"Why not?"

Because my parents died and I had to move in with him and he became my for-all-intents-and-purposes brother.

"We just didn't mesh well." I lied.

We talked for a couple more hours before slowly drifted off to bed. I wrapped myself up in my sleeping back and bundles and bundles of blankets and fell asleep to the sound of Birdie sleep talking in gibberish.