The Eccedentesiast

Chapter Thirty-two

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Chapter Thirty-two
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The music, the people, the smell of other teenagers' arousal—it all came into one and was almost like a rope that pulled in other teenagers that were just coming in through the doors of the house.

"Yeah, no, I don't like this." Emma kept her hands to her sides as Tyler tried to push her forward into the living area.

"Come on, this is all for you, babe." He held onto her hips from behind and pushed her forward with his body. "Go have fun. I think your friends are all in the other living room with Tara and Xavier."

Emma grabbed his hands that were on her hips and turned around. "Why'd you do this?"

Tyler shrugged. "I wanted to do something nice for you."

Emma looked around with furrowed eyebrows. "I don't know any of these people. Do they even go to our school?" she asked him.

Tyler chuckled. "They do. They're just . . . people that were invited by their friends?" he didn't sound so sure in the end.

She stayed close to him. People overflowed every corner of the room. The largest distance between anybody was less than two inches.

"I'm going to the other living room." She nodded to herself and squeezed herself out of his grip.

"Uhm, alright." He rushed after her and grabbed her hand. She just grasped it and pulled him with her.

Emma entered a quiet hallway and at the end of it was a smaller living room with only a few people scattered around.

"Hey." Emma sat in the middle of Brian and Gabriel as Gabriel draped his left arm over her shoulders. "Having fun?" He grinned. "I think what Tyler did is nice. Shows he cares. I agree, it's too much but it's fine for tonight."

Emma wrapped her hands around Brian's right arm and he looked at her with worry evident in his blue eyes. "You don't seem good."

She shook her head and bit the corner of her lip. "It's too noisy. My ears hurt."

Tyler was sitting alone on the couch in front of them, bouncing his leg left off the carpet and his elbows resting on his knees.

"I'm sorry," he said to her. "I thought that maybe you'd have fun for one night before school started again."

Emma put a smile on for him. "It's okay. Just get me something to drink and I'm sure I'll be drunk before the next song even comes on."

Tyler laughed. "Alright. I'll be back."

They all watched him leave into the dark hallway that had family photos hung up on the walls.

Emma looked around the room and examined the dull paint on the walls, and the large flat-screen TV that almost had dust particles all over from being underused.

"Maybe we should have some fun." She smiled at Gabriel and Brian. "We're going to be seniors."

Brian stood up and marched in front of her. He showed her the palm of his hand, telling her to take it. "Wanna dance?"

At the same time, Tyler was back, holding a red, plastic cup in one hand and a bottle of flavored vodka in the other.

Emma took Brian's hand and he pulled her up. She walked over to Tyler and looked at both things that were in separate hands. She surprised him by taking the bottle of vodka instead of whatever was inside that cup.