Notice Me

13

"Why are you dragging me out to this party again?" I asked O and Gavin, who were already helping themselves to the beer they had bought for tonight's occasion.

"Why do we even have to drag you to it in the first place?" Gavin asked me, shooting me a curious look. "You've never minded coming to these parties before."

"Are you fully converted to a West Bridge douche bag, Zane?" O laughed as he spoke, knowing just how badly that sentence would irk me.

"No, it's just boring. Every weekend we used to go to one of these things, and it was always the same. At least West Bridge parties are interesting," I muttered, remembering the last few I've been to.

It was true, anyways, that West Bridge parties were like a TV show. There was always drama, there was always some spectacle to watch. But mostly, I liked going to them more because I wasn't Zane who lost his mind from grief at West Bridge parties. I wasn't Zane who punched the principals kid at West Bridge parties. I wasn't Zane who's best friend committed suicide, I wasn't Zane who showed up to school drunk.

At West Bridge, I was just Zane the new kid, and I was starting to like it that way.

"You know everyone asks about you," Cassidy let out from where she was adjusting her makeup in the living room mirror. We were at her house, and I think Gavin and O picked this location to pregame at because it was only blocks away from the party. "People miss you, Zane. You're telling me you don't miss Hawking at all?"

"You guys just don't get it," I shrugged, "it's like... a new start."

"I thought you didn't want one of those?" Gavin questioned, tilting his head.

"Yeah, well it turns out it's kind of nice when not everyone knows what you've been through the last year," I explained.

"I get it," O agreed with me, "but it doesn't mean you have to ignore everyone else completely."

"I have you guys," I said, reaching for a beer on the counter before hesitating. I debated on whether to drink it, deciding it would do no good to be drunk tonight.

I think I was done with getting drunk and making mistakes.

"And if I already have two best friends," I continued, before looking at Cassidy in a teasing way, "and this leech who never leaves her boyfriend alone, why do I need anyone else?"

"You did not just call me a leech," Cassidy laughed, darting towards me and playfully landing a punch on my arm.

"At least you're a very pretty leech, babe," O chuckled, before blocking his own punch coming from his girlfriend's small hand.

"What about your new friends, Zane?" Gavin asked me in that same assuming tone.

"They're not really my friends," I explained, for the hundredth time. "Except for Cain, he's cool. The rest of them... not my type of people."

"So why do you hang out with them?" Cass asked me, rendering me speechless for just a second. I knew the answer. I didn't want to tell her.

Seren was like a magnet keeping me there. It was like she was a mystery meant for me to solve. The problem, I didn't know whether she was capable of being solved.

"Cain hangs out with them," I said instead, turning away from my friends.

"And so does Seren," O said the thing we were all thinking. "How's it going with her, anyway?"

"What?" I stuttered out, "there's nothing to go with."

"Yeah, okay," Gavin chuckled, pulling me back around to face them. They looked to be in heaven at the fact they had something to tease me about.