Master of the Storm

Chapter Nineteen: Together Again

A/N: the gang's reunited! Well, except for one of them...

"Thank you, again," Valerie said to Maggie. "We would be totally dead without you."

"I know," Maggie said casually. "Well, I'll be off now. I've got to get back to work. The cameras will only be "malfunctioning" for so long." And she drove away, leaving us standing in front of the house.

I heard voices behind us, and saw Hayley getting out of Pluto's car. "They're here!" she said excitedly, as the others tumbled out. Olivia ran towards us, hugging me tightly.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked. "How did you get out?"

"An angel in disguise," Valerie replied. "Someone on the inside snuck us out. We're fine."

"Are you sure partying is a good idea right now?" Sean asked from behind her. "After everything that just happened?"

"It's also like, one in the morning," Pluto said.

"Even more of a reason to! Come in, come in," Olivia said, dragging us through the door. "This is a friend of a friend's house, so I'll know some people here."

The house was smaller than it looked on the outside, and the "party" turned out to be about twenty kids standing around and awkwardly drinking bottled beer as music played from someone's speaker connected to their phone, as every time they got a notification, the music silenced for a moment and a few people giggled.

"This is pathetic," Olivia said with a shake of her head. "Let's get this party started!" It didn't take her long to get some dancey playlist playing from her own phone, and soon the party became a bit more lively as more people started to show up, even as the host seemed annoyed at us for crashing it.

"Is that soda or alcohol?" Marcus asked, as Olivia offered us red plastic cups with an unfamiliar smelling liquid.

"A mixture," she replied. "Anyone want some?"

"I think I wanna stay sober," Beatrix replied, which was met with a chorus of "same."

"You guys are boring," she complained. "Well I'm gonna get some of that whiskey and cherry fruit punch mix."

"That sounds disgusting," Pluto said. "Pour me some."

Those two seemed intent on partying the hardest, and I couldn't blame them. I would want to get drunk too if one of my best friends had just betrayed me.

There was some loud pop song blaring through the speakers attached to the walls, that someone had hooked Olivia's music playing phone up to, and the LED lights she had set up in the ceiling were flashing, illuminating us in every colour of the rainbow. It gave me a bit of a headache, but it was still cool. It was beginning to seem more like a party from an early 2000's high-school movie, now that everyone was unwinding and not as awkward and self conscious.

The song changed to a slower one just as another group of kids pulled up outside, and Olivia pulled me into the crowd, her drink abandoned somewhere, slipping between all the people, so we were in the middle of the dancers. She slung her arms around my neck casually, and then we were swaying to the music, getting lost in the crowd. "Thank you for rescuing me," she said, so quietly I could barely hear her above the song. "I don't know what I would have done if I had to stay longer."

"I wouldn't just leave you," I told her. "You said we should stick together, after all."

Her large hazel eyes flicked up into mine, and we were so close I could count every eyelash if I tried. She wasn't looking too good, now that I could see her better. As the lights illuminated us, I saw the faded bruises on her face, her chapped lips and bloodshot eyes. I was relieved we'd gotten her out when we had, as who knows what she would have been subjected to?