The Beautiful Ones

2- Chug!

Alice

Chug! Chug! Chug!

The college boys around us were chanting as I threw back my third shot in a row with my hands behind my back. I ducked my head for the fourth and clasped my teeth around the rim of the tiny cup before wrapping my lips around the cool glass and tossing my head back, throwing the stinging liquid to the back of my throat before putting the glass back down on the table with my mouth.

When I looked over to my brunette friend, she finished at the same exact time as me.

“We have a tie!” One of the drunk boys slurred, making the crowd boo in disappointment. The bet was that the loser had to make out with the guy of the other’s choice. The joke was on them, we knew that we’d tie. We always tie. Not on purpose, but it always works out that way.

I grabbed Zoey’s hand in mine and we faced the crowed, doing a dramatic bow before our admiring audience before disappearing into the throngs of drunk college people. The girls were grinding sloppily onto the happily wasted guys as we were all going out with a bang- it was the end of the summer and the day after tomorrow marked the first day of school. And for me and Zoey, the first day of senior year of high school.

“Let’s go find Keegan!” Zoey yelled over the noise of the blaring music that was being blasted from the speakers of the frat house. At that moment, it was a Nicki Minaj song.

I nodded at her instead of yelling back, those four shots were making me dizzy and it was harder to walk in my white platform heels than it was twenty minutes ago. I was wearing a light blue dress that clung to my body and left one shoulder bare, with a sleeve over my left shoulder that had a huge gaping slit down the front and a silver cuff, holding the sleeve together at my wrist. My earrings were little diamond hearts that clung to my ears, they were really expensive and I have no idea why I was wearing them to a college party, but oh well, I suppose. And by the look of how Zoey was swaying as she walked in her black spiked booty heals, I could tell that she could feel the effects of the alcohol as well. Her dress was tight and black with long sleeves and the back had a huge skull carved out of it. She was sporting a Betty Johnson two-fingered mustache ring. I don’t know why we decided to wear our expensive jewelry tonight, that’s really stupid.

Keegan was a frat boy in this house, I don’t know the name of it, and he was Zoey’s brother’s friend from high school, which is how we got into these parties, and the college kids were more than happy to welcome Zoey Chase and Alice Bowman into their territory, even if we were only in high school.

We were famous.

When we finally fought our way through the mess of partiers in the kitchen, we popped into the not-so-crowded kitchen, but the downfall of being in the kitchen is that this was where everybody went when they decided that they wanted to do more than dance. Basically, we were surrounded by drunk and horny college kids, trying to get it on... on the counters.

“Maybe he’s outside.” I slurred, looking around for the blonde haired boy. I wasn’t even sure why we were looking for him, or maybe I did and I just forgot.

“I guess.” Zoey sighed. “It’s not really important.” She said as she opted for an unopened beer from a cooler that was resting beside the counter. I took one too and we just stayed in the disease-infested kitchen and drank our beers, not saying anything, we just drank.

In fact, we drank until everything as a blurry mess and we were as drunk as the best of them. We didn’t get that drunk very often, we didn’t even drink all that much. Sure, we came to the parties, but most of the time, we’d just settle with a beer or something, but tonight, with school starting in less than two days, we needed to forget things. We needed to feel numb for a night before the chaos of high school began again.

Once we were satisfied with our drunk state, I decided that I wanted to dance, so I grabbed Zoey’s hand in mine and we dove back into the craziness that was the frat house living room.

We started carelessly dancing to the Ke$ha song that was now blasting through the room and I relished in the feeling of the room spinning and the echoed voices inside of my head. It felt like I was floating and sinking all in the same moment and I loved that feeling.

When I looked up at Zoey, I saw that there was an unfamiliar college guy behind her as she happily grinded her hips into him with his hands on her waist. That’s when I realized that there was somebody pressed against me, too, and I’d been grinding onto this person for who knows how long. I didn’t stop dancing though, I just pressed my hips farther into him and started grinding a little harder.

“Hey, it’s time to go, you guys are drunk of your asses.” Somebody yelled to us over the music. I looked up to see Lance standing there.

Oh, Lance. Lance was Zoey’s nineteen year old brother. Lance’s dark brown hair was in a buzz cut, but it used to be so shaggy and playful on top of his head. His long eyelashes encased his deep brown eyes and just everything about him was perfect. And unfortunately, that wasn’t the alcohol talking.

I’ve had the hugest, most embarrassing and pathetic crush on Lance Chase for four years now, and it’s miserable. I would never, ever admit to him that I like him. I would never let myself trust somebody like that. Of course, I trust Zoey with my life, but Lance is a different story. It’s not that he’s done anything to give me reason not to trust him, it’s just a personal thing. I don’t trust people. It’s such a stupid concept, trust. Like, how can you be absolutely sure that people are telling the truth? It’s so stupid to be naïve enough to believe that somebody won’t lie to you or go behind your back or something.

And then there’s the other obstacle in the way- Lance doesn’t like me like that. I mean, I don’t see why he would. On the outside, people might classify me as pretty, I’ve heard it enough times, but on the inside- I’m a big fucking damaged mess.

Once he said those words, I pushed the guy behind me off of my back and the stranger mumbled something before walking away. “Alright.” I slurred.

“No, I’m not ready to go yet!” Zoey whined.

“Zoey, you can’t even walk right now.” Lance muttered, pulling her wrist so that she stumbled forward and away from the boy behind her. She was so drunk that even her strongest efforts weren’t good enough to keep from going with Lance. I don’t think he drank a lot, because he was standing without swaying and his words weren’t slurred at all.

“Oh, come on. Stop being a party pooper.” Zoey pouted as Lance looped his arm around her waist to help her up. Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to walk all that well either, I put my hand on his strong shoulder and walked behind him as he pushed his way through the crowd so that we didn’t have to.

Once we got to the door to the house, Zoey pushed her brother off of her. “I can walk just fine.” She snapped. Drunk Zoey was always a little emotional.

“Fine.” Lance sighed, leading us towards the car that was parked at the curb. The night Texas air was cool against my skin and it was really dark, considering it was probably around three in the morning. “Ali, how are you doing?” Lance asked cautiously as he helped Zoey into the back of the car.

“I’m just peachy.” I chirped with a girly giggle.

He rolled his chocolaty eyes as he gripped one of my bare shoulders, shooting tingles down my arm, and guided me into the passenger seat of the car. It made me sad that he didn’t feel the same thing when we touched. That always made me sad.

It seemed like seconds before he was in the driver’s seat, pulling away from the curb. Zoey was passed out in the first few minutes of the drive, and it was a twenty minute drive from the university to Zoey’s house, which is where I was spending the night tonight, even though our houses were close to each other. Technically, we’re neighbors, but with all the land that our families own, our houses are almost a mile away from each other.

“You’re quiet tonight.” Lance observed as we drove.

“I’m thinking about how pretty the lights look outside.” I told him, continuing to look out the window as we zoomed through the campus and then the city that was lit up with pretty lights. Everything after that was blank. The alcohol was working its magic and I blacked out.