"Ready to go?" Brandon asked, as I sat down in the seat beside him in his car. It was the day after Sid's party, and we were planning on going to Jake's house for the lifeguard party he was organizing. Although Brandon had emphatically stated he wasn't planning on drinking, I knew he would. And it was vital he did, as I needed him to be a bit less of his usual headstrong, stubborn self if tonight was going to go as per my plan.
"Nope," I said, a slight inflection of sarcasm in my voice. "I'm sitting here with my sleeping bag and the rest of my stuff in the other bag because I'm not ready." He grinned and made a face at me before reversing out of my driveway. By the time we had reached Jake's house, I learned that at least half the staff was going to be at the party, and all of them were expected to be staying the night. In addition, I had convinced Brandon to at least stay at Jake's as well, even if he wasn't planning to drink. I knew that even if he hadn't agreed to drink initially, the prospect of being there all evening would make him at least a bit more agreeable to having a drink if someone else asked him to.
He parked his car on the side of the road as Jake's driveway was already full with others who had arrived before us. "Wonder how long people have been here?" he asked, as we walked up the driveway.
"It got dark around five," I replied, ringing the doorbell, "so I would guess people got here around six. Any excuse to start drinking early." Jake opened the door, and immediately a blast of noise crashed around our ears.
"You get used to it," Jake grinned, noticing our slight winces. He indicated where the noise was coming from; directly to our left as we entered was the door to the garage, where about twenty lifeguards were talking and drinking, and a few were dancing along to the songs blasting from the stereo in the back corner. I could see a little smoke coming from the opposite corner of the garage.
"What's going on over there?" I asked, pointing to the smoke. "Is something burning?"
Jake chuckled. "Nope, Rowan, Sean and Ben are getting high." I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. "Seriously!" he insisted, noting my sceptical expression, and raised his voice. "Hey Ben!" Ben's head popped around the doorway, along with Sean and Rowan; all three of them were grinning bemusedly, their eyes were red and they looked a bit disoriented.
"Wassup fuckers?" Ben yelled. Brandon and I exchanged a glance and a grin, and took out our phones.
"Smile!" Brandon chortled, and all three of them did. Both of us clicked a couple of photos before going back inside the house. "These photos will be hilarious when they're sober. We should make one of them the desktop background on the work computer!"
"Apart from the fact that it would be unprofessional, it's doable," I grinned, getting a sudden idea. He looked at me in disbelief.
"You can get on the work computer? How? It's password-protected!" he said.
"It's not impossible to guess what that was, it was so easy," I grinned. He looked grumpy.
"Someone always gives it away," he grunted. "Who told you the password was 'water bottle'?" I burst into laughter, unable to help myself.
"You did," I grinned, once I had stopped laughing.
"What?! No, I didn't!" Brandon exclaimed. I smiled broadly but said nothing, and his eyes widened. "You didn't know it at all! You tricked me!"
"Thanks for the password," I said, still smiling. "Want to see something cool?"
"Sure," he followed me down the hall, where I could hear voices coming from a sitting room. There were maybe six or seven of the lifeguards there, sitting on the couches, and I noted that there was also a mattress in the far corner and a fireplace in the middle of the room.
