Ginny and Georgia: The Younger Shadow

Chapter 20- Halloween Party!
The pulsing bass of the band thrummed through the air as we walked down the steps to the basment. Already, there were crowds of teens drinking and dancing, and just enjoying life. A few I recognised from the cafeteria and hallways, but there were some faces I didn't recognise. Kara tried to stifle a gasp coming from her mouth as she saw Josh Cooley sitting on the sofa with a few friends. The night was alive. The air was so thick with colourful lights and smoke that it felt like we were underwater. The roar of the crowd and thrum of the music brought me back to reality though, and we somehow managed to work our way through the masses of sweaty, drunken bodies. Aria took our hands and dragged us over to a girl I had seen with my sisters before, but I always forgot her name. She reminded me of a quaint water rat, because she had beady amber eyes, and seemed to be constantly scanning the crowd for something.
"Hey, Samantha!" Aria struggled to be heard over the music pounding in our ear drums.
"What do you want, little Mang?" She sneered, and an ugly expression was drawn on her face. Her Halloween costume seemed to be some cheap leopard print, but I could see Press in the corner checking her out. I felt Aria seething with rage next to me. It was always irritating to be called 'little Mang'. That just because we had four sisters in a group the same age, that they owned us. Hadn't we spent the past few weeks just trying to stand out? It looked like our efforts had clearly gone to waste.
"Um, Sam, do you know where our sisters are? They haven't arrived yet, have they?" Madi tried to yell over the steady beat of the music. But I knew with a dismissive flick of her hand Samantha had heard us very well.
"They said they were going to do a grand reveal with their costumes. Whatever the hell that means. I'm off. Bye." And taking a cautious drink of her punch she was lost in the crowd.
"Grand reveal? God, they want attention so bad, don't they?" I asked, and the others nodded. So far, nobody had even acknowledged our presence except an awkward encounter with Samantha Templeton.
"Oh my fuck. They're fucking here! Look!" Madi squealed. Turning my head to see what the commotion was, I knew exactly what she had seen. There was Maxine Baker, strutting and posing on the staircase like a newborn princess. She had on a scarlet jumpsuit that practically burned my eyes to look at. Several people cheered and whooped when they saw her, and soon a crowd had gathered at her feet. How was she so confident? Max never seemed to care what other people thought of her. She was just carefree.
"Red jumpsuit? What are they doing?" Aria asked, and cocked her head, like she was trying to figure out a difficult math problem.
"God knows" I replied. And we waited for the next grand arrival. Next came Abigail. She was wearing an ebony coloured bowler hat, a choker with blue lace and some sort of suit. I was so dazzled with their performance I barely had the words to describe it. Abby bowed to the crowd and went over to Max. Next came Norah. Kara yelled her name out extra loud and jumped from foot to foot. Her fingers clawed into my skin by accident, but strangely I didn't mind. I suppose we all had each other to cope with our emotions. Norah was wearing some sort of flight stewardess suit, and Jordan came over to her. Much to the excitement of the crowd, he gave her a kiss that I thought would make them swallow each other whole. And I knew who was next. Lastly, Ginny waltzed down the stairs. She had a blonde wig on, a grey jumper and short black skirt.
"Who are they?" I heard Brodie ask.
"They're Britney Spears!" Samantha answered. Her face was a contortion of rage and jealousy. And I felt a twinge of guilt. I had thought she was Mang'a friend too, but they had completely left her out. Madi seemed to be thinking along the same lines as me, because she gave Max a dirty stare. Our sisters twerked for the crowd and posed for countless pictures. The constant flashing made my eyes ache.
"Let's go over to them." Kara said. We all crossed over to the drinks, where they stood pouring some into red plastic cups.
"Hey, Aria. You like our costumes?" Abby giggled and strutted to show us all.
"No one cares about your stupid Britney Spears costume." Aria answered.
"Yeah, why did you leave Samantha out? We thought she was your friend." I asked. Mang all exchanged an unspoken look between each other.
"Calm down, Charlie. If you hadn't noticed before, Mang doesn't have an 'S'. We chose to wear out costumes together. She's not our friend." Norah hissed. A few metres away stood Sam. She dropped the plate of chips she'd been carrying and walked away. I saw Abby staring at her, but made no attempt to follow her. She'd heard their words. Whoever said sticks and stone can break your bones, but words can never hurt you was a dick. Because words are what can truly get under your skin.
"You're absolute bitches." Madi sniped back at them. Without a further word we filled our cups up with some alcohol and sat down on the sofa.
"Hate to cut this party short, but Josh just asked me to come and dance with him." Kara said. We all let her go. I hadn't seen her look so spirited for a long time. "Hey, girl." A husky voice called from behind me. I felt a dozen kisses planted on my neck before Leon sat down beside me.
"Hey, how are you?" I asked, leaning over and giving him a hard hug. Aria and Madi were lost in some pointless debate so I was free to talk with my boyfriend for a bit.
"I'm good. Your costume looks great! Do you like my spongebob one?" I had to fight the urge to take a picture of him and upload it to Snapchat, because he looked hilarious. Aria gave a lighthearted snigger when she saw him, and Madi's eyes lit up in amusement.
"Idiot." I joked and leaned over to rest on him, till my forehead was level with his huge chest.
"Wanna go dance?" I asked. Leon nodded and grabbed my hand. We made our way to the dance floor. Most of the people were drunk, but I had barely had my vodka and Leon had just arrived so my head was still clear. The DJ racking his beats in the corner saw a few couples making their way to the dance floor and changed the music to a calm, slow dance. Leon and I didn't really know what to do. I had never been a master myself at dancing, but I tried my best and we managed to make it work. For goodness knows how long we were just lost in the previous music and memories.
"I love you, Charlie Miller. I've never met anyone like you before." He whispered in my ear. I reached on my toes to give him a kiss, before heading back to the sofa.
"Char, look at Kara getting that boy. I told her if she put her mind to it, she could!" Madison laughed and pointed over to where Kara had Josh pinned against the smooth brick wall, and was being smothered in kisses. I noticed Norah giving her sister a deadly look and turned back to Aria.
"You know, Holden Winters asked me on a date." She said matter of factly. My drink came flying from my mouth.
"Holden? You mean the chess champion and runner of the mathletes? He wants to take you for a date?"
"Don't be so judgy, Charlotte Miller. You're going out with the guy who comes bottom in every class except phys Ed. No offence, Leon."
"None taken." He held up his arms in mock defeat. Did I just sound judgemental?
"I don't mean to judge, Aria. If anything, maybe this guy will also get you on the team." I apologised and gave her a kiss on the forehead.
"S'ok." She said, and reached over to stuff some chips into her mouth.
Suddenly, Madi came running over, knocking the bowl of chips.
"Have you guys seen Hunter Chen! He's a fricking vampire! A vampire with Britney Spears!" She giggled at her own joke and Aria flashed her an irritated look for spreading her snacks on the floor.
"I heard about Aria with Holden. I can't believe I'll be the only girl not dating someone. But I just don't think much of anyone here. Maybe I have to search the whole world with a comb to find the right person." She signed and rested her head on Aria's lap. Aria stroked her black hair.
We'd all promised each other not to get drunk this time, which I knew Maxine would call us a bore for, but the last time it happened was something I didn't want to bring back. A few hours later, after partying and watching everyone around us get slowly wasted, Madi, Ginny, Marcus, Max and I headed back to Max's house. Abby, Norah, Aria and Kara had headed home the opposite way. Unfortunately, Max was drunk beyond compare. She got really abrasive on the way home. Marcus and Ginny had to carry her, and she kept shouting and singing songs at the top of her lungs. The noise was honestly like a murder investigation. "iwantabbywheresabbywheresmyabbywabby" she said in a rush, and the words tumbled out of her in barely distinguishable syllables.
"Max, If you don't stop screaming or speaking, I swear I will make a video and send it to mom" Madi warned. After what felt like half a century, we managed to drag Max up to her room. Madi's parents were at some car boot sale and wouldn't be home for a couple of hours, so hopefully she still had time to sober up. Max stroked Marcus's face as he dragged a blue bucket to the side of her bed and propped up her pillows.
"My Marcus..." she groaned and retched into the bucket, making unexplainable sounds. Marcus just stroked her face and brought her mass of dark hair to the back so the sick wouldn't catch in it. After she was done, we watched Max fall into an unusually quiet sleep. She twitched several times and muttered peculiar things under her breath, but eventually she was properly asleep and didn't seem to be plagued by nightmares.
"She's gonna have a shit headache when she wakes up." Madi remarked.
"Charlie, we'll go in a few minutes, but Marcus and I will fetch Max some water and extra pillows" Ginny called. She shut the door as I replied,
"Ok, Gin."
"Let's go to my room for a little bit, while they look after Max." Madi whispered. I followed suit as we walked past the hallway. But as we passed another room, I saw it was occupied. By Ginny and Marcus. But weren't they meant to be in the kitchen?
"Just friends?" My sister asked, looking up into Marcus's eyes.
"Ok. From a few years on, someone will ask if I know a Ginny Miller, and I'll say oh, Ginny? She and I go way back."
"Oh, Marcus? Yeah, we're tight." But there was a distant and detached looked in Marcus's eyes. He gripped Ginny's hand in his. Before they could look and see our heads poking through the door, Madi dragged me to her room and shut the door.
"What the fuck was that?" I demanded.
Her eyes blazed with contempt.
"How the hell am I supposed to know? Maybe they were just talking?"
"You always look for the best in everyone, Madison! How do you know what's going on? Isnt your brother with Padma?"
"And isn't your sister with Hunter?" She retaliated and slumped onto her bed.
"Ok, let's not jump to conclusions. You're right. Maybe they really were just talking. And there's nothing wrong with that. Maybe they were just getting extra pillows for Max." But however much the words came out of my mouth, the more I felt I was spinning a web of constant lies. I liked Wellsbury a lot. But it had secrets I needed to keep up with. Ginny and Marcus weren't doing anything. They were good friends as well. That was all it was.