The Exchange Student ➵ phan

Chapter 9

I slid in after a couple blond haired girls, both giving me courtesy nods while I pass and look around for a particular direction to go in. I don't want to run into Phil, that's my main dilemma at the moment, I'll have to keep a special eye out for him. Which is going to be particularly hard speaking on how everyone here seems to be dressed like him in all black. The pajama bottoms are starting to feel ridiculous.

Eventually I decide on just grabbing myself a drink from the kitchen, he shouldn't be in there this early at the party. Besides he seems like the type of person to force somebody else to get his drinks.

The party isn't crowded as I expected it to be, a couple people are dotted around the living and dining area and the kitchen is a wasteland when I walk in. For a couple seconds I'm disappointed before a bang echoes from outside the kitchens back window, causing me to jump at least a mile. Hurrying to the window I have to jump on the counter to look outside the tiny pothole, finding most of the party was moved outside in the devastating heat. Outside speakers blaring and every square inch of the fenced in area filled with people basically on top of each other.

Internally I groan, parties were fine but the whole thing was boxed. Not to mention the idiots were setting off fireworks, I'm going to need a stronger drink than previously thought. What a great day to be tethering on extreme drinking heavy weight. Especially with the gigantic array of booze they somehow scrounged up, some dismissive parents 'already drunk so oh well' liquor pile filled with their worst wine. Maybe some back of the store seller who needed a few bucks for his next shot of speed. Whatever the choice I could care less, I'm just glad it's there.

I grab the ingredients I need. A perk of living literally right next to L.A. is that you learn every drink on god's green earth fast as a finger snap. I pride myself with my drink making skills, making them for Ally every time she came home from the club a little too early with her friends and they still were full of partying vibes.

Most of the wine looks fucking disgusting so I write off using it all together. Sue me, something about unscrew caps lying on the counter, not to mention leaving an open wine bottle in the summer heat without any air conditioning does not appeal to me like it would others. AKA the people too drunk to physically think.

I start throwing together the ingredients for a Key West margarita, impressed by the fact I find everything I need except the lime juice. I opt for cutting a lime in half and squeezing it into the mix. This must be a hardcore drinking family.

"What are you making?" I turn around in a quick circle, eyes widening from surprise when somebody walks in through the kitchen door, letting it swing shut behind him.

"A margarita." I answer simply, hoping he'll grab a beer from the counter and leave. Luck is not on my side when he stands next to me instead, leaning on the counter and watching me pour everything in a red cup. Crushing ice cubes with the back of a spoon in another cup.

"Is it for a girl?" He asks, wrinkling his nose slightly. He looks back at all the things I'd set by me than at my face.

"Don't be dick," I reply simply, giving him my best 'shut up' look, completed with half shut eyelids and a little glare from my eyebrows. I pour everything together than start looking around the counter for a blender or maybe a shaker.

"I'm not! I was curious, boys don't normally go for margaritas." He states, eyes widening in shock as he tries to cover up his words with something else less discriminated."Course, they c-can I mean why not. Fuck gender differences right?" He chuckles nervously, staring wide eyed at the ground as if he couldn't believe his own attempt at conversation.

"I like margarita's. And it's called a Key West because it's the Key Best." I joke, trying to change the topic to something that doesn't want to make him gouge his eyes out with a grapefruit spoon."Help me look for a blender too, or a shaker both will work." I tell him, opening the overhead cabinets I can barely reach and shuffling around to find the appliance.