𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐎𝐍𝐄, xolo maridueña

sixteen. invisible strings my dear

          "ha ha," xolo mocked sarcastically, pulling away and turning the radio up. recognising the tune, maeve leant forwards slightly.

          "who's on aux?"

          "i am," lacy smiled. "you like taylor swift?"

          "of course," the girl grinned in response. "we must discuss more later."

          "this is invisible string, right?" xolo asked as the song continued, causing taiyo's eyebrows to raise at maeve across the backseat.

          "who taught him that?" maeve raised her eyebrows back in response. "lacy?"

          "wasn't me." the girl shook her head with a laugh. "his sister, maybe?"

maeve sat back, giving a passive nod and swallowing thickly, remembering a conversation the pair had the other week: "invisible strings, my dear." "huh?" "it's a taylor swift reference."

arriving at the cooper's, maeve was quick to jump out the car and greet haven and her brother who were waiting by the door.

          "caspian, oh my god, you are as pretty as everyone says you are. i can't believe i just greeted you like that."

caspian laughed, giving the girl a hug before glancing at taiyo, raising his eyebrows.

          "dude, are you nervous to meet me?"

          "no," taiyo blatantly lied. "happy birthday, though."

          "thanks," caspian smiled.

xolo and lacy hopped out the car behind them, greeting the siblings, and xolo asked after jacob.

"oh, he's been roped into helping our moms finish setting things up somehow," haven answered with a laugh.

"he'll be loving that," xolo grinned, and the six of them made their way back inside.

maeve didn't often go to parties that weren't to do with her career, so this one was a pretty new scenario. she sat on the couch alongside taiyo and lacy as people filed in, who all knew haven, caspian, and even xolo and jacob. maeve kept to her wine and the people she knew, and soon enough the house was bustling.

"hey, you anti-social butterflies," haven beamed as they flopped down on the couch between taiyo and maeve. "are you having fun?"

"the music could be better," maeve shrugged, acting all innocent as jacob walked over to join them, even though he'd been very enthusiastic about being creator of the party's playlist. he scoffed at her comment playfully.

caspian joined the group, sitting on the arm of the couch beside lacy with a grin.

"how's the wine treating you?"

"excellently," the girl grinned, knocking her cup against lacy's in cheers.

"probably better than it's treating xolo," jacob added. "he's already throwing up upstairs, i'm pretty sure."