Between the Lines

Chapter 6

"Well that's nice to hear." Ellie responds. "I love your dress by the way, so chic." She compliments, and Sutton kindly accepts, saying the same to her. "Here, let us introduce you to some of our friends." Ellie offers kindly, and Sutton smiles and nods.

"Sweet, isn't she?" James says quietly next to her, as they follow Ellie. 

"Very sweet." Sutton tells him, and he smiles. Maybe tonight wouldn't be as bad as she thought it would, everyone here seemed to be kind and mature. 

Sutton is offered a drink multiple times as she follows James and Ellie, but the fact that she drove here gives her the perfect excuse to politely deny anything offered. 

They approach a group of friends, more like a cluster of people standing in two different areas, conversing. They seem to be the center of the party, and Sutton fidgets with the ring on her middle finger.  

Sutton assumes that these were James' friends, not only by the fact that they were about to introduce her, but they all had the same wealthy vibe James has. Sutton couldn't tell what it is about them, she just has a feeling each and every one of them is successful. Sutton immediately feels cheap, her only real success at the moment was how many levels she had completed on candy crush, which was more than anyone she had ever met, but that doesn't exactly help her in this situation.

Ellie leads them to the smaller group of people, and she turns around to face Sutton, grabbing her hand and pulling her towards these people she had never seen before. 

"Lads, this is Sutton." She smiles at the three of them. "Sutton, that's Ava." Ellie says, and Ava grabs Sutton's arm and kissed her on the cheek. 

"Nice to meet you." She says, and Sutton says the same.

"That's Finn, and that's Samuel." She says, pointing to the two guys standing next to each other. 

"Lovely to meet you." Finn smiles, kissing Sutton's cheek. 

"Nice to meet you, and please, call me Sam." He says, giving an annoyed yet joking look to Ellie, then kisses her cheek as well. 

They asked her all of the usual questions, where she was from and what it was like in California. Sutton seems to get asked about where she grew up a lot. She understands their curiosity, but at times it felt boring and repetitive to speak about the same subject over and over again, especially when she has to lie and leave parts out of her explanation. 

"Okay okay, I want you to meet the rest." Ellie says to the small group, and pulls Sutton to the other crowd of people. 

She feels her stomach do a slight flip when she sees Harry standing there, a button down shirt and black jeans. Sutton immediately meets Harry's eye's, and she smiles. 

Harry was surprised to see her, he assumed she wouldn't show, and he hoped that she didn't notice his face light up at just the sight of her. 

"Ah who's this?" A guy says looking at Sutton, making her feel slightly uncomfortable. 

"This is Sutton." Ellie answers, and the guy smiles. "That obnoxious lad is Dylan." She says, pointing to him. "That's Isabel, but we call her Bell, and that one over there, that's glam." Ellie says, pointing to Harry, and Sutton furrowed her eyebrows together.

"Would you fuck off Ellie." Harry says, a friendly smirk on his lips. The whole group breaks into laughter, and Harry just shakes his head. 

"Oh Harry, such a diva." Dylan says in a sarcastic tone, and they all laughed again. Harry jokingly punches him in the gut, and Dylan doubles over in laughter. Sutton assumes it is some kind of inside joke, so she just quietly laughs along with them.