Lifeline

Chapter 4

Contrary to Lucy's expectations, the house is fairly quiet. There are a few girls walking around in the kitchen area, looking quite lost and slightly intoxicated, but other than that the house is empty. Lucy tilts her head in confusion and looks to Harry. "Where is everyone?"

"Oh, they're all out in the pool area, I bet." He nods towards the back of the house where there is a set of double glass doors. "Niall's got a massive pool house out there, too. Complete with a bar and everything." He grins, wagging his eyebrows.

"Oh.." is all that Lucy can think to say as she follows Harry out of the glass doors.

Sure enough, Harry was right. They exit the main house to the pool area to find what appears to be a hundred or more people doing a wide range of activities. The pool itself is in the shape of an L. The short side is slightly elevated and appears to be a hot tub, while the longer side is a normal pool with a diving board on the end. In the pool area, too, is a large table stacked high with red solo cups and surrounded by several coolers packed with what Lucy assumes to be varying types of alcohol. Behind the pool area is a large pool house, with multicolored strobe lights shining through the windows and music blaring out of the open doorway. Lucy stands in place a moment to take in her surroundings. She has been to a few parties before, but has never experienced anything quite like this. A group of girls rush out of the pool house, giggling maddly and hurdle into the pool, fully clothed while another group of guys sit at a small table making jokes. Lucy watches both groups, observing their complete lack of inhibitions and feels slightly jealous of them. To her surprise, she has not seen one person that she has recognized.

"Where's Niall?" She asks Harry, as they stroll over to the coolers and he picks up a beer, opening it to take the first sip.

He nods towards the pool house. "He's probably in there." He smirks. "That's where all the fun usually happens."

They make their way into the pool house and upon entering, Lucy can immediately feel the electric energy flowing through the room. She can feel the bass reverberating off of the walls and vibrating her every muscle. She can see the flashing lights and all the people dancing to the music. The feeling is intoxicating, begging her to give in.

She looks around at all the people filling the room and her eyes set on a beautiful blonde boy with a bright smile lighting up his features. It's a face she has seen many times before. She smiles to the blonde as he saunters up to the pair of them coolly. He raises his right hand at the same moment Harry raises his and they slap them together, pulling each other into a hug.

"It's been a while, bro!" Niall exclaims, pulling out of the embrace and leaning on the bar just beside them. He averts his eyes to Lucy's face now, which holds a somewhat surprised expression as she fights to maintain her composure. "Hey! You brought someone new!" He gives her an award winning smile and pulls her into a short hug. "What's your name?" He asks her as they pull apart from the embrace.

"Hi! I'm Lucy." She manages strongly, adding a smile. "We met at the X Factor studio today and I gave him a ride home." She waves a finger back and forth, pointing towards herself and then to Harry.

Harry shakes his curls out, bringing a hand to ruffle them and pushes the loose strands from his face before joining the conversation. "The bike broke down." He admits as Niall raises his eyebrows to him.

Suddenly, the blonde lets out a loud laughing sound, pointing at Harry and grinning. "I told you that bike was a bad idea, bro!" He continues laughing, clapping his hands together in amusement.

Harry brows form a line as he stares intently at Niall. "You're just jealous that you don't have one." He says, his features turning up into a smirk as he brings the can to his lips to take another sip.

Niall waves a hand at Harry, dismissing him, and turns back to Lucy. "Do you want something to drink? We've got loads." He gestures over to the wall behind the bar which is lined with what appears to be every type of alcohol imaginable.

Lucy swallows hard and tries to think of a way to kindly turn down his offer. She has never had even one sip of alcohol in her entire life. It's not that she is against it, or that she doesn't want to try it.. The opportunity really has just never come up. During high school, all she did was stay home and study. What friendships she had before her brothers passing quickly disolved as she refused to return any of their calls and messages. From that point on, all she wanted was to escape her small hometown. Once graduating, she packed up and moved to Long Beach, California to immerse herslef in her coursework. She never really had much time for drinking or partying. No one ever offered it, either.

"I..Um.." She bites her lip, failing miserably to sound confident in her words. "I've never.." She stammers some more before Niall interjects.

"You've never drank before?" He questions her, his head tilted slightly waiting on her reply. His voice holds no judement, only curiosity.

She shakes her head, looking from Niall to Harry before answering properly. "N-No." She says in a quiet voice, barely audible over the loud music of the pool house.

Harry smiles at her warmly, opening his mouth to speak when a harsh female voice rings out from behind her. "You mean you've never had just one drink? That's pathetic." Lucy spins around to see who the voice belongs to. Standing just behind her is a tall woman with long dark hair. She looks to be around the same age as Lucy, maybe even a year or two younger. She rolls her eyes at Lucy before brushing past her to wrap an arm around Niall's waist as he snakes a hand to rest over her shoulder.

Lucy jumps back at the womans harsh tone, feeling slightly offended. "I just haven't ever had the chance to!" She defends herself, her face contorting in frustration. She did not know who this woman was, but already she didn't like her.

Niall laughs lightly, tightening his grip around the woman and smiling affectionately at her. "Be nice, babe." He mutters in her ear. He looks to Lucy and nods towards the woman. "This is Reeve." He informs her, and his eyes brighten at the mention of her name. He turns his head so that he can give her a kiss on her forehead which makes Lucy smile. She may not be very pleasant to her, but she quite obviously makes Niall happy.

"You don't have to have a drink if you don't want." Harry reassures her before lowering his voice to where only Lucy can hear. "Don't let Reeve bother you, she's real nice once you get to meet her. She just comes off a bit strong at first." She nods to him in understanding, but cannot shake the annoyed feeling she gets when she looks at the dark-haired woman.

Reeve clicks her tongue before she opens her mouth to speak once again. "Yeah. We have plenty of water if you want some." She states, her voice slightly edgy but her features showing no harshness to them now.

Perhaps it's just her deeply rooted stubbonnes, but Lucy can't help but feel challenged by Reeve's words. She marches out of the pool house, much to everyones surprise, stalks up to one of the coolers beside the table, grabs a beer, and storms back into the pool house popping the can open smirking at Reeve.

"I think I'll have a beer." She says, hoping to sound fierce, but only managing to sound like a cub.

Harry looks to her with concern in his eyes. "Lucy, you really don't have to do that." He eyes her warily.

"It's fine." She shoots at him, her voice icy now as she brings the can to her mouth tasting the bitter liquid and feeling the tingle as she swallows. If she is honest with herself the taste is horrible, but she keeps drinking, not wanting to let Reeve win the fabricated challenge.

During her first few sips, Harry, Niall, and Reeve watch her intently. Lucy fights to keep her face indifferent as she finishes off her drink minutes later, her throat feeling raw. She immediately chunks her first can into a trash can and retrieves another.

As she snaps open her second can, Reeve becomes disinterested and walks over to the bar, making herself a drink. Harry raises his eyebrows at Lucy and stifles a laugh, "What are you doing?" He asks.

"I want another."

AN: Yay, so here is a character that I have actually been thinking about for quite awhile! Reeve! I'm so happy that more of you are beginning to read my story! Eeek! Thank you so much! If you like Lifeline please vote for it. I don't want to be that person who begs for votes, but it means so much to me to see your support! :)