High School Mayhem

~~44~~

Chapter 44: Gene
~Travis~

"A party?" I ask.

"Yeah! And you're coming with me! It'll probably be the last time I hang out with the Shadow Knights since our groups are so different." Zerenity explains.

"Why do I have to go?" I— not going to lie— whine.

"Don't you want to meet my friends? They aren't as bad as they make themselves out to be." She claims.

To be honest, I don't really want to meet them. "I was planning on having a lazy day, this week has been crazy."

"Lazy day tomorrow," this time she whines, "it's Friday night, we're teenagers, we're supposed to get crazy."

"Can't teenagers stay in and watch Netflix on Friday nights?"

"No. That means you have no life."

"Harsh. What about those who do? You just insulted them."

"Well, I'm sorry, I just wanted my best friend at the party." She pouts.

"This is peer pressure." I sigh.

She giggles, "Except! I'm actually giving you a choice."

"Are you?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

"No." Zerenity smiles and I playfully roll my eyes. "But seriously though, pretty please?!"

"Fine, whatever, I'll ask my dad if I can go."

"No, we're not officially Friday-Night-Teenagers if we don't sneak out." I just blink at her. She wants to sneak out?! "I'm kidding! You should have seen the look on your face! It was hilarious!" She giggles.

"Okay, okay, you got me." I chuckle.

"I'll pick up at eight." She winks.

"Hey," I joke, "aren't I supposed to tell you that?"

"No, because I'm the one taking you out." She smiles and it fades as her lips pull into a thin, tight line. I raise my eyebrows wondering what's wrong. "Um, not like a date. I mean, I obviously know you weren't thinking that but I'm just clarifying for the people in the back, y-you know?"

"Um," I squint at her, why randomly think that, "yeah..."

"Awesome! See you later~!" She stands up giddily. "This is going to be SO much fun! Hanging out with my best friend and my boyfriend."

I close my eyes as I shake my head, "Mhm, so much fun."

"You look... not happy. Don't worry! I know you've never really gone to parties but they aren't as bad as they make them out to be in the movies. It'll be fun!" She practically tackle hugs me.

~*~

She was right, parties aren't how they make it to be in the movies.

They're worse.

You can actually feel the hyped up people jumping against you. What happened to personal space? It left as soon as the quintuple caffeinated drinks entered the room.

"See? Trav? This isn't bad. I mean, yeah, there's lots of people, high risk of being hype, the music is blazing loud, and there's literally people jumping on top of other people but it's all in good fun." Zerenity beams. I roll my eyes as she begins to look around when she suddenly gasps. "Look! There they are!" She grabs my hand and pulls me over to them. Halfway there she hesitates and lets go of my hand.

"Z! Hey!" A girl with white hair and purple eyes waves, I think her name's Sasha.

"Uh, hey." Zerenity smiles before motioning for me to come over. As soon as she had let go of my hand, I stopped walking. I sound like I'm being difficult but I really wanted to have a lazy day. I mean, sure, I would have been less excited about my lazy day if I knew Zerenity was serious about this party because, to be honest, I wanted to have a chill Netflix day with her. "This is Travis!" She introduces me.

"Hi." I stick my thumbs in my pocket as I focus on anything but them.

"Travis, this is Sasha, Zenix, and Gene." She points to each of them individually. I look up at them to see Gene already had his arm around Zerenity. This'll be 'fun', she said. I don't know if I consider this my idea of 'fun'.

"Sup." Gene nods.

"Yo," Sasha says seemingly uninterested in everything.

"Hey," Zenix says simply.

"Everyone introduced?! Great! Let's party!" Zerenity cheers.

"Actually," Gene starts, "we were thinking of leaving."

"Hm, leaving? Why?"

"Z, this party blows." <<Is that something Gene would say xD? I don't think anyone acts like the way Jess wrote them, I'm a terrible writer lol>>

"Oh, right." Zerenity nods. "It totally sucks. I was just telling Travis the same thing, right Trav?"

I raise an eyebrow. Is she seriously asking me to lie for her? "Couldn't really hear you over the loud music. What was that?" I give her a look to tell her I'm not doing it.

She sighs, "It was nothing. I think I might have been talking to myself, in my head, and I thought I said it to Travis."

"Either way, we're heading out, wanna come?" Sasha offers.

"Can Trav come too?" Zerenity asks.

"Trav?" Gene questions.

Her eyes widen, "Trav? I didn't say that, I said Travis, you just can't hear me over the loud music."

Gene raises an eyebrow, "I'm literally standing right next to--"

For some reason, I blurt out, "Aren't you, like, 19?"

He turns to me, "Yeah, I am, and?"

"Zerenity's only 14, isn't that--" I pause clocking my head side to side-- "illegal?"

He glares at me but gives a small chuckle, "I ask again, and?" We stand there glaring at each other, I don't know what's come over me. I've been jealous before but I've never had to the guts to be like this. I just don't get good vibes from him at all.

"Look at the time! It's Hug-O'Clock! Hug the first person you look at!" Zerenity shouts before hugging Sasha. Gene and I continue to just stand there glaring at each other. Zerenity glares at us both. "Hug." She demands.

"I already told you before, I'm never going to do it." Gene scoffs.

Zerenity pouts before letting go of Sasha. "I'm going to get something to drink."

"Shame, you're dating her but you can't even keep up with her little games," I fold my arms with a smirk, "isn't this one sided?"

"Shame, you like her but you can't even man up and tell her." Gene mimics me.

I subconsciously take a step back before raising an eyebrow and staring at him. I shrug off the fact that he figured it out, as long as Zerenity hasn't, I'm fine. "You say that like you don't."

He scoffs yet again, "She's not what she used to be but she's into me so... not like we really see each other anyway."

What a jerk.

"I'm out of here, tell Zerenity to call me." I doubt that he will but I don't even care at this point. It's kind of obvious he doesn't like that we hang out together but there's no way he's going to stop me from talking to her.