A Haunting Melody: The Golden Lyre

13 | Epsilon

In the corner of her eye, she saw the host of the party, Conner Felton, who was making his way to her with a beer in hand and a goofy smile on his face.

"Hey Astrid. Glad you could make it. I don't see you here often," he smirked, taking a sip of his beer, "Actually I've never seen you here before."

Astrid rolled her eyes, immediately picking up on the overwhelming smell of weed emanating from him. She suppressed the desire to cover her nose.

"Hi Conner. I just came for Rose. Where is she?" she asked, holding her breath as she spoke, hoping to breathe in as little of the toxic air as possible.

He turned around and pointed to a mess of blonde curls which bounced around the makeshift dance floor in the lounge area. Astrid immediately nodded in thanks and began to push through the crowded room, making her way to Rose.

"Rose!" she called out above the booming music.

Rose turned around and smiled brightly at Astrid.

"Hey Astrid! I can't believe you actually came!" she yelled over the music, a huge grin plastered on her face.

"Where's Sam?" Astrid asked, knowing that she had probably already forgotten about him.

"Oh! He's in the kitchen, I think!" she yelled while twitching her head in the direction of the kitchen.

"I'll go find him," Astrid said before walking in the general direction of what she assumed was the kitchen.

Relief washed over her when she entered the kitchen, which seemed to be more secluded. The blaring music seemed far away now and she could finally hear herself think again.

Sam sat on the counter with a glass in his hand which seemed to be filled with some sort of spirits and stared ahead, seemingly shrouded in a familiar cloud of gloom.

"Hi Sam," Astrid said exasperatedly, taking in the sight of him.

He looked up at her sluggishly, "You came," he smiled weakly, getting up to give her a grateful hug.

Astrid wasn't surprised to find that he smelled strongly of tequila and what she could only describe as 'something minty'.

"Let's go outside," she said gently, taking his hand in hers.

They both desperately needed some fresh air and a quiet place to talk. Sam nodded slowly and let her lead him outside through the glass sliding door in the kitchen which led to the back yard. He stumbled a few times as they weaved through the crowd of people.

Finally, they found themselves in a secluded corner of the backyard. There was a little bench and a birdbath stationed next to it.

Taking a seat on the bench and letting Sam flop down beside her, she absent-mindedly ran her fingertips down the smooth, green bark of the fever tree which stood behind the bench. There was a long silence.

"Is something wrong?" she eventually asked, giving Sam a tender look.

Sam shook his head, knowing full well how obvious it was that he was lying.

"Is it about Rose?" she asked gently.

Sam had been crushing on Rose since the very beginning of their friendship. Astrid had known from the start, although Sam had never confessed this to her directly. They had an unspoken understanding of one another and chose to just be there for each other without asking questions when the need arose.

"She's never going to want me. There will always be some other guy," he blurted out, his voice straining slightly.

Astrid felt panic rising in her chest. She had no idea how to comfort people in situations like these.