𝐋𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐔𝐒. ᵒᵘᵗᵉʳ ᵇᵃⁿᵏˢ ¹

𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 23.

    I wasn't dumb. I knew what a party looked like— from watching movies and shows my whole life. But I never thought that that kind of stuff actually happened in real life, and I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that I was there, surrounded by a bunch of rich teenagers, in which majority of them were too wasted to even function. It was painted how you'd see it in a movie; inground pool outside of a mansion, girls in bikinis, guys holding cans of beer, people sitting with their legs in the water, music blaring, the sun down, and neon lights lighting up the place.

    It was all equally as bewildering, baffling, and overwhelming. There I was, a lonely girl from New York City, walking around to the backyard one of the biggest mansions I'd ever seen, with the island's most famous rich girl, Sarah Cameron. Immediately when we turned the bend and were suddenly out in the open, multiple faces lit up at the sight of her. She had her arm interlocked with mine, which kept us side-by-side as people stared and gawked at us. It was like we were movie stars, walking on the red carpet, and all these teenagers were the paparazzi.

    Everyone looked at me weirdly. I tried my best to smile, as people approached the two of us, giving Sarah side hugs and then awkwardly shifting their eyes over to me standing there like a deer in headlights. Sarah had tried her best to introduce me to as many people that came up to us, but most of them didn't care, and tried to drag her along towards their groups of friends instead. But, my stomach warmed every time she would deny, keeping her arm locked with mine, as she pulled me through the sweaty teenagers to the next pair of people I'd soon meet.

    The guys— stared at both of us as we trotted to and from, their eyes trailing down my body a few times, which, without a doubt, started to make me feel uncomfortable after a while. Half of them were shirtless, and all of them held cans or bottles of alcohol in their hands, trying to flex their muscles while they sat by the pool. It was embarrassing to see how the boys acted, and at one point I nearly laughed at the sight of three of them standing by the back door, their muscles flexing so aggressively that their heads almost popped off right then and there.

    The girls— most of them gave me odd looks as I passed, their acrylic nails flipping their long hair over their shoulders as if proud of themselves. Not one of them, not a single girl there, wasn't thin. I tried hard, squinting my eyes past the numbers of people, to try and spot a girl who wasn't skinny, like me. Only minutes into the introductions, I had realized I didn't fit in at all, not even a little bit. They were all drop-dead gorgeous, with their hair highlights and perfect bodies, their long eyelashes and tanned skin. Yeah, I looked like Sarah a little bit, but I sure as hell didn't fit in with the rest of the Kooks whatsoever.

    It took me a good while to actually take off my sun dress. About half an hour into the party, my eardrums already dead from the blasting music, Sarah had found her boyfriend, and re-introduced me to him again. He was much nicer than before, when he almost ran me over with his Jeep. He wasn't as bad as I thought him to be, he had actually sat down with Sarah and I on the lawn chairs and talked for a little bit, I stayed silent most of that time, before he got dragged away by some of his friends and said he'd hang out with us later.

    A whole hour had passed, and I hadn't talked much. I was far too busy with examining everyone else, watching how the Kooks acted in comparison to the Pogues. Sarah's boyfriend had given her a drink before he left, and I didn't want to ruin her mood by telling her she still had to drive me home. So I was stupid, and let her drink a few.

    Now, Sarah was in her pink bikini, sitting next to me on one of the expensive lawn chairs, as people came up to us and tried to drag her away with them, since she was popular. Once it became annoying, she'd taken off her dress, and asked me if I wanted to go in the pool with her.