ALL THE LOVE WE LEAVE BEHIND

Chapter 3

Friday, 11:30 pm

"You're beautiful."

"So you've said, at least 10 times tonight."

I giggled as I leaned in to kiss Tyler. He was wearing a formal fitted black attire and straight pants- the shades effortlessly complimented my pink dress.

"Well, it's your fault for looking so heavenly." Tyler cheered on as he returned the kiss.

"Hmm. Is that you talking, or the drinks?" I removed the glass from his hand as he shot me an apologetic look.

"Can't it be both?"

"No." My fingers brushed through his dishevelled hair as his sombre eyes portrayed that he had had more than just one drink tonight.

It was officially Friday, Charlotte's party. The past week had been a blur, with Lexi leaving for her family trip in New York- the last time I saw her was when I dropped her to the airport. The rest of the days were spent with everyone saying their farewells around campus, and me fretting because I hadn't found an internship yet- still, I did nothing to make that problem go away.

In short- the time was a blend of chaos and merriment as all our minds went off finals and into a haze. A haze, which inevitably led to almost every single person that hadn't left the city to attend this party- making it the talk of the year. I didn't particularly mind, though. Since we had gotten here, Tyler and I had danced, socialized with a few of his friends, he had gulped down a couple dozen glasses of what I assumed was flavored vodka- although I wasn't too sure, because I never usually drunk, but I had been living with Lexi, so I had a rough idea about the aroma each drink contained.

"Don't get upset."

Tyler motioned as he rubbed his face off on my shoulder.

"Don't get drunk."

I balanced his weight as he lifted himself up and kissed my forehead.

"It's a little too late for that, Mother Teresa."

He spoke with a grin that just wasn't going away, and I was debating on whether this was cute to me or irksome.

See, Tyler never drank, therefore I never had to babysit or lecture him the way I did to Lexi or Dylan. Frankly, I would've liked to keep my relationship like that with Tyler- away from the whole 'being the mom' kind of thing, but sadly he had filled his insides with intoxicants tonight, so the least I could do was make sure he handles this somewhat pragmatically.

"Hey."

The shrill of a voice broke our midway cuddle as we were forced to turn our head and face the hostess of the grand facade. Another reason I was on cloud nine at this event was because I hadn't encountered the one person that I had a vendetta with; Charlotte.

When we had arrived, she was nowhere to be seen, and because the entire place was flooded with flashy lights, ear-splitting music and a crowd of teenagers yelling, we found it easier to keep it low and blend in without needing to alert the hostess of our presence. Sadly for me, my luck only lasted me this long.

"Are you two enjoying the party? I didn't see you come in, Tyler."

The blonde, with her heated hair curled into a voluminous Hollywood blowout, a velvet dress that was way too tight around her waist and a dark pair of Prada heels to make her legs appear slimmer than they were- perhaps the only favor she did herself was throbbing a pound of foundation on her skin, to conceal her Janus face- didn't even pretend to acknowledge me, but made it a point to pat Tyler's shoulder and get his attention- not that he gave it, which I was more than grateful for- I just hoped this would be a two-minute hello and then I could go back to taking care of the only guy that could appear this adorable, even drunk.