// heavy drinking
3rd person POV
"Party!" Nick cheered on Daphne's bed while she put on make up by her vanity. "Party!"
"You're literally a child jumping on my bed right now" Daphne laughs as she continued putting on mascara. "Okay, I'm done. Let's get going"
"Yippee!" Nick jumps out of bed and grabs Daphne by her hand to drag her out of the room. "Car! Car!"
"Okay! Stop pulling me" Daphne pulls her arm away. Nick opens the door for her, letting her in before going to his side.
"I can show you off to my friends and family and the entire world even if you aren't my girlfriend yet and because I'm entering with the hottest girl I've ever seen! I'm actually gonna outdo both Clay and George!" The words spilled from Nick's mouth sounded like something a young teen boy would say while sounding like a 5 year old child being really excited. It gave Daphne a red face seeing him all happy.
"Erin is hot-"
"You're hotter"
The two arrived at the party with Kai following behind them. The moment they opened the door, a bunch of Nick's friends had turned around to see him.
A lot of them ran towards him to give him hugs and a bunch of people greeted him from seeing each other for a while. They were all busy with their own lives and rarely saw each other as much as when they were in college.
"Is this Daphne?" Alex asks, looking at the girl standing beside Nick.
"Yes actually, you guys know about Daphne" Nick's hand slithered around Daphne's waist, pulling her towards him. "Daph, I've told you about Alex, that's Darryl, and you know Luke.. Oh and this is my friend Dylan, not your brother"
"Nice to meet you guys" She waves shyly, looking up at Nick with wide eyes.
"Oh and this is her friend Kai" Nick moves to the side to reveal a slightly shorter person standing behind him. "They just moved here from Japan"
"Ohh! Ni-hao!" Alex reaches in to shake their hand.
"Ni-hao.. Uh that's Chinese.." Kai let out an awkward laugh, watching Alex'a eyes widen.
"Oh yeah.. I totally knew that.. Annyeonghaseyo?"
"Ooh so close, that's Korean bae" Kai sucks through their teeth while Alex's face drops in defeat. "Okay here, say kon'nichiwa"
"Ohh okay" Alex looks to his friends with a smirk while nudging Darryl on the side. "Say, what can I get you tonight?"
"I need alcohol" Kai sighs, pouting their lips.
"I'll bring you to the kitchen, come look around" Alex wraps his arms around Kai and walked away with them.
"Poor Alex thinks Kai would be interested in him when they are literally aromatic" Daphne bites her lip with a sigh, watching the two walk away.
"Well it's a part of life to be rejected"
"You're right.. Is your friend Luke single?" Daphne jokes, looking around the room and completely wrecking his ego.
"Shut up, you're not even my girlfriend but I swear I'll fight anyone"
Nick led Daphne to the kitchen where he grabbed drinks for the both of them.
"Stay next to me the entire night, I don't want anything happening to you while you're dru-"
"Daphne!" Erin yells from the doorframe of the kitchen "You're here!"
"Oh my fucking god" Nick ran his hand down his face, knowing Daphne wouldn't even be with him for most of the night because of Erin. "Go away, she's with me tonight"
"Hey, you're not my boyfriend yet and you can't control who I stay with tonight" Daphne pushed him by his chest, walking towards Erin.
Both of them hated to admit it, but they both hated when the other one mentioned that they weren't dating. Nick hated it when Daphne joked about not being his girlfriend yet and she hated it when he did the same. It's just that they think the other one finds it humorous and decides to just not bring it up.
"Hi Er, how are you?" Daphne moves her drink in a circular motion, as if she was mixing it while Erin spoke.
"Literally have been taking care of George because he was sick. It's exhausting but I love him and did everything for him anyways" Erin took a sip of her drink. "I told him I wanted to stay and take care of him but he insisted I spent tonight out in a party instead of taking care of him. I wanted to slap him but he was sick so I just didn't"
"Sheesh, he really wants you to enjoy your time"
"Can I at least be behind Daphne the entire time?" Nick pleased from behind them. "I won't bother you but I want to be around the person that I invited"
"This is literally one of your best friend's parties and you're hanging out with a girl you're not even dating? Bros before hoes" Erin said. She obviously didn't mean to call Daphne a hoe, but it was for dramatic effect. "Girlfriend before bros but bros before hoes or girls that you have casual make outs with"
"Okay chill, how much have you had to drink?" Daphne asked her.
"Around 15 shots and 6 cups of this yummy beer. I've been drinking since 3 pm" As Erin takes another sip, Daphne grabs the cup from her hand and places it down on the counter. "Wha- hey, that's my drink-"
"Let's start getting the nonalcoholic drinks" Daphne grabs some cans of coke and sprit, handing them over to Erin. "Look, yummy lemon drink"
"I'm not drunk, Daph. If I was drunk then I'd be making out with George right now"
"George isn't here so I have every right to believe you're drunk right now and we need to sober you up a little bit before you can drink, mkay?" Daphne leads her out to the living room where she sees Wisteria sitting down with Clay next to her, talking to his friends while she just listens.
"Hey Nick, let's chug random shit" Luke approached his friend, wrapping his arm around Nick's shoulder. Nick looks at Daphne laughing with Erin and Wisteria as he hesitated on leaving her. "Come on, she'll be fine. Everyone here knows her. If something happens then most likely people would help her out"
"How does everyone know her?"
"You really don't notice how often you talk about her?"
"Fine but if she gets hurt, I'm blaming you for taking me away"
Almost the entire time, Nick stayed with his friends while Daphne stayed with her own group of people. Erin introduced her to some of the girls that were invited since they knew each other from past times parties were thrown by Clay's group of friends.
But even when away, Daphne and Nick would constantly check up on the other person to make sure they were okay.
Problem was that every time Daphne checked on Nick, he was either chugging down alcohol or being dared by his friends to take 20 shots within a minute. She was so sure he was drunk.
Meanwhile every time Nick checked up on Daphne, Erin was offering her a drink. He checked up on her about twice an hour and they had been there for more than 5 hours. Without knowing the exact amount, she had taken around 10 or more drinks by then so he knew she was drunk.
Even with Nick's assumption, Daphne knew for a fact she wasn't drunk. The drinks she had kept on getting were either really light or nonalcoholic. The most she's felt with the alcohol was a headache to signal her she was slowly getting drunk.
"Hey Daphne, right?" Alex asked Daphne, sitting on the couch.
"Yeah?"
"You're Kai's like.. best friend right?"
"Yeah, is everything okay?" Daphne starts fiddling with her necklace, worried for the well-being of her best friend.
"Oh of course, it's just that they passed out and I have them sleeping in my bedroom. Will you be able to bring them home.. or??"
"I can't drive.. Can they just stay here for a bit? They have a car anyways so they can come back in the morning. Or if not, I'll come back here tomorrow to pick them up with Nick. Which reminds me, where is Nick?"
"Oh he's drinking with some of his friends by the balcony. So you're just gonna pick them up in the morning?"
Daphne let's out a sigh of relief knowing both Nick and Kai were okay.
"Yes, I'll come back tomorrow with Nick to pick them up if they aren't home by the time we wake up." Daphne places her drink down on the coffee table and stands up, patting her clothes down. "Where's the balcony? I need to check on Nick"
"Oh it's just that door over there"
"Thanks" Daphne throws her purse over her shoulder and makes her way to the balcony. As she opens the door, she sees Nick talking with Luke and just him in the balcony.
She was surprised to see no one else other than the two of them with no cups around them. They both looked like they were talking about something private. It also looked like Nick wasn't drunk in Daphne's point of view.
She opened the door and the two boys turn at the sound of the door opening. Luke nudges Nick on the arm with an unnoticeable smirk on his face.
"Hey" Nick greeted softly.
"Hi" Daphne says in the same tone.
"Should I leave? I should leave.." Luke pats Nick on the back without waiting for an answer. He walked to the door and went passed Daphne by the door.
"Damn.." Nick curses to himself as Luke went away. "So, why are you here?"
"I wanted to check up on you to make sure you didn't lose consciousness or something" Daphne walks up next to him and leans her body against the railing. "You don't seem drunk"
"I'm not drunk, are you?" Nick leans beside her, looking at her eyes stare at the distance.
"I'm not.." Daphne looks down at the quiet street. The wind was blowing coldly onto her hair that flowed with the air. "Didn't drink much"
"You took tons of shots, don't need to lie" Nick chuckles, facing the same way Daphne was facing. "I drank a lot.. I'm surprised I'm not drunk, just lightheaded"
"You should stop drinking so we can go home"
"Alex has a spare bedroom he calls 'the Nick room' because I always pass out when I get drunk. And he has this thing called 'party sheets' that he puts on the spare bed during parties just in case someone gets horny and hooks up, which always happens to be me"
"So your plan is to stay here and fall asleep in his spare bedroom? Where am I sleeping?" Daphne asked him with a tone that basically yelled 'are you sure you wanna do that'
"Sleep next to me, don't act like it's not an option" Nick said smugly. "You always act like you have to make me approve of anything we do together"
"That's because I'm not doing any couple-y stuff with you normally until we're, I don't know, actually an official couple?"
"Then be my girlfriend, I'm just waiting for it not to be too quick for you" The question catches Daphne off guard.
She looks over at him to see his face all red while staring at her. She places her hand on his face and cups his cheek slowly. Daphne feels his temperature high on her palm, giving her the hint that the alcohol in his body was high.
"Ask me that when you're sober, okay?" She plants a small kiss on his cheek, interlocking her fingers into his. "We'll talk about that tomorrow"
"Then can we go to sleep so time goes by faster" That was one of the main hints of Nick being drunk, thinks and acts like a child.
Daphne couldn't believe she didn't see the hints earlier. The little shy greeting when he saw her, the constant anxious lip biting when she spoke to him, that's drunk Nick.
She pulls out her phone from her bag and checks the time. It was quarter to two am.
"We can go to sleep"
There was no doubt he was a little more mature around her than around his friends that acted the same, but it still surprised Daphne how different he was thinking around her.
Drunk people usually said the first things that come to mind. And the question lingered in Daphne's mind.
How long has he been itching to ask her the question?
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a/n: :P