Darius:
Creeping up into the late night, I start to make the journey to Tella's house to take her home after the party that we decided to go to after nonstop calls and messages from the three shitheads who I, for some reason, call my friends.
When we got there, Oak was already practically wasted, performing like a fucking rockstar school boy to One Direction's Rock Me. Thrusting his hips on every mention of the title in the chorus and surrounded by nearly every person in the vicinity while they all cheered and sang along, entertaining his theatrics.
Did I mention he was on a table?
And the most comical thing about it all? He sounded fucking great. Not a line out of tune.
Now, the man doesn't take up a habit of serenading or anything, but while other drunk people have their odd traits, and while he also does do some crazy fucking shit with alcohol pumping through his veins, Oakley Oscar Wilde likes to put on a fucking show. Singing to whatever song is playing, whether that be blaring from a speaker or in his head.
I leant back against a far wall, encasing Tella to me with one arm around her stomach and another around her shoulders.
When Oak pulled an equally drunk Jeremy onto the hardwood, it became a fucking duet. Because he also sang perfectly in note.
Tells looked up at me and asked if I also had the gift that they so very clearly shared and in response, I raised the hand that was resting on her shoulder and covered her mouth, refocusing on the performance.
When the song was over, they both spotted us and immediately jumped down from the table, walking straight to us from the path that the crowd had automatically created for them.
"My friends!" Oakley exclaimed. "You're here!"
"Hi." Donatella grinned at them. "You two like one direction?"
I snorted and lowered my face to the top of her head to hide my amusement. I fucking love it when she jumps out of her sweet regular character and adds some sass to her tongue.
I like to think I'm part of the reason she's able to do that.
They both paused and removed their sunglasses, did I also forget to mention that they were both wearing sunglasses? then simultaneously begin to deny it.
"Pshh. What?" Oak said as they looked at one another and then back at us.
"What's One Direction." Jere tilted his head.
"Yeah, we don't even know what that is."
"Yeah. Like, what? Are they some British boy band from a decade ago who's music still hits and had Harry Styles as one of their five members."
Oakley cleared his throat. "We wouldn't know."
"No."
"And we definitely don't listen to them."
"Never."
"So..."
"So yeah..."
Donatella was giggling at their drunken mess of a convincing act and if I weren't too busy rolling my eyes at the same thing, I would've taken a few extra moments to admire the sound.
She has such a pretty fucking laugh.
"Is this what you called us here for?" I quirked a brow.
"No." Oakley replied simply. "We didn't plan that."
"Then why are we here?"
"To hang out with us. Fucking duh." Jeremy said like it's two-plus two obvious.
"Well I think that two minutes was quite enough, don't you, malysh?" I looked down at Tella.
"How rude." Jere tutted.
"Very." Oakley nodded.
"It's not like you drove all the way over here to stay for five minutes."
"The only reason I drove here in the first place is because Tella thought it would've been mean to ignore you."
"It would be!" They both threw their hands up in exasperation.
"Whatever. We're leaving whenever she wants so you can hang with us until then."
"Wow." Jeremy shakes his head. "You'd think it's a privilege to be in your fucking presence. Look at Mr Relationship prioritising the time of his girlfriend of months over his best friends for years."
"Yeah. Did you forget who your best friends are?" Oak added.
"She's my best friend, too."
"Oh." Jere landed a hand to his heart. "Oh, wow. Fucking ouch. You know, your words leave scars, motherfucker."
"Dude." Oakley glared at me and slung an arm over Jeremy's shoulder, who by the way is nearly bent over still clutching his chest. "Look what you've done. Jeremy, you good?"
"I don't think so."
"Don't worry, buddy. Ignore him. He's trying to hurt us on purpose. A drink will help."
"Are you sure he's still your buddy?" I muse. "It seems like Angel might surpass you in rank."
He halted his movements and snapped his head in my direction. "What?"
"Yep. Did he tell you about how they both went out together on the weekend?"
"He what?" He whipped back to Jeremy. "You what?"
"Oakley-" Jere held out a hand.
"You told me you were too busy to hang out."
"Too busy living it up with Angel." I cough.
Tella frowned at me and slightly stomped on my shoe.
"Sorry." I mouthed and she shook her head.
"It isn't what it seems like-"
"What did you guys do?"
"Well... it's..."
"Spit it out, Hearst."
"It meant nothing."
"It clearly meant something if you chose him over me!"
"I didn't choose anyone!"
"I can't fucking believe this." Oak pushed away from him, causing Jeremy to stumble in his drunken, still slumped position. "After you told me there was nothing going on? After you explicitly told me that he was just a friend of ours you ran into a few times?"
"I'm sorry. I-"
"What, are you expecting to hang out all the time? To race together and joke around... oh, fuck. Do you guys have inside jokes?"
"Barely! They don't even make sense... They're stupid."
"That's even worse!"
"Look, we didn't plan this-"
"So you admit it? After everything we've been through? You want to be bros with him?"
"You have to understand-"
"What- what did you expect? You don't even live that close to one another. You think it would work out?"
"It did between you guys, didn't it?" Jeremy launched back.
Oakley took a dramatic step back. "How fucking dare you?"
"Oak..." Jere seemed to straighten a little. "I didn't mean that-"
"You did not just say that."
"No." Jere shook his head and attempted to straighten but I'm guessing the alcohol was weighing him down. "No! Come on, Oak. Fuck that guy."
"You already metaphorically did." And with that, Oakley stormed away, shoving his shoulder into Jeremy, who pitched forward towards us.
Donatella hurried forward out of my arms and caught him so that he was now in hers.
"Are you okay?" She tried to stand stabile under his weight.
"Mhm." He mumbled with his face buried in her shoulder.
No matter how close we are, or how drunk he is, I still didn't want him all over my girl. But as soon as I moved to take him off of her, he muttered something else and Tella immediately turned him around and tapped his back as they started to hurry off, I'm guessing to a bathroom. I leisurely followed after them.
We stayed for just under an hour more and then dropped Jere off at home. Lee said he'd take Oak. Jeremy's lucky I even did that. His ass was hard enough to get into the car, let alone into his house and his bed.
Tella wouldn't have us leaving him behind drunk like that, though.
Speaking of, I glance over to see her trying to keep her heavy lids open. Squeezing my hand on her thigh, I watch as she sighs sleepily. "Tired, darling?"
She nods.
"You can go to sleep. I'll carry you in."
"It's not much further." She says.
"I'll carry you either way." I point out. "Sleep."
She blinks cutely up at me and then makes up her mind. "Okay."
We're around fifteen minutes away from her house and I'm certain she'll be long gone in under two.
My screen signals with a call from Lee.
"Hey." I answer it.
"Hey, man. Uh... I think you might want to come back here."
"Why?" I frown.
"I can't explain it properly over the phone. You need to see for yourself. But I really think you'd want to come back."
Just as I open my mouth to refuse on account of being tired and also not fucking bothered, he says something that has me flipping that switch instantly.
"It's about Donatella."
"What about her?" I ask rapidly.
"Fuckers on the football team. I just overheard some of them talking about her."
I look over at her again, this time at her sleeping form, and make a decision to turn around. I'll leave her in the car and lock the doors while I deal with this shit.
"I'm on my way." I tell him. "Don't let them leave."