CWs: None.
and we're finally to the fun part. from this chapter onward, things will get either easier or harder depending on how youve been reading this book so far. more characters to suspect, more clues given out, more sentences to look at and ask "is this important or is this the author just shit at his job?"
also i made the fatal mistake of giving yall a specific outfit this chapter. please forgive me if i butchered your style im begging.
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The calm before the storm.
Y/n laid in bed with his limbs spread out, feeling oddly at peace with everything. Chris wasn't home, The Swine wasn't sitting on his counter or hovering over him, his phone was dinging faintly from text messages between his friends on the group chat, and that's all he needed. Everything, for now, was okay.
He teased the idea of rolling over and picking up his phone to look at the messages, but his body didn't want to move, and neither did he.
This feeling, whatever it was, was a newer sensation for Y/n. Something he'd felt before, but was lost in the years of grief and fear.
Somewhere back in time, when... that had happened, Y/n thought that he'd never recover. That there would never be any joy in his life, because how could he feel it again? How could he experience happiness while having to live with the knowledge that one of his closest friends would never live with that feeling again? Would never live again?
But as the people around him made progress with getting through the grief process, so did he. And now Y/n was - even with everything going on - okay. At least, he wasn't doing as bad as he was.
Y/n's thoughts were interrupted by his ringtone, catchy at one point but now a headache as it reminded him that there was still a world outside of his bedroom. A world with an extremely small population of people who would probably care if he suddenly disappeared off of the face of the Earth.
Ignoring those... interesting thoughts, he picked up the phone, which produced a sudden, familiar noise of the end of a call not started. He'd barely gotten a glimpse of the call screen before it switched back to his home screen. Huh.
The notification for a missed call popped up belatedly, and the profile name was, lo and behold, three pink hearts.
Y/n groaned, opening up his messages and staring at the text he'd received, which read:
Just making sure you're paying attention to your phone :)
The previous texts from just a few minutes ago were simple, wishing Y/n luck at the party (which, correct him if he's wrong, he didn't recall telling The Swine about, but the serial killer seemed to know everything anyway, so why be surprised?) and reminding him to watch his drinks.
The latter of both texts was... ominous. Well-known, but still good, advice that would've been kind-hearted had it been from literally anyone else. A serial killer telling someone to watch their drink at a party did not paint a pretty picture.
Y/n didn't bother tapping out a reply. After all, The Swine said not to block the number, but nothing about actually responding to it. And Y/n had no intention to do so. Now or ever.
Instead, he opened up the group chat, which was still housing a consistent conversation about what the "game plan" was for the party. From the looks of it, everyone planned to stay loosely together and to beat the shit out of anyone who looked suspicious. In a hyperbolic sense, of course.
...Maybe.
Erin definitely didn't think so, going on a multi-message rant about "dealing with" anyone who started to try shit. Everybody seemed to ignore him, and so did Y/n, though he'd be a liar if he tried to deny the tiny smile that made the ends of his mouth twitch.
So, call him a liar, because his hand lifted up immediately to cover his mouth, shaking his head a bit, so that whatever spies were watching him through the camera of his phone would know that he was not amused.
The smile - the evidence that easily countered that earlier sentence - didn't go away though, staying stubbornly planted on the (h/c) boy's face as he scrolled up to read messages that were specifically sent by his brunet friend.
At some point, Y/n rolled out of bed and pulled on what he assumed was suitable for a basic high-school party, which was a simple pair of black jeans (baggy enough to receive a side-eye from the self-proclaimed fashion experts that roamed the halls of Y/n's school) and a dull (f/c) shirt that was also noticeably large on the (h/c) male.
Y/n left his room, running his hands aimlessly through his hair to create a very thin facade of readiness, as if he hadn't, quite literally, just got out of bed.
Y/n left his apartment with nothing but his keys and his phone, which he was still watching steadily. Hannah and Dayton were already at the party, and everyone, except for Erin, was on their way.
By the time Y/n was out of his apartment complex and crossing the parking lot, the sun was setting and the sky was turning a pretty orange, signifying the upcoming darkness that would clear the streets.
Before the (h/c) boy made any turns, he opened up his messages to Wade and found the house address, putting it into his phone and resuming the fifteen-minute walk only when he knew where he was going.
His phone chimed once more with a text that he almost didn't read when he saw the message ID, but begrudgingly read anyway.
Keep safe, love. I'll be watching <3
♡♥︎♡
Y/n was glad to see that Taylen's (the host) house looked like it belong to a nice family of four that went out to eat on Saturdays and went to sleep at respectable times on weekdays. The only thing that broke through that simple, warm facade was the strobe lights visible through the thin curtain of the front door and the group of vaguely familiar teenagers vaping on the porch.
Y/n was not deterred by it, walking up the concrete stairs of Taylen's porch and smiling politely at one of the teenagers on the porch when he accidentally caught her attention.
Almost immediately after opening the ajar wooden door and stepping across the threshold, he was immediately hit with the overwhelming scent of unwashed hair and several, strong colognes. Luckily, there wasn't a crowd to battle through and nobody was having unprotected sex on the couches (thanks, twenty-first century high-school movies, for absolutely nothing).
Everyone was mostly gravitating toward the walls, but, through the open sliding door to the backyard, Y/n could see that a good bit of the party was outside playing basketball. The open space made it easy to locate Y/n's group.
"So, how many minutes into this and we've lost Dayton?" Y/n heard Wade say as he got a bit closer. Towa was the first to notice him, a bright smile appearing in place of the zoned-out look he was rocking just a few seconds ago when his eyes flicked to the (h/c) boy.
Y/n hugged the ravenet before turning to the rest of his friends.
"We lost Dayton?" He asked pointlessly, as if he hadn't just heard Wade say that exact thing. Instead of waiting for the answer he didn't need, he spoke again, "And where's Hannah?"
"Here's Hannah," A feminine but tired voice said from somewhere below. Y/n looked and found the brunette, sitting on the floor with her arm wrapped around Towa's calf. Towa shot him a look that was close to a plea for help.
"I can't move," Towa said tonelessly.
"Complain again and I'm going to bite you."
"Help me."
Towa winced as Hannah bit him.
"Dayton's somewhere down the hall with his boyfriend," Teagan said, appearing from some direction and tossing a small bag of Doritos to Hannah like a person trying to calm a rabid animal. Y/n, a tad guilty at the realization, hadn't even noticed she was gone until she was back.
"Micha?" Towa asked, subtly trying to shake the now content brunette off of his leg. Teagan pointed at him and nodded.
The group went off into a conversation about Dayton's relationship status, discussing how they were going to convince this Micha boy that Dayton was not as batshit insane as he came off as.
Somewhere in the middle of... that, Y/n's phone chimed and he excused himself when he saw it was a message. He didn't go far, stopping to lean against a wall near a small table.
Y/n was glad to see that the text was from Erin and not another, much more threatening presence.
Did you get there without trouble?
Y/n purposely did not think much as he sent the next text, knowing he'd read it over too many times and erase it, leaving what he wanted to say unsaid.
Yeah. Wish you were here though.
The (h/c) boy bit his bottom lip. Like clockwork, he began to reread the sentence, worrying about how Erin would take it. Do I sound too obsessive? The last thing Y/n wanted was to come off as was desperate and clingy.
Same, but I couldn't even if I was invited.
Shortly after that response, an image was attached. In the picture, it showed Erin laying on a bed with a sleeping Grayson laying directly on top of him. Y/n didn't laugh purely for the sake of not looking like a crazy person.
They texted back and forth until Wade appeared behind Y/n, not exactly reading the messages but close enough to be able to. The blue-eyed boy must've read something though because he smirked and wrapped an arm around Y/n.
"Sad your boyfriend couldn't make it?" Wade teased, a genuine undercurrent of fondness in his playful tone. Y/n shoved him onto the couch beside him, which Teagan and Hannah were getting situated on somewhere in Y/n's peripheral vision.
"Come here, princess," Y/n heard Teagan say distantly, deepening her voice humorously and leaned forward to grab Ezra and pull him, the much, much bigger male, onto her lap.
"It's better that way though, 'cause, like it or not, half the people here hate him," Hannah said, leaning back and pulling the sunglasses she wore on top of her head over her eyes.
Y/n nodded. He loved Erin, he did, but he had to admit that the other boy had a lot of enemies. He loved to annoy people and bask in the fact that there was nearly nothing they could do to get him on that same level of irritation. And those who knew just enough to get to him, well...
"Y/n! You and Wade should go get us drinks," Towa proposed, taking a seat next to Hannah and wincing lightly when she grabbed his wrist and bit it.
Y/n's responding look was one of an unspoken question, as if asking what happened to staying in a group? and Towa responded by tilting his head in Wade's direction. The (h/c) boy's eyebrows furrowed.
"Oh my god, you both suck at charades," Hannah said, slightly muffled through a mouthful of pale but reddening skin. She mimed pulling out a megaphone and switching it on. "Wade wants to go see Taylen, who is by the drinks, and he doesn't want to go alone, because he's a pussy."
Kind of defeats the purpose of charades, but I get the point, Y/n thought, but he nodded and turned to Wade, who was studying the wall in front of him like it was a piece of art.
No words needed to be exchanged, and Y/n followed Wade as the taller male led him to the kitchen, Towa thanking them as they left. In the kitchen, two boys and one girl(?) were sitting on the counter and another boy was leaning against it.
Y/n recognized two of them, Taylen and Malikai's younger brother, Mybelline, but the other two were anonymous. He might've seen them in school, but lately their faces were blurring together.
"Y/n!" Mybelline greeted, a blindingly white smile cutting across his face. He resembled Malikai with a more feminine build, though his hair was much longer and straight. His skin was perhaps a darker shade of brown, but that could've been the house's lighting.
"Mybelline," Y/n returned, smiling politely. He spared a glance to Wade, who was reconnecting with Taylen with a bit of a nervous air around him. Y/n sympathized shortly before refocusing on the dark-haired boy in front of him.
"I'm surprised you remember my name. We haven't talked in, what, two years?" Mybelline phrased the latter sentence like a question, but Y/n had no answer to give. If anybody knew, it wouldn't be the (h/c) boy.
"It's been that long, huh," Y/n muttered, awkward because of how much this conversation reminded him of a dad reconnecting with an old friend in the middle of the carpeting section of a Lowe's. "I guess I'm just good with names."
Y/n shrugged. There wasn't any memory he could recollect from to back that up, but he didn't think he talked to enough people to get on a first name basis and then forget said name, either.
"Heeeyy, chico!" Y/n heard a voice call, even over the music that was playing. He would've brushed it off as an overheard snippet of a distant conversation, but he abruptly felt large arms wrapping around him and crushing his ribs. "Long time no see, eh?"
Y/n wheezed as the boisterous man freed him from the temporary flesh prison, trying to be subtle when he clutched his sore ribs.
Mybelline pretended to gag, and even the unnamed boy close beside him, who'd been quiet and unobtrusive, looked a little disturbed by the sudden, loud presence.
Y/n turned around to face the man (who was likely around his own age, if not a little older; he said man because no boy was that buff), who was definitely familiar but...
"Sorry, what's your name again?" Y/n asked, hoping the question was inoffensive to the other male. Said male's eyebrows furrowed a bit, and he sent an unkind look to Mybelline when the latter huffed out an amused laugh. At what, Y/n could not say.
"Oh, come on. Jace?" He said. No response. "The other host?" He suggested again. At this, Y/n just looked more confused. Jace groaned and ran a hand through his curly hair. "Ethan's brother."
Y/n nodded and made an 'oh' face, but it was solely to spare Jace's feelings. He had no clue Ethan even had a brother. Honestly, Y/n would've been less surprised if Jace had told him that Ethan simply spawned on Earth as part of Jonah's extension pack (seriously, he'd only ever seen the other boy with Jonah).
"Why are you here anyway?" A deep voice came from behind Y/n. The (h/c) boy turned around because it didn't sound like Mybelline, and realized shortly that, oh, it had come from the girl. Or, who he thought was a girl. "Aren't you like thirty-five?"
"Twenty-two, but, yeah. Rather not spend a perfectly good Friday night with my brother's school friends, but Ma will beat me to death if I let Ethan go out at night during the whole... yeah," Jace explained, a tad awkwardly, which was out of character for the absolute unit of a man. It was hard to believe Ethan, who, no offense, was built like he hadn't set foot in a gym in his life, came from the same mold.
"I didn't need a monologue," The... blond said blankly. Their voice was deep and masculine, but they looked like a girl, and Y/n didn't want to assume anything.
Jace didn't even look at the blond individual when he said, "Suck my dick."
The blond looked like they were about to comment, but Mybelline slapped a hand over their mouth before they could, likely sensing whatever it was and shutting it down before it could leave.
The movement turned Jace's focus onto Mybelline, and he regarded the boy's outfit with a look.
"Why are you dressed like you're scheduled to open the Pearly Gates at seven and hit the pole at ten?" Jace asked, a tease that was likely meant to fluster the dark-haired male and not to actually mock him.
For the first time, Y/n looked down to assess it as well. He hadn't thought much of it when he first greeted Mybelline, but now that he was actually looking...
Y/n's face flushed a bit. Mybelline wore thin, white pants, gray boots, and a matching, white bikini top with glittering pieces of silver jewelry strung along his skin. He devoured the look through and through.
"Why are you a hateful bitch?" Mybelline shot back instantly, leaning forward on his hands, one of which, Y/n was just noticing, was combing through the unnamed boy's hair (not the blond) affectionately. It was a nice contrast of character, because Mybelline's eyes, narrowed onto Jace, were cold and displeased, but the hand in the other boy's dark hair was everything but.
"I fuck with it," The blond interrupted the warm train of thought.
"Nobody loves you, Coletyn." Mybelline kicked the blond off of the counter entirely, settling back down when they lost balance and fell backwards into the kitchen.
Y/n pursed his lips so he didn't laugh.
"Alright, I think we've spent a suspicious amount of time here. Let's go actually get drinks," Wade reappeared, face a bit red, but Y/n would ignore it graciously (he's such a saint).
And Y/n waved a good-bye to Mybelline and Jace (but mostly Mybelline) and picked out six red Solo cups, handing three to Wade.
Y/n nudged his shoulder, his sainthood only lasting so long.
"So, is Erin right about Taylen after all?" Y/n teased lightly, receiving a glare in return.
"One more word and I'm going to hurt you."
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author's tip: if you're overwhelmed by the amount of characters, you're not alone. it's going to get worse from here buddy. just focus on the characters that reoccur and don't hang yourself up on remembering every single name.