Hey guys! Hope you enjoy this chapter (three in a row, I know right!)
xoxo,
Morgan
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The party begins to wind down after another wild hour and a half – complete with a huge number of crazy things happening.
Jace and I eventually emerged from the room upstairs, my makeup somehow intact even though I cried my eyes out earlier – setting sprays, I'm telling you. My eyes aren't nearly as red as they would have been if I hadn't been wearing products, though.
Ryan and Eve look like they had a good time, with matching hickeys on their necks. He doesn't leave her side for the entire night, and they switch on and off from bantering back and forth to hooking up throughout the night.
I was pretty drunk myself, having found the last of the Fireball and hoarding another couple of cups before Jace has the sense to take it from me. He's sobered up, while I'm still coming down, but Eve is wasted. She lost spectacularly in beer pong to Erin Wright, and I lost count of how many cups she downed. She can barely walk straight, but that hasn't stopped her from dancing wildly on the floor and throwing herself into doing "fun" things with Ryan.
Adam and Jillian disappeared for a while, too, but they came back downstairs eventually and have been pretty mild. Sunshine is only buzzed, maximum, but Adam is completely sober. In fact, he and Matt are the only two in our groups who haven't had anything to drink since they're the designated drivers – Adam is dropping Jillian at her friend's house along with driving Eve and I back, and Matt is driving himself, Jace, and Ryan back to Jace's place.
We're all sitting cross-legged in the far corner of the room, and there's enough wall space for everyone to lean on. I'm sitting in Jace's lap, my back to his chest as he leans his head on the wall; Sunshine is leaning her head against Adam's shoulder, but she has her own spot on the floor; Matt is talking to the pretty girl from earlier – Bianca Rosales, a senior at East High; Eve hasn't removed herself from Ryan for the entire night.
"Hey, you know what we should do?" Eve says, her giant hoop earrings swinging forward as she leans toward everyone.
"What?" Adam replies, turning his attention to her instead of absentmindedly looking around the room.
"We should get some McDonald's," she says, a satisfied grin on her face. "I'm really hungry."
I yawn in reply, not really feeling up to getting there and trying to hide from everyone in the place that she's beyond drunk. Plus, I'm sobering up – I drank some water a bit ago, and after my episode upstairs, I'm drained and just need to crash.
"We can go, if you want," Ryan tells her, and then the two of them get wrapped up in each other again.
"We don't have to go," Jace murmurs into my ear. "You look like you need to get some rest, Via."
"I need to," I reply, and then yawn again. "It's been a rough night."
"I know," he says, and then gives me a worried look before raising his voice. "Hey, how bout we all do something another time? When we're all sober and can actually talk to each other, I mean."
"Yeah, that'd be really fun," Sunshine replies, and Adam bobs his head – but nobody else seems to have heard. Matt and Bianca haven't been involved in the conversation at all, and Ryan and Eve still seem to be under the impression that McDonald's is still happening.
Adam peeks at his phone then, and then sighs deeply. "Babe, it's almost one. I have to get you and Vi and Eve home."
"Yeah, it's getting pretty late," she says back to him. "Besides, we're all probably pretty tired."
"Can you carry me to the car?" I ask Jace, and then yawn again.
I get my wish granted, Jace allowing me to hop on his back as he walks up the stairs and down the street to where Adam has parked his car. I slide off of him slowly, wishing I could always get carried around like that, and turn him around for a kiss.
"Text me when you get back," he tells me, arms loosely around my waist. "So I know you're not in trouble."
"Okay," I reply, and then lean up for another kiss. "Good night."
"You're going to be okay, Via," Jace tells me, as he hugs me to him. "I promise. You're going to get through this."
I don't reply, just holding on to him for as long as I can. When Adam says we really have to go, I pull back from Jace and look up into his blue, blue eyes – not the same color as Gramps, but they still remind me of him nonetheless.
Jace holds my gaze evenly, and then backs away to the sidewalk to watch us drive away. We're one of the last people leaving for the night – most people who haven't left already are either passed out somewhere or have actively decided to stay.
It takes about fifteen minutes for us to get back to Eve's house from Joseph's. Eve falls asleep in the first couple of minutes, her head falling onto my shoulder as usual – she always sits in the middle after parties so she can do that.
Adam and Sunshine are talking quietly up front, but I'm not paying attention to what they're saying. I just close my eyes and lean my head back against my seat, losing myself to that in-between state of awake and asleep.
Before I know it, we've gotten back to Eve's house and Adam is shaking me awake. I open my eyes to see him standing next to me, the door open and my seatbelt already off. He's already coaxed Eve out and has her leaning against him, his arm around her to keep her from falling over, she's so sleepy.
"Thanks," I tell him groggily, stepping out of his car. Well, I try to step out of his car – I'm so tired that I forget about the height of his Jeep from the street and stumble without using the step – but he manages to catch me. My face ends up against his chest and I have his knee jammed into my thigh, but it's better than falling down and trying to explain the scrapes later on.
"You're welcome," Adam says, giving me an amused look as I stand up and try to act like nothing happened.
"Thanks. Again," I reply. "And thanks for the ride home, of course."
He shrugs. "You need help getting her inside, or do you think you'll be okay?"
"I think I've got it," I tell him, moving forward to shake Eve awake and wrap my arm around her. She's so tiny that it isn't any strain on me to support her – it's just the fact that she's tired and cranky and just wants to go back to sleep that makes it difficult to get her back inside. We obviously can't go back up the tree, since there's no way that would end well, so we have to go in through the back door – which is where the challenge lies. But we've done it before, and we can do it again.
"Okay," he says, closing the door I climbed out of. "Text me once you're inside and safe, okay?"
"Okay. Can I have the keys?" Adam obliges, reaching into his jeans to give me Eve's house key – a little arrangement we do. The sober one always has the keys to the not-so-sober person's house, so there's a way slimmer chance of them getting lost.
I take a glance up at the house just to make sure the lights are still off, which they are, which means that – most likely – everyone's asleep and we're still in the clear. "Thanks again, Addy. Goodnight."
"Night, Vi," Adam says. I lean a little and wave at Jillian, who has been patiently waiting this entire time for us to say our goodbyes and get inside. "I'll wait until you're at least inside before leaving."
"Okay. Eve, come on," I say, nudging her sharply in the ribs. "Let's go. Bye, Adam."
He doesn't say anything this time, simply getting into the driver's seat and watching us walk around the side of the house to get to the back door. It's a struggle – with me having to stop once and readjust my grip on her, since she's not doing the work – but we manage it.
I quickly flick the side light on and off again to alert Adam that we're inside, and then I lock the door behind us as quietly as possible. His car drives away quietly, and then it's just me and Eve making our way through the kitchen and around the dining room table.
Then come the stairs – I skip the fourth step as always, knowing that it creaks – and I put my hand over Eve's mouth as we tiptoe past her parents' room. Then comes James' room; next, we walk around the stairs to pass by Caitlyn's room. It's all going great until we pass by Allie's room – and then Eve's phone falls out of her hand, tumbling out of her fingers and over the railing, landing with an enormously loud smack! on the floor below. Freezing for a split second, I can hear my blood roaring in my ears as I hustle past Allie's room, where I can already hear movement, and shove Eve into her bedroom. I hear her stumble and land with a thump on the bed, but I'm already closing the door behind me and am ready to face the music.
"Viviana?" Allie is looking at me skeptically as she pulls her door open to peek out into the hallway. "What the hell are you doing making all this noise? It's one in the morning!"
"I –" I hesitate, trying to think of a good excuse. "Eve and I were just, um..."
She looks me over, and I can practically see the gears in her head turning. I have on makeup and a cute outfit, and I'm sure she can smell the general smell of a party on me – sweat, alcohol, and weed. Add that to the fact that I look like a deer caught in headlights, and it's not too hard to figure out what's been going on.
"You snuck out again, didn't you?" She seems to take extreme relish from coming to the right conclusion. "Oh man, Mom and Dad are gonna love this!"
"It's been a long night, Allie," I say wearily. "I'll pay you ten dollars if you don't say anything."
"Only ten?" Allie cocks one dark eyebrow, and then snorts. "That's pathetic. Twenty and I won't say anything. Oh, and Eve has to give me rides to wherever I want to go for two weeks."
"Deal," I say quickly. "I'll tell her. Now just go back to bed, I'll give you your money tomorrow, and this never happened. Okay?"
"You got it," she says, smirking the way her older sister does it. I hear her chuckling under her breath as she closes her bedroom door.
Scowling, I quietly make my way down the stairs, grab Eve's fallen phone, and race back into her room. She's laying on her back, silently watching at the glow-in-the-dark stars her and I jumped up and put on the ceiling a few years ago.
"What did Allie want?" she asks quietly, turning to look at me as I close the door softly behind me.
"Your phone fell," I explain, tossing it to her. She sighs in relief as she sees it hasn't cracked, but rolls her eyes as I inform her about her younger sister's bribe.
"Sorry about that," she says, and then proceeds to kick off her shoes. I walk into her bathroom and turn on the lights as dim as possible, and then go about taking off my makeup and washing my face and all that. Once I'm done, I change into my pajamas and toss Eve the package of makeup wipes.
"Thanks," she replies, pulling one out to wipe away the eyeliner and lip stain and foundation. Within another five minutes, she's ready for bed and turns out the light so we can go to sleep.
Me, 1:30 AM
Safe and sound and about to go to bed.
I send the text to both Jace and Adam, holding my phone to my chest until I hear the buzz of a response about ten minutes later.
Adam, 1:40 AM
Sry was driving
Adam, 1:40 AM
Im home 2. Nite
With that being done, I plug my phone into the charger and flop over onto my side, sleep finding me within a matter of minutes.