Cole
Have you ever had that feeling that you've made the wrong decision, and that something bad was going to happen?
Well I had that feeling in spades right now.
Natalie had resorted to actually physically dragging me towards the house.
"Come on Cole, it won't be that bad," she tried.
"It is already," I said, listening to the loud music booming out of the house in front of us.
"Look," she said, suddenly turning to face me and grabbing both of my hands, "I promise that I'll not leave you on your own, and if after an hour you still hate it, we'll leave. Deal?"
I wanted to scream 'Hell No!' and run in the opposite direction, but I knew that wasn't being fair. Natalie was trying her best with me, and so it was only fair that I did the same.
"An hour?" I repeated, just to make sure.
"Yes, an hour," she replied.
"Ok, it's a deal," I said, holding out my hand for her to shake.
Natalie broke out into a grin and shook my hand before linking her arm with mine.
I took a deep breath as we entered the house.
I looked around in surprise. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Sure there were a lot of people, but there was still plenty of room. And although a few people were dancing, most just seemed to be stood around having what looked like civilised conversations. Maybe this wouldn't be as bad as I thought it would be.
"Look out!" someone screamed as a watermelon came flying across the room. It landed about a meter away from me, and promptly exploded like a bomb.
Watermelon went flying into the air and splattered all over everything within a five meter radius. Including me.
I stood there, frozen, my arms outstretched like a scarecrow as juice and bits of melon slid down my face and body.
"Oh shit," Natalie said as she emerged from behind me, after using me as some sort of human shield.
Other, I presume more drunk guests that had been splattered, were whooping and cheering in amusement.
I did not feel amused.
Probably reading my thoughts, Natalie grabbed hold of me by my wrist and dragged me off upstairs and into a bathroom. She rooted round in the cupboards until she produced a washcloth and after running it under the warm water, handed it to me, with a guilty look on her face.
"Three months," I muttered through clenched teeth, while I started to clean myself off.
"What?" she asked, her face scrunched up in confusion.
"I've raised the price for coming," I replied. "You now have to promise not to make fun of me, or intentionally make me blush for three months, not two."
"Done!" she replied eagerly, probably just relieved that I wasn't that mad.
We made our way back downstairs and over to the kitchen to get ourselves a drink. I wasn't that keen on alcohol, but resigned myself that seen as I was at a party, I should at least have one. Natalie handed me something that was blue and in a bottle. It didn't look great but it the taste was sweet and not so bad.
Natalie soon found a group of people she knew and dragged me over to meet them. She told me their names but I promptly forgot. I'd always had trouble remembering people's names. But still, it was nice to be included.
A couple more of the blue liquid bottles later and I was starting to find it easier to hold conversations with these strangers. Someone had started a game of truth or dare on the floor in front of us. I declined the invite to join in, as did .......I want to say Simon?....next to me.
"So what sort of things are you into?" Simon asked.
I glanced briefly at Natalie who was sat in the circle playing truth or dare. She noticed me looking and wiggled her eyebrows at me.
My eyes suddenly shot to Simon, to see that he was eagerly awaiting my reply.
Shit, was he chatting me up? I had absolutely no idea.
"Erm," I started, suddenly a bit nervous, "I like the outdoors."
"So you're into sports?" he asked.
"Erm, no not really," I replied.
He frowned, clearly a little confused.
"I just like being outdoors, you know, studying nature and stuff," I felt myself groan on the inside. Why did I have to sound so lame?
"Oh, cool," Simon said, but his eyes said something different, as they started to scan the crowd, probably looking for someone else to talk to.
"Ah, there's Shaun," he said, pointing towards a rather fit looking guy by the door, "I'm just going to go and say hi."
"Ok," I said, "It was nice to meet you Simon."
He shot me an odd look, before disappearing towards.......I want to say Sam?
I looked back at Natalie, but thankfully she was too engrossed in the game to notice what had just happened.
I scanned round the faces in the circle of people she was sat with. I recognised some of them from college but there were quite a few I didn't know.
One guy stood out in particular.
He had his dark hair cut very short then had track marks shaved all over his head in intricate patterns. He was wearing jeans that had so many slashes in them that I was surprised they were still in one piece, and I could see the start of a tattoo on his arm under his t-shirt. He looked like he worked out and I found myself unconsciously licking my lips.
Suddenly his eyes locked with mine, and I quickly looked away, hoping he didn't realise I was checking him out.
After a few moments, I glanced back, relieved to see that the game had his attention once again.
"Truth or dare?" the girl next to him asked.
He quickly leaned across and whispered something into her ear. The girl laughed then nodded.
"Dare," he replied.
"Hmmmm," she said, trying to think of something while she looked around.
As her eyes locked on me, I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach.
"I dare you, to make out with that guy over there," she said, pointing at me.
I looked over at him in horror, and watched as he got up and started to walk towards me with a grin on his face and a glint in his eye.
I involuntary took a couple of steps backwards, until I was pressed against a wall.
'You, you set this up," I stammered out as he approached me.
He shrugged. "And why wouldn't I when you were stood over here all on your own looking so damn cute."
I felt my cheeks start to burn, and I looked anywhere but at him.
"Look, I'm not going to make you do anything you don't want to," he said quietly, "but I really don't want to have to back down on a dare."
I looked back at him, and unconsciously bit my bottom lip.
I cursed myself as he took this as a good sign and stepped even closer.
"So what do you say?" he asked.
"I.....um.....I don't know," I said glancing around and seeing the rest of the group looking at us expectantly.
I guess it wouldn't be so bad. I mean, if I ignored the fact he looked quite bad ass, he was actually really good looking.
"I promise I'll be gentle with you," he said, putting his hand on the side of my face to make me look at him.
His eyes were really warm and inviting now I could see them up close, and I could feel my resolve weakening....as well as my knees.
"Ok then, I suppose," I breathed out quietly.
He sent a beaming smile in my direction, then started to close the gap between us.
Well, here goes, I thought. My first kiss.
Ok, maybe that wasn't strictly true. My first kiss had been Billy Copperfield, but that was because he lost a bet at school and so he basically attached himself to my face out of nowhere as some sort of penalty. Then came Rick, then Gio, then Darren. All members of the football team, all basically attacking my face then making a big song and dance of spitting and cleaning their mouth out afterwards, like I had some kind of disease.
After the fourth time I got fed up and when Jeremy came out of nowhere and attached himself to my lips, I grabbed hold of his head tightly and stuck my tongue down his throat. My sense of victory lasted for all of 2 seconds before he punched me in the face.
That was the one and only time my dad had stepped foot in my school. Needless to say, that after I told him what had been happening, he made the headmaster promise that it wouldn't happen again. And he in turn had let everyone know that the next person to assault me like that would be expelled on the spot.
It wasn't usual for our headmaster to do much about the bullying that went on, but my dad was very scary when he wanted to be.
I was jolted out of my train of thought when I felt a body press against mine, his hands snaking their way around my waist.
I reached out my own hands and placed them gently on his hips. I hoped he couldn't feel that they were trembling slightly.
"Now just close your eyes and let me lead," he whispered into my ear, making a shiver go down my body.
I did as he said.
I just closed my eyes and waited for it to happen.
I felt him move closer, and I heard him take in a small intake of breath.
Just as I was waiting for his lips to touch mine, he was suddenly ripped away from my grasp.
My eyes flew open, and I had to blink a few times, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
There in front of me stood the scary guy from the manor. And he had his hand lodged menacingly round the neck of the guy I'd just been about to kiss.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing Percy?" he growled.
Percy? The guy was called Percy? He looked nothing like a Percy. Surely Percy was a green tank engine....
"Answer me!" he shouted.
In a rather rare moment of bravery, I stepped forward and said, "Erm, I think you need to let go of him if you want him to answer you."
The scary guy snapped his head round to look at me in shock, before turning back to Percy and finally noticing that he was starting to turn an alarming shade of purple.
"Shit," he said, dropping him onto the floor.
Percy shot me a look which I took as a thank you.
After coughing a few times, he finally stood up.
"What the fuck Nathan?" he croaked out.
Nathan. So the scary guy's name was Nathan. That kind of suited him. Now that he wasn't wearing a hard hat, I could see that his hair was dark brown but he had a streak of silver running down one side. It kind of reminded me of Harry Potter's scar but on his hair. I wondered briefly whether he'd been hit by lightning at some point in his life.
"Just don't touch him ever again," Nathan said, while grabbing hold of Percy's arm and dragging him towards the door.
"Just wait till your brother hears about this," he said before they both walked outside.
"Are you ok?" came a voice from next to me.
I looked over and saw Natalie stood next to me, looking quite concerned.
"That was weird," I said back, turning to stare at the door again that they had just left through.
"I know, wasn't it!" Natalie said, giggling slightly.
"Do you know him? Percy I mean." I asked.
"No, I've never seen him before," she replied. "Why are you interested?" she asked while nudging me in the ribs with her elbow.
"God, no!" I said emphatically. "I wouldn't want to anger the beast again."
Natalie laughed. "He was rather scary wasn't he. Did you see his eyes?"
"I know," I replied, "I'm sure if you looked directly into them, you'd turn to stone."
Natalie laughed then grabbed hold of my arm. "Come on, let's go and get another drink."
I laughed and followed her through the crowds, but I felt on edge. Like something wasn't quite right. And I couldn't stop thinking about a certain pair of chilling, grey eyes.