I looked at my watch, we had been here way over an hour and all I managed to do was to move from the kitchen sink to the fridge. For the most part I was standing there like a weirdo just drinking, which, at this point, was keeping me here. Free booze is always a winner in my books.
I had lost Magnus and Jade to the sea of people and it's not until I started thinking about it that I got a bit panicked. What if they had left and I was stuck here? There's no way in hell Magnus would ever leave the party first. That first place was held for years by me.
I decided to head out for some fresh air.
If I could ever find the backyard door.
Well, I was guessing this guy had a backyard since he had installed a fucking dance floor in his "living room".
After what felt like 4 years of searching, I found a big glass door leading to the back. There was, of course, a huge pool with a few more people outside, mostly smoking and chatting to each other.
I had made no social interactions whatsoever while I was here and it did not bother me at all, but I could imagine that I was beginning to look like a creeper.
I was seriously putting unnecessary stress on myself.
I found a bench a bit further away into the backyard. It was quieter there with 10 or so people hanging around mostly on the verge of passing out. I could deal with that kind of crowd.
I looked towards the house and admired the size of it. It looked like it had three floors and extended quite widely. This house was really something else and could probably house a quarter of the local homeless population.
Well, let's call this house a mansion at this point. Shit, maybe even a fucking castle, all it needed was a moat.
My thoughts were interrupted as I saw this brunette girl with ridiculously long hair in a high ponytail walking towards the back of the garden where I was. She was on the phone and she did not seem pleased at all.
She was raising her voice and I was really grateful I was not on the other side of that line.
"I'm at Tommy's.... No....why the fuck would I lie to you? No....WHY the fuck would I lie? Honest to God..." there was a longer pause after that statement. "You know what? I don't have to justify myself to you.... I'm really, honestly, starting to believe this was all a mistake......" she paused longer again as the person on the other end of the line was probably trying to defend himself. "you know what? I'm done talking about this.... I'm going home to my place after the party so don't fucking wait up, I don't want you anywhere near me right now...." She hung up angrily and let out a frustrated groan.
She spotted me after she did and caught me staring. I quickly looked away hoping she hadn't seen me openly intruding on her entire phone conversation. I looked over at a collapsed guy with his head in the bushes.
There was a lot of people I was happy not being at the moment.
"Men, am I right? Can't live with them, can't live without them." I heard a voice coming from the other side of where I had been looking. I turned to look. It was the girl with the long hair. My heart skipped a beat as I got to admire her features more closely, seeing the proximity. Her skin looked like the softest thing in the world, her lips were perfectly plump and – if I may add – absolutely kissable.
What the fuck was that?
Realising she had made an attempt at conversation I quickly blurted out the first thing that came out of my mouth.
"I definitely can live without them. The male species is not my field of expertise." Well that was sure a conversation starter right there.
She raised her eyebrow at me.
"You never dated a guy?" I was not sure if she was joking with the question and where I thought this conversation was going.
"Uhm, no. Gold star right here." I pointed at myself and slightly smirked.
This was definitely the weirdest way I had ever started a conversation with anyone; there was no surprise as to why my circle of friends were limited to my roommates. Damn, they probably only tolerated me because I paid one third of the rent.
"I see." She simply said, smiling. "I guess you can have the same problems if you date girls too." She said as shrugged and sat down next to me.
"Love just sucks in general." I just said back nonchalantly.
She laughed at my last remark. Somehow it warmed my heart being able to make her laugh. Her laugh was just heavenly.
"It sure does." She took a sip of the drink she was holding in her hand. "My boyfriend thinks I'm cheating on him with one of my good friends." She referred to her phone conversation earlier.
"Well, are you?" I asked. Then bit my tongue.
Why. The. Fuck. Did. That. Come. Out. Of. My. Mouth?
"That's a bit rude." She said back to me, but still remained seated where she was.
I would have imagined a scenario where her drink would be all over me and I would be stuck back in the house for another 4 years trying to find a bathroom.
"I'm sorry. As you can tell, I'm such a socially awkward asshole. So please just excuse my whole existence during those kind of moments." I joked.
Why did I care what she thought? Why was she making me nervous?
"You're cute." She simply said to me, which caused me to start rubbing the back of my neck. Definitely from being nervous.
Her phone rang again.
"Talking about assholes. It's the boyfriend" She shook her phone in front of me so I could see.
I saw the name Pete on the lock screen. She looked at the phone and sighed.
"He won't stop calling. I just don't know how I can deal with this anymore. I just want to tell him to fuck off and leave me alone." She looked down at the phone that was still ringing.
At this point I don't know if she was talking to me or herself.
I don't know what kind of strength and confidence overtook my whole being or if it was just the alcohol but I grabbed the phone from her hands and answered the call.
It was definitely the alcohol.
"Hello, you've reached the phone of 'Leave her the fuck alone'. Please do not leave a message, because she's not interested in what you've got to say. Your girlfriend needs a break from you dumbass." I just blurted out into the phone and hung up.
I don't know who was more shocked. Me or the brunette.
"I'm sorry. I probably shouldn't have done that. That was a bit out of line." I handed the phone back to her.
"That was actually pretty cool." Her soft voice broke the moment of silence. "You know, I've met you like 10 minutes ago, you've already apologised to me twice and I don't even know your name."
"'Asshole' is pretty much close enough to being my name." I said kicking the grass under my shoes.
"Well then...nice to meet you Asshole, my name is Ariana."
"Okay, doesn't sound as cool as I intended it to now that you've said it out loud. My name's Y/N." I introduced myself as I sounded like an idiot and went to shake her hand. She gave a confused smile but took my hand and shook it.
I mentally slapped myself.
She just smiled at me without saying anything. I used this time to take a sip of my drink. We both stared towards the house.
"Just thinking of going back in there at some point is giving me a full on panic attack." I stated.
She laughed.
"I know right? I had to get out of there. It got so oppressing after a while. I love Tommy and he throws amazing parties but from what he told me, he made it seem as though there was going to be less people. This feels like all of Hollywood is in there."
It was my turn to laugh, also relieved to hear that she also felt like me.
I turned to look at her. She was just simply gorgeous. Not in the overdone with makeup way.
She had some light makeup applied, so the fact that she was keeping it simple brought out her traits more.
Her cheekbones were so well defined. She turned to look at me and her almond shaped brown eyes were piercing right into my soul. In just two seconds of her looking at me, I got so intimidated that I had to look away.
"There's celebrities in there?" I asked hoping she hadn't noticed me creeping and changing the subject.
I literally had no idea who anyone was. Celebrities and all this was really not my thing. I had no idea who any of these new singers were. But I deducted that since Tommy worked in music, there was mostly musicians in there.
She looked at me confused yet again.
"Uhm..." She started as she was once against confused. "Uh, yeah, guess there are a few?" She hesitated in her sentence.
"Ah well cool. I don't really know anyone. Not really into this whole celebrity thing." I explained still looking over to the house. Mansion. Castle. Whichever one was the biggest.
"Ah okay. So you seriously don't recognise anyone at all from like the internet or television or anything like that?" It sounded like she was testing me.
"Nope. I don't really go that much on the internet for that matter. I think the last celebrities I really liked were the Spice Girls, where I pretended to be Sporty Spice. And that's a whole while back." I chuckled at memories of singing to some of their songs. She laughed at my last statement.
"Personally, I liked Baby Spice." She added and paused after as I smiled at her comment.
"So you're one of the rare ones, aren't you?" She spoke out after a few moments.
I was a bit confused.
This whole night was confusing it seemed.
"In what way?" I turned to look at her.
"In the way that you don't live off of the latest rumours about celebrities. You could literally bump into a celebrity here and you wouldn't know." She explains calmly still looking towards the house.
"I guess so. But what's the point over obsessing over celebrities? They're people like everyone else, they just happen to be more rich and have a talent. Actually, not all of them are talented. Some just get lucky." I added the last statement, smiling. She furrowed her brows, slightly displeased at my last remark.
"Do you think celebrities just get lucky and don't work to get to where they are?" She asked tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"I never said they didn't. I can imagine 80% of them work hard and put passion into what they do. Just not everyone does. But it seems like most of the music I hear on the radio today is literally one word on repeat written by a 4 year old and they call it art and self expression."
She bursted out laughing at my last comment.
"I have to say I agree with that statement. The music industry is not what it used to be anymore. But there are still a lot of talented singers out there." She said turning to me.
"I'm sure there are but I wouldn't know." I shrugged.
"You just live under a rock." She laughed, teasing me.
"Funny, I get that a lot from both from my roommates." I smirked and she laughed again.
"Are your roommates here?" She asked, changing the subject to something else.
"Yeah, Magnus is friend with Tommy so my other roommate, Jade, and I tagged along. Despite me trying my best to get out of this invitation." I looked at her and half laughed at my stupid statement. She looked back and held my gaze.
"Well I'm glad you came." That hit me right in the heart unleashing butterflies.
She has a boyfriend. Time to get back into the dark cage butterflies.
I offered a faint smile back at her statement instead.
If she had been single, I would have probably told her that I was also very happy that I came because I got to talk to a cute girl like her.
But instead, I kept my mouth shut in fear of letting my emotions show.
"Biiiiiiiiiitch!" I heard voices coming from further away.
Ariana looked away from me towards the voices. She knew who it was as she instantly smiled and stood up holding her arms out wide in a hug-like manner.
Three girls came running towards her.
"Where the fuck have you been?" One of the girls said. She had very light brown hair almost blondish.
"Pete called and I went outside because that party is fucking loud." She explained motioning back at the mansion-castle.
It was awkward as I could hear what was being said but I was not really part of this active conversation. I was kind of in the conversation, kind of not.
And right then, all three of the girls turned their attention to me and I felt uneasy. They were all really gorgeous girls and here I was, with all of them looking at me.
"Oh girls, this is Y/N. Or you can call her Asshole." She said jokingly and laughed at me, mentioning our earlier conversation. They all raised an eyebrow in confusion, not getting our inside 'joke'.
"Y/N, this is Victoria, Courtney and Alexa, my best friends." She said motioning to them one by one so that I could associate the name to the person.
"Ah, it's nice to meet you." I shyly said to them as I waved.
I fucking waved...
What happened to me? Why was this situation just making me stupid?
Victoria laughed. My heart stopped beating. I didn't really like laughing right after I spoke or did something unless it was intentional for me to make them laugh.
"You're way too polite. Where did you find her Ari?" She turned over to Ariana.
"Leave her alone Vic. She's actually managed to get Pete to stop harassing me with phone calls." She turned to look at me and smiled. I nervously threw a look at her best friends and Victoria's smile etched slightly across her face.
"Well then she deserves to hang out with all of us this evening. I'm glad someone had the balls to put shithead back in his place." The girl called Courtney threw her arms around my shoulder.
"Court, he's still my boyfriend." Ariana defended
"I love you Ari, but the way he's been acting lately is way out of line. He's constantly fucked up on drugs and has been seen openly flirting with other girls." Alexa intervened.
"Look, let's just get back to the party and have fun. I'm done talking about this tonight." Ariana said as she walked passed all of us and headed back inside. Alexa and Victoria followed. Courtney still had her arms around my shoulder and she dragged me with her following the rest of the group.
I felt bad for Ariana. She hadn't mentioned that before. Maybe that's why she was acting this way towards him, getting tired of how he was treating her. But then again, seemed like she loved him enough to stay with him.
"Pete's a real asshole. He doesn't deserve her at all. She's always had questionable taste in men and most of them ended up breaking her." She explained to me in the way.
Here I was having met Ariana a few minutes back and suddenly, I was hanging out with her close circle of friends and getting a summary of her love life.
Magnus should be proud of me for reaching this level of socialising.
We entered back into the place and I swore there were more people than before.
Courtney and I found the rest of the girls at a table where various bottles of alcohol invaded it for people to serve themselves.
Victoria was serving us shots. I closed my eyes in resignation as I saw it was Sambuca.
My one true weakness.
She handed me a shot glass and then to the rest of the girls. Ariana was right next to me, she looked at me and smiled very sweetly. I could do nothing else but do the same.
"Over here, Romeo." Victoria snapped her fingers in front of my eyes which caused me to turn my attention to her and blush at the nickname she gave me.
"To tonight. Let's have a fucking amazing time and get shitfaced!!" Courtney yelled. The other girls proceeded to shout in unison and we all drank our shots.
The alcohol hit me real hard.
We down a few more shots and, in between, drank our mixers. Safe to say I was already getting pretty drunk.
"Oh my God! This is my favorite song!" Courtney said after at least an hour of drinking. "Let's go!" She turned to grab my arm and dragged me to the dance floor.
If the alcohol wasn't going to kill me, dancing would.
I knew how to move to the rhythm, but dancing was just really not my favorite activity, especially in public.
As Courtney dragged me to the dance floor, I turned around to try and catch a glimpse of Ariana. I vaguely saw her and...she looked angry?
I was stood on the dance floor among moving bodies and Courtney was just really uncomfortably close to me, dancing very suggestively.
"Uhm..I don't really dance." Is all I could come up with. I was also starting to lose my balance from the alcohol affecting my entire being.
"Oh come on, just follow my movements. Enjoy this." She said as she turned around and was shaking her ass very close to me.
Panicked, I tried to catch the glimpse of anyone at all that could get me out of this situation.
I saw Ariana and Victoria talking, looking over at me. I widened my eyes as I felt Courtney place her hands on my waist as she was facing me again. She took mine and placed them on her waist.
Help. Please. Anyone? Please realise that I need help.
It's not that I didn't think Courtney was gorgeous, but I was really not interested in her like that.
I was interested in the brunette that was watching me dance with her best friend and not doing anything about it!
I was still looking at Ariana and before I knew it, she started to make her way to me.
Thank god.
It felt like forever until she made it to me. Courtney, at this point was trying to get my attention but I was having none of it. The only girl I wanted to put my hands on or have her hands on me was Ariana.
Yeah. I said it.
"Hey Court, come on let's dance." She said taking Courtney's hand and turning her around so that they were face to face.
They both danced together really closely, and now it was my turn to feel jealous at how Courtney's hands were all over Ariana's body. I know that they were best friends, but it was making me feel things.
I stood there like an idiot just looking at them. Ariana looked at me and smiled, quite mischievously and winked.
I think I must have been blushing like mad, because my face was burning.
Victoria came through to where we were and handed us drinks. I happily took it and drank from it.
I know it was most likely the alcohol, but it also seemed like this dancing that Ariana was doing was leaving me dehydrated.
Ariana must have noticed this because she left Courtney and started to dance close to me, one of her hands finding a rest space on hips and the other reaching for my hand. I couldn't help but match my movements instinctively to hers and I was not going to lie; I was getting turned on with her grinding up against me.
Ariana then stopped her movement, caught in my gaze and I saw her eyes change from affection to something stronger. Her eyes grew darker as she moved her face closer to mine.
I looked at Victoria and she was giving me a thumbs up and nodding her head in sign of approval.
Approval of what though; Ariana had a boyfriend.
That thought hit me hard. I panicked.
I leaned away from her and could only mumble drunkenly.
"Sorry, I...I..just..I'll be back." And turned around to make my way out of there leaving a confused Ariana behind that turned to Victoria for questions.
I downed my drink, knowing that drinking was definitely not going to help me solve my feeling problems but it was a damn good place to start.
What have I gotten myself into?