We cheered as the timer stopped, revealing that we had won the game by three points. The crowd was roaring, they were ecstatic. I think we all were. We had been trying to beat this team for a long time, and we finally did. Now we could actually celebrate a win at the after party.
I watched as all of the boys jumped on and howled with one another, like a bunch of hungry excited wolves. Penelope and I giggled as we watched our three boys ripping each others helmets off so they could hug one another, and then I saw him.
Sweaty but smiling, Aaron Hotchner laughed with his two friends at their victory, something that most certainly couldn't have been done without him. The bright lights were making his skin and smile sparkle, I could have stared at him all day and been okay with it. "V!" I snapped out of it and spun around, seeing a happy Penelope staring directly at me.
"Come on, we're got to grab our stuff! The party starts in less than an hour and I am so redoing my makeup!" She grabbed onto my hand and started to pull me with her, and I caved, letting her.
I turned my head as she continued to drag me with her towards the locker rooms, seeing Aaron watching me. I smiled at him, but before I could see his reaction, I was already in the large room. Everyone was talking about the afterparty and getting undressed, and I opened my locker, "What did you bring to wear?" Penelope asked me.
I stripped down to my underwear and bra, hanging the uniform in my locker. I pulled out a very small white cropped teeshirt and a pair of black low rise jeans, "And before you ask, yes. Derek did pick this outfit. But hear me out, I'm trying to broaden my outfit choices, I used to wear only sweaters and button downs and skirts, I need to spice up my look" I explained, and she shook her head with a huge grin on her face.
"No, I love it! Imagine it with two green butterfly clips in your hair, or maybe pink? It'll make you look so cool, I have a lot! Hold on..." She started to rummage through her locker, and I felt someone staring at me. I glanced to my left, seeing Haley watching us along with two of her friends from across the room. They were whispering, almost like they were making fun of me. I looked down at myself and realized why they were staring.
I turned fully to face them, holding my arms out a bit so they could fully see me in my bra and underwear, "You want to take a picture? It'll last longer" I shot, both my brows raised. She scoffed and rolled her eyes, she started to take her own shirt off so she could get changed.
I started to put my pants on, thinking we were done, until she replied with, "Why would I want a picture of that?" I clenched my jaw as I finished buttoning my jeans. Everyone was staring at us now.
"I mean, your boyfriend sure seems to"
She gasped loudly at my words, and I couldn't hide the smile that was just begging to appear on my face. "V!" Penelope whispered, warningly. I looked back at her and shrugged,
"What? Did I lie?" I questioned, and then I looked back at Haley, "I don't know, Haley. Would he rather stare at me? Or those double A cup tits?" I hissed, and the entire locker room either gasped, let out a small laugh, or covered their mouths.
They weren't expecting me to say that, and I wasn't either.
I guess it serves her right, though. For the first two years of high school, she made me hate my body every second of my life. I had no curves, no boobs or butt. She would call me a little boy, she would make me feel like absolute shit.
Over the summer I had changed a lot . Sure, my boobs and ass weren't huge, but they were almost above average, and they were bigger than hers.
I finished putting my white shirt on at the same time as I slid on my shoes, and I grabbed my bag, slamming my locker shut. I strutted out of the locker room, and soon enough, Penelope followed close behind. "Okay, I know it was kind of bitchy, but that was awesome!" She admitted, and I smiled a little.
"Being a bitch is kind of in my genes" I let out, and she let out a small giggle. "We can do my makeup in the car, Emily, JJ, and Spencer are probably already waiting outside of it for us" She agreed with me, and the two of us made out way to it.
I was right, they were all standing there obviously waiting for my keys. "Guys! You looked so good!" JJ told us, and we thanked her as I unlocked the car door. We all started to get inside, Spencer next to me in the passengers seat, and the three girls in the back.
Spencer had on a similar color pallet as I did, a white sweater with a black turtleneck under it, and a pair of plain black slightly baggy jeans. Penelope had put on a pink very tight crop top along with a pair of high waisted light wash jeans.
Emily was wearing a red spaghetti strap tank top, and a pair of black high waisted jeans held up by a belt that had spikes on it. She was wearing huge platform boots, they looked pretty cool. JJ was basically wearing the opposite, a light blue cropped sweater and a grey tight mini skirt.
"You're not going to believe what Veronica did! She destroyed Haley!"
And then she explained everything that I did, in almost perfect detail, as if she were narrating a book. We were already halfway to the party when she finished, and Spencer stared at me with his jaw dropped. "You commented on her chest?"
"Look, I know it was fucked up. But she made comments about mine for like two years!" I defended. Spencer furrowed her brows, and then he nudged me as we reached a red light. I looked at him, and he shot me his signiture little smile.
"Took you long enough" I instantly smiled back, and Emily ruffled my hair from the back seat. We were all laughing as the light turned green, and I continued on to drive to Aaron Hotchner's house.
The rest of the ride consisted of what we thought would happen that night, which included a lot of drinking and ending up in the Hotchner family's pool. The entire grade was going to be there, probably a bunch of kids from other grades too. It was going to be packed, people were going to trash the place.
But Mr. and Mrs. Hotchner wouldn't be back for two days, and the group offered to clean everything up by the morning.
So when we pulled up, there we saw everyone piling out of cars and into the already alive looking home. We were allowed to park in the driveway, and as we all started to get out, we were being greeted by loads of different types of people.
People who would hang out with JJ and Derek, people who dressed and acted like Emily, even theater kids had shown up. It was honestly really exciting, seeing everyone around walking into the house. I wrapped my arm around Spencer's shoulders, "Ready to get plastered?"
"Actually, I wanted to ask you about a different term I heard in the library this morning. What does crossed mean?" I almost snorted,
"Unless you're planning on getting high, don't worry about it" He looked unsettled by this, and instantly shook his head. I chuckled and ruffled his hair, and we continued walking into the home. Emily hurried behind us to catch up,
"Hotch said we've got a shit ton of booze. Like... at least thirty different types" she revealed, but I raised a brow.
With a confused smile, I asked, "Hotch?"
She shrugged, "I mean, yeah. Hotch...ner. Hotch. You did the same thing with JJ, and I like calling people by their last names" She explained, and the three of us entered the building. People were cheering, music blasting and there were already people chugging. I let go of Spencer as I saw Dave walking towards us juggling drinks.
"A Bud Light for you," He handed it to Spencer, "a shot of After Shock for you" He handed the red solo cup to Emily, "And a chilled bottle of WKD for Ms. Veronica Gordon from the one and only Aaron Hotchner" I smiled and took the bottle from him.
Emily looked at me in shock, "You drink WKD?" I shrugged as Rossi handed me the bottle opener, "That shit tastes like straight rubbing alcohol"
"Listen, vodka isn't that bad" I defended, and I watched as Spencer examined Emily's drink. He seemed curious by the contents inside, "It tastes like cinnamon, good-looking" I revealed, and he looked up at me.
With a nod, he took the bottle opener I handed to him and started to pry open the cap. The three of us laughed, when I felt someone's hand slip behind my back and to my side. I looked up from the opposite direction that the hand had landed, seeing a smiling Aaron with a drink in his hand. "You missed me after the game" He said to me, and I took a sip of my drink,
"Yeah, I was getting into fights with your girlfriend" I revealed, looking back up at him. I examined his outfit, seeing he was wearing his signiture white shirt and a pair of light washed jeans that had been held up by a belt. He had on his black leather jacket over it,
"Ex" He reminded, and I rolled my eyes.
"She still acts like your bitch"
"Giggles!" We heard, and we all turned to see who it had been. Derek, JJ, and Penelope, all walking towards us. Derek smiled and held his hand out for me to high five, "I liked watching you and baby girl cheering us on" He admitted, and I laughed at this.
I took another large sip of my drink, "You know what I'm going to like watching? All of us dancing, come on!" I pulled him with me, almost seductively, and he gladly followed.
Aaron and the others watched us, and he almost growled in frustration, "Is she doing this on purpose?" Spencer patted Aaron's shoulder,
"Yeah, probably" he revealed, and then he went to follow his life long best friend and new found one.
Aaron Hotchner was not going to let me get away that easily.
000
It had been almost two hours of dancing to the top songs, drinking insane amounts, smoking all kinds of different things, and forgetting what was going on around us.
Spencer rested his arms on my shoulders and draped them over me, his head on mine. "I don't know about you, but I like after shock" I chuckled at his slurred statement,
"It's pretty good, yeah" I agreed, "You doing okay?" I questioned, taking him off of me and turning around to look at him fully. I held onto both of his hands, and he nodded.
"I'm great, yeah. Yes" He was definitely the opposite of sober. Both of us were completely gone, but at least I had been trashed before. My boy hadn't even been tipsy before the first party he had ever been to, which was this year. I pushed his hair out of his face, my brows raised. I was about to ask him another question, but I was rudely cut off.
It was JJ, "Aaron is looking for you, he said he was upstairs. I'll take care of Spencer while you're gone" I was hesitant. I liked JJ, a lot. But did I trust her with Spencer? No, I didn't trust anyone with Spencer. Sometimes, I didn't even trust myself with him because I needed to make sure he was getting the best of whatever he needed.
I bit my lip, "It's fineeee, V" He almost pushed me away from them, "Go!" He shooed me off, and I rolled my eyes with a small smile on my face as JJ laughed. I moved through the crowds of people and tried to find my way up the stairs, and by the time I did, the music faded a little. I cautiously made my way through the hallway,
"Aaron?" I called, and then, I felt someone grab my arm. I gasped loudly and almost hit the person, but he took my other hand to make sure I didn't. I looked up, seeing Aaron, a mischievous grin on his face. "What are you...?" he started to lean into me, and for some strange reason, I got excited.
"You have no idea how long I've been waiting to do this" He whispered, and I was about to hold his face, but then someone almost slammed the door open. We jumped away from one another, revealing Derek with wide eyes and a nervous face. "What are you doing?" Aaron questioned, almost annoyed.
"Pretty boy's in the bathroom, he won't stop throwing up. He's freaking out, he won't stop asking for you" I almost fell down the stairs by how fast I flew past the two boys, literally pushing any person who got in my way out of it.
He couldn't deal with throw up, and neither could I, but for different reasons. His was because he thought that throw up instantly meant he was sick, and when Spencer got sick, he turned into the total germaphobe. People thought it was weird that he wouldn't shake hands? This man would isolate himself, and then proceed to constantly deep clean every inch of his body along with everything around him.
With me, it would just make me sick. I hated it, it would make me want to throw up. One time, my brother threw up in the living room and I fainted. It wasn't very pretty.
But I would suck it up for Spencer, because I knew exactly what he did when this would happen. Of course, this was a little different considering we were both trashed. I stopped abruptly outside of the bathroom, calming myself down before I walked in. I didn't want to freak him out even more.
I opened the door, and the scene showed itself. Spencer sitting next to the toilet almost hyperventilating, obviously, with JJ sitting behind him on the edge of the bathtub. Emily sat on the sink counter top, and Penelope right under her. They were all trying to comfort him, and when they looked up, I could see relief fill Spencer's face. "Veronica, I know you don't-"
However, he was quickly interrupted by an unexpected sick look appear on his face, and he moved back over the toilet. I shut the door behind us and fell to my knees quickly, pulling his hair back to make sure it didn't get into it. I rubbed his back, and looked up at Emily so I wouldn't have to see what was going on. I squeezed my eyes shut, "You don't have to talk, just get it all out" I told him, trying not to show my noticeable disgust.
It wasn't him, it was the pure fact I couldn't deal with the smell or the sight, the sound didn't bother me as much as those. Emily looked at me weird, and I just shook my head to show her to ignore me. The bathroom door opened again, and I looked up, seeing the three boys standing there. They quickly entered and shut the door behind them, "You okay, pretty boy?" Derek asked, almost awkwardly.
I could tell he felt bad, he was genuinely concerned. For some reason they clicked, which shocked me considering how different they were. Opposites attract, I guess.
Spencer stopped throwing up for a moment and shrugged, "Yeah, never better" He replied sarcastically, and then, he proceeded to vomit once again.