Array
(
[text] =>

A bright blue corvette swerved in the spot before ours. I counted the amount of girls that spilled out of it, one by one. Out of the four I notice, only two walk toward us. I still had the car door wide open. I stepped out completely and rushed to slam it shut. Keeping my eyes low, I started my walk up to the party house.

"Hey," one of the girls barked. "Who the heck is she, Hunter?"

I snapped my eyes in the direction of the very angry, very loud girl. Hunter came to her side and explained that I was merely his step-sister who had recently flown in and that I would be attending school with them. He placed his hand on the small of her back, speaking to her softly. Her scold melted away after he said that. I had a feeling she'd caught him with other girls in the past from the way she reacted. And I wouldn't be shocked, Hunter wasn't a bad looking guy. I'm sure she had a lot of incidents of him with other girls trying to flirt with him.

"I'm Carmen," she announced, stretching out her arm to me while simultaneously flipping her curly jet black hair with the opposite hand. I walked a little forward and took her hand into mine, shaking it slowly. The longer I stood there, shaking her hand, the more she pulled Hunter to her side.

Hmm. Looks like he's got a pretty clingy, jealous girlfriend.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to come off as rude or anything." Carmen tried laughing it off. I laughed along with her in the hopes of easing the tension that was obviously still lingering in the air.

"Hunter, do you know if Maven is coming?" one of the other girls asked.

Hunter shrugged. "I don't know. My mom almost didn't let me go. I think he'll probably try and come later on in the night, when the party has died down."

The girl who asked the question frowned at this answer and sighed heavily. "Oh, okay then. I was really hoping he'd make it."

"He's not into you," another one of the girls said. She was standing by the car earlier but had now decided to join in on our conversation. "Stop being so damn hung up on everything he's doing. He's got a girlfriend."

"Last time I checked, you weren't his girlfriend." The previous girl retorted. "So why don't you stay out of my business and what I want to do, huh?"

I figured this was my cue to jump out of the discussion and try and find shelter. With the way those two girls were glaring at each other, I knew there was going to be a battle starting soon.

No one batted an eyelash when I shuffled toward the house and left the side of Hunter and his girlfriend. And I was kind of glad about that the further away I got from them and got closer to the house.

People rushed in and out of the place, carrying those mysterious red cups that always had you wonder what was inside. I watched my surrounds attentively, thinking if I should leave now or not. Everything about this party felt off from the other parties I'd heard about back home but rarely got the chance to actually attend.

One thing was similar to those two parties though: there were drunk people. And I mean everywhere. Drunk guys dancing on the wooden coffee table. A drunk girl swaying in the arms of a boy, holding onto him for dear life. Drunk couples kissing in the corner, gigging to themselves...Maybe they weren't just drunk.

For some reason, my brother came to mind as I watched my soon to be classmates get drunk. He probably would've loved this party. He liked spending his time on silly gatherings like this. He wasted his time, making friends with beer bottles and cigarette buds while others his age went off to college. This was his type of scene—not mine.

Smoke billowed up to the ceiling, creating a thick gray cloud above our heads. Teens drunk to their own content collapsed on the floor and sprawled their bodies against the couches. Others rushed up into the bedrooms upstairs, but they weren't going there to sleep ...from what I understood.

I cut through the dense crowd and made my way to the kitchen. Watching other people have fun made me wish I could loosen up just as much. I recalled what Hunter had said about being "safe" around the kinds of guys at these parties, and I made sure to remember that as I searched for a drink. It took some time, but I finally located a closed beer can inside the fridge.

Popping the lid open, I felt eyes zeroing in on me. After placing the drink to my lips, I peered around, finding brown eyes staring back at me. She was dressed in a knee length tie-dye shirt that nearly swallowed her entire frame. Her long rainbow socks and headband didn't make her look any better. She had puffy, curly hair that I envied. My hair only ever curled at the ends, staying flat for the most part. I never could get it that curly.

"How do I know you?" she asked, tapping her chin. "I feel like I know you." She shut both her eyes and grabbed my shoulder as if she was trying to read something off of me by simply touching me. They fluttered back open, a sad expression painted on her face. "I don't know you."

"Uh...no, no you don't. Or at least I don't think you should. I'm from Maine. I just flew into Cali about a few hours ago."

"Cali? Oh, yeah. You're definitely not from around here."

"Sorry?"

"Oh, don't apologize!" she rushed to say. "It's just that I could've sworn that I knew you. Your aura told me—"

"My aura what?" I arched a brow.

"God, Beth, where did you go? Ugh, there you are," a boy shouted, storming into the kitchen. He faced the girl and then me. "I'm sorry if she's been bothering you. She's prone to do that."

"And you're prone to be a jerk as a best friend." She rolled her eyes. "And I swear I wasn't bothering her. Was I?" she asked me.

"No." I answered, taking another sip of my drink. "She was, however, going to tell me what my aura was."

"Beth," the boy boomed. "I told you stop doing that. We didn't throw this party for you to start pulling that crap around again. We're passed that. We're seniors this year."

"But it's not crap," she assured him. "I really can read people's aura."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure you've got ESPN or something." He said.

I suppressed my desire to laugh at his quote from one of my favorite movies. Instead, I went on to ask: "You live in this house?"

She nodded. "Yup. I'm Bethany Francesca Giller."

"Stop telling people your government name." He ordered. "You don't know who she is...wait. I don't even know who you are." He paused. "Who are you?"

"She's from Maine!" Beth sang.

"Last time I checked I never sent invitations to anyone in Maine." He held his cold stare.

"She can stay," Beth told him. "She's okay in my book."

"I don't like walk-ins," he said with a growl.

"Most of these people here are likely walk-ins," she said.

I gulped. "I came here with my step-brother."

"And I happen to not care who you came with." He huffed. "You came uninvited."

"His name is Hunter Price," I went on to say. "If that rings a bell."

Both of their jaws nearly hit the floor. From the looks on their faces, I was expecting the worse. I was honestly praying that they didn't hear any of the negative things about me that Maven knew.

"Oh my God, I didn't know he had a step-sister!" Beth yelped.

I exhaled a breath of relief. Them not knowing I existed was the best possible thing to ever happen to me since I got here.

"My dad married his mom. I'm Silvia Ellington."

"Wow, that's crazy. What a small world," the boy gasped. He brought out his hand and grabbed mine, shaking it quickly. "I'm Alexander by the way. You can call me Alex for short."

"I'll call you Xander for short," I said, not really shaking his hand back.

"Oh, that's not really my nickname—"

"I like the name Xander though," I explained.

"Uh, Xander it is then." He beamed.

It wasn't until I said I was step-siblings with Hunter Price that he finally stopped scolding me and for once looked at me with a smile.

Such a kiss ass.

.... .

An hour into the party and I'd discarded my first drink, finished a second one, and tried to not go for another. I had no intentions of knocking out at this party from drinking too much. In the matter of all that time, Beth had introduced me to her circle of friends. Not many of their names stuck. I sucked at names. I did recall how many names they told me. I'd counted nineteen people, not including Bethany and Xander.

She told me about how popular my twin step-brothers happened to be. Which was no surprise to me. After that, she then went around and introduced me to random people she knew. People hardly acknowledged her presence as she bounced around, person to person, shouting their name at the top of her lungs, stringing me along to her side. It was then that I decided I quite liked Beth—or at least more than I liked Xander. I had a feeling this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

"And that concludes my tour of Crescent High School," she puffed and fell into one of the few empty seats in the living room. "It'll be more fun on Monday when we go to school and we can tell you all the hang out spots. Also, I can show you what our usual routes to get off campus are."

"How fun," Xander murmured, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I can't wait."

"If you don't want to go with us, you don't have to." Bethany supplied.

"No I will. Who else is going to stop you from doing idiotic, reckless things?"

"I don't get myself in idiotic reckless situations," she roared, causing a few heads to turn.

I zoned out of their little argument. In the hopes to distract myself, I drifted my gaze around the poorly lit room, scanning through the sea of faces and bobbing heads. An annoying lamp light that poured out bright red light blinked on and off in the corner. And in that slight second as it flickered on, I saw him. The crimson light sank deep into his blue eyes, and swam into his wavy brown locks that curled at the ends. With the red glazing over his eyes, it gave them an eerie look, almost inhuman and out of this world.

I faintly recalled his presence when Beth was showing me around, introducing me to nearly the entire school. She hadn't given me his name though, she had moved past him so quickly that I almost didn't notice him at all. Was he a new kid, too?

I tugged at the sleeves of my wool sweater, focusing on the way my caramel skin looked against the white material. Why wasn't I moving anymore? I'd gone still, muddled as what I should do. My eyes swept up off my body and on to the boy, catching a breath in my throat when he smirked in my direction, flicking two fingers two in the air.

"Hi," I read his lips. Helplessly, I become entangled in his soft spoken greeting, taking the first leap to the captivating boy in the corner.

I decided he was beautiful enough to become my distraction. My own little addiction until I left the safety of the pretend world we were all playing make-believe in. Every single one of us had masks on, placed tightly over our faces so we could be someone we weren't for once. In this pretend world, I was the cool girl from Maine who happened to be step-siblings with a fairly popular boy on campus. This cool girl didn't have a curfew, and neither did she care what hour it was when she'd leave the party.

Tonight, I'd be that girl...or at least try.

This wasn't my type of thing to be, but right now, with a slight buzz fogging my mind and better judgement, I was freaking untouchable and fearless at the moment. I was also stupid.

Time to make some mistakes.

_______

Please Vote And Comment

A/N: Silvia is Somali from her mom's side & Black American from her dad's side. Beth is black. And no, she is not related to Xander. They're just best friends. You will probably just imagine them however you want.

____

Song: Hex Girlfriend by Neon Indian

Lyrics:

❝Stupid face looking so perplexed.

...

Tired eyes hypnotized by your teenage sect

Weekend rituals resurrecting

Feelings our sober minds reject.❞

[text_hash] => 55354b01
)