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This 'chapter perfect' banner came from the talented kriti.kachaturvedi. 

Chapter 62: Stargaze

Tell me I know what a party is. Tell me this is not a figment of my imagination.

We rolled up to the venue, staring at it from behind the tinted windows of Chad's chauffeur driven vehicle. It slowed down as we landed in a line behind two stretch limos.

"Is this Atlantis?" I asked, thinking it looked a lot like the photos I've seen of the famous hotel.

The light on the towering mansion made the walls look like they were golden, flickering from time to time. Guests walked up the front steps, wearing the most glamorous outfits I've ever seen. Some were elegant and others were outrageous.

They were treating this carpet like it was the Met Gala.

"Where do people even buy clothes like that?" I asked, staring at a woman wearing an ostrich outfit wrapped around a small part of her body.

"Is that an ostrich?" Cearra asked, pressing her face against the window.

"It can't be," I said, rolling down the window so we could get a better look.

We were both pressed up against the window that, when the doors opened, we almost fell. Men in purple suits and matching top hats escorted us out of the car. So much for a graceful entrance.

I glanced back at Luke and he laughed. Not exactly sensitive, but hey.

Handsome, hot Luke whose hands kept finding a way to touch me. And mine to him. We walked up the carpeted steps together and I felt like his confidence was rubbing off on me.

I let my hand rub up his arm, feeling the muscles tense slightly underneath his shirt. His jaw locked. 

We were checked off the guestlist and entered into... an open space.

There was no ceiling. And no people. In front of us was a massive black pool that matched the black sky overhead.

The walls were made of cobbled stone, painted gold that matched the tiles we walked on. Music was still reaching our ears, though I didn't know where it was coming from.

"Let's gooo!" Austin encouraged, having enough energy to spread across all of us.

Uh. Where?

We followed him around the edge of the pool, since he looked like he knew where he was going.  He was moving his hands to the sound of the music.

That's when I saw that the wall on the other end of the swimming pool was not one wall – it was actually two, one staggered behind the other.

Each wall was about half the length of the room, so that when one wall ended, the other began. One wall was staggered behind the other, which left a space in between.

It's a mind trick. Imagine having this much space in one's home that you can have a whole room dedicated to a mind trick. I mean, what else would they do here? Stargaze?

We walked through the two walls and found another door. The party exploded the moment we pushed that one open.

**

A cover band was playing on a silver stage and the outrageous outfits combined on one dance floor made an incredible blend. I felt like I was tripping.

"Let's eat so we can roll out," Chad said.

"What?" Cearra asked, staring at the party around us and wondering why we would ever want to leave, "This isn't where we're spending New Years'?"

"Nope," he said, already bouncing to the buffet.

So where's the real New Years' party?

Cearra and I held onto each other. The food was displayed in mountains on the longest tables. We were so hungry.

I jumped into a line and served myself with food I recognized and food I didn't. I took another plate and did the same to that, until my arms were weighed down.

Potatoes in three ways, lamb and salmon, veggies of all kinds, some spicy red food and less spicy salad. I went crazy with the sauces and kept my distance from the oysters. 

My hand-eye coordination is not world renowned, so a bread roll accidentally rolled off my unbalanced plate. 

Luckily, Luke was standing behind me in line. He extended his plate under mine to catch it. 

That boy and his coordination.

Sometimes I think that may just be the hottest thing about him.

But then I look at his face... and I think of the many memes related to that Smash Mouth song line.

"I thought you could catch," he whispered in my ear, his free hand resting on my waist. 

"Not often," I answered, feeling a smile escape my lips. 

I remembered his words to me this summer, when he was teaching me how to catch. The only thing I ever really caught was my mother's necklace that night we were in a street fight.

"You caught me," he whispered and his lips brushed my cheek. 

I felt shivers run through me and my plates clinked against each other as I almost lost control of them. Luke stepped back, quickly realizing how his effect on me could result in total disaster. 

It usually did.

*21.20 on NYE*

Oma started dinner with dessert first. A real visionary.

We sat around a table that already had opened bottles of wine ready for us. Luke and I sat beside each other, our knees brushing against each other. 

He was talking to a stranger who had approached him, but under the table, his hand was on my knee.

Chad was struggling to eat since he was being forced to meet his father's friends. His plate lay untouched at our table while he spoke to them closer to the dance floor.

We'd been invited to this party thanks to Chad Senior, who expected his son to be presentable in return. They all wore three-piece suits. Chad is with his people.

Austin was eating a chicken wing in the crowd and dancing, waving his wing from time to time. He was trying to grab Chad's attention while making a fool of himself.

We could see Chad lose concentration and look over at Austin. He was struggling not to break into a laugh.

Suddenly, Austin bumped into a lady on the dance floor who recognized him. "Austin!"

He almost choked on his chicken wing as we choked with laughter.

*22.47 on NYE*

The next location was a concert at a beach club. 

This time we came in with the crowd, all filing into the main area. We were given wrist bands and I found it refreshing that we were partying outside in the middle of winter. The packed crowd gave more than enough heat.

Our table had a bucket of alcohol and soft drinks already there. The boys cracked some open, but Luke didn't join them. He was beside me.

"Are you OK?" I asked him.

"Fine," he answered.

"Is this about the other night?" I asked, "You know you don't need to check in on me every minute."

"I'm making sure you're alright," he said, speaking into my ear over the music, "Do you want to dance?"

I don't. I can't dance. I don't dance. I look like a chicken on a tight rope when I dance.

"You go ahead," I insisted.

He gave me a look, "You say that now, but tomorrow..." 

"I promise I won't be upset. I'm having a good time here."

"Why don't you dance?"

"I'm self-conscious!"

"Why is that stopping you?" he tried to convince me.

"It just is.  Please, don't!" I begged him not to force me.

Luke sighed and looked out on the dance floor. Hundreds of people were going crazy to the music. They were letting loose for new year's. I'm not quite there yet and I can't force myself to be.

He walked over to Austin. He said something and a few minutes later I found Austin Taylor in front of me.

"I don't dance either," Austin said, "But I'm going to show you my moves."

*22.52 on NYE*

"Let's start with a classic," Austin said, stepping back.

With each step, he clicked his fingers and bopped his head. He was clearing a little space for us to make our move and it was attracting attention. Dreaded attention.

He pointed at me from across the five feet of empty space. "Remember when we went scuba diving? This first move is in honor of the moment we realized some of us don't know how to swim."

He pinched his nose with one hand and waved his other in crescent motions, mimicking sinking in water. He shook his legs as he lowered himself to the beat of the music.

"Now that we're down here," he called out from his crouched position, ignoring the laughs he was receiving, "We're going to drive up like Luke in his black jeep wrangler when he thought buying a car like that would made him cool."

Luke laughed and looked the other way. I didn't know Luke back then, but I bet he was really feeling himself the day he picked up that car.

Austin extended his hands like he was holding a steering wheel and rotated it left and right in some shaky driving with a lot of shoulder action. He pretended like he was checking himself out in an invisible car mirror. Exactly like Luke would.

As Austin was 'driving' by, Luke switched off the invisible motor. He joined in on the acting.

"Let's do something Chad's never done in his life," Luke said, putting Chad on blast. "Push a shopping cart."

Chad yelled out at that jibe. Austin then told me, "Come on Millie, we can do this all day."

They were really making fools out of themselves to prove a point: That having fun shouldn't be weighed down by external negativity.

"Join us, Minnie," Luke told me.

"OK," I exclaimed, unable to control my laughter, "I'm joining!"

I get it. They practice what they preach. When Luke says, 'don't listen to what people think', he means it. The cringy moves and awkward dancing was enough to convince me.

*23.08*

The dancing came and went in waves. Sometimes we were on the dance floor, other times back at our table to drink and take a break. Our group had started to mingle with strangers and our joke dancing had become more realistic.

Austin was talking to a girl beside our table that was not Cearra. I didn't want to stress out, because they still had time, but I was stressing out.

I saw Cearra throw repeated glances in Austin's direction.

I nonchalantly wandered over to the drinks area where Cearra was standing by herself. Maybe she needed a wing woman and I was here to offer my services.

Austin was crushing it tonight, I had to admit. Girls liked his outgoing personality. The girl he was currently talking to literally threw her hair back and laughed.

"What's he saying that's so funny?" Cearra asked me, "Can he share the joke with the wider group?" 

Suddenly, Austin choked on his drink.

He sputtered and covered his mouth with his hand. His forehead wrinkled as he stared out on the dance floor. After he got himself together, he called out a name:

"LARA!"

Cearra asked me, "Who?"

As if I know?

We tried to see who he was calling out to. Austin excused himself from the conversation with the girl he was already speaking to and jumped back on the dance floor. "Lara!"

We watched him walk up to the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

A stunning girl with cascading dark hair and striking green eyes. She was in a white dress that accentuated the curves on her body, even more so as she danced. Her tanned legs and arms were highlighted by blue, green, red lights from the dance floor. And she wore white converses.

She was in the center of a lively group when she saw Austin. She threw her arms around his shoulders and they spoke, though we couldn't hear.

"Who is that?!" Chad asked, popping out of nowhere to stand beside Cearra and me. He was sipping his drink through a straw.

"Aren't you already seeing someone?" Cearra asked back, catching his interested tone.

"She seems busy with Millie's boyfriend right now," Chad answered, trying to pull me into the mix.

I glanced over at Bianca and Luke on the dance floor. They weren't very close, so I didn't mind.

The three of us went back to staring at Austin and Lara.  Our table was on a small platform above the dance floor, so we looked like three scrooges on a stage. 

But when Austin and Lara turned to walk back to our table, we quickly pretended like we were looking anywhere else but at them.

Who was she?

A/N: This chapter sets the scene for their New Years' Eve. What do you think of Lara? A new character on new years ha, I couldn't resist.

To any future readers, when do we start socializing again? Covid has kept us indoors and apart... this feels like a diary entry now or a try-hard time capsule, so I'll stop haha (but the question remains!!)   

PLEASE VOTE on this chapter! Spread the positivity :)

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