The first two weeks of December went by pretty fast. The school was over, and the new year and holidays were right here. It was just a comfortable time with our families and those closest to us. Supposedly.
We exchanged Christmas presents in our school friend group earlier, while on break today before going home, so we could prepare for the party—well, what could we prepare for that? Those who could were supposed to bring alcohol or some snacks. Everyone was simply free to bring something.
Jade and the others agreed on going there together, and I could only guess they went there as a group every previous year—was better than coming alone with nothing to do in the beginning. That would be such a boring start, to tell the truth.
It slightly surprised me that Amani was coming with us, too, as she couldn't drink. Although I, of course, knew that it was simply possible to party without drinking. But it still felt weird—to not drink at such an event. With that many teenagers around on top of that.
Soon enough, our small group entered the Smiths' house. Even though we were in a city, I got slightly concerned for their neighbours. However, Henry assured me that the party was always held somewhere where the neighbours weren't at home at the time or… there just weren't any.
Together, we entered the house that was slowly getting fuller. Thankfully, we didn't get in there among the first ones, so it was also pretty loud in there already as one tried to over-talk the other. I could only imagine how this all would look in about an hour or two.
"Julia said that we can leave these in there," Leah told us, pointing towards a door, as we stood in the hallway.
Nodding, we all walked into the room where some people had already left their coats and jackets. I was glad to take my own off because it was getting hotter, second by second. At that moment, I realised that Amani was already wearing the scarf she had gotten from me. I was glad she really liked it and didn't wear it just because.
"I'm gettin' beer," Leah stated, to which I turned myself to face her.
"Count me in."
I could hear Jade chuckle behind us as we left them and found ourselves in the Smiths' kitchen. There were still many faces I didn't know, so I just stuck to one of my five friends. Now it was Leah's turn.
"What now?" I asked as we both got our drinks and stood in the room with a couple of other people who were busy in their conversations. Or making out as I could see. Get a room, jeez.
"Well," she breathed out, looking around us, "we could find the others."
We both then understandably took our drinks with us as we made our way around the ground floor of the house. I got kind of concerned for the house even when I knew not everyone was coming, especially lower years. But there were still a lot of people.
Leah put her arm around my shoulders as we dodged a few groups of people moving around us. I looked around even though there was almost no chance of me finding someone I would know. And so, all I could do was fix my gaze on the glass door that happened to lead into the garden. It seemed like some people were already outside. In the cold weather, in the fresh air. How nice.
"Thank god it's not rainin' tonight," Leah laughed, glancing in the same direction as I did.
"Yeah."
My eyes turned back in the direction we were heading—the living room. I saw Amani sitting down with Jade while the boys were nowhere to be seen. I wasn't surprised—they obviously wanted to have some fun. At least Henry, I could guess.
We sat down together with them, accompanied by some music that was slowly getting a bit louder. I watched as some of our classmates started to move to the rhythm of the songs in the open space in the living room or outside in the garden. They for sure weren't feeling cold, as I could imagine they had already drunk something.
I didn't know for how long I was sitting there like that. I just exchanged the first beer for a second as the girls kept on talking about some family things and the Christmas break. I was going to see my sister for the first time in person next week, and we were also going to have a full house after a long time. That was about it, though. I didn't want to talk about these things, so I just kept on staying quiet, watching our classmates around.
"I'm gonna find the bathroom," I announced when I felt the need to visit one. The girls only nodded, getting back to their conversation right away as I made my way out of the room.
I didn't want to interrupt people doing their business, so my first idea was to ask someone—anyone. I looked around myself to see if anyone was by themselves so I wouldn't interrupt them in a conversation or anything.
"Hey," I said, tapping on some girl's shoulder who turned her head and gave me a questioning stare. "Do you know where the bathroom is?"
She nodded, looking behind me into the hallway, "There's one down here, and the other one is upstairs—the second door."
"Thanks," I smiled at her, leaving her behind as I made my way to the closest toilet. Knocking beforehand and when there was no sound from the inside, I tried to open the door. Unsuccessfully. This always made my blood boil. People could just answer; there was nothing hard about that. It only made the one who was knocking angry.
I sighed, heading to the upper floor. There were fewer people, which was pretty understandable—I wouldn't want anyone to go there in my house at any kind of party either. The few who were there seemed to be just running away from the downstairs happenings as they were sitting down by the wall, drinking.
I passed these few people to finally find my destination. Which wasn't hard, thankfully, and also the room was empty—I got lucky.
When I exited the bathroom later, I almost bumped into a person who was standing outside. Stupid human beings. I sighed as I closed the door behind myself while the person with light-coloured hair stepped away.
"Sorry," mumbled a familiar voice, which made me look at the person again.
I furrowed my brows, looking at Ava's face. She gave me a smile, not doing anything else as we both stood still in our places. Why was she blocking the door a while ago? That's not what someone who needs to visit the bathroom does, right? Well, probably unless they were drunk.
Stepping away from the entrance in case someone who wanted to go to the bathroom was around, I looked around the corridor. The boys who were sitting by the walls before were nowhere to be seen now. It was empty here—not a single soul up here.
Once again, I glanced at Ava, who was quietly staring at me, which wasn't really pleasant. What did she want? I didn't ask out loud, though. Instead, I made my way to the stairs from where I could see it was more crowded downstairs. Everyone wanted to be in the centre of the action.
I then sat down at the top of the stairs so I didn't block anyone's way as I took out my phone. It was past eleven now. Still not that late, so I wasn't planning to go home yet. Maybe sitting down there for a while was going to be nice.
It eventually got louder downstairs as well. My eyes fell on the three teenagers who went out through the front door. I also heard some loud voices that sounded like some people were encouraging someone—most likely to do something very stupid. The party was probably in full swing by now.
I felt as if someone had sat down next to me, which made me turn to look up at the person. The dirty blonde hair was falling loosely around her face as she stared in front of her. At least she left some space for anyone to pass us.
My brows furrowed as I couldn't understand why she was here instead of partying with her friends. But, well, I couldn't blame her, right? I was doing the same thing at the moment.
She must have felt my stare on her as she slowly turned her head to face me with a blank expression on her face. I blinked, not knowing what to say or, more likely, having nothing to say. Instead, I just kept on staring into her greenish eyes. This moment made me feel slightly familiar. She had really beautiful eyes. With brown around the green of her orbs.
Her eyes fell down after a short while, and I quickly glanced around us. No one was paying attention to us. And so, I let myself do the same—to not pay any attention to others around as I glanced back at her face. She bit her lower lip as she kept on staring at mine.
"Can I?" she asked, breaking the silence, which made me look up at her eyes once again—she shocked me a lot.
However, there was no sane thought in my head at that moment. So I just nodded, taking in a ragged breath, as I waited for her to act. Which she soon did—placing her hand on my cheek as she slowly leaned closer to kiss me. And after closing my eyes, I leaned in as well, connecting our lips.
I placed my hand next to her, shifting my weight a little. All the sounds suddenly became quieter as we exchanged a couple of slow kisses. It was such a pleasant moment.
Unfortunately, every moment was doomed to end, and so did this one as our lips parted once more after a while. Blinking, I stared at Ava's lips for a second before switching my gaze to her eyes. She was staring into mine with an almost blank expression. Maybe she was really drunk. And I stupid.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I waited for her to say something. Perhaps she regretted this, and then she would probably run away. However, she did nothing but kept on staring into my eyes like she didn't know what to do from now on. I wasn't surprised.
I felt her hand fall from my face as a couple of steps were heard on the stairs. My eyes darted to a boy, who wasn't paying much attention to us except for trying to pass, which made Ava move closer to me.
The silence was… weird. Awkward, even. I wasn't sure if I should have said anything as I didn't want to scare her away. This situation wasn't definitely a very pleasant one.
I let out a breath as I scanned the space around us. Again, there was almost no one. Just a group of quiet kids standing next to the stairs on the ground floor.
"I…uh," I turned my head as it seemed like she wanted to say something, "I need a drink."
My eyes stayed on her as she slowly got up, not looking into my eyes anymore, and went down the stairs. I blinked, not knowing what to think about this. She was the one who asked to kiss me, right?
I sighed, leaning my elbows on my knees as I looked down the stairs where she had just vanished. Running away from me. Running away from the kiss. Running away from her own actions.
After a few seconds, I finally got up to rejoin my friends. They may not have come to look for me, but I didn't want to just sit here like a sad teenager. At a fucking party.
"Where were you?" Leah asked, furrowing her brows when I came to them. They were still occupying their previous spots as I could see.
Amani glanced at me, blinking, and then she looked back at Jade, who was just talking about something unknown to me. Did she see us? That was the first thought in my mind. However, I instead looked back at Leah, who had another beer in her hand.
"Just around."