Selene was texting Zoë when she walked into the party.
Zoë was debating whether or not she would come to the party; not as part of the plan, just because it was their senior year and she was bored. She argued that Selene was her drinking buddy so it wouldn't be the same since they couldn't be seen together.
Selene sent one last text of "Just come" and deposited her phone into her knee high boots since her outfit had no pockets.
She wore a white men's button up with a black corset belt. The sleeves rolled up and the first few buttons undone to show some cleavage. She had black knee high boots with a little heel to give her some height. The shirt reaches about mid-thigh and she wore some golden necklaces along with hoop earrings. Her hair is in loose waves, a small diamond-shaped section at the front tied up into a tiny ponytail. Her lips are painted with dark red, her eyes shadowed by thick fake lashes.
The button matched with the corset belt and the hoop earring kind of made her look like a pirate that was ready to pillage the lands and bring men to their knees. And she loved it
She glanced around, trying to find someone she knows; a classmate that she can participate in small talk with, Declan or even his friends though she's never officially met them.
She was about to reach for her phone again when a voice stopped her.
Declan's hand found her shoulder. "Hey, you came." He smiled, teeth flashing. "Your schedule clear up?"
She shrugged. "I had nothing else to do so I figured 'why not'?"
"I'm glad you decided to come."
"Almost didn't."
He nodded, walking further into the house as she followed. "I know right? Who has a party on Thursday?"
She laughed. "I know right."
The crowd got less dense as they made their way outside. Fairy lights were set up around the fence of the backyard, a few space heaters set up as well. There was people sitting on the green grass, drinking, smoking and carrying out conversation. It was much chiller than the last party, less people were there and the music was softer than the songs at the last party that threatened to blow her brains out. A beer pong table was set up, a small crowd milling around. She suddenly felt a little over dressed.
Declan's hand found her wrist, his thumb lightly grazing her skin. "Want to meet my friends?"
"Are they here?" she asked then winced. "Sorry, that was stupid to ask."
"It wasn't stupid," he replied. "We can meet them later. You want something to drink?"
They both turned their heads at the sound of cheering. Someone had just lost beer pong.
"I have a better idea," she said.
"You're going to cheat at beer pong?"
She hit his arm. "I didn't cheat! You just suck."
He put a hand to his chest, wincing in pain. "You're brutal, you know that?"
She shrugged. "Come on, let's go play against those guys."
They walked over to the beer pong tableâa table tennis table that had obviously been dragged over. Declan set up new cups while the other team did the sameâthey didn't have to do much, the team before them had been terrible and barely got any balls in. Selene searched for whatever drink they were using, her nose wrinkling when she found they were using beer instead of a different drink like most parties.
She quickly filled their cups before turning to the guys across the table. One was blonde, the other with velvet red hair.
They tossed a ball in her direction but Declan's hand whipped out and caught it.
She glared at him.
"Sorry," he said, throwing the ball. It landed in the cup that made the tip of the triangle formation. "Reflex."
She let Declan catch the ball when the team threw it back to her. He passed the ball to her and she purposely threw just to the left of the triangle. The ball bounced off the table, landing in the grass.
Their opponents laughed.
Selene pouted then watched as they each got their shots in a cup and then a third.
She downed two cups of beer before crushing the cups.
Declan shot again, his ball getting in.
Selene shot again, missing purposely by just an inch.
This continued until little more than half of Declan and Selene's cups were gone while the guys they were facing had significantly more left.
Declan aimed, his jaw ticking as he shot. The ball bounced off the rim of the cup.
Selene shot and missed yet again.
"What the fuck," Declan muttered under his breath.
Tension rolled off of him. She had only landed one cup this whole game, and that was by accident.
"Two more shots?" Selene asked as one of the guysâthe red haired oneâaimed. She made sure her voice sounded slurred and leaned forward giving them all a peek down her shirt. She pouted. "Please?" she slurred, dragging the word out.
His blonde friend sighed before they tossed two balls in her direction.
She reached for them but caught neither.
"Let me throw," Declan said.
She turned her body away from him. "Don't worry."
He sighed, crossing his arms.
She aimed the ball and landed it in a cup and without giving the guys anytime she threw again and landed it in a second cup. "Rebound," she said. She threw another two balls and got them in. Both of them had the same amount of cups left now. "Drink up."
Declan's eyebrow quirked up.
"That's cheating," said the blonde.
"No one forced you to give me two more shots. You could have said no." She pointed to the cups they still hadn't drunk.
With muttered curse words they each downed two drinks.
They each took their shots, only one going in.
Selene passed the drink to Declan and shot. Both of her shots got in and she shot once again before letting Declan make the last shot.
"You gonna let your girl play for you, Grey?" the red haired guy asked.
"Fuck yeah," Declan responded. "Drink up."
Selene laughed.
The guys quickly got drunk, their shots getting sloppier and eventually Selene and Declan wonâshe allowed him to make the last shot.
Declan cheered, grabbing Selene around the waist in a hug and spinning her around.
She laughed, her hands on his shoulders. "Okay put me down before I flash someone."
He placed her down and smiled at her. "You want to get something to sober up?"
She nodded and he led her back inside.
When they reached the kitchen he handed her a bottle of Real Canadian water and gulped his own down.
She drank slowly, surveying the party.
Most of the people had moved inside, milling around and dancing. The music was playing louder now but not too loud that the two of them couldn't talk.
"Good job with that game," he said. "Cheater."
She rolled her eyes and finished the bottle and threw it in the recycling. "I didn't cheat. I didn't tell them to give me those two shots or believe I was some trashed girl."
He continued drinking his bottle.
"Let's dance," she said.
His eyes widened, sputtering a bit before he nodded, closing his water bottle.
"Lost your game, player?" she questioned.
"Never," he said, his confidence returning in full bloom. "You just caught me off guard is all."
"Tsk tsk," she said as she led him to an almost secluded corner.
He raised an eyebrow before he spun her around, hands firmly on her waist.
Shocked, her hands landed on his chest as he began moving her hips to the fast pace of the song their bodies pressed together.
From the little distance she realized that he was only slightly taller than her in her heeled bootsâit was no more than a few inches, she would have to tilt her head up just barely for their lips to connect.
She wrapped her arms around her neck, moving in time with the fast paced tempo. Just over Declan's shoulder, she could see Zoë across the party. She was talking to some classmates but her eyes were on them two.
Selene turned her eyes back to Declan's icy blue-green ones.
He slowly began to lean down and Selene quickly turned her head so that his lips connected with her cheek.
She put up her act, laughing as she pulled away. "You're going to have to do a bit more than play beer pong and dance with me. Let's go meet your friends."
Declan recovered from her rejection quickly, heading towards the staircase.
She followed behind, glancing over her shoulder at Zoë.
Zoë's glare was steely as she watched them head up.
Selene tried not to think about it as she followed Declan into an upstairs room almost like a den.
The music from downstairs was muffled, the bass the only thing heard through the floor.
Declan closes the door behind her.
There was four other people playing a game of cards.
Upon further examination she could see they were Uno cards and that two people were done already, observing the heated match.
A black girl with a small afro picked up two cards and nodded at the pale boy across from her.
He put down a plus four card.
"See, that's what we're not going to do." She put a plus four card down on top.
Sighing, he picked up eight.
"Blue," she said before dropping five cards one by one. "Uno." She dropped the last card; a plus two.
The guy threw his last four cards on the table. "Damnit, Rue."
"You suck at Uno, Carlos," Declan commented.
The group all turned to Declan and her.
The pale skinned chubby girl was the first to react. "I'm Verona, the guy who lost is Carlos, the brutal one is Ruby andâ" she gestured to the brown skin boy to her left "âRoman; Ruby's twinâ"
"Yeah not like we haven't been dating for three years, Rona."
"You lost relationship privileges the minute you drew that plus two and kept me from winning."
He chuckled lowly.
Roman had light brown skin, his face all sharp lines, jawlines and cheekbones, his lips naturally pink and plump, his eyes a bright hazel that bordered into green. His eyebrows were dark and thick. He wore a baseball cap over curly hair and a letterman jacket with straight legged jeans.
Ruby looked fairly similar to Roman; they shared the same light brown skin, plump lips, curly hair and thick eyebrows. Though her eyes were a much deeper brown, her face much softer than her brother's. She wore a navy blue beret with a plain white shirt under a navy blue camisole tucked into a denim skirt and black boots so cute that they kind of made Selene want to ask where she got it from so she could get her own pair.
Carlos had tan skin, his nose slightly off center probably from a break. His lips pouty, even as the corners lift in a small smile and his Adams apple prominent. His almond eyes, a light brown colour and his hair wavy and dark brown, shorter on the sides and longer up top. If she covered their faces with her hand, he and Declan would look the same. They had similar bodies and wore similar outfits.
Verona's smile is painted with dark green lipstick that probably no one else could pull off, her teeth perfectly straight and her cheeks pink. She's probably the palest of everyone in the room, even paler than Selene. Her makeup perfect done in a way that seemed flawless and Selene noticed she had a butt chin. Confidence poured off of her every curve. A pair of yellow sunglasses were pushed back into her long brown hair, matching the bright yellow bubble jacket she wore and the golden yellow shoes. She wore a black bodysuit tucked into black leggings. One of those trendy crystal necklaces hung around her neck, a princess ring on her left middle finger.
"Selene," she said when she realized they were all waiting.
"We know," Ruby said. "Declan literally won't stop talking about you."
"She's lying," Declan said, much too quickly.
Selene snorted.
"Do you know how to play Uno, Selene?" Carlos asked.
She nodded.
"Take a seat," Roman said, shuffling the Uno cards and doing one of those satisfying rainbow shuffles with the cards.
She took a seatâliterally she had to drag a reclinerâand Declan sat on the arm of the chair as Roman passed out the cards.
"Avalanche, jump-in's allowed, zero and seven rule," Roman said. "Carlos you start since you lost."
Carlos grumbled before putting down a card.
»
It was almost one AM when Declan dropped Selene off, wolf-whistling when they pulled up to her gated community.
They had played probably a hundred rounds of Uno; Verona or Roman winning most of them though by some luck Carlos had won a round.
She directed him to drive towards her house. "Thanks for dropping me off," she said, already getting out of the car when he barely stopped the car.
"Wait," he said but she had already closed the car door. He rolled down the window and she leaned down to talk to him.
"What's up Grey?" she asked.
"We've been hanging out a lot. And like talking?"
She nodded.
"I don't know, there's just a vibe."
"These heels are freaking killing me, please get to the point."
He raised an eyebrow at her bluntness, taking his sweet time as he ran a tongue over his pale lips.
She took the moment to observe him. His dark hair gelled and combed back, his signature golden chains adorned his neck, a few golden rings on his fingers. He wore a plain white Guess t-shirt, with black pants with a silver chain hanging from a belt loop.
In her bewitchment, she almost missed his question.
"Do you want to go out? Next week Saturday, I'll pick you up."
She threw her head back and laughed.
Declan sat in the car, still radiating confidence even though she had literally laughed in his face.
She sobered up after a moment, wondering what the fuck Zoë had truly seen in this guy. "Nice attempt, Grey. Next time; try again, but better." She wiggled her fingers. "Get home safely. Sweet dreams."
She turned towards her door, ignoring the pain in her feet as she strode with confidence, aware that Declan hadn't driven away yet. She wished she could turn to see his shocked expression. As she closed the door behind her, she could hear him driving away.