As they arrived at the party, Isabelle instantly regretted getting there two hours late.
Everyone was already so drunk or stoned and Isabelle was so intensely sober that she felt completely out of place. She began to feel an anxiety attack burning in the depths of her stomach as she tried to remember why she thought she could ever do this.
“You still want to go in?” Tate whispered behind her.
A steady resolve replaced her anxiety as the calming effect of Tate washed over her.
“Yeah, let’s go get a drink,” she told him with a firm nod.
Tate raised his eyebrows but said nothing as he followed her into the throng of kids.
Isabelle pulled two beers out of the eski at the back of the party and handed one to Tate.
“You know, I’m going to miss this,” she admitted sometime later.
“Drunken idiots grinding against each other in a sweaty mass?” Tate mused with a lazy grin.
She laughed. “No, just being around familiar people, having you here with me always. I’m going to miss feeling like I have a place.”
He nudged her gently. “You’ll always have a place and you’re always going to have me. Our dads have been best friends since forever, that sort of means we’re stuck in each other’s lives.”
“You could always convince your family to come with us?” she asked hopefully.
He barked out a laugh. “Yeah, right.”
Isabelle sighed and gestured over to a log where they could sit.
“Yeah, I know, but one can always dream. So, see anything you like?” she asked, gesturing around them.
Tate looked around the party where various girls were already half undressed and attached to different guys or giggling in groups.
“Oh yeah, so much class to choose from,” he responded dryly.
“I resent that!”
Isabelle looked up to see the rest of their little circle of friends; Sylvia and Hannah standing over them with their hands on their hips.
Tate raised his hands in surrender as he settled himself on the log. “I didn’t mean you!”
Sylvia, clearly already drunk, flicked her brunette hair out of her face and made herself comfortable on Tate’s knee, tracing shapes on his cheek with her bright pink manicured nails.
Hannah shook her short black hair at her best friend and perched next to Isabelle.
“So, you came.”
Isabelle looked at Hannah in confusion. “Why wouldn’t I? It’s a good chance to say goodbye to everyone.”
Sylvia smirked. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the party host would it?”
Isabelle tried to shrug casually. “No, I’m here for you guys.”
Hannah snorted. “Cute.”
“Yeah come on Belle, did you honestly think that anyone would believe you didn’t come here for Jason?” Sylvia prodded.
Isabelle didn’t have a comeback. She was totally busted and if they could see through her in all of three seconds then she was going to need a different tactic before facing Jason.
“He’s been asking for you all night,” Sylvia whispered.
Isabelle whipped around to face her. “He has?”
Sylvia smirked back. “Yep.”
“Oh…cool.” What was she meant to say to something like that?
Sylvia laughed. “He’s in the kitchen.”
“I didn’t ask,” Isabelle responded a little defensively.
“You didn’t have to,” she replied with a lusty wink.
Knowing there was no use pretending with her friends anymore Isabelle smiled shyly. “Ok, I guess I did come because I wanted to…I don’t know…”
“One last steamy night together?” Sylvia asked with a hint of theatrics.
Isabelle stiffened. “No, I’ve never… we never…”
“He dumped her because she didn’t want to give it up, remember?” Tate said harshly.
“And if he thinks that he can have a free pass now because Isabelle’s leaving, then he’s dumber than I thought.”
“Whoa, feel the hate!” Sylvia crooned, ruffling Tate’s wavy brown locks.
Isabelle patted Tate’s leg. “Don’t be nasty Tate, that’s not why he called me here.”
“Then why did he?” he asked, his face closed off.
Isabelle opened her mouth and then closed it. She honestly didn’t know, and hadn’t really given it much thought. All she saw was a chance to see Jason before she left and didn’t really think much past how memorable she needed to look. In hindsight she could see how the plan could use some improvements.
Sylvia wrapped her arms around Tate’s shoulders and planted a kiss on his cheek.
“Don’t be so grumpy, let the girl have some fun.”
She got up and tugged him to his feet. “Come on, I want to dance.”
He sighed. “Well I can’t deny a beautiful girl one dance.”
Sylvia grinned broadly. “You think I’m beautiful?”
He shrugged. “Aren’t you?”
His tone was more factual than complimentary, not that Sylvia could tell the difference.
Isabelle watched Sylvia lure Tate away, making full use of her long legs and limber body. Isabelle definitely felt too sober for this so she turned away and took a long sip of her drink, hoping to calm her nerves even a little.
“Why aren’t you off dancing too?” she asked Hannah.
Hannah rested her head on her shoulder. “I can’t leave you alone, I’ve got to take advantage of all my Isabelle time I have left.”
Isabelle grinned. “Do you really think I’m going to be missed?”
Hannah raised her heavily pencilled eyebrows. “Are you kidding? Everyone is going to miss you and when you get to your new lame school, I’m sure everyone there will love you just like us.”
“I really hope so,” Isabelle confessed, as anxiety swirled in her body once more.
“I think you’re lucky,” Hannah told her firmly.
“Lucky?” she asked in surprise.
“Yeah, you get to completely reinvent yourself. You get a fresh slate there. No one knows you, no one knows any of your history, you get the chance to create new history. I think that’s pretty amazing.”
Isabelle smiled softly. “I’ve never thought about it that way.”
“That’s because you’re so negative! You need to get out of the funk Jason put you in and start living again,” Hannah told her.
Isabelle nodded as Hannah went on one of her tirades about the importance of living life while you were young. She nodded every so often to show interest but kept her eye on the party, frantically searching faces and scanning the crowd for any sign of Jason.
“Looking for me?” the words were said into her ear.
Both girls jumped as Jason chuckled and roughed their hair up.
“I spent an hour straightening that,” Hannah snapped turning around and smacking him over the head.
He smiled and raised his hands. “I am very sorry for wrecking your hair.”
Hannah glared at him. “Now I need to go and fix myself up, no one’s going to want me when I’m like this!”
“I’ll take care of Isabelle while you do that,” Jason told her, a smug smile pulling at his lips.
Hannah looked between the two of them as if trying to weigh something up.
“Its fine,” Isabelle told her quietly, appreciating the concern but wanting more than anything to see where this night could go.
Hannah glared at Jason fiercely. “I won’t be gone long.”
There was both a promise and a threat in her words.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” he told her defensively.
Hannah laughed humourlessly. “Because you already did your worst, right?”
“Be careful,” she told Isabelle firmly before sauntering away, turning back to glare at Jason a few times.
“She hates me,” Jason said simply as he took a seat next to her.
“She loves me,” Isabelle replied, hoping he understood that the nastiness wasn’t personal, it was just how loyal friends were.
Jason nodded. “And I hurt you, I get it.”
Isabelle let the silence drift between them, the tension saying the words they couldn’t themselves say. It was awkward. Being this close to him, sitting silently while the party raged on around them was so freaking awkward. This was not a good start to her night, maybe she shouldn’t have come after all? He clearly had no interest in having a real conversation and she wasn’t sure she could pretend she was ok with him so close to her.
“I miss you,” he whispered softly.
Isabelle kept her eyes down, weighing up if she was dreaming or not.
“Izzy? Did you hear me?”
His hand landed clumsily on her bare knee. “I miss you.”
She faced him then and took in his handsome face framed with blonde hair and unfocused grey eyes. “You’re drunk.”
“Doesn’t mean it’s not true,” he countered.
“Jason…” she began.
“No stop. Just stop. I just want to be with you ok?” he told her as he moved closer, the stench of beer covering him like a wet blanket.
“Be with me?” she whispered, trying to work out how the hell they’d taken a turn down this road and if she was game enough to continue down it.
“Just for tonight can we drop the bullshit and hang out?”
He tilted her chin up with his finger, hands gentle on her face.
“Come inside and we’ll talk ok?” he sounded so reasonable and she had missed his company so much.
Isabelle looked over to where Tate was laughing as Sylvia danced around him provocatively. She didn’t want to miss out on her chance with Jason but Tate would kill her if she just disappeared.
She remained frozen in indecision.
“I’ve just gotta tell Tate where I’m going ok?” she told him, rising from the log and moving towards her friends.
Jason grabbed her arm and pulled her back a little more forcefully than she expected.
“Don’t worry about that,” he crooned as he gestured to his friends. “I’ll take care of it.”
He turned and whispered to his best friend Thomas who looked surprised at first but then smirked at Isabelle and with a nod walked away.
What the hell was that smirk about?
“The boys are going to take care of it for us. Come on, we’ll head to my room and we can watch a movie, talk, whatever you want.”
Isabelle hesitated, torn between the two guys in her life but with a final tug from Jason she gave in and followed him back inside.