It's been 2 weeks since Tommy's suicide and Rachel had slowly recovered from the death. It was a slow process, but she was trying to learn to let go and accept death. She has gotten happier and finally felt normal for a change. It was April 29th, the day of Ellie Martdin's party. Ellie was just a popular Junior that invited everybody to her party, literally everybody in the school got an invite.
"Are you going to Ellie Mardin's party?" Manny texted her. She smiled and got up from her bed, unwrapping herself from her blankets.
"Yeah...you?" She says. The party was at 10:00 pm and didn't end until 1:25 am. Rachel didn't tell her mom.
"Yeah...coming over," He says. Rachel dropped her phone on her bed and paced around her bedroom, looking for something to wear. Everybody in school was going, even the seniors and unnoticeable freshmen. When Manny got to her house, they looked for a nice outfit for her to wear as he was dressed in a nice pair of jeans and a tight white shirt. She chose a pair of black ripped jeans and a spaghetti top with a red cardigan. Her bathing suit was underneath just in case. She didn't bother doing her hair or makeup if there was a pool involved. Ellie was known for throwing amazing house parties, she moved around the town a lot so she always had a new house for every party she threw.
"You look beautiful," Manny said as he gazed at her spin around in the mirror.
"Thank you but look at you." He chuckled and picked her up to spin her around. He took a picture of her on his back and posted it on Snapchat with the caption "Parties here we come" She chuckled, she really had her dream boy. It was pure teen romance. As Manny put Rachel down, she checked her phone and saw a message from Emma.
"We cool?" She asked. Rachel rolled her eyes and wanted nothing to do with her.
"Honestly I don't know Emma. Give me some time" Rachel put her phone down and put on her converse sneakers. Manny and Rachel walked downstairs hand in hand.
"Where are you kiddies going?" Andrea asked as she put down her computer.
"Emma's house," Rachel said as she got closer to the door.
"Well have fun," Andrea said as Rachel quickly closed the door.
"Screw it," Rachel said as she panted. They walked down the street, using her map app on her phone, looking for Ellie's house. They talked about how pathetic Emma was the whole way there, holding hands and twirling in the moonlight.
"Finally," Rachel said as they saw Ellie's house right in front of their eyes. It was huge. There was a huge crowd of people surrounding her house. Rachel and Manny approached slowly, hand in hand with a tight squeeze given.
"Hello beautiful sophomores," Ellie said kindly at the door of her home as people made their way in little by little. Rachel and Manny sat down on the couch, watching people begin drinking. Rachel nor Manny wanted to drink but they considered it.
"Are you gonna?" Rachel asked as she put her hand on his leg.
���I don't know babe," He said as he put his hand on top of hers. Everyone gathered into her kitchen as she made a speech.
"Hello, fellow Sacramento High Schoolers. I have a little bit of every grade level here, awesome. Anyways thank you all for coming. Cheers to a good year" She picked up a shot and put it in the air. Rachel felt obligated to drink it. She grabbed one and so did Manny.
"CHEERS!" she yells and everyone downed a shot. Rachel hated it, it was bitter and nasty. Her sour face made Manny laugh, with pure euphoria. The one problem was that there was no water, the only drinks available were alcoholic beverages so Rachel either had to drink or be dehydrated for 3 and a half hours.
"Holy" Rachel said as she watched people snort, and smoke all of these drugs. She walked outside into the backyard to go into the pool. A couple of hot seniors were there and Rachel tried not to look.
"Damn," Manny said as he noticed all of the seniors. He was jealous for a minute. He wrapped his arms around her, marking his territory. She smiled and changed into her bathing suit. Was she smart enough to bring a towel...no? It was freezing. Manny took off his clothes also and stood beside her on the edge of the huge and gigantic pool filled with hot guys. They held hands and jumped in at no count. Once the water hit her cold body, she felt relieved. The seniors stared with smiles. She felt slightly uncomfortable at the stares she was receiving. Manny tackled her, pushing her head under the water. She made her way back up and laughed, splashing him with a wave of water. They played water games for a while until it got too cold for either of them. After they relaxed outside for a while, talking about random things and just getting on with each other like they usually do. Ellie approached them with a bright smile and said "Hey guys, we are gonna play spin the bottle...wanna join?" Rachel put her clothes back on and looked at Manny.
"Yeah sure," Manny said with a smile as they followed Ellie back inside. Everybody learned most of the people's names. It was pretty friendly. The dice had touch, kiss, and other naughty things on it that Rachel was very uncomfortable with. The bottle landed on her not once by the time the game ended. Manny had to touch a girl named Sandra, only on the thigh. She didn't really feel jealousy, she just wished it was her.
"That wasn't so bad," Rachel said with a smile as she snuggled up against Manny. He smiled and gazed into her pretty sea-blue eyes.
"I love you so much," He said as he touched her face with his soft and patchy hand.
"I love you too," She said with a smile as she moved closer to his lips. They exchanged a long and passionate kiss, both of them deeply engaged with each other. As they kissed, they could both hear the sounds of loud music and screaming. It was a party, what could they expect. Their lips parted, and they just stared into each other's eyes. Rachel pulled him in for a long hug, she could smell the cologne that made her want to cuddle with him for hours and hours. As they were hugging, a boy bumped into them, splitting their hug.
"Dude what the hell," Manny said with a voice of exhaustion. The boy looked like he was a senior, he had short black hair with brown eyes.
"Sorry bro," He said to Manny. Everyone could tell he was on something, some sort of drug.
"Wanna try?" He said. Manny looked at Rachel, eyes widened. Rachel shrugged her shoulders.
"Okay," Manny responded. Rachel grabbed Manny's arm, she was nervous. She never did any drugs before, she was anxious about all of the minor things that could go wrong.
"It's just weed, watch," The boy said as he gave an example to both of the clueless sophomores.
They both gave it a shot and inhaled, coughing at the feeling. Rachel and Manny spent the rest of their night partying in the house with everyone, talking, and just having fun. Maybe it was because they were both high. Rachel couldn't really imagine herself having fun at parties, until this night.
"It's 1:30 am," Manny said as he looked down at his phone. Rachel jumped up from the couch, realizing she never texted her mom. Manny watched her in a panic, but grabbed her hand and held her in his arms.
"Shhhh" He whispered in her ear. Suddenly, she felt butterflies escape into her stomach. Her stomach fluttered. They both walked out of the house, thanking Ellie and saying goodbye to the new "friends" they made. Rachel and Manny skipped down the street, hand in hand, arm in arm. Not worrying about a thing.
"Hey, mom. Sleeping over at Emma's sorry my phone had died before" Rachel texted her mom quickly, and then put her phone back into the pocket of her red cardigan.
"We need to sleep at my house," Manny said to her softly.
"I know," She said back, gripping onto his hand harder.
"But before we go home, follow me," He said with a smile. Rachel tilted her head at him, confused but excited to where they would be going so early in the morning. They held hands, running through the night listening to the wind and feeling the euphoria they have been getting lately.
"Where are we exactly?" Rachel asked with a smile as she stopped him from running, jerking his hand back.
"You see that lake? Yeah, we're going in it" He said with a chuckle as he watched her facial expressions change.
"Seriously?" She asked. He nodded his head and dragged her along back on the run towards the lake. They stopped right in front of it, looking at the shine from the moonlight on the water. It was such a gorgeous sight. Manny undressed and walked towards the water in nothing but swim trunks. Rachel undressed as well and walked towards him. He looked so happy, She loved seeing him like that.
"This is almost as pretty as you," He said with a cute chuckle. Rachel smiled and grabbed his hand tightly.
"Well come on then," She said as she dragged him into the water, splashing his face with the clean spring water. It was chilly, but not too chilly. It was perfect. They swam around in the lake for a while, talking, messing around, and just enjoying each other's company. Their love felt fake, but it was far from it. It seemed so unreal, but it was the opposite. By the time they got out of the lake, it was around 4 am, all they could feel was pure happiness. Neither of them worried about a thing, they just enjoyed each other's company. Rachel's hair dripped onto her shirt, having little wet spots on the front and back of her cardigan,
They both walked back to his house, dancing in the moonlight. It was peaceful for her, she felt like she was finally sane and alive after years of feeling nothing but crazy.
When they made it to his house, they just sat outside for a while, talking and watching the sunrise. It was beautiful, the pink sky was absolutely perfect.
Rachel and Manny finally walked into his warm house and right upstairs, not making a peep. His mom wasn't home anyway. Rachel undressed into one of his t-shirts he gave her and laid down next to him on his King-sized bed.
They stared into each other's eyes for a while. Manny leaned in and kissed her, passionately and swiftly. He rolled on top of her and gazed into her beautiful eyes once again. She said not a thing and let him kiss her. Everything about that night was so elegant and mind-blowing,