As Troy gave the girls a tour of his home, it was clear he was trying to impress the girls and he didn't even try to hide it.
To Troy, Avery Musk, his favorite social media influencer and daughter of two world class billionaires was at his party. He had had a crush on her since he could remember. Although he had never been so up close to her in real life, but she was here now and that's all that he could think of.
"That's the vvvip lounge. I only allow important people use it—mostly people very close to me See how dark and exclusive it is?" He looked over at his other friends in the lounge and said, "Guys, the one and only Avery Musk is here, say hello"
"Hey" the ones that were slightly sober responded and waved but some of the guys were too high from the drugs and alcohol they were taking. Avery just smiled at continued the tour.
"Oh my God! Avery Musk is at this party? I've loved and stalked her for more than two years now" one of the girls said when they were out of earshot.
"You guys, I don't want this tour, I need to sit somewhere" Dixie suddenly said, interrupting the tour. She tried to persuade Evie into staying off the tour too, Evie immediately accepted. Her reason was because she wanted to text her love interest but she said she needed a drink. Troy guided them to the vvvip lounge where the other kids were.
"I guess It'll just be you and I then" Troy said to Avery.
"Yeah, sure." She responded as he continued giving her a tour of the huge house.
As soon as they left, one of the girls introduced herself to Dixie and Evie but Evie was not paying attention to her so she concentrated on just Dixie. Her name was Lydia and she was a member of a sorority club in their school.
They got talking about different things from social media to fashion to music and college in general.
"Stick with me, I could show you around" Lydia said.
"As long as you're not trying to make me member of a hostile group of girls all in the name of a sorority, I'm good."
"It's not as awful as you think. We have each other's back."
"It's like a little cult of girls" one of the drunk guys chipped in. "They just attend parties, live together in the same place, giggle loudly, bully newbies, dress up, smell nice and be jerks. The cute kind of jerks." He continued.
"Shut up dumbass! You have no idea what you're talking, we do more than you and every other person stereotype who us think we do! God! I hate it when people think sorority girls are dumb materialistic girls with zero ambitions."
"Wow babe, don't get worked up, this guy is wasted." Ian said, trying to calm Lydia down. It worked because she just sank into his arms.
Dixie didn't utter a word after that, she just continued observing everyone and most people were on their phone. The boys that were in the lounge looked like athletes and most of them were either high or just tired. Ian seemed to be engrossed in his phone and whoever it was that he was texting but Dixie couldn't help but notice how cute he was.
"I need a drink. Maybe something stronger. Want something Babe?" He asked Lydia who just shook her so he just walked out.
"I'm going live." Evie announced to nobody in particular.
"In here? It's kinda dark plus Troy likes to be private about his parties." Lydia responded. That's when Evie looked over at her.
"So, what's he going to do? Throw me out?" Evie asked sassily.
Dixie laughed at the thought of Evie being thrown out but at the time she laughed, it seemed rude so Lydia felt embarrassed. Sensing that she must've upset Lydia, she whispered "sorry".
Just then, Jessica walked in and went straight to Lydia and asked "Have you seen Sheryl? I need her here ASAP!"
"Are you okay?" Lydia asked, concerned about her friend's mood change.
"Of course not, Mase is here and I just saw him flirt with that skank! Then, he and that jerk, Dylan talked about him having options with more hoes now that we have issues. To make matters worse, he literally just walked past me like I'm some stranger!"
Lydia's mouth hung low and then she said, "Woah"
"I know right!" Jessica glanced over at Evie and said "OMG, that is the cutest outfit in this party. I love it!"
"Thanks b" Evie replied without looking at her.
"You look like this influencer that I've been stalking for more than a year, her name is Evie. I totally worship her."
Evie just smiled and finally looked up at her. After checking out her outfit, she nodded and said, "You look really adorable right now"
The comment seemed off to Jessica especially since she knew that she looked really hot, and when another hot girl called you "adorable", that's more sass than a compliment, but she shook off the feeling.
"Dude, that's literally Evie!" Lydia said
Shocked, Jessica replied, "Shut up! Are you— Really? Wow! I love—"
"And this is Dixie" Lydia continued pointing at Dixie
"Wow! Damn the lighting in here! These fucking lights are too dim! Evie, Dixie, I love you guys. I've been stalking y'all for almost two years now. Is Avery here too?"
"Yup. Troy took her for a tour of the house." Lydia responded.
"I'm literally shaking right now from excitement, I'm too stunned to speak. I promise, I'm cooler when I don't meet my favs at the same time unprepared." Jessica said. She was genuinely happy to see the girls.
Dixie smiled but Evie was over the "fan-craze ". She was tired of girls who recognize her from her social media. She liked the attention but it also bored her as quickly as it excited her. Plus, she was focused on her live video and the attention she was getting from it. "You guys, stoppp, I love you too..." She continued talking to her audience from her live video. Lydia and Jessica just continued bonding with Dixie. They figured Evie didn't want to continue and they didn't want to create a bad first impression of themselves.
Shortly after, Evie stood up and walked out of the lounge, still on the live video, she wanted to use the bathroom. As she walked out of the lounge, she saw Avery with Troy, they were talking but she needed to use the bathroom and she didn't know where it was so she walked to ask Troy.
"OMG, that's funny—" Avery was saying
"Troy, where is the bathroom?" Evie interrupted.
"Uhh, I don't think any of the bathrooms will be free by this time, how about you use mine. My room is password protected though. The password is two, three, double five."
"Thank you." She sang as she walked off.
As she walked off, they continued talking. Troy was telling Avery of all his college experiences so far, and how he managed to balance school work with his media work life. He was the son of a real estate mogul but he was a tech YouTuber who has succeeded in making it big in that industry in less than two years. He talked about his how everyone expects him to be into real estates like his father but he was more intrigued with the tech niche. He mentioned hosting these exclusive parties as his way of still being in touch with people because having amassed such powerful audience online has made him almost lose touch with his human side. Talking to Troy was refreshing for Avery and she knew they'd be good friends because of the positive aura he carried with him. He was friendly to everyone at his party and she noticed he addressed them on first name basis. He practically knew everyone at the party.
No wonder it is exclusive, she thought.
"What about your mum, you've barely talked about her" she asked.
"She passed when I turned five and my sister was three at the time. So, I grew up with all the different girls my dad brought over. My dad didn't remarry for weird reasons. Enough about me though, tell me about famous Avery Musk. You have a public life but somehow it seem really private. How do you do it?"
She smiled and said, "I just post my stuff and go about my business but I make out time for my friends and family. I'm public because of my parent and their status but we're practically private. Sorry about your mum."
"I think I understand what you mean—"
"How do you know him?" She pointed, interrupting him immediately she saw Mason.
Troy turned to see who it was and saw Mason. They caught him staring at them and how he quickly averted his eyes, it made Troy chuckle. Then he said, "Oh, Mason? he's a good friend of mine. We go way back. We're not so close anymore as we used to, some months ago, but he's a great guy. Why? Do you know him too?"
"I've seen him everywhere since I got here." Avery said
"Well, he goes to Brasswell too. Do you want me to introduce y'all?"
"What? Are you crazy? Forget I mentioned it. I'm suddenly thirsty."
"Um, why don't you sit over here while I get you something to drink." He said pointing at the empty sofa in the living room. "What would you like? Wine? Beer? Jello shots?"
Thinking about how alcohol almost destroyed her family, she just said, "Water is fine."
"Alright, I'll be right back" then Troy left her.
She sat down and texted her friends to know where they all were. As she looked up, she saw Mason watching her again. He looked really good and much more handsome up close. They were barely ten feet away from each other.
As he stared at her, it felt like the entire room was empty. He wasn't alone, he was standing with another guy. They were talking and he looked like he was looking at his friend but she was sitting directly behind his friend, and from where she sat, she could see him staring but unless someone was staring at both of them, nobody could tell they were staring at each other. After a while, she got bored of staring and just was about to stand up from where she sat when Evie came over to her.
"Where are you going?" Evie asked
"I was just coming to look for you." Avery replied.
Watching her closely, and seeing that she had not really spoken about her breakup with Jasper. Evie knew Avery was probably embarrassed from talking about it and she hoped she would so that she could free herself from the heartache. She just asked, "Are you okay?"
Avery moved a strand of hair that was on her face and asked, "You remember the guy from earlier?"
"Earlier?"
"Yeah, the guy from the airport"
"Yeah? Oh my God, is he here? Where is he?" Evie asked and started looking around.
Slightly embarrassed, Avery stopped her and said, "What the hell Evie, be cool. Don't look immediately but he's standing in front of the guy wearing a red shirt. He's wearing a black t-shirt."
After stylishly checking Mason out, Evie asked, "Are you going to say something to him?"
"Well, I was thinking of maybe calling him out and ask him to stop? I mean, at this point he's—"
"Totally stalking you! Like, why is he everywhere you are, right?"
"I don't know, I don't think—" Avery began.
"Really sorry I took long, here's your water" Troy interrupted and handed the bottled water to Avery. Noticing Evie's phone screen, he asked, "Are you on a live video?"
"Yeah. Oh my! I forgot I was still on that. Damn! Everyone must've heard our conversation!" Evie panicked, but the indifferent expression on Avery's face stunned her and she immediately ended the live video. Troy looked at both girls and said, "that's why don't let anyone record any video or live stream in any of my parties , something always goes wrong. How many people were on the live?"
"About 50k viewers." Turning to Avery she said, "Avery, I'm so sorry."
Avery shrugged and said "It's no biggie, we didn't say anything inappropriate."
"Yet. People on the internet always spin everything and change narratives..." Troy replied
As they spoke, Avery mentally checked out of the conversation. She was not interested in that conversation. She could call her manager or her PR team—or even her Dad, Dawne Musk, one of the most powerful men and owner of major media networks—and a stupid story would die before it ever sees the break of dawn. Her attention wandered to the conversation between the girls beside them.
Two girls were trying to pick on a girl but she had a comeback everytime and she must've said something that struck a nerve because one of the girls rolled her eyes and the girl said, "yeah, keep rolling your eyes, you might find your brain there." And the other girl said, "you're not funny Gwen" and she said, "With that makeup, your face is funny enough for the two of us bitch!"
"Damn! I like her" Avery announced, interrupting both Troy and Evie. Turning to Troy, she said "who's that?" pointing at the sassy girl.
"Gwen, my baby sister, she's also a freshman here." Troy said disappointedly.
Avery just walked off to Gwen who had managed to defend herself against the two girls who tried to make fun of her. As Avery approached her, she positioned herself for another round of sass.
"Hi, I'm Avery. I heard you and damn girl, you have a smart mouth, I like you already."
"Look, I'm not nice and I'm not even going to pretend to be."
"Completely fine by me. Can I sit beside you ?" She asked pointing at the empty space on the sofa where she sat.
"If you want."
Avery smirked and just sat. Troy and Evie looked at each other and then back at Avery. It was clear she didn't care about the video thing.
As she sat with Gwen, she saw Mason steal a glance at her again from the bar. He looked different, he looked shakened. Suddenly, she wanted to stop the staring game.
Fuck it! I'm going over to him, she thought and then stood up.
As she walked over to him, she heard him ask for "something strong" and without even thinking, she said, "make that two" as she went to stand beside him.