Salle was sipping on her juice, left with the other two boys. The fellow to her right was slightly larger in his bottom half making him look like a pear, whose name was apparently Pierrece. The one on her left was the complete contrast to his friend, seemingly nothing but bones, who had told her to call him Ben. Given their outer appearance she was easily able to remember their names as well.
The room was quite large with a bench around the back, and two microphones. At the moment, Stacy and Hawk were doing a duet, and the two other boys were slowly creeping their way over to Salle.
"So Salle, I guess you don't have a boyfriend since you're here on your own tonight?" Ben asked carefully.
"Unfortunately, I haven't found the right one yet. It would have to be someone my sister approves of." Salle replied truthfully.
"A Sister…" Pierre murmured. "Who does she wo- I mean, is she still in school? Could she be someone we know perhaps?"
Pierre seemed to have wanted to ask something else at first, but he had quickly corrected. Salle had no clue why though, as she had almost instantly replied with 'Elusium Nexus Academy'. The next moment she regretted it. Now that she thought about it, it would have been far better to have named a university, to make it seem that Emily was older.
Unfortunately, her answer seemed to have calmed the two teenagers, and they continued their questioning, but thankfully it looked like Stacy and Hawk had just ended their duet.
"Finally, me next!" Salle quickly jumped up from her seat and almost snatched the microphone out of Stacy's hand, as she chose a longer song and began to sing straight away. This was her only saving grace from the other two.
'It felt like forever but according to the clock, we've only been here for half an hour. I haven't even had time to speak to Stacy. Why didn't she pick up on me telling her that I needed to go to the bathroom.' Salle was trying to figure out a better excuse, but by the time the song had ended she hadn't come up with anything better and decided to sing the next one as well.
Pull you underneath the slumber
Into the light before the thunder
Tell me, is there any wonder about where we stand?
Little Honey, in the summer
Fell in love with Hunter
Oh, I can't have it
I'm gonna get you so high
It's gonna send you reeling
Baby, gonna feel it
Baby, gonna feel it
Gonna go down all night
It's gonna get you kneeling
Baby, can you feel this?
I'm gonna make you feel this
I'm gonna get you so high
Ooh-ooh, ooh
Ooh-ooh-ooh
I couldn't let go of the sonnet
Look how out of hand it's gotten
Is it wrong for me to want this?
Well, baby, all I do is want it
And if I knew that I could have you
Don't you know that I'd be glad to show it?
When singing she was in her element, it really was something she truly enjoyed doing, and running up she closed her eyes as she hit a high note, yet suddenly, there was no background music, and the large screen that would show the lyrics had turned off.
"Hey everyone, so I think that's enough singing for now, let's do something more fun!" Hawk suggested. It was clear he was the one who had pulled the plug, and he swiftly pulled out a deck of cards which he laid down on the table.
Looking towards her friend, Salle didn't even try to hide her annoyed face. The guy could have at least waited for her to finish her song before doing this and Stacy could only form the word sorry on her lips, her eyes pleading to not make a big deal out of this.
Sitting at the table, Hawk dealt out cards while Bones lit up another cigarette. This only further annoyed Salle, as they were all in the same room together. While smoking was allowed, she was of the opinion that he could have at least asked them before forcing them to enjoy his second-hand smoke.
A short while after, a waiter entered the room and placed some more drinks on the table, which Ben seemed to have ordered when he had left the room previously. Looking at the foam, it was clear to the high school girls that they had just been served alcohol.
'They can order alcohol, then just how old are these guys? They have to be at least over eighteen… This is worse than I thought. Come on, Stacy, even you should see that is going to end badly?' Salle cried internally, but her best friend was too busy flirting with Hawk.
The guys began to drink without any hesitation, and Stacy joined them after her boyfriend talked her into it. Salle had a bottle in front of her, which she would just pick up occasionally and pretend to drink from. The smell alone was strong enough to keep her from trying it and she was definitely not going to start drinking around strangers who she knew for less than an hour.
After a while of playing cards though, salle was slowly lowering her guard. The guys had talked a bit about themselves and had even managed to make her giggle from telling some jokes.
'Maybe I was just being too cautious, judging them based on their appearance too quickly. Living in our area for too long does that.'
Alas, Salle soon discovered that she had been right all along. As the round finished and it was her turn to shuffle cards, Hawk stopped her and brought out a small bag with pink powder. He started to use the cards to spread it out into five lines.
"Is this…"
"Yes." Hawk answered with a proud tone. "My brother is a high-ranking member in the Blue Whalers. Girls like you might not know them, but they are one of the gangs in New Tylon who have a say in how things are run. It's easy for me to get my hands on this type of stuff thanks to him. Come on, try it out. It's hard to explain just how good this feels!"
A few seconds later, all the boys had snorted their lines, before they shook their heads for a few seconds. While Stacy had played along with the alcohol, hard drugs were something crossing even her line.
Salle could see that this was also far beyond what she had been expecting.
"Thank you very much, but I think I shouldn't. I haven't been feeling well for a while. Maybe it's the alcohol. I think I need to lie down. Stacy, I'm staying at yours tonight, right? Maybe we should go." Salle insisted.
"I think you're right." Stacy instantly agreed, happy that she had dragged Salle along. However, as she tried to stand up, Hawk grabbed her by the wrist.
"Hey, you can't just leave. We still have so much time left. We paid for this room, paid for your drinks and we haven't even done anything yet. Don't you think we deserve something in return?" Hawk smiled mischievously.
Seeing this, Salle immediately stood up and was planning to grab her best friend and make a run for it, but Pierre grabbed the high school girl's hand. He had a surprisingly tight grip around it.
"What are you doing? You're hurting my wrist let go!" Salle shouted. "I'll scream if you don't let you now!"
It was then that Ben had gone over and plugged the karaoke machine back in, before turning it on at full volume. Now even if they did scream, nobody would hear them, or just think it was the music.
'We're in real trouble.'
Using her free hand, Salle placed it into her pocket and hit the send button. She wasn't sure if she could help, but they just needed someone who could help them out of this situation.
I'm gonna get you so high
It's gonna send you reeling
Baby, gonna feel it
Baby, gonna feel it
Gonna go down all night
It's gonna get you kneeling
Baby, can you feel this?
I'm gonna make you feel this
I'm gonna get you so high
Ooh-ooh, ooh.....