Dominic parks his car a couple of yards away from the house, stating that he can't have some drunk imbecile dry humping his expensive car.
We slowly walk up to the mansion with me shining a flashlight on the ground to make sure that I don't step on anything I don't want to permanently stick onto the soles of my trainers. He pulls his phone out to message Jodie, telling her that he has arrived. We can't let her see us arriving together, because that's just going to raise alarm bells so when he finds her, I'm going to quickly blend into the crowd.
As we get closer to the house, I realise that I don't need to use the flashlight anymore, so I just turn it off and look up.
My eyes widen when I see a naked boy pushing past the gate, heading straight for us and instantly I inch closer to Dominic, tightly latching onto his arm. This makes him look down at me with a confused look and as an explanation I silently cock my head over at the boy, making sure that my eyes stay on his upper form because I'm in no mood to get blinded for life.
He drunkenly stumbles on Dominic who pushes him up to keep himself from falling onto the ground and dirtying his clothes. The boy gives me a creepy smile, causing me to strain a grin onto my lips. He then winks at Dominic and shows him the "call me" sign, mouthing the words with his own mouth.
Catching Dominic's disgusted expression, makes me want to burst out laughing, but the abnormality of the whole altercation makes that unlikely. The boy gets shoved back a bit by Dominic and after balancing himself, he walks past me, waving.
I think he might be a little confused and possibly drunk. I try to erase the encounter as best I can from my mind, but it doesn't leave.
"What the hell was that?" Dominic asks me, throwing his head back at the boy.
"I don't know," I reply, just as astonished as he is. I'm a party virgin too. I don't know if these sorts of things are the norm or not. Realising that the boy is probably oblivious to what he's doing, I worriedly muse, "Do you think we can just let him stray into the streets like that? In his birthday suit? Maybe you should give him your jacket."
"No way," he disagrees immediately, pulling his face into one of distaste at my suggestion. We're clashing yet again as usual. "He knew what he was getting himself into when he came to this party."
"Come on, Dominic. He could get molested like that or even worse, trafficked." I give him the puppy eyes. "Will you be able to live with yourself knowing that a kid got trafficked and you did nothing to help him?"
"Probably. I won't even remember his face."
"Just help him, you prick!" When I punch him in the shoulder, he doesn't even flinch.
He just stares at me blankly.
"Please," I add, smiling up at him convincingly. "With dark, impassive, scary things on top."
He still stares at me and ironically the same dark, impassiveness coats his brown eyes thickly.
To convince him to give the boy his jacket, I let my bottom puckered lip quiver sadly the same way it used to when my mum wouldn't buy me the video games I wanted. It never worked on her and to this day, I can feel the sting of her slapping my wrist to shut me up, but maybe it'll work on Dominic. Maybe he isn't as uncaring and unsympathetic as he paints himself to be. I still believe that deep down he does have a beating heart which can empathise with people.
"Aargh, fine. Just quit making that face. It's making me want to punch you countless times," he groans in irritation and my face drops at his words before I throw daggers at him for insulting my puppy-dog face. "Wait here. I have some clothes in my car."
"Why do you have clothes in your car?"
"I was too lazy to take some of the shopping bags into the house. I'll be right back. Don't do anything stupid… like getting naked."
"Ha-ha." I deadpan, mirthlessly.
He comes back after a few minutes, finding me still completely dressed and dragging the boy after him who is now fully clothed.
Fortunately, some girl dressed as Nefertiti runs over to us before we can just ditch him at the gate and thanks us for finding her boyfriend. Nick, her boyfriend, smiles at her lazily and lays on her shoulder from his drunken state. After calling them an Uber like the compassionate human being I knew Dominic was deep down, we both walk through the gateway.
My eyes immediately take in the entire scenery and it's the ideal party from my experiences, watching teen fictional movies. The house is huge, a mansion of some sort and I wonder whose place we're at.
Boys who are likely drunk are swimming in the fountain—or rather trying to. The concrete ground, the lawn which is cut primly, and the garden which is blooming with tulips and lines of roses, all different colours, are decorated with blue cups. Also, there seems to be an unconscious body strewn in the garden, but maybe I'm seeing things or maybe I want nothing to do with it. There are also a bunch of random people just making out here and there and I'm glad that it hasn't advanced to anything more than that.
Trust me, the last thing I want to see tonight is anything sexual. The only erotic activity I find enjoyable is trapped in the novels I read. Nothing physical and real.
The lights inside the house seem to be dimmed down, but the sound of the music is blaring through the house and I wonder if the neighbours will eventually file a noise complaint. It's so loud that I can feel the ground vibrating underneath my shoes and the beat drums within my chest, shaking all my organs and misplacing them. The sound of people screaming, and chanting infects my ears until I finally get accustomed to it, enough to finally work up the courage to walk through the door with Dominic behind me.
"Holy—"
"Fuck."
Took the words right out of my mouth.
The music inside is even louder and how people can stand so much noise is beyond my comprehension. I hope we find Jodie quickly so that I can go and hide out on a balcony, away from all the noise.
Pushing and shoving past the grinding crowd in the living room is the hardest part. It's so packed in here that there is hardly any space to even breathe. It's just a sea of sweaty, drunken-smelling and can't-keep-their-hands-to-themselves fish of teenagers.
When I finally escape the hungry sharks, I take the deepest breath into my lungs and dust myself off all the germs that I got from being touched by so many people. I try to forget the fact that their hands are definitely not very hygienic and just rub the sore parts of my body.
Glancing over my shoulder, I frown when I find that Dominic isn't behind me. Panic rises in me and I frantically run my eyes over the dancing crowd, looking for him. A hand takes mine and I jump up in shock, but when I spot the familiar dark eyes staring into mine, I allow my body to relax into his touch. He tugs me along and I follow after him indisputably, noticing that he's leading me into the kitchen which is a little quieter and less crowded than it is out here.
Unconsciously, I find myself glancing down at our clumsily intertwined fingers and my cold hand twitches slightly when I realise that his flesh is calloused, but still nonetheless warm against mine. Once we make it into the other room, he heads over to the fridge and pulls out a bottle of water, making sure that it's tightly sealed and then handing it to me. I accept it with a wobbly smile.
"Okay. I'm going to head back in there to look for Jodie," he tells me, closing the fridge and leaning onto it. He folds his arms over his chest as I sip a quarter of the bottle down my throat, thankful for the refreshment which quenches my thirst.
The aftertaste of the water makes me scrunch my face.
"I don't think you want to be in there right now so just wait for the dancers to tire themselves out and then you can also come out and keep an eye out for us. I'll make sure that we're in a spot that doesn't hide us from—"
"Dominic," I interrupt him and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder
As I rest my hand on his arm, he halfheartedly mutters, "Get your hand off me," in a feeble attempt to push me away as he usually does. However, I can't help but feel a sense of satisfaction and a tiny grin tugs onto my lips as I dismiss the warning in his eyes whilst knowing how much he blatantly hates my touch.
"Don't think about it too much. Honestly, you don't even need me tonight. You've got this in the bag, mate. Have a drink, loosen up and just have fun."
I hold the bottle of water out to him and after glancing down at it in contemplation, he reaches out to take it from me. Then he wets his whistle with a large sip from the beverage, breathing in deeply. Then after taking another big gulp, he nods and mentally prepares himself.
"Okay. You're right. Uh… stay away from open containers, don't take a drink from anyone, no hash brownies or space cookies or weed or needles and… meet me here at quarter to eleven. We need to make sure that you're back by eleven, right?"
I nod.
"Okay. Um… have fun too, I guess," he stammers out awkwardly.
Then he tries to smile back at me in the same reassuring manner that I was, but he ends up looking constipated, so a grimace escapes me. He instantly frowns at my expression and then gets off the fridge, handing me the bottle. My lips stretch a little as I watch his retreating form disappear into the room of grinding bodies.
Afterwards, I decide to get out of the kitchen to head upstairs to one of the rooms to find a balcony, but then I think of the traumatising things I may see in those rooms, so I just go to the toilet instead. Big mistake, because people also occupy those rooms for throwing up and it smells vinegary and sour and revolting.
My feet carry me out of the place as fast as possible. When I'm certain that I'm a safe distance away from the toilet, I turn around only to crash into another body. I stumble back but manage to catch myself at the last minute. Looking up, I catch the familiar nocturnal black eyes of Fleance behind some frames. His shoulder-length hair has disappeared into a brown afro and he has a blue cup of some dark liquor in his hand.
"Hey," he exclaims with a large smile.
"Hello, Bob Ross. It's so good to see you again. When were you resurrected?"
"Oh, I'm just back for the night. I'm a ghost." He echoes out a ghost noise.
I laugh at his terrible acting skills.
He chuckles along. "Are you really here or have I drank too much?"
"I'm here. In the flesh."
"Did I accidentally invite you and then forget I did?"
I look at him in confusion, wondering what he's talking about. "What?"
"It's just that I never thought that you were the partying type, so I didn't extend an invitation out to you. If I knew this is what you're into, I would have invited you."
"Wait, so does that mean that this is your house?"
"Welcome to mi casa es su casa, Seong Jin," he tells me, enlarging his arms around to gesture to his mansion of a house.
"Wow, I had no idea you were loaded. Your… tu casa es hermosa."
His brows furrow the slightest bit and he sheepishly confesses, "Oh, I actually do not speak Spanish."
"Oh well, um… your home is very beautiful."
"No, I'm just fucking with you. This isn't actually my house. My friend entrusted me with it for the night while his parents were out of town for the weekend along with my mum for prayers or whatever. You know how Muslim people dedicate their time to the mosque."
"Isn't this kind of disrespectful?"
He quirks a brow in question.
"I mean, your parents are out there praying and you're here, intoxicating a bunch of teenagers."
He chuckles and throws his arm over my shoulder. "Let's go downstairs. It smells like sex and puke up here."
I laugh along with him because he is absolutely right.
"So, who are you dressed as?" he asks me while looking me up and down in intrigue.
I feel my face brightening up in embarrassment. However, the dim lighting fortunately makes it difficult for him to see my facial expression which is a relief. Instead of revealing my true identity, I decide to tell him that I am dressed as Juliet from Shakespeare's playwright. He seems intrigued by my response and asks me in which scene was it where Juliet wore a lacy mask.
Caught off guard by his round of questioning, I somehow manage to recall the ballroom scene where she was dancing with Romeo and stammer that it was then.
He seems satisfied with my answer.
Thankfully, he does not ask me any more questions after that, and I am able to enjoy the rest of my evening without any further confusion.