XIV
One Hell of A Party
~~~

Raven🤯

She wants us there at 7

Gar checked his phone for the third time in the last half hour looking at Raven's text about the time. He used to have this bad habit of being 10 minutes late to everything. Consistently. He's fixed it, but only with constant attention. So as he was getting dressed he'd glance at the text, the clock, and then get back to what he was doing. He was planning to leave at 6:45.

But it didn't help that it was 6:30 and Steve and Rita kept telling him to change his outfit like it was some sort of fashion show. He wasn't a girl yet he still had to go through this. Unbelievable.

"Rita, this is literally the 6th time I've changed my clothes. I think I'm fine." He stood there waiting for an answer.

"Hmm, go back to the third one."

"UGH!!" He throws his arms up into the air. He marches back to his room and just chooses the first outfit he had on. Which was some white sneakers, blue shorts, and a dark green tee shirt underneath a blue jean button down shirt he left unbuttoned. He put his watch on and grabbed his necklace. Making sure it was secure, he walked out of the room and down the stairs. "I'm going to wear this ok?"

"Gar you should wear the third one! The jean jacket looks nice!"

"I always wear that thing. Either that or the leather jacket."

"So why not wear it now?" Steve asked.

"Oh my God I'm not doing this. I have to go pick up Raven guys."

"Alright fine." They left him be. "But next time I get to choose your outfit."

If you want to dress me up then just get a girl. Damn!

"Yeah sure." He waved her off.

He made sure he had his phone, his keys, and got the chips from the cabinet.

"Bye guys! I'll text you when I'm coming home!"

"Ok!"

"If you get drunk I'm killing you."

"Steve!"

"What?"

Gar started up the car and backed out of the driveway.

He made sure to text Raven to tell her he was coming so she could be ready when he got there, and sure enough, she left the house as soon as he rolled up.

"Hey Gar. Did you bring the chips?"

"Mhm. You got the punch right?"

"Yep." She holds it up in the plastic shopping bag and he looks over, getting a good look at her.

She was wearing black shorts, black converse, and a red lowcut camisole under a cropped, sleeveless, black, jean vest. The vest had silver studs on the shoulders and she was wearing silver bracelets on both wrists.

She had on some makeup, not a lot, but enough. A smokey eye and a light pink lip gloss. She also had tied her short hair into a high ponytail, which it just barely qualified as. The ponytail was so small it was almost cute.

She obviously couldn't get all the hair in it though, so the loose strands hung around her face, framing it quite nicely.

"You can stop staring now Gar." She says calmly.

"Gah! Uh, sorry Rave. You just haven't worn anything like that before. It looks good on you." She pulled the corner of her mouth up a bit and put the punch in the back seat.

"Thanks. You look good too Gar."

Phew. Saved it.

They got to Kori's at five of, but Kori was already waiting out there for them.

"Hello, friends!"

"Hey Kor." She instantly goes to squeeze the life out of Raven, and then the same to Gar.

"W-wheres...Dick?" He squeaks in between breaths.

"He's with Vic in the backyard. You two can help me with the decorations inside. Did you bring the food and drink like I asked?" They nod. "Wonderful!"

It's a good thing that Kori told them to come an hour before, because they needed every minute of that hour. They hung the red and purple streamers, and the balloons, and Gar helped a very confused Kori hook up the music.

After that was done, Kori told them to go make sure certain doors were locked. They were to take the key and lock her room, her parent's room, Dick's room, and the basement door. But the door to the balcony, the patio, the sunroom, and the guest room were to be left open. Except the guest room door she wanted to be closed, not locked. She also wanted the bathroom doors to be wide open so they knew where they were, and so that puke on the floors would be kept to a minimum.

Later Kori went outside to greet Jinx and Wally, who came extremely late. It was almost 8. This left Raven and Gar inside on their own to set the tables with the food and the drinks, and to hang up a few more things.

"Hey, Rave?"

"Yeah?" She answered trying to tie a knot in a ribbon.

"Can you give me the ladder? I can't reach the top of the door."

"Sure." She went and got the rickety, old, wooden step ladder. He stepped on it and it made a loud noise that sounded all but good. "Uh, I think it'd be best if I held this thing for you."

"Ya think?" He carefully climbed the next step, and the next to get up to the appropriate height and hung up the ribbon streamer. "Can you hand me the red balloon?" He reached out his hand to her. Her bracelets jingled as she bent down to pick it up and then stretched to give it to him.

"Thanks." He taped that up securely then asked for the purple one. Once that one was up he leaned back slightly to make sure it looked ok. A fatal mistake.

With the extra added weight on it, the leg of the step ladder snapped and Gar came tumbling down onto Raven. Raven shut her eyes, expecting the worst. And she felt the full brunt of the force of gravity working on Gar.

She opened her eyes to catch his face extremely close to his. He had landed on her and slightly rolled off of her, leaving on his legs actually on her, but not only was it a weird position, neither of them moved or said a word.

Then Gar tapped her on her nose. She blinked once, then laughed a bit. Then he began to laugh.

"You should've seen your face when you were falling." She impersonated his expression.

"Me? You shut your eyes like you were bracing to be hit by a car." He impersonated her. Each made them laugh a bit more.

"Looks like we need to clean this up." Raven sat up and lended him her hand with a smile. Gar gaily took it.

Terra showed up next, but she came through the backyard and in through the sunroom. She also watched that exchange from upstairs and gained a sour look.

Others showed up later little by little. By 8:30 the entire house was more or less full. Everyone was either upstairs in the living room, downstairs in the den, or in the backyard. There were some that were in the sunroom and on the balcony, but those three places were where most were congregated.

"There are way more people here than last year." Vic states.

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. No doubt." Raven agreed.

"Sooo, are we going to find dates this year, or are we all going at friends again?" Terra asks.

"Probably the latter to be honest." Vic answers. The other three nod in agreement.

"Where are the other two anyways?"

"Kori and Dick are in the backyard."

"Probably because there's more people inside to hit on them than outside." Raven says.

"He gets hit on too?" She nods.

"Most girls have a crush on Dick," Terra states.

"And most guys have a crush on Kori." Raven finished.

"Lots of guys are always after you too Rave. And Gar you're lucky we're back here and not upstairs or else you'd be swarmed by the girls here too." Vic adds.

"Ugh don't remind me. It still happens at school sometimes." Gar takes a sip of his punch.

"I'm gonna go to the bathroom." Raven says.

"Have fun." Terra says lazily.

"Good luck out in that jungle." Raven leaves the office and shuts the door. "Aww someone looks disappointed." Vic teases.

"Huh?" Gar says removing the cup from his lips.

"I saw the way you were looking at Raven." Vic explained. Terra simply sat and listened, not interested in this conversation one bit. Or so it seemed.

"What way?" Terra stifles a laugh.

"Why won't you just admit you like her for godsake?"

"Because I don't." He replies confidently and takes a sip of his punch again.

"Stop being in denial and ask her out on a date, Gar."

"Even if I did, what makes you think she'll say yes?" He leaned back in the office chair.

"The fact that I'm 80% sure she has a crush on you." That caught Terra's attention. Now she's all ears.

"Yeah sure." Gar waved him off as he took another swig. "Vic haven't we already had this conversation?"

"Yep! And we'll keep having it until you ask her out!" Vic jabs his pointer finger at Gar and he just takes the last sip of his punch.

"I'm going to get more punch."

"You just like it because Raven brought it."

"Dammit Vic quit it!"

"Never! I will do it in front of Raven if I have to!" He shouted as Gar was headed out of the office.

On his way upstairs he spotted Raven talking to two guys on the far side of the den. Something drew him away from his task of getting punch and changed his objective. He found himself weaving through the crowd of drunk kids to get to a discreet spot to listen in.

Now that he was closer, he could tell who the two guys were. Two brothers actually. Named Levi and Derek. They were decent guys. Levi was in his computer class and Derek was in his gym class. But something was a bit off about them. They seemed a bit...tipsy.

He looked down and looked busy on his phone to remain nonchalant.

"Where were you going?" Levi asked. Sounded like she had just bumped into them by chance.

"To the bathroom actually."

"You probably won't want to use that one." Derek warns.

"Why?"

"Someone's hacking up a lung in there." He explained.

"Oh. Eww...yeah I think I'll go upstairs." She turned to leave but Derek grabbed her arm. "Uh, Derek?" Gar peeked at the action. Raven had a furrowed brow expressing confusion and slight uncomfortability.

"We just started talking. Why leave?" Levi asked.

"Because I have to pee Levi." He tried to turn and leave but this time Levi went and grabbed her.

"Can't you just stay and talk Raven? We hardly see you anymore."

"Well, that's because you're seniors and I'ma junior, but ok fine. I'll bite." Their smiles grew as Gar's frown did.

"How long have you been here?" Derek asked.

"I helped Kori set up."

"So you've been here since like seven?" She nods.

"And even after you've been here for ages you still look great." Levi slides in.

"Oh, thank you. I'm actually surprised myself, I my friend fell on me before the party, and I've almost spilled punch on myself a few times." The music changed.

"Aww hell yeah! This song is the best!"

"C'mon Raven let's go dance!" The brothers say excitedly.

"Eh, I'm not much of a dancer."

"Oh. Ok. We'll just keep talking then." Gar wasn't sure if he wanted them to go dance more or keep talking.

"Yeah its just that lots of people that are dancing are also either making out or just really sweaty."

"Raven that's called a party."

"Well I'm not here for what this party is meant for. I'm just here because Kori is my friend."

"Aww you're not interested in getting a date to prom?" Derek said somewhat patronizingly.

"No. No I'm not." She replied flatly. "And I know where you're going with this. The answer is no."

"Aww c'mon Rae you can't be single forever." Derek said. He put a hand on her shoulder and Levi grabbed her hand.

It's a good thing Gar's face was down and half of it was covered by his hair, or else his scowl would be all too apparent.

Raven immediately pulls her hand out of Levi's and pushes Derek's off her shoulder.

"Ok what is wrong with you two? You're never like this."

"Oh it's probably the punch." Levi states.

"What about it?"

"It–" Derek elbows his brother and shakes his head. "It's nothing."

"Ok...well I'm just gonna go..." and she dips out into the crowd.

The Derek whispered something in Levi's ear. He nodded, and the two left to go outside.

Gar finally fully looked up from his phone, his face still modeling a furrowed brow and a scowl as he watched the two walk outside, one stumbling over something invisible.

He lost Raven just as they had though. Slightly annoyed that he had lost her, he began to head to the door to follow the two, then he realized,

"What am I doing??" He said to himself. He took his hand off the door and began to go upstairs to get back to his task. "God what is wrong with me?" He shook his head. "That's probably the creepiest thing I've ever done."

"Phew." Raven exhaled. "So they're either on drugs or drunk." She watches them leave through the sliding glass door and Gar soon follow. She watches Gar with a raised eyebrow. He placed his hand on the handle, but then stops himself. He then shakes his head and says something to himself, and walks towards the stairs. "Gar!" She calls out to him but there's too much background noise between the thumping music and the people talking and laughing.

He goes up the stairs, and after she manages to weave through the crowd, she follows.

But she doesn't get but halfway up the stairs before she hears the unmistakable sound of highschool girls fangirling.

Raven rushes up the stairs to see Gar has been bum rushed by his fangirls. This was the first time he had been upstairs all party since all the guests arrived and clearly it was a mistake.

Because of the screaming, all the people from downstairs came upstairs and Raven almost got pushed down the stairs.

"Raven?" She looked back and saw all of her other friends except Kori and Dick, who were outside and probably didn't hear the screaming. "What's going on? What's with the screaming?" Jinx asks.

"Gar got noticed."

"OMG Gar! Can I get a photo?!" One girl begged.

"Uh, sorry no–"

"Gar can I get an autograph?!"

"No I–"

"Gar sign my bra!"

"What?!" It was now obvious to them that everyone in this room was drunk.

"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" Vic asks. They nod.

"Who spiked the punch?" Raven asked accusingly.

"Sorry..." Raven didn't even want to turn around to look at Wally.

"No your not! You knew exactly what you were doing the moment you brought that shit in here!" Jinx accused.

"Kori is going to be pissed." Terra states.  Raven watches as the girls fawn over Gar.

"Do you have a date to Prom yet Gar?"

"Well I–"

"Me neither! Let's go together! Heehee!"

"Oh hell no Maya you can't keep him to yourself!"

"Yes I can Catie! I asked first!" And now they were fighting over him.

"Poor Gar..." Jinx sympathized. "Should we do something?"

"We can't do much without Kori and Dick. I doubt they'll listen to us." Vic says. Raven nor Terra reply. They have the same face Gar did before: A scowl and a furrowed brow.

"Hey! Look, I'm not– GAH!" He was being pulled around like a rag doll. At least when people were sober they were civilized. This was flat out close to assault. "Ok stop!" All the girls stopped shouting but didn't come anywhere close to letting him go. "I'm sorry but I don't want to go to Prom with any of you. Can you guys just please stop trying to tear my limbs off."

"I bet he has a girlfriend! That's the only reason he'd say no!"

"Aww christ..."

"Who's your girlfriend Gar?"

"C'mon! Say it!"

"I call dibs on his shoe!"

"Uh..."

"I am!" Everyone snapped their heads around to the voice that claimed to be The Beast's girlfriend.

"Raven what are you doing??" Raven quickly cut through the drunken and surprised crowd, grabbed Gar's hand (making it fairly obvious she was doing so) and left through the front door.

~~~

Who relates to these fangirls?

Word Count: 2835