It was a few days later and Lily's father had already left and her mother was waiting for her cab to arrive. Both Nate and Lily were standing on the sidewalk with her, Nate listening to music and Lily engaging in slightly awkward conversation with her mother.

"Remember, no drinking, no smoking, no drugs-"

"Mom! What do you think I am?"

"You're obviously a drug-addicted, alcoholic smoker." Nathan interjected before their mother could reply.

"Obviously not, but some of your friends aren't of the most trustworthy sort."

"It doesn't matter Mom, anyway, here's your taxi."

"Yeah, Mom, get in! And never return!" Nate shouted while walking back inside, already texting his friends to organise the 'secret' 'teen' party he was having. Lily sighed and stood on the sidewalk by herself, waving to her mother as the car pulled away.

"You know, you're far too old to have wild parties. Especially ones where you invite your four friends, but a whole high school shows up, then everyone gets drunk or high and ends up having sex. Plus we don't have a pool. This is not going to turn into some cliché teen movie." Lily said to her brother, following him inside the empty house.

"It's not my fault you're not cool enough to have been invited to any of these parties already, and if you don't want to be here, go round to your boyfriend's house- Oh wait." He turned around, "You don't have one. Sorry Lily-Willy."

"I don't think you can do that yet. Have you even seen Jasmine again?"

"Her name is Jaz and-"

"I don't care if her name is Jaz. I'm not calling her that, because it'll get horrendously weird later on, when you... You know."

"And she's got a busy social life."

---/|\---

Music was blaring from the kitchen speakers, a makeshift bar was made from the kitchen island and the door was opening and closing almost non-stop.

"Nathan! Nathan!" Lily wandered around the house, yelling for her brother in every room she passed, "Nathan Darkston!" She weaved her way through clumps of people sipping out of cans and bottles.

There were crumbs and crumpled cups all over the floor, Lily's shoes were sticky with spilt drinks and toppled snacks, she was hot and sweaty from the body heat being released into each room. She made her way noisily upstairs, barging straight for her brother's room,

"Nathan, there are people queuing for the bathroom, couples using Mom and Dad's room as a love-shack and the floor seems to be the garbage bin. You - and only you - need to send your friends home and clean up the house."

"Calm down. I'll clean it up when my friends leave."

"And they're leaving now."

"Come on, Lil'. Loosen up, you're a teenager, enjoy the party, Richard's here. Do a bit of mingling."

"I don't care! You shouldn't be having this party in the first place!"

"It doesn't matter. Dad won't notice."

"Dad is not the only parent in this family."

"Yeah... Apparently you're one too. Loosen up, she won't get mad. Promise." Nate said. Lily sighed,

"Real mature Nate. So you'd prefer if I got drunk?"

"No. I'd prefer if you just calm down. Look, go down and talk to Richard or Jacob."

"Jacob's here?"

"Uh huh." Lily turned to leave and the door had almost shut behind her before she changed her mind,

"Hey, Nate? Why aren't you 'enjoying' your own party?"

"I was bored."

"Nate!" Lily growled at him.

"Seriously Lily, what could go wrong?"

"Lots of things Nate. Send this party home. Now."

"Alright! Jesus Lil. You need to calm down, you're an uptight monster."

---/|\---

Eventually, Nate managed to rid the house of all the partygoers other than himself, Richard and Jacob. Richard was tipsy-drunk, Jacob was pretty much sober and Nate had managed to get himself hammered while making his friends leave. He was lying on the sofa, a giggling Richard sitting on his stomach, while Lily watched on from the stairs with Jacob.

"Do you think I should make him go home? You know, before he does anything 'worse'?" Lily whispered.

"You could try, but I doubt you'll get him to move." Replied Jacob, "He's pretty tipsy."

"He never usually gets this drunk. It's normally just a few beers, plus he's pretty heavy. I don't get how or why he drank so much."

"Are you completely positively one hundred percent sure that you're straight?" Richard giggled in Nate's ear,

"That's it. Richard. Going." Lily decided quietly.

"Maybe I'm not, maybe we should check..." Nate wiggled his eyebrows, or attempted to, it didn't quite work when he was drunk.

"Right! Richard, let's get you out! Let's get you home to bed."

"But I want to stay."

"Well you can't, get moving!"

"But I drove here."

"So I'll drive you."

"But I don't know where my keys are."

"They're in your pocket."

"But they're not."

"Check."

"Oh..." Richard said, reaching into his pocket, "Ohh..."

"Richard. Give them here."

"But I don't want to."

"Tough." Lily said sternly, and Richard reluctantly got off Nate and planted the car keys in her upturned hand, "I can take you home too, Jakey-Boy."

"Why do you insist on calling me that?"

"Is there something wrong with it? Is it not your name?" Lily said, striding off towards Richard's car, "Hey Josie, long time, no drive!"

"How many times do I have to tell you Lil'? She's a guy!" Richard yelled from the doorway, as he struggled to squeeze his feet into his shoes.

"Then why is 'he' a she? And why did you take your shoes off?"

"I don't know! Don't judge me."

Jacob climbed into the passenger seat of the red Mustang and Lily walked around the front and slid into the driver's. Richard finally made it outside with his shoes on, too tipsy to put them on the right feet, but he struggled to pull the door open. As soon as he managed it, he lurched into the seats head first and giggled as the engine started.

"Calm down, Rich. I'm taking you home. Sober up for your mother. I'll take you first, then Jacob, then you can come pick the car up tomorrow." Richard fell silent in the back of the car.

"So you know, a few days ago we were talking about that 'brotherly banana Monopoly' torture session?"

"Keep talking..."

"Do you want to do it on Saturday?"

"Sure. I'll invite everyone. My house?"

"Yeah. It'll stop Nate having another wild party."

"Even better!" Lily exclaimed.

The rest of the journey was silence mingled with small talk. Lily pulled up to Richard's house, "Out you get, Richard." He left the car and Lily waited for him to get into the house before pulling away,

"You're a great friend, you know that? You're like the mother of your group, you take such good care of them."

"Thanks. I just... They're not very good at making the best decisions, Jazz is probably the worst. To be honest with you, you'd expect Eleanor to be the best but, it really is Richard. I've only had to help him a few times, and it's usually asking people out to see whether they're straight or gay. But that's not really worked. I asked Kam out for me, to check for him, Kam said yes, and it got kind of serious, but when we broke up, he went out with a guy. Turns out he was bi, and Richard had to deal with that and the fact that Kam chose someone else. It's hard for him."

Jacob just nodded, and made appreciative sounds. "It sounds like you do a lot for them, do they do anything for you?"

"Of course!" Lily exclaimed, "What do you take them for? Bad friends? They are literally the best I've ever had. I have a question for you though."

"Yeah?"

"Where do you live?"

"Oh!" Jacob laughed, "Just round the corner from here- Wait. Lily," He said, glancing in the mirror, "You have a license right?"

"Oh crap!" She said, looking in the mirror herself, "Crap, crap crap crap." She pulled the car over, "Will you judge me if I flirt out of the fine?" She laughed nervously. She pulled out of the road and came to a stop next to the sidewalk.

"I'd say don't flirt out of it. I'm fairly sure my father is happily married."

"What?"

"It's my dad. We should be fine. Just make up a good excuse."

"Like what! Wait, Jacob, do you have license?"

"Yeah. But I didn't bring it with me."

"I brought my Learner's so we should be alright. I hope." Lily watched the police car pull over and the man get out of the driver's seat, "He looks exactly like you, Jake!" She laughed.

"Lily calm down."

She turned to the window and rolled it down, "Hi Officer,"

"You just breezed through a red light back there, young lady."

"Sorry, I was just trying to get my friend home quickly. You see, he has an art showing tonight and he needed to get there early to meet all the right people, and he had spent the night at mine, and-"

"Right, so is the lad in there with you that friend?"

"No, I dropped him off already, but this is Jacob. He can vouch."

"Yeah, Dad, Richard was starting to get really frantic about his art thing, so Lily decided to drive him home."

"Jake?" He nodded, "Well, do you have a license?" Jacob's father asked. Nodding, Lily fished around in the front pocket of her jeans for the card,

"Sorry, it's just a Learner's, but Jacob-"

"Do you have yours, son? With you?"

"No."

"Well, I'll let you off this time, but, Jacob, take your license with you everywhere. Because if this happens again it probably won't be me. You know how rarely I get out of the office."

"Yeah. Yeah. I'll remember." Jacob replied, waving off his father's concern. The officer patted the bonnet of the car twice,

"Nice ride. Take care of it on the journey home, girl."