"Laf, you know it's just a high school Halloween party and not a costume contest, right?"

Laf gasps dramatically and takes a break from applying his makeup to look at me. "How dare you, I just want to look fabulous!"

Herc and I both laugh at him as I fidget with my shirt. I wasn't wearing a costume, naturally. Just an old jersey that belonged to my dad forever ago. It was a Saint Kitts and Nevis National Football team jersey, and the only one I owned. 

Herc gave in and ended up wearing a tuxedo, figuring he'd let people guess what he was and just go from there. It was pretty smart, because he could be anything from a business man to a mafia boss, and no one would know the difference. 

Once Laf finally finished getting dressed, Hercules drove us to the house it was being held at, which happened to be Charles Lee's house. His parents were out of town for the weekend or something, so what else was he supposed to do?

We walk in and the smell of alcohol is very prominent as a bunch of teenagers were talking and dancing with each other. Parties were never something I particularly enjoyed, but I didn't mind going every once in a while. 

Hercules immediately dragged us to the kitchen and filled up two glasses of water from the sink, handing them to us. "This is the only thing you guys are allowed to drink all night." He warns. 

"Oh, please. It's a party, Herc. We'll be fine." I scoff, but still sip on the water he provided. 

"Yes, but I'm driving you guys home and I do not want you throwing up in my car. I also don't want to be the only one sober." He frowned. 

"Well, I can't promise anything." I mumble, finishing off the water. 

Laf nodded. "Yeah, same here. We're at a party." Herc pouted and Laf sighed. "But if I do drink, I won't drink that much I promise. I'll stay sober with you." 

"Thank you, Laf." 

I look at the crowd of teenagers and then back at Laf and Herc to see they were already walking to join that crowd, leaving me all by myself in the kitchen. I sigh and lean against the counter as I got more water, sipping on it carefully. 

I scan the crowd and see Peggy looking at me from the crowd. She walks into the kitchen and gives me a weird look. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here with Lafayette and Hercules-" I freeze. "Are you dressed Heather McNamara?"

She nods. "Yeah, my sisters wanted to go as the Heathers, so here we are."

I nod and sip my water. "So you three are here..Does that mean John is here, too?" I ask. 

She smiles a bit. "Why do you ask?" She asks, giggling gently. 

I raise an eyebrow at her. "So I can avoid him if need be."

She sighs and rolls her eyes. "Yes, yes he's here. Why do you want to avoid him, though. You two could actually be pretty cute together."

I blush gently and give her a concerned look. "Did you really go from hating me to shipping me with John?" I ask. 

She nods, smiling a bit more. "Indeed I did. I'm going to try and make it happen between you two. Just you wait." 

Before I could object or say anything, she was gone, disappeared into the crowd. I sigh and enter the crowd, of course bumping right into the person I didn't want to see. Well, I did, but he didn't want to see me. 

"Oh, Alex, uh, hey." We awkwardly look at each other. He was dressed up as Jason Dean, and I can only assume the Schuylers roped him into dressing up with them. 

"Hi John." I mumble. 

He looks past me. "Um, Peggy just sent me this way and wouldn't tell me why. I'm going to assume this is why.." 

I sigh. "Of course she did.." I mumble.

There was a moment of silence before he asked, "Do you want to get a drink?"

I stare at him. "Are you sure? I thought you didn't want to be seen talking with me." I say bitterly. 

He smiles nervously and rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah..Well, it's a party, no one will suspect anything. Come on, before somebody spikes the punch." 

He walks towards the drink table and I raise an eyebrow and follow him. I was sure someone already spiked it, as the party started like a half hour ago. He makes up two cups full of punch and we stand near the wall, talking to each other. 

"So, Jason Dean, huh?" I ask. 

"Oh, yeah. Schuylers wanted to dress as the Heathers, and they thought it would be fun if I dressed up as JD with them." He shrugs. "What exactly are you supposed to be?" 

I look down at my shirt and shrug. "Nothing in particular, I'm just wearing an old jersey." I explain. 

"I'm shocked you even own a jersey. You do not seem like the type to like football, or any sport for that matter."

I shrug again. "It belonged to my dad, it's the only jersey I have." 

He nods and sips his drink, cringing at the taste. "I think we were a little late to the punch." He jokes. I chuckle gently and nod. 

"Well duh. Anyone coulda told you that." I smile and sip my drink. 

"So..You here with your two friends?" He asks. 

I nod. "Yeah, they ran off somewhere. I have no idea where they went."

"Hm, you'd think they'd be easy to spot, considering how tall they are." He then went to teasing me, "Although, you probably can't see over anybody's head, can you?"

"Shut up, Laurens. Not all of us have the privilege of being a giraffe." I stick my tongue out at him and he laughs. 

"Aw, don't be sad because you're not a giraffe, Alex."

"I'm not sad. There are perks to being short." 

"Like...?" He asks. 

"I can hide easier. I'll bet no one behind these few people over here can even see me. You, on the other hand, can easily be seen from halfway across the room."

He nods. "Fair point, fair point." 

We pause and listen to the music. It was playing a rap song I was familiar with, but didn't really listen to it often. John bopped his head to the rhythm and I sigh. "You should probably get back with your friends, they're probably wondering where you are."

He frowns and looks over at me. "It's fine, they usually don't come looking for me at these things. They typically just assume I went off with some girl." 

I nod. "Right, but you're not with some girl. You're with me." I say, blushing gently, though you couldn't tell because the lights were pretty dim and irregularly colored. 

He smiles at me. "Even better for me." 

I blush even more and shake my head. "You are so confusing, you know that?"

He chuckles gently. "What do you mean? I thought I was being pretty straightforward." 

I smile in disbelief at him, not sure if he was joking or not. "Are you kidding? Before you were trying to be my friend, talking to me and stuff. Then, well, you know what happened and you started ignoring me. Then you told me not to talk to you, and now we're here, at a party, talking together. Makes me wonder if you really do wanna talk to me." 

"And what if I did? What would you say?" He asks, sipping his drink. 

I sigh and look around before shrugging. "Well, I really do wanna talk with you, believe it or not." I say. He stares at me, looking at me as if he didn't believe me. "What? It's true.."

"I was not expecting that." He admits. "You really wanna talk with me?"

I nod shyly. "Yeah.. Yeah I do.." 

He smiles brightly and takes a step closer to me, looking down at me. "Well, now's the time to talk. What do you want to talk about?"

I pause and look out at the crowd, sighing softly. "Um... How about the thing we haven't talked about yet?" I suggest, looking back up at him. 

He smiles at me. "And what would that be?" 

I raise an eyebrow. "John, you know exactly what I'm talking about. A few weeks ago, when I came over to help with your application?" I say as quietly as possible so he was the only one who could hear me. 

He suddenly looks uncomfortable as he looks over at the other teenagers in the room. Everyone was dancing together to some dumb Taylor Swift song, drinks in their hands and not a care in the world. Oh how I wish I could be dancing right now rather than dealing with feeling things. I could tell John wanted to avoid this as long as possible, but it had to be brought up at some point. 

"It's just..." He sighs as he thinks of the right thing to say. "It wasn't my first time, that's for sure. But it was my first time with a guy. I'm not really... supposed to be with a guy, if that makes sense." 

I frown. I should've known better than to trust him. I really thought he might have liked me, but after that statement, there was no way any of this was real. He sees the anger on my face and quickly panics. 

"Oh, no, I didn't mean it like that. It's just that, the circumstances, well they're-"

"No, it's fine. I get it, John. You don't actually like me or anything. I don't even know why I thought that." I stand straight and start walking away, but he grabs my shoulder. 

"Alex, wait-"

"No, I don't like waiting. I know you and the Schuylers love to bully me and pick on me, but this? This is a sick joke, Laurens. You went way too far this time." I glare at him and he just stares at me with a sad look. 

I roll my eyes and walk away to the punch table, getting another cup full. I fill up my cup and sip on it as I look through the crowd for Hercules and Laf. I find them in the corner, awfully close to each other, and start walking over there before a familiar girl in yellow stands in front of me. 

"Hey, you look pissed, what happened? Where's John, I sent him your way-"

"The joke is over, Peggy. Enough with it, this has gone too far." I mumble, trying to push past her. She frowns and shoves me back gently. 

"Hold on, what joke? Alex, what did John tell you?" 

The chaos of the party seemed to get louder around us for some reason. I shake my head. "Oh, just how he could never be with me, and how it's wrong to like someone of the same gender. I don't know how you guys thought this was funny, but I hope you're happy with the results." I try pushing past her once again and she shoves me back again, a little harsher this time. 

"Alex, I don't know what you took out of context, but it is nothing like that, I swear."

"Oh, and I should just trust you now?" I ask. "What have you ever done that should make me trust you?" 

She hesitates before sighing. "Look, I know we've never really been on good terms, but you have to trust me now." I ignore her as I try to push past her once again and she shoves me back, again. "God dammit, Alex, just listen to me." 

I shake my head and push past her for the final time, spilling my drink on her when she tried pushing me back. She steps back and looks down at herself, gasping softly. "Ah, shit!"

I walk through the crowd to see I had drawn Laf and Herc's attention and then nod at them. "It's time to go, this was a terrible idea." I tell them.

They nod, looking behind me at Peggy and then walking out to the car with me. I should've known better.

2053 Words

There, a longer chapter to make up for the short chapter last time. Hope you enjoyed :)