THE UBER DRIVER SHORTENED THE forty-minute walk to a ten-minute drive. When Darren and Dakota arrived, the party was still going on, and in front of the house, a small group of people had gathered.

"Is that Marley?" Dakota asked. She pressed her nose against the car window to see as much as she could, but it didn't make a difference. When the car stopped in front of the house, she tossed a bill towards the driver and got out. Darren followed, although he was somewhat slower and took the time to greet the driver.

"Millie?" Dakota called out. Although it was a name he hadn't heard before, Darren figured it had been Millie who had called Dakota with the news.

"Dakota!" a voice coming from the group called back. A small girl with brown hair and bangs separated herself from the group. "I don't know what happened..." The words came out in bits and pieces, and she let herself fall into Dakota's arms.

"Where is she?" was all Dakota asked.

Millie pointed to the group. They stood in a circle around someone whose shoes were the only thing visible. Dakota hurried towards them and gasped when she caught sight of her friend. Seeing the shock on her face, Darren followed her and joined the group.

"What's going on?" Dakota asked.

"Dakota?" Marley groaned out from the floor. She was lying on her back with her eyes closed. The only thing that assured Darren she wasn't unconscious was the fact she just spoke.

"She's having trouble breathing," a guy from the group said. It was another unfamiliar face to Darren. "Constantly gasping, then we don't hear anything for a few seconds. She's also really cold."

"She looks really pale," Dakota said. "Is it really the alcohol doing this to her?"

"What else could it be?" the guy asked.

Darren raised his voice. "Have you called 911?"

Five heads turned towards him. The guy pointed his finger at Darren and his jaw dropped. "That's it! I knew we were forgetting something."

"You haven't called 911 yet?" Dakota shrieked. "She's dying!"

Millie sniffed. "No, not Marley..."

"She's not dying," Darren said. "It's probably alcohol poisoning."

"Alcohol poisoning?" echoed the guy.

"It can happen when you drink too much," Darren clarified. Realizing he was getting all the attention from the group again, he handed his phone to Millie and said to her, "Call 911." To the guy, he continued with his explanation. "Alcohol can be poisonous when too much is consumed in a very short period of time. Clearly, she has trouble breathing" – as if on cue, Marley gasped loudly and her upper body lifted itself off the ground before falling back on it with a thud – "and she might be at risk of passing out."

"She didn't drink that much..." a girl from the group objected with a small voice.

"The tolerance level is different for each person," he said. "Another possible explanation for her symptoms could be that someone spiked her drink."

"My name is Millie," Millie spoke from the background into the phone. "My friend is not feeling good. She might pass out."

"What should we do?" the guy asked Darren.

If he was honest, he didn't know. "Wait for 911, probably."

"Millie, ask them what to do if she has alcohol poisoning," Dakota yelled over to Millie.

Millie passed on the message. "If she needs to vomit, make sure she's sitting up," she answered Dakota after a short silence in which everyone waited intently on the answer.

"Do you need to vomit?" Dakota asked Marley.

Marley just groaned.

"Don't make her vomit, though," Millie added. "Keep her awake, stay with her and wait for the ambulance to arrive."

"An ambulance is coming?"

Darren couldn't tell if the guy who asked this was amazed or shocked.

The girl from the group who had spoken earlier rolled her eyes. "That's what 911 is for, isn't it?"

"Help me get her up," said Dakota to no one in particular as she kneeled down next to Marley. A member of the group who had been silent up until that moment rushed to help her.

"They're already on their way," Millie said after she had hung up.

A tall, strong guy stepped out of the front door with his arm wrapped around the waist of a girl. "Darren?" he asked. It was Liam. "There you are! Did you leave or something?"

Darren nodded. "For a while, yeah."

"Should we go home –" Then, his eyes fell on the girl on the floor. "Oh. What is this?"

"She's not feeling well," the guy of the group said. He repeated the words he'd earlier told Darren and Dakota: unsystematic, ragged breathing and low body temperature.

"That's not good," Liam stated. "Darren, I just wanted to ask if we were going, but I guess not yet."

"I want to wait until the ambulance is here," Darren said quietly. Fortunately for him, Liam did, and the host brother stayed by Darren's side until the moment came that the sirens of the ambulance were within hearing distance.

"Marley, help is underway," Dakota said to her friend. "Stay with me for a little while."

The vehicle with flashing lights turned around the corner into the visual field of the group.

"Do you think I can go with the ambulance to the hospital?" Millie asked Dakota. "I want to make sure she'll be okay."

"They better let us," Dakota scoffed. "I'm going with too."

Three people jumped out of the back of the ambulance and came running towards the scene. "Everyone out of the way!"

The group around Marley dispersed, and the emergency workers kneeled down beside her. They quickly took control of the situation, asking Marley a couple of questions.

Dakota was standing next to Darren, her hand on Millie's shoulder who was on Dakota's left side. The group that had been panicking not so long ago was watching quietly as the emergency workers did their job.

One of them turned to the group of teenagers. "We're taking her to the hospital," he said. Simultaneously, a stretcher was taken out of the ambulance and Marley was lifted on top of it.

Dakota stepped forward and said she and Millie would want to go with. The man didn't object and only said they shouldn't get in the way. Only when she was sitting in the ambulance and her eyes fell on Darren did she seem to remember him again. It brought a small smile to her face, and she waved to him, but then the doors closed and she vanished from sight.

✩

Liam had dropped Darren off before driving off with his girlfriend. Darren hadn't asked what the two were planning on doing. He had been too tired to think of that and just wanted to go to bed.

However, just as he opened the door to the guest room that would be his room for the next year, a door on the opposite side of the hall opened. It was Aimee's room, Darren knew.

"Darren?" a female voice whispered. Aimee's head appeared through the door.

"Aimee?" he asked.

She came out of the shadows and stepped into the light that came from Darren's room. Her black, textured hair was even wilder than it was during the day, standing up in all kinds of directions, and it wouldn't be tamed. "Yes," she said. "I was waiting for you."

"Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?"

She rolled her eyes. "Mom and dad don't have to know. This is between you and me."

Darren wasn't even sure what "this" was, but he nodded nonetheless.

"I wanted to hear about the party," she continued.

His eyes widened for a second. "It was all right," he said.

"Anything happen?" she asked. He got the feeling she was looking for something specific, but he didn't know what she was getting at. "Let's go into your room. They can't hear us there." With they, she meant her parents, he knew. That she was still whispering made him feel like he was doing something wrong.

Still, he let her into his room and closed the door behind her. She sat down on his bed and made herself comfortable.

"So?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. She also looked around the room, and Darren had to shamefully admit that he hadn't done anything about it. It was still as plain as when he'd moved in, even though Adelaide and Isaiah had told him he could make some changes to make it feel like home. They even gave him some money to buy new stuff, but he had declined the offer. He liked the minimalist style that others would call boring.

"It was a party," Darren said, not knowing what else he should say.

"And?" she continued asking.

He chuckled nervously. "That's all there is to tell."

"Something has had to have happened, right?" she asked. She was sitting on her hands and moved back and forth. Even this late at night, she couldn't sit still.

"Do you mean with Marley?" he asked.

She frowned. "What happened to Marley?"

Darren bit his lip. He'd forgotten that Aimee knew Marley personally, because, as she'd put it, "they sat together at lunch." To what extent that said something about their friendship, he didn't know, but Aimee must care about the girl. "She was unwell," he said.

"How unwell? As in, sick?"

"Alcohol poisoning," he said. "She couldn't stand up anymore and had gotten really pale. She also had trouble breathing."

"What happened? Where is she?"

"The ambulance took her to the hospital. They're checking her out now, and Dakota is with her."

Aimee looked concerned, and this made Darren feel guilty. If he hadn't said anything, she wouldn't have worried about her friend.

"She'll be all right," he added. "She might have to stay the night at the hospital, but there won't be any permanent damage, only some discomfort."

"Okay." Aimee nodded while lost in her thoughts, her eyes fixed on the floor. Then, this time seemingly more aware of the situation, she repeated, "Okay. She'll be okay."

Darren smiled weakly.

"But you said something about Dakota?" Aimee asked then. She looked Darren in the eyes again, and only now did he realize that she wasn't wearing any makeup. Still, she was beautiful, and the natural look together with the glow of her skin gave her a healthy appearance.

"Yeah, she's with Marley at the hospital." He chuckled when he thought about the determination of the girl to come with.

"But you saw her?"

He nodded slowly.

"And?"

He raised his brow, with which he asked what she meant.

"Did she say anything? Anything happen?"

Was this what she had been looking for? She couldn't have known about what happened to Marley, but maybe it had been Dakota she had been hinting at.

"Yeah, we talked a little." He tilted his head. "Why? Did you know she was going to be at the party?"

She sighed. "Yeah, of course. Dakota is at every party. Partying flows through her veins; without it, she can't breathe." She laughed. "But what did you talk about?"

Darren frowned. "I don't want to be mean, but it's none of your business."

"I'm just curious!" She looked at him with big, bright eyes. "I thought that, you know, after what happened earlier today..." She was hinting at the kiss. "Maybe..." She raised her eyebrows at him in a way that expressed more than words did.

"We didn't kiss," he said. "That was a one-time thing. Never happening again."

"But?"

He shrugged. "That's it."

"There's nothing more to the story?"

"There's nothing more to the story."

"You just said 'hi' and 'bye' and that was it? And you know all about what happened with Marley?" She was mocking him, he knew. "I'm supposed to believe that nothing happened?"

Suddenly, a thought came to mind. "You set us up, huh?" he asked, smirking. All pieces of the puzzle came together. "You gave her my number, because you wanted something to happen."

She raised her hands as if to say she was innocent. "That's not a bad thing, is it?"

He shook his head, but laughed. "I can't believe this."

She had a big smile. "You're welcome."

He held his head to his forehead, trying to gather his thoughts on what he thought of this, and said to her, "Just go to your room. It's late."

"Aye, aye, captain," she said, doing the appropriate motion to accompany her words. "But I still want to hear the story tomorrow."

"There's no story!" he said, rolling his eyes.

But the door closed behind her and left him behind alone.