Friday evening arrived, and Gretchen and Tina were getting ready to go to Stephen Strange's party. Macy sat on her bunk, scowling into a copy of People magazine that she wasn't actually reading.

"I can't believe you two are actually going to that jerk's party!" Macy exclaimed, slamming the magazine down.

Gretchen scoffed. "It's the first party invite I've scored since coming to Columbia, and I'm not going to pass it up. They live off-campus on the Upper West Side, Mace. It's probably going to be ritzy as hell."

"Is that why you're wearing pearls?" Tina teased. She was busy smearing black eyeshadow onto her eyelids.

"Where did you get pearls?" Macy asked, leaning off the bed to get a closer look at Gretchen's necklace. "Are those Mom's pearls?"

"Yeah," Gretchen replied, inspecting her makeup in a compact mirror.

"What? Why do you have Mom's pearls?" Macy asked.

"Dad said I could have them. She left them in her jewelry box," Gretchen said.

Macy scoffed. "So? That doesn't mean you can just take them! They were Mom's."

"She left them in Connecticut, Macy," Gretchen replied. "Just like she left us in Connecticut. Obviously, she didn't want them."

Though the girls' mother had been gone for six years, it was still a sore subject in the family. The last time Macy had even heard from the woman was on her fourteenth birthday.

"Well, that doesn't mean you should just have them," Macy said.

Gretchen groaned. "Whatever, Macy! Were you going to wear them?" Upon no answer from her sister, Gretchen continued. "Exactly! There's a bunch of stuff on her vanity at home you can have if you want, but I doubt any of it fits your style anyways." She snapped her compact shut. "You know what? I'm glad you're not coming to this party. You would totally ruin the mood."

Macy sat up, a scowl on her face. "You know what? Maybe I will go to that party."

Gretchen groaned again and stomped over to the door. "Whatever. I'm leaving. See you there."

As the door slammed behind Gretchen, Macy hopped down from the top bunk.

"So in order to get you to go to a party, it has to be so you can spite your sister?" Tina asked, amused.

Macy sighed. "I'm sorry, Tina. You keep getting caught up in our sisterly bickering. When Gretchen and I both decided to go to Columbia, we agreed to stay out of each other's hair. As you can see, things aren't going as planned."

"That's alright. I have a sister and a brother, so I know how that goes," Tina laughed. She scanned Macy's outfit, which was currently composed of sweatpants and an old Greenwich Prep physical education t-shirt. "You're not wearing that, are you?"

"No," Macy said, rifling through her closet. She glanced at what Tina was wearing: a tight black dress, fishnets, and a pair of combat boots. She decided on a red slip dress and her trusty Docs. She grabbed her leather jacket to wear on top, in case it got cold on the walk.

"You clean up excellently, Macy O'Hara," Tina said, dabbing at her lipstick with a tissue. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go," Macy said, rolling her eyes. "Now I've got to come up with a good excuse as to why I'm going to Strange's party. I feel like he's going to take it as a personal compliment when I show up."

"Well," Tina said, smirking. "You'll just have to make it feel like an insult then."

The roommates headed downstairs, where they happened upon Gretchen, who was still in the lobby of the dorm building.

"I thought you already left," Macy said, brushing past her sister.

"I didn't want to walk alone," Gretchen admitted. "It's dark out!"

"Yeah," Macy snorted. "Almost like it's night."

"Okay, okay," Tina sighed. "I'm not going to act as a mediator all night. Let's get going, I need a beer or a joint or something."

They headed down the street, the crumpled notebook paper containing the boys' address in Gretchen's hands. "Mace, do you know where we're going?" She asked.

"Yes, just follow me," Macy replied. "It's a few blocks east."

"East?" Gretchen repeated.

Macy sighed. "A left at the next intersection, and then two blocks that way," she said. "I'm really glad you've paid attention to the layout of the city during the million trips we've taken to New York over the past eighteen years."

Gretchen let out a loud huff. "I'm sorry, but there were more important things to do than pay attention to the street signs."

"God, Gretchen. It's no wonder you followed me to Columbia. You would never be able to make it in a city on your own."

"Oh my god," Tina groaned. She grabbed each of the O'Hara sisters by their hair.

"Oww!"

"HEY!"

"Stop it, you two! I will not stand here between you and listen to you pick each other to pieces. Battle it out on your own time, okay? I just want to go to my first-ever college party and have a good time, and I better not hear one single damn argumentative peep out of either of you!" Tina released her grip on their hair.

"Not cool," Gretchen said, rubbing the back of her head.

Macy laughed. "Extreme, but message received." She glanced at her sister. "Sorry, Gretch." She was still angry, about the pearls and Gretchen's annoying reliance on her, but she could let it go for the night.

"Yeah, I'm sorry too, I guess," Gretchen said, offering a slight smile.

"Great!" Tina smiled and clapped her hands. "Let's go, then."

They continued onward, navigating the Upper West Side as they searched for Strange's place. Finally, they found it in the form of a very tall apartment building.

Gretchen's mouth fell open as they stopped in front of the skyscraper. "He lives here?"

Macy glanced at the piece of paper in her hands. "I guess so."

As they attempted to move inside, the doorman stepped in front of them. "Can I help you, ladies?"

"We're here for the party," Gretchen stated before Macy could offer a response herself.

The doorman eyed the three girls curiously. They were clearly underage, and Gretchen had just given away their plans for the evening.

"We're guests of Stephen Strange," Tina said, shooting a look at Gretchen.

The doorman, still obviously skeptical, walked over to a large speaker that seemed to compose the building's buzzer system. He pressed a button, and the familiarly obnoxious voice from Macy's literature class rang out.

"Hello."

"Hi, Mr. Strange, I have three young ladies down here who are claiming to be your guests."

"Are they hot?"

The doorman didn't respond.

"Hey Bruce, did you hear me? Are they hot?"

The doorman turned back to the girls, an empty look in his eyes. "What are your names?"

Macy sighed. "Tina Eduardo, Gretchen O'Hara ... and Macy O'Hara."

"I have a Miss Eduardo, a Miss O'Hara, and another Miss O'Hara," the doorman said into the speaker.

Macy frowned as she imagined the idiotic smirk on Strange's face as he realized she had come to his party.

"In that case, send them up," Strange said.

The doorman eyed them suspiciously before saying, "They're on the 22nd floor. Apartment C."

"Thank you, Bruce," Gretchen said, shooting the man a flirty grin before pushing past him.

Macy and Tina followed behind her. The girls reached the elevator and headed up to the 22nd floor. By the time the elevator had reached the 20th floor, they could already hear the booming bass from Strange's party.

"How the hell do they not get in trouble?" Macy wondered aloud.

"Rich white people never get in trouble," Tina replied. "Not on the Upper West Side, anyways."

The elevator doors opened and the girls headed down the hall. They didn't even need to read the signs to locate apartment C, as flashing lights could be seen from underneath the door. Tina knocked on the door, and it swung open almost immediately.

A man stumbled out, clearly drunk. "Do I know you three?" He asked, a grin plastered to his face. Macy recognized him as one of Strange's friends from class. Sam, if she remembered correctly.

"We're friends of Stephen Strange," Tina said, or rather yelled, as the music was extremely loud. "And we've met already!"

"Stephen? Alright!" He laughed, ignoring the rest of what Tina said. "I'm Sam Tyler, one of Stephen's roommates. Come on in, ladies," he said, moving out of the doorway so they could walk in.

The apartment was packed. The floor was littered with crushed chips, red plastic cups, and sticky substances that Macy didn't want to know the origins of.

"Yo, Stephen, your lady friends are here!" Sam yelled, waving his arms wildly.

Macy looked across the room, noticing Stephen Strange was in the middle of a seemingly intense game of beer pong, and his team only had one cup left. He tossed the ball, with little more than a moment of aim, and it plunged right in. He high-fived his partner and headed over to Sam. Macy turned around, trying to duck behind Tina, but it was too late.

"Well, well, well," Stephen said, smirking. "Macy O'Hara at my party? To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Peer pressure, mostly," Macy quipped. "And the lure of free booze, I suppose."

Stephen nodded, an amused grin on his face. "Fair enough. Well, at least we still have these two lovely ladies. Gretchen and ... I'm sorry, I don't think I ever got your name," he said, turning to Tina.

"Valentina Eduardo," she replied. "My friends call me Tina."

"Well alright, Tina."

"You're not my friend," Tina replied.

Macy let out a loud laugh, immediately bringing her hand up to her mouth. "Don't say that to his face, Tina," she snickered. "I don't think Strange has many of those."

Stephen rolled his eyes. "The bar is over there," he said, pointing to the kitchen island, which was full of liquor bottles and various mixers. "And there's cans of beer in the fridge. I've got another round of beer pong to play. I don't suppose you played beer pong in Greenwich?"

"Is that a challenge?" Macy asked.

"It was, but I doubt you're up for it," Stephen mocked.

Macy scoffed and went to turn to Tina, but she was already gone, having found the bar and a pretty blonde girl to talk to. Macy grimaced as she turned to her sister, who was watching her with an expectant look.

Macy let out a deep sigh as she looked at Gretchen, silently hoping that for once Gretchen would be a decent sister. She needed to beat Strange at this silly little drinking game, but to do that, she needed a partner.

"What do you say, Gretch? Beer pong?" Macy asked, silently pleading with her eyes.

Gretchen watched her with a sly smile, carefully mulling over her next words. Macy knew that her sister could stab her in the back in an instant, letting out one of her petty remarks that would leave Macy embarrassed for days.

"Sure," Gretchen replied, smirking. Macy internally groaned, knowing she would be hearing about that for days. "But I need a drink first."

The sisters followed Strange over to the bar, where Macy poured some Coke in a red cup and topped it off with some rum. Gretchen, on the other hand, was mixing so many bottles together that Macy couldn't keep track of what she was doing.

They headed over to the beer pong table, where Macy recognized Stephen's partner as Jack, his friend from their literature class. The one that Gretchen had mooned over. Macy didn't blame her, as Jack was, if she had to describe him, beautiful.

"You should know that we have some house rules," Stephen said as he began to set up the cups, which were filled with water. Macy was glad, because that meant she could drink her own drink when they scored, and not the beer from the gross cups that the dirty ball was bouncing in. "For example, the center cup is the bitch cup. If you hit that first, you have to take your pants off."

Macy's mouth fell open. "I'm not taking my pants off, Strange."

He smirked. "Then don't hit the bitch cup. Besides, you can put them back on, as soon as you hit another cup."

"That's disgusting," Macy said.

Stephen rolled his eyes. "Second rule. Each team is allowed one re-rack. You're familiar with what that means, aren't you?"

"Yes, we are," Macy said. "Stop talking to us like we're children."

A re-rack, as Macy knew, meant that they could rearrange their cups into a different shape or pattern. It could vary depending on what the "house rules" were, but she assumed Strange played by the typical rules.

"Third rule," Strange said. "If a team gets two balls in the same cup, game over."

Macy looked over at Gretchen, who was focused on Jack. She hoped her sister's infatuation with Stephen's roommate wouldn't cost them the game.

"Okay, let's start," she said.

"Alright," Strange said, smirking as he tossed two ping pong balls at the sisters. "As always, ladies first."

Macy rolled her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay Gretch, you first," she said.

Gretchen tossed her ball, and it narrowly missed one of the back cups.

"Nice shot, Gretchen," Strange teased, picking up the ball as it rolled across the floor.

Gretchen rolled her eyes and turned to her sister. "You've got this, Mace."

Macy stood in front of the cups, the ball carefully held between her index finger and thumb. She launched it, watching as it sank perfectly into the middle cup. It didn't bounce, and it barely touched the sides of the cup.

Strange let out a loud guffaw, as did Jack.

"Oooh, we've got ourselves a bitch cup!" Jack hollered. "Pants off, Macy!"

Macy's felt her face turn bright red as she watched Stephen remove the cup she'd hit. She looked down at her outfit, a realization hitting her. She smirked and looked up at Strange and Jack, who were laughing.

"Hey, dumbasses. I'm not even wearing pants," she said, grinning. "What are your 'house rules' for that?"

Both of the boys' faces fell, and they turned to each other.

"What do we do?" Macy heard Jack whisper to Strange. "She's not wearing pants!"

Strange shushed Jack and turned to Macy, his cocky smile returning. "Well, I guess today is your lucky day, O'Hara. We're not used to playing with people in dresses."

Macy rolled her eyes and gestured to the cups ahead of her. "Well then. Game on, gentlemen."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ author's note ✫・゜・。.

sorry, it's been a hot sec since i've updated this story. it doesn't have very many reads anyways, so i'm not even sure anyone is even actively waiting for an update. if that's the case, i guess this update was more for me, then.

who do you think won their beer pong game? i'll leave that up for reader interpretation ;) 

thoughts so far on this book? are you seeing any similarities between this and the movie? 

thanks for reading, those of you that are :)

xx,

madi