Teal

I bounced on the balls of my feet. My house sparkled, lights glinting off of every surface. Glancing around, I noticed the brightness might've been coming from other sources. Smiles, laughter, and kissing was rampant. I stood awkwardly at the front entrance to my castle. My fingers twitched and I pulled my lip in between my teeth. I bit down on it harshly, drawing a bit of blood. I quickly wiped it away just as another hoard strolled in.

A silver Mustang drifted into the dirt circle in front of the mansion. The occupants dangled out of the car, breathing in the night air without the obstruction of the roof. I scanned their faces quickly. Driving, junior boy Benjamin Yan tossed a smirk over his shoulder, winking at me. The car hissed to a stop as he cut the engine. Despite being captain of the Varsity baseball team, Ben still found time to perfect his NASCAR skills. 

Riding shotgun was Zachary Weater. He pounded the roof of the car along to the bass from the radio, his blond hair flopping around like a wave. Zach let out a long cry of excitement as their clown car pulled up.

Crowded in the back, five people screamed the lyrics to a vulgar song into the night. From left to right, Beverly Ramierz (who was crying out to Zach over the radio and her own laughs), Maleah Thompson (who was struggling to keep her black baseball cap over her braids), George Zimmer and Milfred Rot (George had his hands encircling Millie as she teetered on his lap), and finally Stephanie Stratford. Steph waved and almost tumbled out of the car when she saw me, her bell like voice calling out to me. I took a deep breath and forced out a phony smile.

The crowd bounded out of the Mustang, wobbling up the cobblestone stairs to the large wooden door. George trapped Millie between his body and one of my marble columns, kissing her strongly and passionately in public. I chuckled and greeted the guests, my chest jittery. 

"Teal! Damn!" Ben whistled, tugging gently at the fabric of my shorts. I blushed slightly. 

Rolling my eyes, I smirked at Maleah. "Girl, you know this is more or less a pool party?" I gestured to the hat she had struggled so much with and the fancy mini skirt adorning her legs. She scoffed.

"I got my swimsuit underneath but there isn't anyway I'm going to sacrifice this gorgeous look for chlorine," she flipped one of her long braids over her shoulder, "I'll be at the bar if you need me." Taking Bev with her, Mal strode past the rest of us, immediately being dragged into the chaos inside.  

Eventually, Millie & George came back up for air and also retreated inside. Zach and Ben each grabbed one of my hands in theirs and directed me into my own house. I tried to wiggle free, but they had a death grip. Zach managed to tug me a bit closer to him, much to Ben's dissatisfaction. In return, he pulled me into his chest, his other hand caressing my face. I giggled. Zach gasped, nearly ripping my arm out of the socket as he flung me into him. Slowly, he lowered his head. Asking permission with his eyes, I nodded and his lips slid to mine. We both bubbled into laughter as the nearby crowd clapped wickedly. 

I shoved them both off of me at that point. "Alright, get off of me you fuckin ogres," I teased, smoothing out the kinks of my hair. 

"We better see you by the pool!" Ben said.

"I'll be pissed if you aren't my beer pong partner!" Zach repeated, trying to overshadow his friend. Ben playfully pushed Zach, sending the two out of my view as I walked away.

As the night wore on, more and more people decorated my halls. I knew most of them. There were exceptions though, names that my tongue couldn't find. But they knew my name. I had never heard the word 'Teal' said so many times in one night. Everyone at the party knew me by name, often describing how they knew me through some long drawn out story where they had seen me or spoke to me through one of their friends. I pretended to remember and nodded, patting them on the back or hugging them. It was always easier to just go with it. 

I wove through rambunctious teenagers as they ate, drank, and laughed. Faces blurred together. There must've been hundreds of people there, probably nearing a thousand. All of Gotham Academy was in attendance, with outsiders of course bridging the gap. There were so many different types of people, but they all still looked the same to me.  

Despite the word being that it was a pool party, the idea must've been lost in translation as it circulated my school through whispered rumors, bathroom stall carvings, and text messages. There were, of course, people lounging outside near the pool and even some brave people splashing around, but the majority explored and littered my house. It didn't take long, however, for people to start migrating outside. Even mansions get hot and stuffy when people are packed inside of it. 

Members of the football team -- several football teams, actually -- gathered on the lower roof overlooking the pool. I shivered at the thought. My room overlooked the pool. I sighed as I saw my lavender drapes blowing aimlessly in the wind through my open window. 

Onlookers from below shouted up as the players shoved each other around, laughing anxiously. Eyes darted and heads turned towards me for a reaction. I swallowed down my fear and put on a carefree expression. "Do a flip!" 

That was enough to get them going. With a smirk, Tony Castro leaped off of the roof, cannon-balling straight into the vibrant blue below. The others quickly followed, splashing the enormous crowd they had attracted. Now that the initial shock had died down, people began lining up to dive off of my roof. 

Hurrying up the stairs, I inspected the damage. Most of the trinkets near my window were toppled, broken, or missing. I thanked myself that I had hidden anything embarrassing or even remotely sexual. My room was stripped clean before the party had even started. I had stashed my stuff in a locked spare bedroom. 

Once again, I drifted in and out of the party. I was the hostess and I was trying to do a good job. I moved through the familiar halls of my mansion, eyeing the teens with harmless curiosity. I began to wonder who would remember what. The more that I saw, the more weight my question had. Relationships I would've never expected seemed to form out of nowhere as people munched on each other's faces in every room. That was one advantage of having so many people gathered together in one house, I guess. Every room had a group of at least 20 people in it so there were no places where a young couple could have drunk sex. 

That being said, I still stayed away from the bathrooms. All eight of them. 

As I passed a small broom closet, I heard a slight squeak. The door fumbled open and out fell Zach and Ben. Their arms dangled loosely around each other. Zach's hair was ruffled and Ben's entire bare chest was covered in light purple bites. I chuckled softly, shoving the boys back into their closet.

I continued to wander. My attention was constantly being dragged away from my task at hand as people left and right called my name. Someone always wanted me to play this game, answer this question, talk to this person, etc...

It was draining. I had memorized about three hundred new names in the matter of a couple of hours. I was especially good with names, but the objective still weighed on me. 

Eventually, I completed a full scan of the mansion and ended up back in the kitchen. The stockpile of alcohol had been diminished, but was still an endless cornucopia. I ran my fingers over the cool bottles and selected a sparkly pink vodka. Almost on cue, a whole group of people burst in at my side.

"Chug! Chug! Chug!" They all demanded, their eyes glassy and excited from their own drinks and whatever else they had gotten into. Never wanting to disappoint, I unscrewed the top and allowed the bitter liquid to slide down my throat. I got about halfway before gagging the drink up a little. Phone flashes blared in my eyes as people circled around me, shouting cheers of victory and raising me in the air. 

At that point, the night began to slide away. 

I grabbed a cheeto and nibbled on it, staggering through the halls as I was supported by my peers. The crowd that fumbled around me, playing some game, was around ten people. I only remember two clearly. Two my left, Thomas Zimmer, to my right, Daisy Eisick. We slurred the words along to a song blasting on the large speakers around my house. Steph found me, smiling in my face and taking me from my party group. I fumbled into her arms in a laughing mess, causing her own drunkenness to produce giggles. We both pawed at each other before collapsing on the hard wooden floor. 

Steph stroked my hair as I laid my head in her lap. "This s-shit is crayyyy" she slurred, her head rolling to the side lazily. I nodded, my throat dry. "I've kissed like...everyone!" Steph pushed out her lips like a fish before ceasing back into laughter. I stared straight ahead at the wall in front of me. "Y-you're my best friend. You are my fuckin best friend, Tealianne mother-fuckin Brady! I love youuuu!" 

I turned my head up towards her and smiled. She shoved me off of her legs and stood up, retreating silently down the hall. 

For awhile, I just laid there and stared up at the chandelier above me. I watched as the lights played illusions on my drunk mind. Anxious and depressed feelings started to flood into me as I watched the warm white lights. The noise of the party around me started to blockade around me, trapping me in that one spot. 

Suddenly, I couldn't take it. I couldn't take the people, fakely hugging me and smiling as I passed. I couldn't  take the blaring speakers, the laughing, the singing, the kissing. I couldn't take the little romances that sprung out. I couldn't take the drunk boys begging me to go upstairs with them. 

I pushed myself up off the ground and ran as fast as I could through the busy halls. People turned and watched or maybe even lifted their glasses before returning to their own thing. By that point in the night, everyone knew I was blackout drunk. 

I ran and ran and ran under the pale moon until I reached the far side of the garden. There were more modest and perhaps more drunk people that had migrated out that far away from the house, but they were scarce. I mostly passed people who had passed out in the flowers, couples who embraced on benches, or nervous teens calling their parents. 

When my stomach squeezed and my lungs choked, I stopped running. I violently threw up into the roses, painting their freshly bloomed leaves brown and army green. I wasn't sure of the time at that point, but I knew it had been a couple of hours since my binge drink. The optical effects had worn off, leaving me just feeling deeply nostalgic and melancholy. 

I wandered, more stably, through the garden. I eventually reached an overlook of cement that formed a half Juliet Balcony. Perched there, a boy was puffing slowly. 

I approached slowly and quietly, but the boy still whipped his head around to look at me. Once noticing, he turned back around and took a puff from his cigarette. I watched him. There was a weird feeling dangling in the air. We were both aware of each other's present, but it was like I was invisible to him. Even though I was watching, it was like he didn't care that I was there. Compared to the rest of the night in which I was constantly being forced to know & care about people, the feeling was a relief.

The boy let his legs and limbs dangle over the balcony. His left hand held the cigarette between his fingers. His right leg was bent with his right arm laying beside it casually. His finger tips just barely graced the trimmed grass beside him. His raven hair was uncombed. It was parted straight down the middle with little spindly curls flopping carelessly onto his forehead. He was wearing a pair of black jeans tucked into black boots with a white t-shirt covered by a red flannel. His lips met the cigarette again, the end of it glowing red brightly against the night. 

I crept closer, getting a look at his face. I actually recognized him. "You're Jason, right?" I asked softly, taking another step closer to him almost unconsciously. I looked at his hair once again. There was a rumor that he died it black from red, but the vibrant red was nowhere to be found. 

"How do you know my name?" He asked seriously, not glancing my way and smoking again.

I stumbled. My face started to heat up as I struggled to answer. It was a new experience for me. "Oh, well, I make it my mission to know everyone's names."

"Sounds exhausting," He said nonchalantly, relaxing his shoulders and smoking. 

I crossed my arms over my bikini-clad chest. I would've went to get a shirt, but that would require me to not only go back into the party, but also to unlock a secret guest room without being spotted. 

I continued to stand there, waiting for Jason to start a conversation with me. But he didn't. He just kept on smoking and staring out into the darkness that stretched out in front of my mansion. From what I heard, Jason was a junior at Gotham Academy. He was really smart and athletic, but didn't participate in anything school related. He had never dated any girl for more than two weeks at a time. Apparently, he had come from a drug addicted crime family before being adopted into wealth and status. 

"Does your dad know you smoke?" I said, matter-of-factly. 

Still refusing to look at me, he replied, "he's not my dad." Just to cement his independence, he took a final drag of his cigarette before resting the bud beside him. 

"Oh, yeah, I know that," I mumbled, "but, I mean, Bruce Wayne doesn't seem like the type that would allow for...smoking."

Finally, Jason's eyes slid to mine. I had never noticed the greenness of them. I had seen Jason in the halls before, of course, and heard about him, but I had never really looked at him. "He doesn't."

I chuckled, taking a seat beside Jason. The only thing that separated us was his cigarette bud in all its ugly glory. The cold wind ripped through me, causing me to shiver. Almost immediately, I felt a layer of fabric encircle me. I looked over to see that Jason's flannel had left him and was now draped over my bare shoulders. Neither of us spoke. 

"So, why are you here?" I asked.

"Why? Do you not want me here?" Jason replied, glancing out of the corner of his eye at me.

I coughed. "N-no, I didn't say--"

"Chill out," Jason scoffed, "Stephanie Stratford told me to come."

"Yeah, she's in love with you!" I laughed, thinking of all the nights Steph gushed about Jason, even though she had never spoken a word to him. 

Jason nodded gruffly. "I came here to tell her I'm not interested. But I couldn't find her through all the people so I gave up and came out here."

"Why did you come out here? To smoke?"

"If you want me and my cigarettes to go, I can go."

I reached for his arm, "No, I didn't--"

His phone buzzed. With a look at the screen, I knew he had to leave. "Your dad? Did he find out about the party?" Anxiety rose in my voice, making it quiver slightly.

"Don't worry," Jason jumped from the balcony, "this little party is the least of Bruce's worries regarding me." He started to walk to the back gate. 

Still feeling warm, I grasped at the realized fabric around me. I balled it up into my hand and waved it like a flag over my head. "Hey wait! You forgot your flannel!" 

But he was already gone. 

_________Yay you guys!!! The first part of this story is finally up! Sorry for the hiatus and tbh it'll continue right after this before becoming regular updating again but I hope this tides you guys over for a bit!!! For anyone coming from my Love Birds story, I really hope you guys are okay with this spin off!_____________