"This... is a small gathering?" I asked as I stepped into the gate of the Hunter residence.

Practically half of the student population was partying on the front lawn. All of them were laughing and dancing and drinking from red Solo cups. Some couples were making out in the corner. Several people were playing beer pong, and I saw one of them run off to puke into a bush.

I shivered.

"Supposedly. I invited, like, ten people over, but my stupid cousin Ryan told everyone about the party as a joke. So, here we are," Finn said over the loud rock music. He was standing beside me, and we were watching the chaos.

I couldn't blame everyone for crashing the party. Again, it was a small town where interesting things rarely happened, so it was expected that kids would crave entertainment like this.

Still, I was horrified.

"My parents are going to kill me," he said with a groan.

"Where are they?" I asked.

"At an art exhibit with their friends in Faircoast. They'll be home by midnight, and I'll have to find a way to fix this mess up before they come home."

I laughed. "Good luck."

"Thanks. I need it," Finn said. For once, Aislin and I had something on which we could agree. I must admit that he looked attractive with his tousled hairstyle and his midnight blue casual shirt that was rolled up at the sleeves.

"Um, by the way... I got you a present." I showed him the paper gift bag that I'd been hiding behind me, and his cornflower-blue eyes widened as he took it. "I-I don't know what stuff you like, but I made you a mixtape with the songs that I think fit your style," I said, alluding to the talk we had in biology class. My cheeks were getting hotter with every word passing through my lips. "Also, I got you a water bottle because you play soccer, and you know... you might need it even though you clearly have a bunch of those already..." I trailed off and sighed, frustrated at my awkwardness. "I'm so sorry if they're bad. I didn't know what to give you. And I'm sorry if I told you what's inside. I ruined the surprise. Okay, you know what? I'm shutting myself off."

I bit my tongue to stop my blabbering.

Finn only gaped at me. The silence between us must've only been a minute, but it felt like a century had passed before he finally spoke.

"Thank you," he said in almost a whisper. "I... It means a lot to me."

"Well, I'm sure it pales in comparison to what others gave you," I replied with an insecure laugh. I imagined his family and friends giving him awesome gadgets or the latest video games or whatever his favorites were, but this imagination flew out of the window when he said:

"No. This is the only gift I got."

"Oh." At this point, my whole face was on fire you could probably fry eggs on them. I didn't know what the proper response to that was because I was too shocked by this revelation, but I asked him, "R-really? You didn't get anything even from your parents?"

He shrugged. "I guess this party? But I had to nag them more than a few times to allow me to have this, so it doesn't exactly count as a gift. They refuse to give me anything now because I have bad grades, so... yeah."

We were quiet for a moment, both of us staring at the ground while the party around us was still in full swing.

"But thank you," Finn said again. I lifted my gaze and saw a warm smile on his face. "I'll bring this to my room to make sure they're safe. Feel free to go around. I'll talk to you later, Autumn."

He jogged away with the gift bag. I exhaled to soothe my nerves and looked at the crowd before me. Here was another gargantuan task: saying hi to people.

After bumping into some seniors and having my foot stepped on several times, I found three girls from my history class whom I thought I could be comfortable with. Unfortunately, I thought wrong. Our conversation went like this:

Me: "H-hi."

Them: "Oh, hey there! I can't believe you came! Isn't the—" (Their voices were taken over by loud music.)

Me (having no idea what they said): "Oh, ha-ha. Yeah. Um... so, how are you?"

Them: "Great. You?"

Me: "F-Fantastic! You?"

I had never sounded so stupid in a social setting.

Eventually, I stopped mingling with people. Instead, I stood near the bushes and watched everyone else. In the distance across from me, Sunny and her friends were hanging out in their glittering dresses that could be mistaken as disco balls.

I had tried hanging out with them earlier, but Aislin ridiculed me by asking if my clothes came with a feather duster because I looked like a cleaning lady. I could've retorted with, "Does your dress come with a mouthwash? I can smell crap coming out of your mouth," but I didn't want to be rude so I walked away.

I bobbed my head to the music and tapped my foot so people would see that I was 'having a good time'. Before long, I gave up and sought refuge in the kitchen. It looked like that of a five-star hotel with a high ceiling and luxurious interior design. A couple of people were hogging the counter, so I waited for them to clear out before I could take my turn and get my share of free food.

To my dismay, nothing was left. Everyone else had taken all the popcorn and chips. At least there was some fruit punch left in the bowl. When I was about to pour it into my cup, someone stopped me.

"Unless you wanna get hammered tonight, don't drink that. It's spiked," Clint said, leaning against the wall and holding his own drink. I was so glad to see someone else I knew that I immediately smiled at his presence.

"Oh, thanks for the warning." I put away my cup.

Clint walked to the counter to check for food and muttered, "Pigs," when he found none. He dug into the pocket of his cargo shorts and fished out a bar of chocolate. "Luckily, I got my emergency snack bar right here."

"Genius," I said.

He broke it and gave the other half to me. We rested our backs against the counter and munched on the food in silence.

After a moment, he asked, "So... where's Clover? I don't see her around here."

"She couldn't make it tonight."

"Is she still moping because Michael got mad at her?"

"Yep. Exactly."

"Give him time. He'll come around eventually." He drank from his red cup and sighed. "She really likes him, huh?"

"Madly, for sure."

"Well, it's easy to see why." Clint scowled. "The dude is a ladykiller, and he doesn't even know it. Man, sometimes it sucks to have a friend who's much cooler and better-looking than you."

I lifted my eyebrow. "So you admit that you like Clover?"

Two spots of raspberry color appeared on his cheeks as he stared at his cup. "She'll murder me once she knows," he murmured.

That made me laugh. It was nice to see someone having an interest in Clover. Her looks could attract anyone, but her moody and bossy nature could send them screaming for the exit.

Clint and I talked some more about her until Nate came by to call him for a game or something. Without anything else to do, I wandered around the first floor of the house—or more like a mansion—until I reached an open room. Everything inside it looked exquisite and comfortable. The chandelier at the top sent bright golden lights across the wide carpeted area.

I was looking at the pictures on the wall when Finn came marching into the place.

"Ah, there you are. Someone told me I'd find you here," he said.

"Hi again." I turned back to the pictures and gestured at them. "So, this is your family."

"Yup." He stood beside me and pointed to a picture of a woman in full academic dress. "That's Fallon, my oldest sister. She's a bank accountant." Next, he pointed to a picture of another woman wearing a crown and a sash and smiling sweetly at the camera. "And that's Valerie. She's currently in her junior year at Dartmouth, majoring in math. Before you can say anything—yes, all the women in my family are good with numbers."

"Impressive," I said. My eyes landed on a photo of a couple in corporate suits. They both looked classically attractive and commanding; their static gazes boring down on me were enough to make me feel smaller than I already was. Still, I couldn't take my eyes off them.

"Your mom looks so pretty," I commented.

"Sure, when she's not mad. So..." Finn paused. "How about your family?"

When I darted a surprised glance at him, he said almost immediately, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

I smiled and looked back at his happy family photos. "Well, my mom is a social worker at the hospital. And... you already know my sister Clover."

"Yeah. She's scary."

"Not always." I chuckled. "She's not here right now because she's had a bad day. Going through some friendship trouble." He nodded in understanding, and I finished my whole story with, "And that's it. All the women in my family are not good with numbers."

Finn and I shared quiet, amused laughter, but there was a pinch of discomfort evident in our tone. Both of us knew it was because I didn't mention my father. In the silence that followed our laughter, the fragments of my childhood played like a monochrome movie before my eyes. The face of my dad in my memory was a smudge now. I hadn't seen his features for so long because Mom had hidden away all the pictures that included him. I tried to quench my jealousy as I stared at the full-sized picture of Finn's family on the wall.

"Autumn," I heard him say, and I blinked back to the present. "Come. I wanna show you something."

I followed Finn to the small piano in the corner of the room. He pulled up the lid, exposing a set of white and black keys, and he invited me to sit next to him on the leather bench.

"You know how to play this?" I asked.

He made a modest smile. "Each chord has a corresponding emotion to it," he said and rested his fingers lightly on the keyboard. "For me, A major—" he pressed three keys and a soft vibration came "—sounds happy."

I nodded and listened closely.

He moved his middle finger on the black key, and the tone shifted lower. "F sharp minor sounds melancholic. G major gives off a passionate and lyrical tone. D major for victory, B minor for patience. Mix 'em all up—" he played the chords and the music flowed like a river "—you got a musical piece full of emotions."

"Canon in D! T-That's Canon in D, right?" I was so amazed that my words came out in a stammer. "Can you play the whole thing?"

Finn snorted a laugh. "Wish I could. I haven't mastered it. Not yet, at least."

"How did you learn this? Was it all self-taught or did you have a teacher?" I pushed one key at a time, and the sound went do re mi fa so la ti do.

"My grandpa taught me when I was young. He's a music aficionado. But he's into classical while I'm into modern music." He started to crack his fingers to prepare.

"What are you going to play next?" I asked.

"Any song. Like a mash-up. You have to sing, okay?" He gave me a persuading look, and I frowned at him.

"I don't sing well."

"And my piano skills are rusty. Let's be terrible together and just go with the tune."

He began playing. When I figured out what song it was, I laughed. It was Lucky by Colbie Caillat and Jason Mraz. We took turns singing. He had a surprisingly pleasant voice. It wasn't that deep, but it wasn't high, either. It sounded just right for him. I had never imagined he could sing.

"Hey, you're good," he said after I sang my part. He was nice enough not to point out that my voice was off-tune.

It was embarrassing at first, but I ended up having a fun time. His fingers happily bounced on the keys, and our feet tapped on the carpeted floor with every beat. We continued singing random songs and laughing, almost forgetting that a party was going on outside. When he hit the last note, the sound faded gently, gracefully, until the room went silent once again.

The soft sound of our breathing followed next, as if the music had sucked out all the air in our lungs. Finn turned his head to me and opened his mouth to say something, but a loud crashing of glasses cut him off.

"Finn! Finn, where are you?" a female voice echoed from the hallway. I recognized it was Aislin's.

"Oh, for God's sake. Not my mom's figurines." Grumbling under his breath, Finn dashed out of the room, leaving me bewildered by what had just happened.