Atlas Grove, once a dancer with dreams of dancing under the stars, now lives petrified in the shadows of abuse. To escape her living nightmare she must keep her head down and work hard, being her senior year this is her last chance to get out. Altho...
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Leaving the kitchen with Emily hanging onto my side and Vixxie, more shuffling beside me, we weave through the couples making out on the edge of the dancefloor and push through into the centre.
The boys had left the kitchen to start a game of beer pong and we all decided to go dance in the hot sweaty bodies that move in time to the music. Surrounded by tree-like people I feel like a frigging ant, the heat is stifling but thanks to the liquid courage I managed to swallow during the intense game of Jenga, I feel slightly more relaxed. Emily grabs my hands and we dance about in the array of disco lights screaming the lyrics to Take You Dancing by Jason Derulo.
I feel alive when I dance, whether that's at the barre or in a crowd of drunk teenagers who don't know their left from their right. My blonde hair sticks to my damp neck as I shimmy my body to the melody, laughing and singing with my friends, every problem, big and small just evaporating from my mind as I relax into the music.
At some point, I feel a tug on my arm and Emily shouts in my ear, "I need to pee, come with me?" She carries on bopping about in her heels, I nod at her, taking her hand as we push back through the crowd which is considerably difficult when there's no six foot- five guy to protect you.
She tugs me up a large wooden staircase and along several corridors where small groups are congregated or couples are sucking each other's faces. I don't even want to know what's going on in the numerous bedrooms scattered about these halls. I shiver thinking I could literally be stood inches away from a couple having sex right now.
"This house is massive." I giggle walking alongside Emily, who is wobbling slightly in her silver sequined heels, I link my arm through hers and she smiles warmly, her eyes have that boozy glaze to them making her eyelashes look even fuller. She only had a touch of makeup on, a bit of highlighter on her cheeks and some eyeliner added with a few brushes of mascara. Her skin was flawless and had a gorgeous honey glow to it.
"I'm really... h-happy we're freindss A-atlas... you're such a great person." She says, stopping abruptly and taking me off guard wrapping her arms around me.
"I'm happy too." I smile into her cinnamon smelling hair which sits in fuzzy bouncy curls on her back. She draws away and opens a door on my right, it opens up to one of the biggest, modern bathrooms I've ever seen. I've read in books about house partys where the ques for bathrooms are long and tedious but it seems Emily knows one off the beaten track. She hands me her phone and instructs me to stand outside the door, which I do, admiring the abstract painting on the wall opposite that probably cost at least ten times my monthly wages.
A few minutes pass and the bathroom door springs open, Emily practically falls out and I manage to catch her before she hits the floor. We both fall against the wall in a fit of giggles, passers-by giving us the most obscure looks. Once our laughing fit subsides I lug her back downstairs, past the den where I can see the boys playing an intense game of beer pong, we linger in the doorway for a bit, watching Brady wobble when he tries to throw the small ball into one of Ethan's cups, he misses obviously and his partner (some blonde girl from our science class) pouts seductively at him, for a football player it's kind of disappointing but considering his alcohol consumption I'm not surprised. On the other side, Carrie is leaning against Ethan as he sinks a perfect shot into one of Brady's cups, she gives him a high five, her eyes glassing over as he engulfs her in a hug instead.
