The Sweetest Summer

Chapter Sixty - One - Dancing On My Own

Somewhere around eleven, our group of insanely wealthy, celebrity misfits filed into a black car and rode the twenty odd minutes to the warehouse in West Hollywood.

The limo ride was even wilder than the house, with a bottle of Grey Goose being passed around and everyone taking a generous celebratory sip. Well, everyone aside from Ethan that is.

He sat in his long blonde wig and his white dress and rubbed my thigh absentmindedly as he looked out the window. The expression on his face wasn't apprehensive, but it also wasn't at peace either. I couldn't help but wonder what was on his mind.

"Yo, Ethan!" Cameron shouted above the colorful rap music across the limo. He was dressed as a zombie, shirtless of course, covered in blood and guts, and with the most haunting translucent contact lenses in his dark eyes.

Two actresses snuggled up on both sides of him, dressed as his undead sidekicks. I think he had called them Tia and Mia? They seemed nice enough, when they actually took their eyes off of him. Which wasn't often.

"Truth or dare?" Cameron shouted and Ethan rolled his eyes.

"Not this shit again..." He grumbled as I accepted the bottle of booze from...Mia?

"Come on man. Last time was fun!"

"If by fun you mean almost getting arrested for streaking through a retirement community..."

I spewed the vodka out of my mouth a little. "Which one of you did that?!"

"A gentleman doesn't dare and share." Cameron grinned cockily and I grinned back. Those pearly whites sure were contagious...

"Truth." Ethan growled, pulling the bottle from my hand and shoved it toward Tia.

"Hmmmm interesting. You usually always pick dare."

"I'm willing to mix it up tonight."

"I can see that." Cameron motioned the bottle toward me.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I felt my hackles rise up.

"Nothing, blondie." He held his hands up innocently, sloshing some vodka on Mia. "It's just that I've never known Hawthorn to have a girlfriend. Let alone someone to publicly take to a party..."

"Really?" I turned to Ethan who looked like he wanted to deck his best friend.

"Yeah. I mean he usually meets a girl...or two, and takes them home at these things."

My stomach felt like I'd chugged battery acid and my blood thickened. Ethan was really that promiscuous?! And he would barely even touch me...

A nasty mixture of insecurity and doubt danced in my veins until I couldn't bear another second being pressed against him. I shifted my body away from his in the limo as I accepted the bottle again. I took an extra long pull until the liquor burned my chest. The fiery sensation was only half as bad as my dread over my current boyfriend. Hollywood's playboy...

"Are we playing or not?" Ethan growled.

"Yeah." Cameron eyed him for a long moment, picking his poison. "Okay. What gives?"

"That's not a question."

"You didn't let me finish." Cameron accepted the bottle again and pushed it to his pillowy lips. My own head had started to spin a little, and I refused my next turn with pass the bottle.

"What gives with this whole girlfriend thing?"

"Having a girlfriend means dating one person." Ethan smirked as he motioned to the two beautiful women surrounding his best friend. Neither one looked annoyed by his blatant dig, they just sat starstruck by Cameron Betts. I wondered if I wore that same expression when I looked at Eli over the years. The thought was nauseating and I shifted even further away from Ethan.