Moving To Silence

Ten. After The Party Games

"He fumbled the ball; how could you not be mad at him?" Julian exclaims rather loudly while we are sat in the cafeteria for lunch, I would usually be bothered by the amount of noise they are making in a public area. Except the room is already so loud that I doubt anyone cares or would be able to discern their words.

"You're being hypocritical, how many times have you done the same thing, and no one has given you this much shit for it?" Cedric fires back, clearly not into confrontation much like Storm, only us for at lunch today the others are nowhere to be found.

"I'm not the one playing at pro level, Mark should have done better, this is the fourth game in two months!"

"Not disputing that but if there is anything to be pissed about it should be the plays, they weren't thorough and didn't challenge the other team to give them an edge. If QB had his shit together, the whole game would have gone differently"

I nudge Strom for the fourth time in five minutes to try and get him to focus on the essay he is supposed to be working on but with all the football talk, his mind is elsewhere. This is the exact reason we study in his room; he is a good worker, but his friends are his biggest distraction, not even his phone because he needs it to hear my comments.

Storm only replies when I pinch the skin of his bicep and twist, "Ow Nel" He chuckles, rubbing over the skin. "I can't focus here"

I give him a sympathetic smile, as I help him pack away all the reading and writing material, leaning my hand on my folded hands in front of me. My sleep has been erratic lately, no reason I can think of, I think I just have to ride the rough waves until everything calms again.

"Are you coming tonight Nel?" Julian asks, drawing attention to me and all their eyes rerouting and before I can reply, Storm is nodding enthusiastically. He's just proud he managed to convince me.

"How are you still excited?" Cedric sighs, "I like the small one betters, no hangovers"

"Doesn't stop you from coming... or drinking" Storm adds with a cheeky grin.

"It's only because I live there and am friends with you all, anyone else and I would tell you all to get a life, but Aiden would get sad, so I keep it to myself"

"Speaking of Aiden, anyone seen him... or Sutton today?" Julian asks, I pull out my phone to show Storm the text I got from Sutton this morning before class.

"Sutton told Nel she had a paper due but would have it done for the party" He explains, handing me back my phone. "Since when has she left a paper this late?"

"Agreed, very suspicious. Aiden is radio silent as well, which is even weirder cause he is the clingiest mother fucker I have ever met" Julian laughs.

"Could they be together?"

"Nel thinks they could be together, but Sutton isn't known to swing that way" Storm says with a smile, before winking at me as if to say I would be more on her radar than Aiden.

"So, we all agree it's strange?" Cedric questions.

"Definitely, but we will have to wait until the party it seems" Julian sighs, "The mystery is yet to unfold"

I think that Cedric offers an excellent point, going to a party every weekend does make for a very repetitive life, this is the second party in a month for me and I don't believe it will be overly different than the one before. At least this time, the backyard will be open to soak up the warm weather we are finally getting, I am not sure the translation but shorts and... Hawaiian shirts are an apparent necessity.

The boys party is thankfully pretty lowkey and even though I feel on edge I know I am safe; the parties will take a long time to get used too but compared to Northern they are as chill as you can get.