Best Served Fake

three // betrayal is super kinky

"Have you seen Sydney?"

I could barely hear Cora over the thumping music and the rowdy crowing of the soccer boys playing beer pong in the next room. Cora's hands were shaking slightly, a sign that she was particularly frazzled. More so than usual.

I unstuck myself from the kitchen wall, where I had been chatting to a deeply upset and drunk Joshua Greene, to lean closer to Cora, careful not to spill my drink. "Sydney?" I yelled back. "I don't think so, why?"

Cora bent down to my level to speak straight into my ear. I plugged the other side with my finger, blocking out the ambient noise. "I haven't seen Syd in an hour, and I'm worried."

"She's probably following Kai around," I said with a shrug. "Let her live her best stalker life."

Cora shook her head. "Don't you remember? Tommy said that Kai isn't coming tonight, so she's not with him."

Memory, actually, wasn't currently my forte. I blamed vodka. She was a nasty little bitch, even though I did love her. She made my head spin and my eyes blur, but she also made me fun. Even though I was mildly intoxicated, I knew Sydney like the back of my hand. Most of the time, the best course of action was to just let Sydney be Sydney. She could go ride a wild boar or proclaim herself Queen of the Western Suburbs or decided to fight a car, and it's not like I could stop her even if I did find her. I wasn't her mother.

But Cora looked at me pleadingly, as her eyes were such a vivid blue. "Can you help me find her?"

I loved Syd—she would always be my best friend, my number one, the first person I texted with drama or gossip or problems—but it was a little bit tiring that every party involved some rendition of this conversation. I knew that Sydney found Cora's overbearing nature frustrating, but it wasn't all that hard to send through an update occasionally, really. Mobile phones existed. Besides, Cora and Sydney were supposed to be friends; an update would ease Cora's mind, and Sydney should just check her goddamn phone.

Sydney was always disappearing; admittedly, it was usually to follow Kai from room to room hoping to finally garner more than a few moments of his time. I was just dancing the same dance as I had a hundred times before.

I sighed, my hands immediately reaching for the golden T necklace that rested at the base of my throat. "I actually haven't seen Tommy in a while, either. We can go find them both."

Cora smiled. "Thank you so much."

I downed the remainder of my vodka pineapple in a single gulp, wincing, and quickly apologised to Joshua Greene for cutting our conversation short. Secretly, I was grateful. We'd been talking about his boyfriend drama for twenty minutes, and he was too drunk to remember any of my incredible advice. Before I'd even finished mouthing my goodbyes to Josh, Cora was grabbing my arm and dragging me into the crowded living room. 

The living room was truly a scene. Some of the basketball guys were drawing a penis on a sleeping girl's forehead, while her best friend was chugging from a bottle of vodka as if it were water after a long hike. Jack Heath, the host, was standing on the dining table with a dildo in one hand and a newspaper in the other, whacking people on the head with one or the other depending on how much he liked them. His girlfriend Rebecca was throwing miniature pies at his head.

Surprisingly, Sydney was nowhere to be seen. This kind of thing was usually her scene, and she usually she would be dragging me to the most visible spot in the room to dance seductively for the pleasure of the crowd, and, most specifically, Kai Delaney.

I didn't like to steal her spotlight—or even nudge the very edge of it with my pinky—so while Sydney went for all out sexy dancing like she was a stripper who needed to pay her rent, I generally went more for Hugh Grant in Love Actually.