How hard could it be? • LM / SS

Chapter 73

                         "And they called it
                                puppy love."

"You ready for this?" Allison squealed as she sat forward, sticking her head in between the middle of the two front seats where Jade and Lydia were sat.

"Nope," Jade shook her head, looking out the window to the doom that awaited her. The girls had practically dragged her to the neon party that was being held in Derek's loft. After spending nearly the whole weekend on various ventures down town trying to make sure Max wasn't going to get alcohol poisoning, she'd eventually agreed to come with them.

If the night out itself wasn't strange, the people hosting it were. Lilith, Aiden and Ethan, of all people, were throwing the party. All she had to say was if Derek found out what was happening, they better pray for their lives or run very fast.

"Come on," Allison's heels clicked as she stepped onto the road. She felt surprisingly... confident. She would even go as far as to say she felt hot, which was a new enough thing for her. Linking arms with her two best friends, she dragged them up the steps to the loft, making sure neither to them had a chance to make a break for it. Which, to be fair, if they had the chance to do so, they probably would have.

Lydia pulled the door open, squinting when she was instantly blinded by lights. The music was so loud that she thought her eardrums would burst, while the colours around her started to make her head throb. Well, now she understood why they called it a neon party. Nearly everyone was half dressed and neon paint was spread across their bodies.

Isaac appeared next to the girls, a hand nervously rubbing his neck. God, he didn't really want to do this, but he was already here, so there was no point going back home. "Derek can never know about this."

Jade sighed, wringing her hands together. Screw it. She wasn't going to come to the party and just mope in a corner. Nope. She wasn't gonna talk herself out of it this time. She deserved this. They all deserved this. They deserved the chance to have one night of not worrying about what would happen if they took a second to breathe. "I'm gonna go get painted cause that shit looks cool."

"Face or body?" the worker that was at the stall held a paintbrush in her hand as she sent a small smile to the blonde who was approaching her bench.

"Both," Jade nodded. Why not? If you were gonna do something, you might as well go big or go home. And she wasn't planning on going home anytime soon.

She made small talk with the girl while she carefully painted dots on her face. Taking off her flannel shirt, she revealed a black crop top before moving her hair to the side to let the woman access her back. After finally getting swirls and dots over her back and shirt, she moved through the crowd to the drinks table. "Fancy seeing you here."

"Don't even go there," Max said, laughing as he downed his drink. Noticing the hostile change in his sister's demeanour, he lightly nudged her in the side. "I'm only joking."

"Don't smudge my paint," she rolled her eyes playfully, showing that she wasn't mad with him. Okay, was she slightly pissed off that he was drinking again? Of course she was. Could she restrain him from alcohol? No. She'd tried that and it still hadn't worked. He needed professional help, and even though she could pretend she could handle it all, she couldn't do that. He needed to come to the realisation that he had a problem, and her pressuring him to do that, wouldn't help.

"Max!" Stiles rushed around the corner, grabbing onto the boy to stop himself flying into the table. "Wanna dance?"

The tiniest blush creeped up his neck to his face after realising how desperate he'd sounded. God, he needed to get better at how he delivered his comments. "I- not that you have to, you don't. I just thought you'd want to dance cause, you know, we're friends. Good friends who dance with each other, you get me?"