Message In A Bottle

Oct 29

October 29. 12:00am.

Danielle: hey you up?

-

Dammit. Eugene wasn't texting back. According to what he said, his parents probably took his phone. Danielle sighed.

Shortly after Eugene left, Bree and Alex found Danielle, worried about the missed calls. It turned out they were engrossed in party games and had left their phones on the table. Things got a lot better once the girls helped Danielle reapply her makeup (she was still too embarrassed to face Fred). Their chatter drowned out the embarrassment. Conner came over and surprisingly got along with Danielle as they belted out covers to Disney songs. ("Conner, I remember when Bree caught you singing I'll Make a Man Out of You in middle school." "Alex, please, kindly shut up.")

Despite the pool mishap and Eugene abruptly leaving, Danielle was having a better time than she had expected. Alex was glowing with happiness and quite removed from her usual studious persona at school. Bree and Conner were probably planning to do something reckless (refer to Bree) and stupid (refer to Conner), and Danielle wasn't sure if she wanted to be involved in the clean-up ("No, Conner, I don't think swinging from the chandelier is feasible despite Sia's hit song Chandelier."). And Fred- well, Danielle was trying not to think about Fred. Because it was embarrassing.

Danielle was surprisingly conscious of the fact that she was wearing Eugene's jacket. She did her best not to dirty it and jerked away when someone came too close. Bree, of course, noticed, but wisely decided she wouldn't talk about it in a public space. As the night went on, the teens slowly wore themselves out but the hype continued.

"I need to bleach my eyes," Bree groaned as she stumbled back to the group, clutching Conner's arm for balance. "Just saw someone making out. Blegh."

"Who was it?" Danielle asked at the same time Conner said, "Please never tell me who it was."

Meanwhile, Alex was dipping in and out as she chatted with a wide variety of people. Someone tried to flirt with her, and embarrassed, she retreated— only to bump into Fred. The poor boy who'd been trying to gain Alex's affections took one look at Fred— tall, confident, a hand on Alex's shoulder steadying her— and hurried away. Alex stared after him, confused yet relieved. Fred frowned.

"Was that guy annoying you?" Fred asked.

"Erm, no. It was just kinda awkward." Alex shifted and Fred's hand fell off her shoulder. "Thanks for helping out, but I can handle myself. Well, most of the time I can."

Fred looked oddly flustered, or was it just the neon party lights? "Uh, yeah, sorry if I was being a white knight or something." Before Alex could decipher what that meant, Fred had walked away (escaped?), claiming someone else wanted to talk to him. Slightly confused (but not really bothered), Alex returned to her other friends. The area was still buzzing with energy but less now as everybody grew more and more tired.

"Okay, so maybe staying up past midnight is fun," Alex admitted. "Even though I'll be tired in the morning."

"I would reconsider using the word 'midnight'," Bree dryly supplemented as Danielle absentmindedly began to hum the bridge from Taylor Swift's You're On Your Own, Kid.

"My social battery is pretty drained though." Alex glanced around the area. "Conner? How are you feeling?"

Conner paused to think, and then decidedly said, "I am somehow still hungry."

Bree snorted. "Probably need some energy to replenish all the embarrassing dancing you did on that table."

Conner gasped. "Like you didn't dance with me!"