those years between us

[6] PARTY THE NIGHT AWAY

"WHY ARE YOU at a club if you don't even drink?" Eileen asked, one brow raised, twirling around the cup she'd ordered in her fingers. Besides me, Camille smirked.

Lazily, I replied, "For the vibes."

I was rewarded with a glare from both girls. The three of us had occupied a booth at one of the best-recommended clubs in the area. We'd already gone here once a couple weeks prior, and both of my friends agreed that it had the best space. It was crammed with university kids tonight, as it was on every Friday—and, well, Redchester was a university town, so it was hardly surprising. I'd already spotted a bunch of kids from my classes.

Both Camille's parents and mine would slaughter us if they knew we were here. But what was studying in the UK if you didn't head out to a club to party once in a while? Didn't seem like much of a point.

Camille had ordered some fancy alcoholic drink, as had Eileen. I, on the other hand, had asked for a cup of water and was downing it like it was red wine, sip by sip. Eileen had already snorted about a thousand times watching me do that.

But I didn't drink. Never liked it, never saw the appeal. And I didn't feel safe drinking outside of anywhere except my own home (though I didn't do that either). Camille called me a bit too paranoid, but I always thought she was reassured by that fact too. She could get as drunk as she wanted to—I was there to cover her.

Not that we'd had many chances to get drunk before this. We'd hardly ever gone to any parties back at boarding school, since we needed parental permission for that, and neither of our parents would have ever given it.

"We should dance," Eileen murmured.

"Finish your fucking drinks first," I snorted. "Or you're going to have to be throwing those away."

"Fair enough," Eileen agreed, taking a longer sip. "We should find someone to dance with."

Camille glanced at me. "Yo, Salome, is your Korean boy here today?"

I let out a loud groan as Eileen's eyes flickered to me in amusement. Both girls had bumped into Jeremiah, Danielle and Mun-hee a couple times in the past few weeks. They were friends now, but Camille still insisted on dubbing Jeremiah "my Korean boy". It was starting to get slightly embarrassing. But she never called him that to his face or in front of his friends, so I hadn't bothered getting her to stop much so far.

"He is not my Korean boy. And he has a name, you know."

"He's into you."

"He's a fucking flirt. He does it to you too."

"Nowhere as much."

"But he's a fucking flirt."

"Are you into him?"

"No." It was nice, messing around, tossing around coy comments and insinuations, but I wasn't into him. I thought he was attractive and nice and that was the end of that. And I didn't think his interest went further than that either. Which was why I still entertained it so far.

"Pity," Eileen huffed. "If you're not into him, can I take him for myself?"

"You can try," I laughed.

Eileen pouted. "Maybe." She tugged her fingers through her purple hair. "We should find someone to dance with, though."

"I wonder if Dean's here," Camille murmured. But before she could flick out her phone to text the boy and ask, I pressed her hand down.

"Camille. No. If Dean comes, Orion's going to come and then he's going to act like a fucking dad around me. Please god no."

In my few late night excursions in Redchester so far, I'd always made a point of avoiding Orion. A few times I'd spotted him across a bar, and I'd been quick to get the girls out of there and elsewhere in no time. I wasn't sure why I did it.