𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗩𝗼𝗶𝗰𝗲 (𝙵𝚞𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝙱𝚡𝙱)

Track 54 | 𝗦𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁

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The cops showed up. Something about a noise complaint, I guess, which is understandable.

The whole party was pretty much a bust from that moment on. Everyone scattered like cockroaches on a basement floor the moment several adults in blue uniforms swarmed the place with flashlights. Rian literally had to barge into the bedroom Ari and I were in and jostle us out of there quickly. It must've been a strange sight to stumble in on.

The crowd dispersed onto the sidewalk in hordes. We raced down the street, reconnecting with others along the way amid the chaos all around us. Everywhere you looked, a raging stampede of drugged-up, inebriated high schoolers.

Once our group—with the addition of Fiona—reconvened back where we started at Rian's apartment, we all took a moment to catch our breath in the lobby before climbing several flights of stairs.

"Ugh, fuck!" Torrence groaned, clawing at his back like an old man with a cane as he reached the top floor; the last to do so out of all of us.

Rian wiped his forehead as he fumbled with his jangly set of keys, which nearly slipped out of his hands like a stick of butter. The moment he unlocked the door to his apartment, we all tumbled inside.

"Holy shit. Holy shit," Levi rambled endlessly, gripping the sides of his skull and pacing back and forth in a frantic manner. The rest of us finally caught a break; Ari and I took a seat on the couch, Eden and Fiona on the floor, Rian and Torrence in chairs at the table. Levi was too freaked out to sit. "That's f—Oh my god. Oh, God."

"Lev, calm down—" said Torrence, still stretching to ease the pain in his back.

"I'm gonna get arrested. I'm gonna get fucking arrested."

"You're not gonna get arrested, Levi," Rian told him, flapping the collar of his shirt to air out his torso.

"But—what if the cops question people? And they get the names of everyone who attended the party? I—I underage drank!"

Bent over in his seat, Ari looked a little sick from all the running and stair-climbing. And all the drinking, too. And possibly the dick-sucking as well. Thoughtfully, I rubbed his back, hoping to provide at least some sort of comfort.

"They're not gonna do shit, Levi, you think a couple of cops are gonna go out of their way to track down every single kid that was at that party? Like they give a shit about teenagers and their drinking habits? It's more likely the parents get in trouble."

Rian's spiel made Eden consider the consequences. "Shit. I hope Lizzy's okay."

"Yeah, we all kinda bailed on her," Fiona added on.

Rian's brows furrowed at the sound of an unfamiliar voice. He turned his head to Fiona, not realizing her presence until now. "Oh. Hey, Fiona. I didn't know you were with us."

Fiona shrugged and flashed a lopsided smile. "I like your apartment," she complimented, surveying the scene.

"Thanks."

Ari rested his paw on my knee. It must've been his nonverbal way of saying he liked what I was doing to his back, too queasy for words. It appeared we were getting better at reading each other's body language. I continued to massage the back of his neck with my fingers, the action not going unnoticed by Torrence.

"I think Lizzy was still busy processing the whole fuckin' exhibitionist performance in her living room by thing one and thing two over there when the cops started breaking down the door," Torrence challenged, pointing his finger directly at Ari and I when mentioning 'thing one and thing two'.