Golden Boy

O N E

(A/N: This is revised to go along with the prologue. Again, the original comments will no longer make sense.)

The festivities of last night were evident all over town the next morning. Random pieces of costumes were discarded on front lawns, beer cans rolling down the street, candy wrappers on every corner, and a slight haze in everyone's eyes as they tried to get through their hangovers on Friday morning.

The majority of students moved at a slower pace and talked in hushed tones with their friends. Gossip about who blacked out the night before, who threw up on the hood of a car, and who slept with who was going all around the school.

I leaned into a conversation between two sophomore girls in front of me in the line for the bathroom, trying to catch some of the gossips for myself. "I was hoping to see Jace in his costume this year," said the taller girl with mascara smudged under her eye.

"Same. I heard he was going as Brad Pitt from Fight Club and that he was shirtless for the majority of it," the other girl sighed, rounding her back down. 

"I wonder where he was hiding. I was at his party from the beginning to the end, and I never got a glimpse of him. I'm so jealous of everyone who did. I bet he looked insanely hot."

Two stalls finally opened up, so I was saved from hearing the rest of that conversation. Of course, everyone was obsessed and talking about Jace as if he was some sort of celebrity. He's the only one who would think that being shirtless and bloody was a good costume. Suddenly I wasn't too upset over missing my last Halloween night in high school.

I slammed my locker door shut and watched as a group of hungover students livened up at the sudden presence of Jace Mason. They congregated around him at the end of the hall, patting his back and exclaiming how awesome his party was.

"I didn't see that man once at his own party. Isn't that weird?" Cami asked as she suddenly appeared beside me, referring to Jace as she opened up her own locker.

I slowly turn to face her; eyes squinted in confusion. "Actually, that is really weird because you're like the third person I heard say that today."

"Really? I thought it was just me? Everyone else is talking about how hot he looked dressed up as Brad Pitt."

"I guess it must be a weird fluke then," I shrugged. "How was the party? Did I miss anything?" I asked, unsure if I wanted to hear her version of Halloween, considering that I was already feeling a major FOMO case.

Cami released a breath and closed her locker door with a little more gusto than usual. "It was fine. I wish you had been there to help me lock down Dave since you're the best wing woman ever, but other than that failure, it was fun."

"It's alright. You can say you had the best night of your life. I know that Jace's parties are always the talk of the town, and we finally got invited to one, so go ahead and tell me everything about it."

Cami's head shot up, and a smile brightened her face. "Oh, good! I didn't want to make you feel like you missed out, but it was insane! There were so many people there, but everyone was actually having a good time. People were dancing and having mini-competitions in a circle like they do in the movies. There was this wild energy in everyone that made it easy to be yourself. I drank a lot but didn't feel sick or anything because there was a ton of water being passed around. It was like the best water too, especially after all of the dancing, it tasted heavenly. I couldn't stop drinking it. I think I had like three bottles of that water last night. It's probably why I don't feel as hungover as everyone else seems to be."

"I've never heard someone praise water like that before."

"Yea, it's weird. I normally don't drink that much water, but something about those just hit the spot. I'm sure they were spiked with something and I just couldn't tell." She looked off in the distance, probably considering how the water was spiked, but then refocused her attention onto me."Anyway, how was your night? Finally finished that Geography paper?"