Somebody Else ✔

The Impala.

Corey.

Edited.

Sam had persuaded us to go to Ava Henriques' party, with promises of free alcohol and the opportunity to formally meet the boys from last night. And I mean, who wouldn't.

My memory of them was just vivid enough to make me interested. Also, she vowed to let me wear her red playsuit, which I had been trying to smuggle out of her grasp since the day she bought it.

Izzy, hungover and remiss, could barely be convinced into a pair of denim jeans, a crop top, and some boots. She yawned the whole car ride there, and refused my offers to do her makeup. Her hair was in an unbridled bun on top of her head, and she had a bottle of Jacks constantly at her lips.

Ava lived a 10 minute drive from Sam, whose house we constantly occupied, so we pulled lots, and Sam had to stay sober. When we pulled up to the house, we saw the party had spilt out. There were people hovering around the cars and on the streets, as Ava had a no drugs inside policy. Sam pulled down the rear-view mirror toward her chest and pushed up her breasts in the white top she wore.

Izzy sighed and opened the door. "I'm gonna say hi to those boys real quick." Sam and I knew them in passing, but Izzy knew them through one of her ex's. The bikie ex who I could grudgingly admit to missing.

Sam had parked on the grass next to Ava's frontyard. She pulled up next to a nice looking Impala, which had me refraining from Supernatural jokes. I struggled across in the heels I wore, and gripped Sam's hand for stability.

"Do you reckon Joel will be here tonight?" I shrugged at Sam's question.

"Probably. Maybe," I said, yawning.

Joel was Izzy's ex. Not the bikie one. The one who had recently came out as gay and started dating a reasonably nice boy by the name of Hugo. It was a peculiar situation. Izzy had found herself facing a lot of criticism from the local population. In their eyes, Joel was the golden football captain, and Izzy was the girl not woman enough to keep him. They thought she had broken him.

Ava's party was a lot more spread out compared to Sam's. It was in her backyard, which was an unruly balance between suburbia and the bush. It was divided between her gazebo and the shed that was converted into a teenage playground. On the patch of grass between the gazebo and the shed, people had set up tents.

"We should get her with someone." Sam's phone and necklaces clattered together as she grasped them against her chest. People stared as we hung around the patio of her house. She had locked the doors and drawn the curtains so no one could vandalise it, like last time.

"Yeah, but who is there?" Even as we tried to keep a level conversation, I could feel people staring. I liked to think it was because of how good we looked, but in reality it was more than likely because we had a bit of a reputation.

"Guys!" Ava shouted, and waved us over to where she stood, on top of the wooden stairs up to the white painted gazebo. With her stood Maddy, Georgie and Bodhi. I rolled my eyes at the latter two and Sam had to physically grip my forearm and drag me, to get me over there.

"Civil, Corey, please be civil." Her lips brushed against my ear, her tone foreboding.

"I'll be civil when they learn to hold their fucking liquor." I hissed back as we came to the steps, and Ava smiled down at us, embracing both of us warmly.

I really didn't mind Ava. She was nice enough, and it seemed to transpire by accident that on the off week Sam wouldn't throw a party, she would. Georgie and Bodhi, however, were already drunk and smelt like a cheap vodka premix when we hugged. I, still reasonably bitter from last night when I had spent most of the night making sure Georgie didn't choke on her own vomit, refused to hug them both back. Over Georgie's shoulder, I saw Sam mouth the word, civil.