The Elementalists

47.

My knee-jerk reaction was to get away from him. I managed to suppress it so as not to look odd in front all of these people but I was a bit late. I flinched as we made eye contact.

Still holding my smile, I casually took a step away from, pulling my arm back from his chest. "My bad, I turned too fast."

"Maybe you should slow down a bit." Christopher gestured to my drink with his own.

I rolled my eyes, realising my heart was beating way too fast. "None of your business." I snapped, taking another step back.

He grinned at me, blue eyes glued onto mine. "Fair enough. I'm surprised I hadn't seen you till now. I was just a couple of houses down."

I shrugged. "I don't think I went that way yet." I turned to Sean. "You know where Anita is? I've been looking for her for a while."

Sean shrugged, bored that he wasn't participating in our tense conversation and too drunk to notice that it was for the best. "Francis and her are inseparable. Find Francis, find her."

"And where's Francis?" I asked, stifling an exasperated sigh.

He gave me another shrug, taking a long deep swig as he turned away. "What do I know?"

"Why don't we look together?" Christopher helpfully offered, taking a step towards me. "I think I saw him a while back."

"No, thanks." I started turning away from him. "By the looks of it, seems like even you've had a few."

He'd probably come to party properly dressed with a jacket, and his shirt tucked in. But there was no sign of the jacket, his shirt was untucked and his sleeves rolled up to his forearms. What is it about revealing forearms that makes guys look ten times hotter?

I saw sadness pass through his eyes but he didn't follow me as I turned to walk away. I was running away without any of the speed because I didn't want it to seem like I was running away. Christopher didn't scare me, being seen with him did.

I stopped when I heard my name being called out again. I turned to see a guy Sean had introduced to me earlier in the night waving at me. I stood there, waiting for him to jog up to me.

"Hey Al, what's up?" I greeted easily, managing to pull out his name from the depths of my fuzzy mind.

"You know where Francis is?" He asked, gesturing for me to keep walking. "I'm the designated driver for a bunch of my classmates but I can't find any of them."

"I'm looking for him too. But why so early?" I glanced at my watch. "It's still about an hour to New Year's."

"I know." He nodded, waving to someone. "But I need to make sure they all show up where I've parked the car. They're all probably wasted right now."

"So, Francis and who else?"

"Francis got his own car. I'm looking for Anita." He scowled. "She said she'd need a ride back."

"Right, they're almost inseparable."

"Exactly." He paused to give me a hopeful look. "Help me search for them?"

I threw a casual glance around the garden I was in now. I didn't know how to get out of this. I'd just told him I was looking for Francis too. "Sure." I answered, turning back to face him. "Where do we begin?"

As annoying as getting stuck in someone else's errand was, it was still fun. The two of us constantly stopped to ask people what's up and if they'd seen who we're looking for. Most of them didn't know either, and we ended up getting involved into conversations with the more drunk ones. It got a bit tedious after a point and I was considering suggesting splitting up just so I wouldn't have to look for them anymore. I'll be asking Eric for a lift tonight when he's returning from his friend's house.