Payne's Hollow

I6I Girls' Night Out.

"Remind me how I let you talk me into this?" Carly said, putting on her best scowl as she glared at the back of David's head.

"Let's just say I'm very persuasive." David replied, glancing at her with a smirk through the rear view mirror.

"If you call spamming me with texts and calls persuasion, then sure." She grumbled. She contemplated on smacking David across the back of his head just to show how annoyed she was with him, but decided not to. Mark was in the driver's seat next to him, concentrating on the road ahead. The darkened roads very perilous, metal rails separating them from sheers drops on one side and woodland on the other.

"I don't see what's the problem with inviting you to a party." David said.

"I had studying to do. Do you have any idea about the amount of homework I have?"
David shrugged. "A little fun never hurt anyone, especially not a grouch like you. Sheesh, you're so uptight. "
"You're so uptight." Carly mimicked David's words in a high pitched voice, crossing her arms and sinking into her seat between Ashley and Bethany.

"I heard Evan Sanders arranged for a band to perform at the party." Ashley piped up as she stared into her compact mirror, fixing her eyeliner.

"Who cares, as long as they've got beer, I'm down." David nudged Mark in the side, grinning impishly.

"As if you two need alcohol." Bethany said with a smirk. "David, if I recall correctly, you almost got arrested last time for stealing an officer's horse, then riding through people's gardens singing 'Yankee Doodle' at the top of your lungs- in your underwear, I add."

David's ears went red and the rest of the gang snickered in amusement. The car turned into a parking lot lit by the yellow glow of street lamps, cars and jeeps taking up every available space. There were teenagers from their school idling about, making their way to the park gates.

The group followed after the tide of chatting teens, coming onto an arrangement of wooden benches around a roaring bonfire. Pop music blasted out of the speakers and many silhouetted shapes wove to and fro to the beat. Some hovered around the food table; plates piled high with pizza and hands clutching multiple beer cans. Some were already drunk, chugging down cans of beer as if it were nothing more than lemonade, raucous and drunken laughter intermingling with off key singing and lewd catcalling. Some wasted teens had wandered onto the dance floor, flapping about and giving the impression of being animated noodles. Those who did not seem keen to engage in the fun had retired to the benches around the bonfire, exchanging brief conversation, roasting marshmallows and just fiddling with their phones.

"Selfie!" Ashley squealed, grabbing an unwilling Carly, sandwiching the girl between herself and Bethany. Carly gave the camera a strained smile, glad to be released from her friend's vice like grip as she busied herself with selecting a good filter.

"What shall we do?" Bethany asked as Ashley pulled Mark onto the dance floor. While David began to stray to the refreshment's table .
"For starters, get away from David." Carly commented. "I do not want to be involved in any drunken mess he gets into this time."

Bethany chuckled and looped her arm through Carly's, the two of them choosing to pull away from the party and onto the path that circled around the area, talking and laughing and generally poking fun at the people around them. They were never quite alone however, since there were teenagers loitering about well away from the party. Most of them were couples seeking privacy, hastily retreating into bushes as Carly and Bethany chanced upon them.