ON A MISSION

Chapter 18- Sticks and Stones

"You're sitting in my chair."

"You literally got up an hour ago."

Nataly rolled her eyes, hearing Arthur and Tate, the owner of the house, argue. Somebody dig her grave cuz this party was literally boring her to death.

It had only been 15 minutes since Nataly and her friends had returned inside, after taking the trash out. Literally.

Tiff was gorging on the food. Ruby was getting drunk on cheap beer. Jaz was smoking a joint, while eyeing some guy on the dance floor. And Soy, was too busy live streaming her boyfriend trapped in a trash can with a hundred roaches on YouTube.

"I got up to get a drink, which was your job." Arthur almost spit in Tate's face. "If I knew you were gonna fuck this party up, I wouldn't have asked you to throw it."

Tate was a tall skinny guy with green hair. His entire face was covered in piercings. All Arthur really had to do to hurt him, was pull one of them.

"You didn't ask me to do shit. Penelope wanted me to throw this party." Tate huffed, getting up from the chair. "Get fucked in your stupid chair."

Nataly's head snapped up. "Penelope? As in Williams?"

"Penelope as in the bitch who was supposed to fuck me an hour ago." Tate downed the rest of his drink and walked away.

Nataly and her friends looked at each other, equally vigilant. It was like they all shared a brain.

"I'm on it." Jaz jumped up from the couch.

It was so dark and Jaz was so high that she almost fell on her face, if it hadn't been for Penelope's seriously tacky holographic dress that was gleaming like a spaceship. Actually, it looked kinda cool when you had ingested so much marijuana in your system.

She dragged Penelope off the dance floor and to the happening little corner, where her friends sat.

"Here's the bitch." Jaz shoved Penelope forward.

Penelope lost her balance and landed straight on Arthur, who was just in the middle of telling a story to his friends.

"I lost my pants but I found myself-Goddammit!" Arthur spilled his drink and pushed her away to get up. "I knew Tate was gonna pull some trick like this. That motherfucker!"

"What is wrong with you guys?!" Penelope screamed as Arthur stormed off.

"It's time for your last order." Nataly spoke up.

"But I've already-"

"Fooled Tate into throwing this party?" Nataly cut her off. "Figured as much. What's your motive this time, Penelope?"

"To be your friend." Penelope said, her face suddenly pure as an angel. "Remember this time, two years ago? It feels like just yesterday when we were having a sleepover at your house."

Nataly blinked, recalling. Penelope, Mia, Ruby and Nataly were curled up in her bed. They had just put on a movie, when Nataly's parents started bickering. Nataly was so embarrassed. This was the first sleepover that she had ever hosted. Usually, they would stay at Mia's house which was only occupied by her mother. Or they would hole up in Ruby's house and hang out with her older sister. Or they would spend the night at Penelope's, being interrupted by Zac's annoying teasing every five minutes.

Nataly knew everything about their families but they didn't have a single clue about hers. To her, opening up felt like standing barefoot in the ocean on a chilly day.

Cold and uncomfortable.

"Do they like, fight all the time?" Penelope had asked, hesitantly.

"Maybe they are trying to spice up their love life." Ruby had said. "I read an article that said fighting makes couples horny."