Felt So Alive // kennedy brock au

another night on mars

"What's another night on mars? With friends like ours, anywhere is home."

August 11th, 2006
Baxter Avenue
7:32 pm

Brinley had gained a sense of reckless confidence while she was getting ready for the party with Lexi, a jolt of adrenaline rushing through her and motivating her to enjoy the process and simply look at tonight as another night at another party with her best friend in the entire world.

That confidence had lasted her through the getting ready process, as well as the car ride from Lexi's house to the street where this party was taking place.

However, it dissipated the moment that Brinley's green eyes landed on the two-story house where the party was taking place, all of her old doubts and insecurities flooding her at once.

"Um, Lex?" She asked as the two girls made their way down the street from where Lexi's brother had dropped them off, their heels clicking against the sidewalk in unison.

It was only August in Arizona, so summer was very much still lingering in the air and it was at least warm enough to walk down the street without shivering.

Though Brinley was definitely starting to reconsider her decision to wear the dress that Lexi had so gleefully chosen for her.

It wasn't overly revealing, though it did dip into a lower v-neck than she would have usually considered wearing. The material, however, was quite thin and flimsy, and it was causing Brinley to tug at the hem uneasily.

"Hmm?"

"I'm starting to think that this maybe isn't the best idea," Brinley mentions as she twists her hands in front of her anxiously, the house seeming more and more imposing as they drew closer to it.

One of the things that had relaxed her about this particular party was the fact that it wasn't at a football player's house, or even one of the stoner's that John usually hung around with. It was at Jared's.

Brinley had been in the same class as Jared Monaco since the first grade, and he was one of the only boys at school who she didn't feel completely uneasy around. He was genuinely one of the friendliest people who she had ever met and she had no doubt that he could have befriended a cactus if he were so inclined.

"Oh no, you don't!" Lexi responded quickly, her arm looping around Brinley's at the exact moment that the blonde started to slow her pace down, effectively dragging her towards the house, "You are not walking away!"

"Lex, this is stupid," Brinley huffs as she tries to extract her arm from the other girl's hold to no avail, "He's not gonna even notice that I'm here."

"He will when we're standing right in front of him," Lexi fires back at her, tugging her along as they climbed the stairs of Jared's front porch.

The ground was thumping with the vibrations of the bass music that was running out of the house, with people spilling out of the house and hanging around the porch and front yard, red cups scattered amongst them.

"You can't force him to talk to me!" Brinley hisses back at her, mortification evident in her tone as the two girls step into the house.

"Brin," Lexi says sharply as she turns to look at her best friend, honesty and seriousness emanating from her coffee-colored irises, "I wouldn't be forcing him to do anything. I saw how he looked at you, okay?"

"Was it the same way that psychiatrists look at mental patients, by any chance?" Brinley manages to quip back at her, though she's at least stopped trying to tear herself out of Lexi's grip.

Confident that the blonde isn't going to turn around and hightail it out of the party, Lexi releases her grip on her best friend and instead places her hand on each of her upper arms.