Play No More (Player Next Door sequel) ✓

62 | Stargaze

This 'chapter perfect' banner came from the talented kriti.kachaturvedi. 

Chapter 62: Stargaze

Tell me I know what a party is. Tell me this is not a figment of my imagination.

We rolled up to the venue, staring at it from behind the tinted windows of Chad's chauffeur driven vehicle. It slowed down as we landed in a line behind two stretch limos.

"Is this Atlantis?" I asked, thinking it looked a lot like the photos I've seen of the famous hotel.

The light on the towering mansion made the walls look like they were golden, flickering from time to time. Guests walked up the front steps, wearing the most glamorous outfits I've ever seen. Some were elegant and others were outrageous.

They were treating this carpet like it was the Met Gala.

"Where do people even buy clothes like that?" I asked, staring at a woman wearing an ostrich outfit wrapped around a small part of her body.

"Is that an ostrich?" Cearra asked, pressing her face against the window.

"It can't be," I said, rolling down the window so we could get a better look.

We were both pressed up against the window that, when the doors opened, we almost fell. Men in purple suits and matching top hats escorted us out of the car. So much for a graceful entrance.

I glanced back at Luke and he laughed. Not exactly sensitive, but hey.

Handsome, hot Luke whose hands kept finding a way to touch me. And mine to him. We walked up the carpeted steps together and I felt like his confidence was rubbing off on me.

I let my hand rub up his arm, feeling the muscles tense slightly underneath his shirt. His jaw locked. 

We were checked off the guestlist and entered into... an open space.

There was no ceiling. And no people. In front of us was a massive black pool that matched the black sky overhead.

The walls were made of cobbled stone, painted gold that matched the tiles we walked on. Music was still reaching our ears, though I didn't know where it was coming from.

"Let's gooo!" Austin encouraged, having enough energy to spread across all of us.

Uh. Where?

We followed him around the edge of the pool, since he looked like he knew where he was going.  He was moving his hands to the sound of the music.

That's when I saw that the wall on the other end of the swimming pool was not one wall – it was actually two, one staggered behind the other.

Each wall was about half the length of the room, so that when one wall ended, the other began. One wall was staggered behind the other, which left a space in between.

It's a mind trick. Imagine having this much space in one's home that you can have a whole room dedicated to a mind trick. I mean, what else would they do here? Stargaze?

We walked through the two walls and found another door. The party exploded the moment we pushed that one open.

**

A cover band was playing on a silver stage and the outrageous outfits combined on one dance floor made an incredible blend. I felt like I was tripping.

"Let's eat so we can roll out," Chad said.

"What?" Cearra asked, staring at the party around us and wondering why we would ever want to leave, "This isn't where we're spending New Years'?"