Chapter Five

The sun was starting to set and the bonfire was truly starting to come alive. Almost everyone from our school seemed to be dancing, drinking or mingling by the bonfire as the music blared in the background. Some people were jumping in the lake nearby while others spent their time venturing deep into the forest, most likely to hook up.

I was finding a safe yet accessible place to put my bike. My bike was really valuable to me so I didn't want anyone stealing it and knowing that I wasn't really wanted here I didn't wanna take any chances.

Kia didn't want to help find a spot with me and instead ran off to the lake, most likely because she saw Ethan Copper hanging there with his friends. Joey wanted to come along but he was dragged away by a bunch of guys who saw the beer crate in his hands. I couldn't tell if he was relieved or scared when they ripped the crate off his hands and dragged him along with them.

I ended up putting my bike by a tree further down from the bonfire. I took the rope out of basket and tightly tied it around it. The tree was small and could probably be ripped up from the ground easily so it wouldn't be that hard to steal the bike but I'd been walking for ages and I honestly just wanted to have fun and drink the night away.

I whistled, ruffling my curly hair before putting my hands in my pockets as I walked back to the bonfire. I played with my rings, avoiding the people who were dancing by the fire and made my way over to the beer crate.

I cracked my fingers, grabbing a bottle of beer. The bottle was warm, most likely due to the blazing summer heat. The bonfire definitely wasn't helping either. I flicked open the bottle cap and started to chug it down. I grimaced as the warm liquid struggled to go down my throat. I just found it so odd how no one thought it was a good idea to be cooler seeming as they were all rich kids who couldn't stand basic treatment and surely warm beer was on that list somewhere.

Wiping my lips, I looked back down at the beer. Turned off by how it tasted and the feeling of it, I dropped it on the ground and hoped no one noticed.

"Did you really just drop that on the floor?"

Just my luck. I just wanted to lay low and have fun at what was supposed to be this great party yet here I was, about to be confronted by someone who followed in Nicholas Brown's footsteps.

"Yeah, do you have a problem with that?" I answered sarcastically, kicking the bottle between my feet.

"The bottle was half full."

"Actually, it was half empty."

"Pessimistic much?"

"Why do you care?"

"Because you wasted a perfectly good beer."

I chuckled slightly. "It wasn't even that good."

"How do you know? You never finished it." I could tell the person was starting to get agitated. "So embarrassedyou can't even look at me."

"Tell me. What's your problem because," I looked up at the person, "wow."

I always thought love at first sight was a corny thing and just flat out didn't exist. No matter how many times Dad told me he fell head over heels for Ma the moment he saw her, I still preferred to listen to what Ma had to say because she thought Dad was quite annoying but oh my god, was the girl in front of me something else, something I thought only existed in movies.

Her eyes were dark brown, almost black and doe-shaped. Her skin was mahogany brown, clear of any blemishes and imperfections. She just seemed to glow in the setting sun. I felt almost hypnotised by her beauty, I just couldn't look away no matter much I tried to because everything about her just seemed so perfect and perfectly placed it. God clearly spent a lot of time with her.

She shook her head lightly, a soft smile forming on her face. "Cat got your tongue?"

"No!" My voice cracked. I rubbed my throat as I cleared it. "No, eh uh, I'm actually allergic."

She laughed. Her laugh was what I imagined honey sounded like, full of joy and smooth and sweet and just full of happy, glorious memories. "Allergic huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah, my dad once brought one home. I was mess the moment he walked in with it. Sneezing, coughing, blocked nose. Oh it was the worst day of my life."

"Wow, and what happened to the cat?" She asked.

"My dad to give it away to the Harrison's, I dunno some old couple. I still see the evil little thing from time to time though." I responded, reminiscing about the time the cat glared at me when I went to drop something off at their house a couple weeks ago.

"Enough about my allergies though," the girl giggled, "I've never seen you around town before. How'd you find out about this exclusive bonfire."

"Well...you've never seen me around because I just moved her last month."

"It's a small time town, I'm sure I would've seen you around."

She laughed. "Yes! You would've, if yesterday wasn't the first day I left my house."

"Hold on." I said, standing up straight and clasping my hands together, "Yesterday was the first day you left your house?"

"I know it's really bad but I didn't know anybody. I only came to this party because I overheard some girls talking about this huge bonfire event that was supposed to be happening."

"So you eavesdropped on their conversation." I cocked my eyebrows.

"I may or may not have been eavesdropping but I actually got invited to this event." She said, her smile dropped for the first time throughout our whole conversation. "They looked as if they wanted to invite me but we're real cautious about it."

I scoffed. "Some of teens in this town are absolutely terrified by the Browns influence." I leaned down and whispered into her ear. "They're not really fond of us minorities."

She laughed slightly, confused. "Wait you're a minority too?"

"Yup, My mam's Iranian and Puerto Rican and my dads just plain ol' white."

"Oh, so you're basically just seventy five percent white with a little bit of spice."

"Not in their eyes I'm not." I cracked my fingers. "I get treated better by some people."

"Wow, it's nearly the 90s and there really still treating us this way?" She said. Looking away, she scoffed and she rolled her eyes.

I smiled, titling my head to the side to get a better look at her. I was gonna tell her about how Ma' said the exact same thing literally minutes before I left but the sound of Sebastian begging not to be hit and Nicholas Brown threatening to be the shit out of him grabbed my attention.

"It was nice talking to you..."

"Delilah."

I smiled. "Delilah but I need to go and help out a friend."

I picked up the beer bottle from the floor and rushed over to where the scene was happening.

"Oh, okay now he wants to touch the bottle." She mumbled under her breath as she watched me walk away with the beer bottle, confused on what was going on.

"What's happening over here?" I asked and helped Kia push Sebastian behind me to get him away from Nicholas.

It looks quite odd because Sebastian was a whopping six foot four and I barely followed after him standing at six foot one.

Nicholas cackled manically. "Tell your perverted little friend over there to stay the fuck away from my sister before he makes her join his mariachi band of a family."

"What the fuck did you just say to me?" Sebastian said, squaring up to Nicholas.

"Sebastian just drop it." Joey said quietly from the sidelines, not wanting another fight to break out.

"Nah, if he wants to be a racist bitch and say that I come from a mariachi band then I think I have every right to question who the fuck he thinks he is." Sebastian said, eyes filled with pure anger and hatred towards Nicholas.

"Sebastian please, just drop it." Kia begged, trying her best to pull him back.

"I think you should listen to what the wop and the chink has to say though and just drop it." Nicholas said sarcastically.

"That's fucking it." Sebastian threw Kia off of him and me out of the way as he swung at Nicholas.

Nicholas stumbled, holding onto his bleeding nose. He gritted his teeth at the pain. "You're really gonna regret that."

Nicholas punched Sebastian in the gut, making Sebastian bend over in pain. He kneed him in the face and watched as he fell onto the floor. Nicholas took no remorse and repeatedly kicked Sebastian despite our pleas for him to stop.

Without even thinking, I smashed the beer bottle over Nicholas' head. The warm liquid soaked into his hair and trickled a his forehead. I hadn't realised that I'd done it until the whole place went silent when I was rammed onto the floor by Ryland.

The whole thing was a disaster, with me blocking punches from Ryland and Sebastian, who had now gained the upper hand thanks to me, was beating the crap out of Nicholas. Joey had dragged Kia off the side and was holding onto her. It seemed like she was in pain but I could barely tell from how hard Ryland was throwing these punches.

After awhile, Ryland had tired himself out and I was finally able to throw a couple of punches here and there. I honestly could've thrown in more if Ethan Copper and his friends hadn't chased us away with huge sticks.

I had barely got Sebastian off of Nicholas when I saw them coming. I had quickly swooped up Kia in my arms, because she was lagging behind us, and ran away from them as quickly as possible. I caught of the sight Delilah, briefly looking at her as she stared at me disapprovingly before turning away.

I don't know why but her looking at me like that kind of hurted my feelings but I could sulk about it later because my main concern at that moment was to get as far away as possible.

I placed Kia on the seat of my bike, Joey and Sebastian running past me as I did so. I cycled away in no time, the pounding footsteps from the angry mob encouraging me to cycle harder.

I could hear their yells slowly decrease and the rattle of sticks being hurled at the floor. I sighed deeply, not ready for the beat down we were gonna her at school tomorrow and the lecture I was gonna get from my mom.