Chapter 05- The Lawrence Brothers' Party (2)

The Day of the Lawrence Brothers' Party 

Alex's POV 

I heard the sounds before I could see the lights.

It wasn't like anything I've seen before. 

There were at least three or four rows of cars in front of the house; which looked almost like a mansion. There were so many people in the backyard that my stomach dropped.

I wasn't ready for this. 

"Everything alright?" Maddy looked at me sympathetically.

I felt guilty having Maddy babysitting me just because I wasn't equipped with a little bit of confidence. She's a beautiful and smart gal and she deserves to have some fun.

"Of course!" I give her my best cheeky smile.

Tanya has already abandoned us and sprinted in the direction of the backyard.

I try to scan my surroundings and holy moly, they have a bar.

"Surely, they're just serving fruit punch in there?" I joked.

Maddy looked at me and deadpanned, "No, of course not. You'll have shots of tequila in front of you even before you ask."

I think I need to leave this party. 

Aaron's POV 

I try my hardest not to listen to Kieran and Sebastian's constant bickering and keep my mind sane throughout the drive.

We finally reach the spot and I'm almost blinded by the lights coming from the party. 

Sebastian observed, "They really overdid it this time, huh?"

There was some tone of resignation in his voice. He was probably wondering what Tanya was going to throw at his face next. Honestly, this was good; if it meant this party will finally push him off the edge and he'll get rid of that good for nothing girl, once and for all. 

"Thank you for the ride, I'll be seeing you at sunrise." Kieran declares and runs off.

"Well, if you have nothing to do at this party, Sebastian, would you be generous enough to keep an eye on our friend?"

"That's out of my jurisdiction." Sebastian scoffed.

"Just this once, please," I pleaded. "You need to check on him once a while so that he doesn't kill himself, accidentally."

"Wait, I thought you always volunteered to do that, what's different today?"

"I have a … previous engagement." I hope I didn't stutter on that last part.

Sebastian sighed, "Listen Aaron, stop scaring that poor girl out of her wits; she's a nice person. And I assure you Tanya has no effect on her; in fact they couldn't be more different."

I know that. Alex doesn't even remotely resemble Tanya; and that's what got me curious about her most. I've seen her, here and there at school and she seems to be glued to her. Why is that? There's no way that she doesn't know what her friend is up to. She's a smart girl; she probably figured things out even before me. So I wanna know, why does she choose to defend her? What's in it for her?

I want to stare at those hazel eyes and listen to her explanation…for eternity.

God, I've lost my mind.

All of this is an excuse and I just want to see her again. But Sebastian doesn't get it; I don't wanna scare her, I want her to look at me and give me her undivided attention; just like she did back at the cafe. 

"I promise you, I won't scare her," I cross my heart.

Not that she'd be scared of me anyway.

"You need to be civil and don't bring up anything related to Tanya, she's got nothing to do with it." Sebastian replied.

"Sure."

Sebastian looked at me and said with an amused expression, "It's funny you're giving so much attention to someone. It's weird."

I know, buddy, I know.

Alex's POV

"Anything else for you ladies?" The bartender hands out two glasses to us.

"No, that's all." Maddy receives the drinks graciously.

He doesn't look remotely older than us; in fact everyone around us at the bar looks underage. It makes me wonder how many police cars it would take to accommodate all the underage people drinking at this party.

"Just let loose, don't think about breaking the law," Maddy chirps and hands me a glass, "Here."

I want to assure Maddy that I'm having the ultimate fun of my life, but being the daughter of an official, law is all I think about. I'm constantly counting the penalty money for the rules I've broken since yesterday afternoon. It's about 1500 USD in penalties alone, and maybe a warning from the juvenile detention center.

Instead of overheating my brain for calculations, I try to focus on my drink.

Maddy ordered two Long Island Iced Teas.

My first thought was, the name of the drink doesn't sound remotely alcoholic. But when the bartender started to pour the contents into the glass, it made me wonder if there was anything else besides alcohol in this drink. 

I have a peculiar relation with alcohol. My parents have an abundant supply of all kinds of wine, whiskey and tequila on display in their offices. I have had more than enough opportunities to explore and even get drunk; not that my parents would notice or care.

Throughout the years, I've read the labels and opened the bottles of alcohol by twisting the corkscrew; which I'm excellent at; I would take a sniff or have a tiny sip, just to soak the taste in, and then proceed to immediately put the bottle back on the shelf and sprint out of the room in disgust.

I detest the taste or smell of any kind of alcohol.

But something compelled me to explore and see just what exactly was making my parents act horribly towards each other.

I was very observant towards my parents when I was a child; I had hopes that maybe their excessive drinking and violent behavior were somewhat connected and therefore, if I figured out what was in those magic liquid bottles, I would be able to revive my parents back to their kind and considerate selves.

A fool's wish of course. 

Meanwhile, Maddy has finished half of her drink and I haven't touched mine yet. 

After all that discussion about the varieties of alcohol I've come across, one may think I'm some kind of wine connoisseur; but the truth is, I've never been close enough to bars to know the difference between drinks. 

"You'll be alright," Maddy chuckles, clearly seeing my distrust and distaste towards the drink in my hand, "Everyone feels a bit weird when they have their first sip, you'll get used to the taste."

I don't want to shatter Maddy's perception of me, so I close my eyes, scrunch my nose and take a big gulp. I immediately feel the burn and contemplate that I should've taken a sip.

"Easy girl!" Maddy is now laughing and through my blurry vision, I see her face…and a face behind her, I don't want to see.

It's Aaron. 

Aaron's POV

Well, looks like she's having a nice time. 

But here I am, babysitting Sebastian. 

As soon as we entered the party, Sebastian started looking for Tanya and unfortunately, found her right in the middle of a group of guys.

This was probably his last straw. 

As for me, I was patiently waiting for my turn to talk to Alex but out of nowhere, Sebastian came and snatched the drink from my hands and downed all of it at once.

It's been half an hour, he's been crying and drinking. 

"How could she do this to me? What did I ever do wrong?" Sebastian's voice croaked.

I probably haven't seen my friend this emotional since he lost his favorite toy in kindergarten. Sebastian needs me right now; but gosh I'm so pissed that Alex is getting away from here right at this second too.

"Hey man, pull yourself together. You can't be seen drunk crying here." I try to ease him, but I don't think he's going to hold up. 

"Sebastian!" Kieran had to enter right at this moment. "You wouldn't believe where your bitch is hanging out at!"

Kieran has a habit of talking before reading the room and Sebastian started to bawl out after hearing that.

God, I could kill Kieran right now.

"As you can see, I think he saw her." I give the death-stare to Kieran.

Instead of looking guilty, he starts to snort and scoff, "Well, good riddance to him right for trusting that wench."

Just exactly how much did you drink already?

It looks like Alex already noticed me and she was uncomfortably shifting away from me. And here I was, stuck between two drunk bastards.

I have to do something.

Looks like I have to abandon ship.