Well, it's that time of day again. Party time. And where is this party? At none other than the hottest senior alive Liam Williams' house. Everyone who's anyone is invited to his parties. And if you're not, then you're no one. This was the perk of being friends with Velvet. Well, this was one of them. But that all stopped tonight.

Why?

Let me explain.

It started at around 1 am. Velvet and her friends Summer, Elle, and Dani were already there having fun. They all made their big entrance, and the party began. There was going to be another with them, but she was running late.

Looking around, you see the basics at every party. Dancing, drinking, eating, people throwing items around the room breaking stuff. And yes, that includes the house.

Some were upstairs in the bedroom or bathroom doing...well..stuff. Some stuff that shouldn't be listed. Others were outside dancing in the front and backyard. People were in the pool with and without clothes on, and the others were, of course, taking drugs.

And you may be asking, 'where are the friends you mentioned before?' Well, we're getting to that. Calm down. Now...Velvet was leaning on the wall with her arms crossed next to the back door arguing with her boyfriend, Sam.

This wasn't anything new to her friends, least of all to her. They'd fight over the smallest things and turn them into unnecessarily large wars. If one of them got a little too into their feelings, they wouldn't hesitate to spit venom and cut as deep as possible. That's just from the spats her friends had been present for.

Dani, as expected, was in the corner with a horde of people over by a large table playing drinking games. They crowded the table with cups and glasses of all sizes; some balanced on the edges, and the slight bump would send them crashing to the ground, soaking the matted carpet in several kinds of booze.  He was chugging drinks, taking shots.

Throwing. Them. Back.

With his peers cheering him on as he continued to drink his competitors under the table.

Elle was over by the snack table, practically drooling as she filled her plate with at least two of everything there. What didn't go on her plate went straight in her mouth, making her look like a chipmunk with her food filling her cheeks. Even as her plate was overflowing, she struggled to tear herself away from the spread. Whenever she'd gather her strength to walk away, she'd find herself glancing back at the buffet of sweets. You'd honestly think she was high with how much she was munching.

........
Paige POV
.........

"Okay. Nothing happened; nothing is wrong with me. Just go in and have a good time." I said as I took a deep breath and looked at the house I was about to enter. It belonged to some senior, and he was having a party—a huge one by the looks of it.

There were students all over the place. Heck, I even saw some on the roof. How they got there, I'm not sure, but they better not fall on me. I looked around some more and noticed the front door was wide open. It's time for me to go in. After gathering my courage and taking another deep breath, I walked towards the front door.

But that wasn't that easy. I ended up bumping pretty much everyone, as I tried to get to the door. As I tried to push my way through, I held the collar of my jacket close to me, making sure it didn't show any of the marks on my neck. If anyone finds out, I'll be in more trouble than I am now.

It took forever, but I managed to make my way into the living room. Neon bars lined the walls as the only forms of light in the house, the single other being from the pool area just beyond the patio doors. It was becoming more and more challenging to get my bearings the longer I stood amidst the swarm of my blitzed peers. The heat, the wafting blend of alcohol and sweat, the obnoxious lighting that only had a small range of glow which left the rest of the room dim.

I tried to scan the space for any sign of Velvet or the others but couldn't find them in the sea of people. I could only assume what they'd been doing, but chances are, I'd be right. The party's been going for about 20 minutes by this point, so they're probably all wasted by now. Standing around wasn't going to do any good. I squeezed through a few more people to get over to the patio doors when—

"Paige!" A familiar voice called over the blaring music and other screams. My head darted over, and a breath of relief escaped me. My shoulders eased, and grip loosened on my collar. A girl with wavy blonde hair was jumping behind a group of people dancing, waving her arm until she saw I'd noticed her.

It was Summer. She had a big smile on her face. More prominent than usual for some reason. She made her way over to me and grabbed my hands while jumping up and down. "Oh my gosh, you FINALLY made it."

I took my hands back and said, "You must be drunk." She slowly stopped jumping around, but her smile never left. It was kind of creepy.

"So what if I am?" She said. I was going to say something, but it was no use. When any of my friends are drunk, it's hard to stop them.
She looked over to her side and stole someone's drink.

"Hay!!" They tried to take it back. Still, with that smile on her face, she took a sip of the drink and threw the rest on the ground.

"I'm sorry, did you want that?" She then laughed at the look on the person's face.

They looked down at me, and I couldn't help averting my eyes. Why did she always have to be like this? I mean, she's somewhat tolerable when she's sober, but give her a few drinks, and she's like a demon. The guy sucked his teeth before walking away, and I looked to Summer, who was still laughing.

"Was that necessary?" I asked as she wiped a stray tear. It wasn't even that funny, but of course, this is to be expected. She must've had, what, 7—8 drinks then?

"What, really? Don't worry about it, Paigey, you're too serious." She sighed, still grinning. I wasn't smiling, but she didn't care, or she didn't see but who's to say which it was. She grabbed my hands again, pulling me along. "C'mon, everyone's hanging out over here."

She pulls me to the corner of the room where Elle and Dani were. Elle was stuffing her face and drunk Dani was helping her. He had a drink in one hand and a cookie in the other. I was supposed to help her not eat sweets but I'm too late.

"Guess what?" Elle said with a mouth full of what I can assume is a cupcake since the other half is in her hand.

I signed a little. "Let me guess... I didn't do my job right keeping you away from the evil snacks?"

Elle nods her head. "That's right." She took another bite, finishing the cupcake and said, "shame on you."

"It shouldn't be my job in the first place. Know some self control." I said as I tried to take the mountain of sweets from her grabs. She moved back, hissing at me. "That's what I'm talking about. Look at you." As I tried to take the plate again Dani pushed a red plastic cup in my hand.

I gave him a look that just said... why. "Loosen up a little, Paige." He said with a small, warm smile. And my furrowed brows eased a bit. He's too far gone too. I took it from him and looked at Elle once more to see her glaring at me with her plate close to her chest. I took a seat between Summer and Dani, trying to calm down a little picking at the sleeves of my jacket... until a question surfaced.

Where's Velvet? Didn't she say everyone was over here? I scanned the area to see she was within earshot, generally speaking. She was flirting with some guy. I guess it was finally over between those two, huh. It was about time. She turned to me for a moment and did a double take when we locked eyes. A moment later she grabbed the guy's wrist in one hand while carrying a plastic cup in front of her.

"Paige!" Her voice was kind of slurred. She let go of the guy and handed him her cup before coming around the table and leaning down to give me a hug. "What happened, Bubbles? What took so long?" She asked and after a quick squeeze she pulled away, but still held onto my arms. With a sharp inhale, I slid out of her grip. Her head shifted into a slight tilt as her eye narrowed into a look of confusion and... suspicion...? She'd opened her mouth to say something until Dani put a hand on Velvet's grip and beat her to it.

"So are we still on for the..you know..collage tour?" Dani asked with a smirk on his face.

Tour? It's not a tour it's a freaking frat party.
"Of course." Velvet said as she took something that looked like cards out of her pocket and handed one to each of us. Please tell me these aren't what I think they are. I looked down at the card and saw my photo on it with a fake address, random numbers and at the top it said identification.

"AAAAAWWWSSSSSOOOOMMMMMEEE," Dani yelled as he held the ID in the air. Velvet quickly snatched it back.

"Hay!" Dani tried to get the ID back but she managed to keep it away from him. "Listen to me. If you lose it or get caught with it, I had nothing to do with it, okay?" Velvet said as she looked at all of us. Where did she get these from? As I looked closer at my card it looked so real. It said I was 22 but I'm not. None of us are.

As I studied the card I heard the others agree to what Velvet was saying. After a brief silence between all of us I was pushed.

"What?" I didn't mean to say it with an attitude but it came out like that. "Do you agree?" Summer asked as she looked down at me. Why ask me that dumb question, of course I do.

Velvet then asked, "hay, why were you late coming here bubbles?" Just like that it felt like all eyes were on me. Not just from my friends but from every person in this room.

Calm down. You're overestimating things. Deep breath and think. Velvet has a nose for lies so you can't lie. Stay calm. Stay calm. I looked around at them. They were waiting. Give them something, you fool. With a brief, single shoulder shrug I managed to speak through my drying out mouth as nonchalantly as I could. "I just got a bit held up at home."

I looked around at them again. I knew they didn't really care and were just asking to ask. Honestly, I think if I were to tell them the full truth it wouldn't even matter. Chances are they're too wasted to remember anything I'd say anyway. However, I also knew that while the alcohol brings out the worst in some and erases the memories of others, it also tends to bring out the detective in others. I can't afford to take those kinds of chances right now.

My sights darted over to the guy behind Velvet who was still stood there holding her drink, kind of awkwardly watching everything we're doing. Would he tell on us about the IDs? Did Velvet tell him about this? I wouldn't put it past her in her drunken stupor. "By the way...what happened with Sam? Who's this?" I hesitantly pointed his way, reminding her of his presence.

She turned to acknowledge him for the first time since she came over. "Oh, this is Randy. He's good. I'm hoping I can corrupt him tonight." Velvet said as she pulled him closer.

For some reason I don't get a good vibe from him. But I never did with Sam and she continued to date him. If she likes him she's gonna keep him. I should just keep my mouth shut.

"Is he coming with us?" Elle asked. Just as she opened her mouth, Summer swung her hand in the air and hit Elle's plate of sweets, causing them to fly in the air and then hit the floor.

"Oh no." Summer said, pretending like she didn't do it on purpose. We all know she did. She even confirmed it when she added, "Well at least you can stop eating sweets now." Then walked away.

"Why is she such a bitch?" Dani said as he poured himself more to drink, then took mine and mixed it in his drink.

"It's fine." Elle said in a low sad voice. She looked down at her shirt. I didn't realize before, but some of the icing from the cupcakes got was all over her shirt.

It's not fine. She knows it's not fine. That was so uncalled for but not unexpected of her. Everyone watched Summer go and I could just see the honey-coated wheels of Velvet's mind turning. Once she'd melded into the crowd of gyrating teenagers, Velvet turned to whisper something in Randy's ear.

"We're gonna go~" she sang, taking hold of him once more. She took her cup back, shouting "Later Lad and Ladies~" as she led him through the mob and up the stairs.

I looked back over to Elle who's eyes were glazing over in the neon glow beside her. Letting out a sigh, I pushed off from the couch and went over to her. She looked up at me from all the crumbs and foods scattered on her lap and the cushions. I held out a hand to her and pulled her up, sending the snacks crashing into the carpet. "Let's get you cleaned up, E."

As I took Elle to the nearby bathroom, we tried to clean her up. I found a towel and wet it trying to get the icing off her shirt as much as I could. It was going great until it started to look like someone threw up on her. "Great. This night couldn't get any worse." As Elle said that someone burst into the bathroom.

"Occupied," I said as I continued to try and get the rest of the sweets off her.

The guy chuckled a little, "nice." His eyes weren't matching ours but they were lower.
I looked at the direction he was looking and saw Elles shirt was now see-through. She screamed and tried to take my jacket. I pushed her back. "Give it." She tried to take it again.

"Stop.... why don't you take Dani's jacket?." I suggested. She stopped for a moment. "Where is Dani?"

I looked around the bathroom and noticed the three of us were the only ones here and Dani wasn't. I threw powered at the guy who was still looking at Elle, "Get lost creep." He started coughing and stumbled out of the room now blinded.

"He's probably drinking again." Elle said as she looked at herself in the mirror.

"Let's just go out back. It's hot tonight so it may dry up your shirt." I suggested.

"Fine." With Elle leading we made our way to the pool area. I don't know why, but the party just got a lot more crazy. I saw three people just jump off the roof and into the pool. One person tried to but landed on the table. She looked to be okay, but dang did it sound bad.

They were cheering and chanting for the next person to go as we made our way through the chaos. We had gotten all the way to the side of the house with no sight of Dani, Velvet—or even Summer for that matter. Where the heck could they all be? The humidity was getting so bad that by the time we got back to the front door Elle's shirt was mostly dry.
If I'm being perfectly honest, I was getting so fed up with this place.

The pushing, the shoving, the screaming, the sudden fights, the blaring music—ALL OF IT. It had me seriously contemplating just going home and wondering if coming was, or would even be worth it. We did another lap around the house, whatever we could get to at least. I don't know but at some point we wound up back outside by a tree near the pool.
We were just having some mindless chatter when something caught my attention. Randy. He slid open the patio doors and looked a bit... off?

He was scanning the area when something caught his eye and he went over to the side of the house. I looked over to Elle who was cheering for the next guy to do a flip as he fell in the pool. "Isn't that V's new guy?" I asked. She followed my gaze, but he'd disappeared by the time she'd turned and immediately looked at me with a raised eyebrow. Was I seeing things?

"Who are you talking about?" Elle looked at me a bit confused. I shook my head and watched the next guy jump off the roof. After a few minutes go by I see Summer talking to Sam. Well I guess you can say flirting because she's laughing and touching him a lot. I walked over to them. "Summer, what are you doing?"

She looked me up and down and said, "What? They're done, remember?" She snapped her fingers. "Oh that's right. You came here late. As usual."

At this point Elle stepped between us. "It doesn't matter. Sam and Velvet have been on and off for a long time. You know they will just get back together by morning." Elle was right. They fight the night before to make up the next morning. It's always like that.

"Well... maybe this time it will be different." Summer said as she went closer to Sam.

Sam pushed her away a little. "I'm done with drama for the night. I'm going home."

As Sam walked away Summer yelled, "CALL ME!" And waved at him. He didn't look back or anything, he just kept walking.

Then Elle said, "A slut." I tried to hold on to my laughter. Summer snapped her head back at us with a vicious look on her face. Before she could speak we heard yelling.

By now we were over by the side of the pool closest to the house. When we'd heard the scream all of our heads shot over to see Dani. The light from the pool really highlighted the paleness of his face when he came running to the door. He gripped the door frames, huffing and frantically looking around. When he caught sight of us, he started a sprint towards us. However... because the pool was huge—about the size of a community pool—and people have been doing freaking cannon balls from the roof, and he was wasted out of his mind... Dani managed to get halfway to us before he wound up swerving right. Into. The. POOL.

"Oh god" Summer sighed with a facepalm and all I could do was stand there with my mouth agape.
"What the fuck?!" Elle screamed when he did a hard right into the water. Her expression quickly turned to annoyance. With a guttural groan she said, "Again with this...?"

Everyone is laughing as they watch this go down. After a moment or two he didn't seem to me moving anymore. Is he drowning? Please tell me he's not drowning. I looked around and saw that everyone went back to what they were doing. Not caring about Dani at all. Summer pulled out her phone and started taking selfies. As I looked at Elle she hands me her phone and ties her hair up.

I guess she's going in after him. I would.. if I knew how to swim. Elle quickly jumped in the pool and swam over to Dani. She then grabbed his shirt and with one hand swam to the edge of the pool while pulling him behind her. As she reached the pool I put her phone in my back pocket and helped her get Dani out of the water. He was out... well, his feet were still in the water but everything else was out.
Elle got out of the pool and checked to see if he was breathing and had a heartbeat. He was breathing and had a heartbeat but he seemed to be out cold.

"Shoot... does anyone know CPR? Or something?" Elle yelled but no one cared enough to answer. She shook him but nothing worked. "Dani please." She continued to shake him.

"I know something that might work." I said as I remembered something I saw on tv yesterday.

"What is it.. wait no don't tell me just do it. Wake him up please." Elle said quickly.

I squatted down next to Dani and looked at him for a moment. Please, please don't hate me when you wake up. I held up my right hand and swung it as hard as I could, slapping him across the face.
He jumped up with a sharp inhale and grasped the red spot on his cheek that spread all along where my hand had come in contact with it. My shoulders eased as I let out a sigh of relief.

Dani started to say something but was promptly interrupted when Elle called for my attention.  "Really. Was that the best thing you could think of?"

No. No, not really. Although... I'm not gonna lie. It was the only one that'd make the night worth it.

"I mean, yeah, but did you have a better idea?" She gave me a look that just said 'really though?'

I just shrugged and said, "Well it worked, didn't it?" She rolled her eyes with a scoff.

"Guys!" Dani screamed. We didn't even realise he'd been trying to get our attention. He wasn't even worried about the fact he just got slapped. It was in this moment that I noticed something was off—no—something was really, really wrong.

"GUYS!" Dani yelled, causing all of us to look at him.
"Why are you yelling? We're right here." Summer said as she FINALLY put her phone away.
"What's wrong? Why were you screaming?" Ella asked him.

Dani tried to stand up but forgot he was soaking wet and almost slipped again. Ella and I caught him before he fell. "Thanks." Once he caught his balance he said, "Something is wrong with Velvet."

"A lot of things are wrong with Velvet. First off her name. Who would call their child Velvet," Summer was starting off on a rant but was stopped when Elle blurts out.

"Like being called Summer is better?"
Oh crap I'm in the middle, Literally. I need to change the subject NOW. "What's wrong with her?"

Dani looks like he saw something he wasn't supposed to. "Dani?" Elle took a closer look at him.
He tried to lead the way into the house while sliding a bit. We followed him but didn't get far.

"Omg you're taking too long" Summer said as she pushed her way past us.

"Do you even know what room it is?" Dani asked. Summer didn't answer. "No? Then follow me." We continued to walk. As we made our way up the stairs Summer was complaining again. "Stop making the floor wet. I almost fell."

Does she ever stop—now isn't the time! Dani opened a door towards the end of the hall but the three of them went in first so I couldn't see anything. All I knew was that as soon as that door widened and they took a step inside, they confirmed my fears and deepened my concern. Dani was freaking out, running his hands through his hair and scratching the back of his head. Summer got real quiet as she stood there frozen. Elle's head was moving all over the place and all I could do was hop around behind them trying to see what was happening to my best friend. Why were they all standing there like that?
"I d-I don't know what happened. She jus—I don't..." Dani panicked.

"What the fu..." Elle's voice started as a whisper but immediately turned into shouting "What the fuck! No one thought to fucking do something?!" Summer still wasn't saying a word. I could only see the back of their heads and the beige tiles of the walls.

"What? Guys, what hap—what's going on?!" After her initial paralysis Elle finally moved. She strode over to the tub and my eyes widened. My heart beat faster than it had in my entire life and faster than I think it ever will. It pounded so heavily I could hear it in my mind and feel it in every cell.

V... She was... she was lying in it, stuff all over her mouth and puke all down her front. I...What happened? I could feel water gathering in the back of my eyes and the headache already starting to form. Elle knelt down by a clean section of floor closest to Velvet's face. She pressed her fingers to Velvet's neck to check for a pulse. Her eyes darted around, examining her. What did this? Was she poisoned? Did she do this to herself? How the hell did she end up in the tub? Did someone—

"Paige! Give me my damn phone!" Elle yelled at me, snapping me back to reality. I dug into my pocket and rushed her phone over to her. I didn't know what to do other than watch her call for help. "Come in and close the door!" She yelled at the others and they did as they were told, but wouldn't come but so close to the tub.

"636, What is your emergency?" I could hear the operator on the other end ask.

Before any of them could answer, my breath caught in my throat. I was the first to speak as tears streamed down my face, but it came out as a cracking whisper.

"...She's dead..."
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