Chapter 13

  

“Mel, you made it!” Tristan smiles and gives me a tight hug.

“Um, hello? We’re here too,” Ollie waves his hands in front of him. Tristan chuckles and was about to give him a hug but Danny pulls Ollie to him by the waist.

Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Where are the drinks?” Chloe asks Tristan and he chuckles.

“Follow me,” He says and gestures for us to follow him.

We make our way through the crowd. Some were dancing, some were sitting on the couch, some were playing games, I quickly stopped observing the surroundings when I felt a hard grip on my wrist, causing me to stop walking.

“There you are, I’ve been looking for you,”  

“Ace? What? Why?” I quickly ask, confused.

“Just-, nevermind damn it,” He sighs in frustration and I laugh.

“You’re so weird today,” I tell him and chased after Chloe, still chuckling.

Ace’s POV

I wasn’t supposed to go to the stupid party.

Damn it, Tristan.

Damn him for being such a jerk. Damn me for befriending that jerk.

Damn Mel for making me like her.

I can’t just let Tristan get his way with her. Especially with her.

I took a bath to calm myself down, it hardly worked. I wore a plain black shirt and then ripped jeans, it was the only clean pair that I have so I didn’t have a choice.

“Where are you going?” Ally asks.

She was sitting on the couch watching cartoons on tv. It’s 5:30, Mom is still at work and comes home at 6, they said the party starts at 7, but knowing Tristan, they’re probably getting drunk by now.

Always so extra.

“Do not leave the house okay?” I tell her.

“And you can?” She snaps.

“Please be cooperative,” I sigh.

“You’re the one who’s not cooperating, you didn’t even answer my question.”

Are all 7-year-olds like this?

“I’m going to a party, Mel’s there,” I say, not entirely knowing why I mentioned Mel since it doesn’t really help the situation. 

“I’m telling Mom,”

“Sure, whatever, just stay here and don’t leave alright?” I’m used to it.

“Of course, Mom bought ice cream yesterday, so I won’t go to the shop for at least three days, plus the cartoons I’m watching is getting to the best part, so leave now and stop distracting me.”

I sigh in relief. Although I’m starting to regret wishing for a little sister.

I get my car keys and my phone, and locked the door. Mom has an extra key, she’ll get inside.

Mel’s POV

Ollie is such a party-person. The minute he gulped down his third drink, he was out on the dance floor shaking his ass, while Danny was cheering him on and Chloe is nowhere to be seen.

Tristan has been following me like a lost puppy. He kept on offering me something to eat or drink, and then he would start small talk.

“He is so into you,” Ollie told me earlier. The three of us were huddled up in one corner before Danny pulls Ollie away from us and Chloe flirted with a random hot guy.

Which left me alone with Tristan.

“Did you have any friends back in your town?” He asks me.

“Yeah, I had some,” I answer, taking a sip of water.

The gin back at the bonfire traumatized me to the core.

“How about a boyfriend?” He grins.

“God, no.”

I was still watching a bunch of people dance while some were doing body shots and Tristan just stood there beside me.

“You know, I was kind of missing the Mel at the bonfire,” He grins.

“Hell no, Tristan. I woke up with a killer headache,” I shake my head and he laughs.

“Come on, just one drink,” He offers his cup.

I did it once, I can do it again.

Right?

Ugh screw it.

Sighing in defeat, I get the cup from him and finished the rest of his drink and he raises his fist in the air and cheers.

The drink was both sour and sweet with a bitter aftertaste.

“What’s in this drink?” I ask him through the loud music.

“Cherry juice with Lemon-lime soda, spiked with whiskey I found in my mother’s kitchen cupboard,” He answers and I laugh.

“You want more?” He asks me.

“Chloe’s driving, so…” I shrug.

He goes to the counter and got both of us another drink and Ollie walks towards me, still shaking his hips.

“Damn, did you see Danny? We were doing body shots, and he could have never been hotter,” He tells me and dramatically fans himself with his hand.

I made a face.

“Here,” Tristan says and gives me the cup.

“Mel,” Ollie calls.

“Yeah?” I ask before taking a sip of my drink.

“I never saw you dance before,” He grins and quickly pulls me to the living room where the couches are moved and people were dancing.

“Ollie, you’re spilling my drink!” I yell. Another ear shattering music.

“Oh, screw that, come on, shake that ass!” He says and I laugh.

I drank the beverage in my hand in two big gulps until it barely reaches half of the cup and danced with Ollie.

I didn’t even know what I was doing, I was just going with it.

If the cops see this, we are in big trouble.

Ollie and I danced some more until I finished the rest of my drink and went back to my sulking corner where Tristan was chatting with Paul.

Paul sees me walking to them and he walks away right after giving Tristan smug grins.

“What’s up with that?” I ask.

“Oh, nothing. Same old Paul,” He shrugs with a laugh.

“Another one?” He asks me and gestures to the cup I was holding.

“Last drink for tonight,” I say and he chuckles.

I haven’t seen Ace all night. Has he gone home? Or is he also sulking?

I doubt that. Ace doesn’t sulk.

I tried to look around the room but I couldn’t find him. Maybe he did go home.

A sudden wave of disappointment rushed through me and I tried to brush it off.

Tristan walks up to me, and before he even says a word, I quickly took the cup from him and downed the drink before it was snatched away from me and a weirdly familiar scent fills up the air.

“Ace?” I ask.

“What the hell?” Tristan hollers.

“I told you to stay away from her,” Ace says, his hands turning to fists while clenching his teeth, his jaw tightening.

“What’s going on?” I ask, confused.

“Nothing is going on, Ace is making a fuss out of nowhere,” Tristan replies.

“Mel, get out now, I’ll meet you outside,” Ace turns to me.

“She is not going anywhere, especially not with you,” Tristan stands beside me and grabs my arm.

“Excuse me? I can speak for myself,” I pull my arm away from his hold and stepped away from the two dimwits.

“What exactly is happening? If that doesn’t concern me, and this is your fight, I’m out of here,” I say and start to walk away.

“Trust me, it concerns you in many ways,” Ace says with a sarcastic chuckle which made me stop.

“Trust you? If I ask you to elaborate those ‘many ways’ that you just mentioned, will you explain? I keep on asking the two of you what the hell is happening but you’re acting like I’m not even here! You know, if this is supposed to be a joke or some sort, would you just stop?” I rant and walked closer to them.

I was about to say more, but I tripped.

I swear to god I didn’t trip on my own foot.

Ace and Tristan helped me stand back up.

“Get your hands off her!” Ace pushes Tristan away, causing him to stumble.

Tristan quickly goes back up, and shoved Ace harder, in a split second, Ace fights back and lands a fist on Tristan’s face. Tristan tackled him to the ground and I, along with the crowd backed away from the two.

I looked around for Chloe but I still couldn’t see her anywhere. Even Ollie is missing.

Tristan is now on top of Ace, punching him repeatedly when Ace dodges a hit and Tristan ended up hitting the tiled floor. He groans in pain and in a flash, Ace quickly switches up their places and he now has the upper hand.

Although Tristan was trying to avoid Ace’s punches, Ace was pinning him down by the neck, while the other hand was beating the crap out of him.

I looked around once more and saw Danny’s muscular body rushing his way through the crowd with Paul and I let out a sigh.

“Damn it, Ace! Get off him!” Paul starts to pull Ace’s arm that was on Tristan’s neck, while Danny held both of Ace’s shoulders and dragged him away from Tristan.

Paul helped up Tristan, who gave Ace a dirty look, while Danny was still firmly holding Ace’s shoulders.

Ace was shaking, I noticed that he was panting and was looking around the crowd, he then stopped when he spotted me.

He ignores Danny and stomped towards me.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the house.

“Ace, your face,” I gasp when I took a closer look at him.

“Don’t mind me, just please get in the car,” He says.

I was about to protest, but shut up when I felt my legs turn to jelly and my stomach was turning.

I get inside his car and he drives away from the wretched house.