Disclaimer: In case it is not clearly stated in the narrative, everyone in this chapter engaging in anything approaching or including sexual activity is at least 18 years of age. (Although this particular chapter hasn't gotten around to any actual sex yet. Be patient.)
Note: This is written in British/South African English, although almost all similar media I consume is American, so that will have its influence too. For the sake of keeping the note short, I'll post a comment to explain my use of language and obscure terms, if anyone asks or I think of something in particular.
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Eric closed the door of his bedroom, and then led us further into the depths of the house. I couldn't even say whether there were more doors than there were in the other corridors, or fewer, or indeed details like whether they were open or not. At that point, if Eric had quickly slipped around a pillar, I probably would have walked right into it. I'd only had a few drinks at that point — the pre-drinks and a couple of beers — but it was enough to turn off that voice in my head that worried about if the way I was standing at a party was weird, or if that thing I had said five minutes ago made people think I was awful.
Unfortunately, that voice also seemed to be the one that always told me to not form crushes on cute guys. So while I wasn't drunk, I was following him in a complete daze that I hadn't quite managed to protect myself from falling into. I only managed to partially snap out of it when we reached a set of stairs, and he began to lead the way up — but having his ass at eye-level wasn't exactly helpful, and neither was watching the way his jeans pulled taut against his thighs and calves as he climbed the stairs.
We made our way out to a balcony once we'd reached the top of the stairs, and I knew we'd entered the lair of the 'cool kids' Eric had talked about. Three of them looked as if they'd been dressed for the party, but two of the guys there were just in T-shirts and jeans, like Eric, and a girl with red hair was wearing a beachy blue dress. They all sat around on a mishmash of outdoor furniture, including some fold-out fabric camping chairs.
"Finally! How long does it take to get one stupid bottle of gin?" The girl who was dressed for the party — a tall girl with tight blonde curls, wearing a black cocktail dress — snapped her fingers at Eric, and held out her hand.
Eric, smiling, handed her the bottle. She grinned back.
"You can always go party downstairs, Jess."
"With the Bible-bashers? No thanks." She turned to look appraisingly at me.
"This is Jay." Eric grinned, clapping me on the shoulder. "He goes to school with Caitlyn. At Elohim."
"Oh," She looked vaguely embarrassed, and gave me a small smile and a shrug. "Sorry."
"Hey Jay." One of the t-shirt guys shifted in his camp chair. It was Louis, much to my surprise. It was very strange, seeing him outside of AP maths. I'd been half convinced he didn't exist outside of those classes. He looked very different, lounging casually with his friends, a drink in his hand. He could have been someone else completely.
"Hey, Louis!" It suddenly occurred to me that Eric was still practically a stranger — he'd rescued me from a garage, I'd helped him get a box to his room, and then I'd been following him around since in a lustful daze. That was the extent of our relationship, which made me feel a bit strange for just casually agreeing to follow him to a secluded part of his house. Knowing someone else here was helpful, and Louis seemed nice. It grounded me, reminded me that all this was real, and I resolved to not get too carried away about the whole Eric thing.
"Oh right, you go there for that course." Eric nodded at Louis. "Everyone, this is Jay. Caitlyn's arch-nemesis."
"I thought YOU were her arch-nemesis." The red-headed girl sitting next to Louis said in a rich, low voice.
"I am. We're joining forces." Eric put his hand on my shoulder, and then began pointing them out, starting with the red-headed girl, while everyone offered a small wave as they were introduced. "That's Melissa, this is Jessica, you know Louis, that's Frank — don't call him Francis, unless you want to," Frank rolled his eyes. "That's Jared and... sorry, who are you again?" He said pointing at the last guy.
"Vince." The other guy in a t-shirt leaned forward to shake my hand. "Eric's oldest friend. He's usually nicer to me, because I know all his secrets."
"I have no secrets." Eric scoffed.
"He wet the bed until he was thirteen." Vince said with a deadpan face.
"That's not a secret." Louis laughed.
"Jay didn't know." Vince shrugged, grinning slightly.
"I'd kind of assumed." I said, before I could think better of it.
I do that a lot. Probably more after a few drinks, although I was still evaluating that. If I think of a joke, I tend to blurt it out. Sometimes it doesn't land well, which would probably be mortifying enough to make me flee most parties. But this time, it was pretty well-received. A few of them laughed, and Vince clapped. Eric gave me a wry grin.
"Brilliant." Vince said. "Somebody get this guy a drink."
"On it," Jessica shouted over her shoulder, at the drinks table.
"I just want to be clear, because these guys fuck around," Eric gripped my shoulder. "I absolutely did not wet the bed. It was a prank these assholes pulled."
"Suuuure." Vincent said playfully.
"I know. I'm sorry. I was just trying to fit in." I grimaced.
"That's adorable." Melissa chuckled. "Come sit with me and Louis. We're the nice ones."
"You stabbed me with a pencil when we were nine." Vince said indignantly.
"Allegedly." She looked at me and patted the empty chair between her and Louis. "Come Jay, sit."
Eric went to the drinks table to join Jess, and I obediently sat down next to Melissa. The group carried on talking about whatever they had been talking about before we arrived, which I found a bit hard to follow, having missed half the context. Louis gave me an encouraging grin. I glanced over at Eric as I sat down, and saw Jessica lean over and whisper something to him. He shrugged in response. I looked away as he grabbed two drinks, and made his way over. He sat down next to Melissa and handed me mine — a gin and tonic. It seemed to be what they were all drinking, except for Jared and Frank, who had beers. I sipped on it gratefully, happy to have something to do with my hands.
"How's Caitlyn's Eighteenth going?" Melissa asked Eric.
"Garbage. Mine was way better."
"Yeah," Melissa scoffed. "She only has like, what, twenty times as many people here as you did?"
"Exactly. So my party had way more fun per capita."
They all laughed, and I tried to join in and not seem awkward.
"So you're eighteen?" I asked him.
"Yes, officer, I'm allowed to be drinking." Eric scoffed. "Mel, Vince and I are the grown-ups here. Lou and Jess are still babies. Arrest them!"
I laughed, and Louis rolled his eyes. I wondered about Frank and Jared, but I didn't really want to ask. I knew Louis was in my year, I'd figured they were all in the same year as well — friendships across age groups were basically mythical in high school. Even the loneliest people didn't want to slum it and be the loser whose friends were all younger than them. Sometimes girls would date guys older than them, so maybe that explained Frank not being included, at least.
"You forgot about John." Melissa commented.
"Oh. Right. Where is John?" Eric asked.
"Oh, he's off hitting on one of the-" She paused, glancing at me. "Elohim kids."
"Bible-bashers?" I suggested.
"Oh, hey," Melissa said delicately. "I get that your faith is a personal-"
"I'm an atheist." I said, raising an eyebrow.
"OH. Well okay then." She grinned, and winked at me before turning back to Eric. "Well in that case, John is off chasing some Jesus-floozy."
"Sensitive." Louis said dryly.
