Ever since her father's death Quinn Clearwater has found herself suddenly thrown out of the loop. With her brother on steroids, her sister a heartbroken harpy and the overwhelming feeling that she is constantly barging in on something everyone wants to keep her out of, she is beginning to suspect that there is something more than meets the eye happening in La Push.
The music was loud, overbearingly so. The crass vibrations of the speakers reverberated around the small house, bouncing off the walls with deafening tremors and the electronic noise of teenage pop. It made me smile, that along with the overwhelming euphoria that came with a forbidden student party. I had one drink so far, not enough to make me tipsy or drunk, but enough to make me happy about my current situation and not mind the overwhelming smell of alcohol, sick and sweat.
I danced through the throng of moving bodies, avoiding the grinding attempts of drunken boys who definitely had too much to drink and the drunken tumbles of girls with heels too high to carry them that gravity soon took its toll. My drink was empty and I needed another, that and I needed an excuse to avoid the lecherous stares of Jack Burton as he had a conversation with my chest, fully ignoring my face altogether as if it were another person entirely and wasn't privy to his conversation about the latest in football. It was uncomfortable to say the least. The kitchen was my aim and I soon reached it with little incident apart from a spilt drink down my dress which I soon began batting away at in a vain attempt to dry the wet patch that stained the dark fabric.
The kitchen was like any other at a wildly thrown party while the parents were unknowingly out for the weekend, littered with the tell tale sign of red, plastic cups, their presence covering every surface, some full, some empty but all once filled with alcoholic drink. I wrinkled my nose at the sight, knocking some cups from my way as I made an empty space on the tops to place my own upon. Boy was I glad I wasn't the one who had to clean up after everyone had left. I could see someone had already released their stomach contents into the plant pot.
"Quinn!" I turned my head, snapping it towards the direction of the noise, my eyes landing upon the familiar sight of my best friend Lola Green as she came sauntering over in a tipsy daze, unashamedly pushing her way through the mass of bodies that had the audacity to get in her way. "Quinn, there you are!"
"Yes, yes I am."
I could tell she had already had a few drinks by her swaying stance, not to mention the smell of alcohol that came from her mouth as she spoke to me."Where have you been? I've been searching for you all over!" Her movements were exaggerated, her arms flailing about as she talked, as if it were a great tragedy to be away from me for a full ten minutes. It took all my strength to keep myself from telling her that it was in fact her that had abandoned me in favour of a more handsome and more male companion.
"Well I'm glad I've found you in anyways." She flicked a brown curl behind an ear, her face contorting into a look of disgust as she watched me pour some lemonade into my cup, immediately taking notice of the lack of alcohol in my drink. "Quinn, come on we're here to have some actual fun." Lola declared, snatching the drink from my hand, before my own came out to take in back with a heavy sigh, a lazy smile taking a tug at my lips.
"If you remember, I'm actually not meant to be here." I tapped the side of her head as if such an action would bring some of her memory flooding back, but it seemed altogether fruitless as Lola scoffed in response, her shoulders shrugging nonchalantly as if it wasn't such a big deal. I rolled my eyes at her actions, knowing full well that sneaking out to a party unknowingly was just a scrape in the bad books of Lola Green, to her it was nothing serious."If my mom found out I was at some party in Forks and not at your house 'studying' for the latest test she would flip. Going home drunk isn't the best way to convince her we both had a quiet night in Lola."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." She responded, taking a big gulp of her drink, giving up on our previous subject of conversation to drown her sorrows. I looked around the kitchen, it getting increasingly busier as more and more people came in to replenish their drinks, a stray couple taking the time to get lip locked on their way. It seemed I wasn't the only one to notice this as Lola soon picked up a stray plastic cup to throw in their direction, forcing the two to pull apart and leave the room with added glares and words in our direction.
"That's right keep walking, no one wants to see you two slobber all over each other. No se metan con mi niña, puedo tomar los dos. That's what I thought, uh-huh." Lola was a drama queen, majorly so and everyone knew it. As she shouted after the retreating couple I resisted rolling my eyes at her actions, not willing to be caught up in her Spanish, Latin temper. What I called drama she liked to call spunk and I couldn't exactly fault her with that, especially when it was this funny. It was when you were on the receiving end that you had to worry and by experience I knew that was something I did not want.
I giggled into my drink, trying to mask my humour from the ever serious Lola as she dramatically placed a hand upon her hips, her face set into an incredulous look of 'can you believe them'. I quickly changed the subject, my eyes darting around the room for the familiar face of our second best friend. "Where's Elle?"
"Do you really want to know?" Lola replied her eyebrows raised in question. I bit my lower lip in thought, before nodding my head in confirmation. I already had an idea what she was up to, Elle was predictable enough.
"She's off making out with some rebound. I tried to stop her, but you know what she's like." We stood there in silence for a while, thinking. Ever since Elle had split from her boyfriend she was a watery, man hunting mess, constantly crying and constantly with some poor, unknowing rebound. Lola was sick of it and viewed it with a sense of pity and annoyance, soon growing bored with Elle's whining, while I felt a genuine sense of sympathy for her, knowing that deep down she was a very sensitive girl. Realising this was a dangerous subject to be discussing with Lola I replied with but a lonely, single syllable, hoping to stop the conversation before it got out of hand.
"Oh."
"Yeah 'Oh', that girl is driving me mad with her moping, why doesn't she just get over him already, it's been days since they split! I know they were together for, like, forever but that girl is just so overdramatic." The irony was certainly not missed on me, but I was soon stopped from pointing out such a fact as Lola rambled on more, the alcohol in her blood making her a lot more vocal on the subject than usual. "She's better off without him in anyways, isn't he, like, on drugs now or something? I mean I wasn't like this when I split up with James; no way would I ever let myself get like that over a guy of all things. You know, sisters before misters and all that."
I was saved by the sound of my ringtone from within my handbag and I soon excused myself from Lola's company to the back garden, goosebumps travelling up and down my arms as the cold, night air assaulted my form as I tried to get away from any loud noises of party-goers. My heart jumped a beat as the caller ID revealed it to be my mother, a sense of nervousness overwhelming me as I answered the call, a lump forming in my throat.
"Hello." I was meant to be at Lola's studying not at a party; even then it took me a while to convince my mother letting me go to the conjured study session was a good idea, a lot of moaning and begging was required on my part. She was concerned about Daddy's health and wanted everyone together for the time being, as a family. But she worries too much, what was one night away?
"Quinn, Quinn, darling. You're going to have to come home right now." The strained sobs of my mother reached my ears causing a worried spasm to overtake my body. I was shaking and it wasn't from the cold. I already knew before she even said the words, my body became numb, my hearing distant, my eyes watering. I could hear muffled cries in the background, my heart clenched as if someone were squeezing it from within my chest, my mind blank and unresponsive.
"Something's happened to your father and we need you home right away."
At that moment I felt as if my whole body had halted ,my lungs silent and still, my heart broken, my muscles stiff and unresponsive and then I exploded. I exploded into a mass of emotion, my breathing heavy, my heart thumbing, my cries loud and just one word escaping me.
"What?"
I knew then that my father had died.
The journey home was the longest I've ever taken and deep inside I wished we never did reach my destination so I did not have to face the morbid reality of what had just happened. I know that I eventually told my mother where I really was and Billy's son soon came to pick me up. As we reached the house the flashing of ambulance lights consumed my sight, taunting and tainting me as my body shook in grief, paramedics lingering in the door way like unwelcomed parasites I did not want to confront. They only made the reality of it all hit me harder.
At some point I threw up in the garden and then I was attacked by the comforting hug of my mother.
"Daddy's gone."
AN: This is my first attempt at FF in a while; I hope you enjoy, please review if you can.