Synopsis: What happens when a book lover, a gamer and a party mix? A day in which a very uncomfortable Ashley delves into a party to look for Matt and finds Chris.

Genre: Friendship, Romance, Humour

Ending: Pre-Game

Rating: K+


The Library

The Day We Partied (Not Like Porn Stars)

Matt didn't, despite what he'd promised, pick her up at seven in a limo with a bunch of flowers. In fact, he hadn't picked her up at all - which was a fact completely orchestrated by Ashley herself. Who on this planet (with any kind of common sense) freely gives out their address to some guy just because he invited them to a party?

Unless, of course, they are infallibly, infuriatingly interested in said guy. That, therefore, would completely reverse the situation. And, evidently, that's not the case.

Not with him anyway.

Instead, Matt had simply messaged Ashley – via Facebook obviously. Because, as referenced above, who freely gives out their personal details?

His message was a simple "See you there", complete with directions to the Washington house and void of emojis. It felt vaguely sparse.

Now Ashley peers down at her cellphone screen, checking the address, tugging down the uncomfortable length of her dress. It was a struggle to find this thing. She had to dig deep into the Mesolithic period of her closet to find it. She's not exactly one of those girls who goes around wearing dresses all the time. She'd rather have jeans, shirts and shorts any day – practical, comfortable and easier to run away from man eating dinosaurs in. Or, you know, whatever happens in the apocalypse.

She'd picked out a vaguely mustard coloured cocktail dress that had lost all it's volume after being crammed into a corner about 100 years ago. When she'd put it on, feeling uncomfortable tying her hair up, her mom had caught a glance of her from down the hall. Instantly, her face had lit up with pride as she'd gazed at Ashley. And she'd bit her lip like a giddy teenager, wiggling her eyebrows; "Who's the boy?"

Ashley had almost puked.

Now Ashley feels like she's going to puke for an entirely different reason. Because, when Matt had said 'house', she had expected a quaint, semi-detached council house. Maybe with a little garden running around the front, a swing set and a tiny attempt at a tree house in the back.

Not this. This is more like a mansion.

Like some metal creature has crashed through the roof of said semi-detached council house. About five times the size of Ashley's house, the structure in front of her is all metal and glass, plonked on the back of a smaller, brick, ivy covered building. It's like like they stepped back and took a good look at the house and decided it needed a gigantic conservatory on the back.

And, in front of the building, an achingly large stretch of lawn sprawls out in front of the mansion like a rug. Like a huge welcome mat.

Ashley swallows, feeling her nervous crawl up her throat like bile.

Surely. Surely, this can't be the right place.

Her eyes flicker back to her bright phone screen in panic, the wind tangling with her hair and batting it in front of her face. She fights with it to pull it around her ears just so she can read the screen. To read it over and over again.

But her eyes aren't deceiving her. Unless Matt sent her the wrong address – she wouldn't put it past him – or Ashley has completely awful directional skills, this is definitely the right place.

Great.

Now she feels under-dressed.

Maybe she should have scrambled through her closet further. Maybe she needed to go back to the beginning of time. And stay there.


"I thought you were supposed to be partying," Chris puffs the words from the side of his mouth as he scrambles with the buttons of the PS4 controller, the sounds of gurgling and dying zombies smothering the vibrating booming of the music from downstairs.

"I would be," Beth blows strands of her hair away from her face as she drags herself into the room and drops herself down on the sofa next to Chris. Chris has known Beth and her sister for practically as long as Josh himself. He's easily comfortable with them that they might as well be his sisters too.

"If Travis hadn't turned up," she groans, rolling her head back and smothering her face with her hands. She muffles a scream against her palms.

"What? Your boyfriend?" Chris slams another hit into a zombie's head, 'critical hit' flashing across the screen. He grins, fist pumping the air. "Boo-yah!"

He can almost feel Beth cringe beside him. He grins wider.

"Ex-boyfriend," she clarifies with a ridiculously dragged out sigh. Chris' ears twitch at the sound of her voice, though his eyes are still entirely distracted by the screen, his thumbs going mad on the controller. "Or whatever the hell we were. He's practically on a different planet now since Josh punched him into the moon."

Chris' thumb reacts on instinct. The game automatically flashes into pause.

"Wait," he leans back, finally staring back at Beth. Who looks like she wants to curl up into herself and equally wants to climb up to the roof and scream to the world. "Josh punched him?"

A switch clicks in Chris' brain. Of course. That's why Josh had been held up at the principle's. He almost snorts. He's not surprised.

"I hope he deserved it," Chris sniggers through a concealed smile.

Amusement tugs Beth's smile up. Just the flicker in Beth's eyes is enough to tell Chris that he definitely did deserve it.

"Does Josh know he's here?" Chris asks as he turns back to the huge, plasma screen, pressing play again.

She scoffs. "Hell no," she raises her voice, half laughing. "And I was not going to stay around to see how he reacts."

Grinning, Chris thumbs his X button repeatedly.

"Where's Hannah?" he asks into the air fleetingly, smashing a refrigerator round a zombie's head. Inside the cogs of his mind, he processes that Hannah could do a hell of a better job of consoling Beth than he is. Isn't that basic evolutionary fact?

All Chris hears is Beth's huff. "Trying to get Mike's attention – again," she rolls her eyes, but her smile is sweet. Caring. And Chris can tell how much she loves her sister. "What about you? Aren't you supposed to be getting drunk and boozy with your 'bro'?"

Chris cringed, hearing the word 'bro' coming from Beth's mouth.

Honestly, yes, probably. Chris had been one of the first to arrive, just behind Sam. He'd lugged an eight pack of beer with him – in reaction to a subtle hint from Josh to, quote, "bring alcohol."

And then, after many swigs of beer as people started to trickle in, Josh had been caught in two versions of himself; host Josh and automatically-flirting-with-Sam Josh. Which Chris had responded to with a chuckle, raised his almost empty can of beer and called, "I'm gonna head upstairs!"

To which Josh had responded, "Sure, bro!"

And as Chris had turned, squeezing his way through the growing crowd towards the stairs, he'd heard Josh mutter to Sam, "I thought he was gonna bring Library Girl."

"I'll check on him later," is Chris' simple reply, followed by a smirk. He hears Beth chuckle beside him and it feels like an agreement.

Then there's a flicker of a silence – a period where Chris instantly knows that Beth is thinking – before she confidently leans forward.

"Can I give it a shot?" Beth asks, holding out her hand for the controller. "I could do with bashing out some of this rage." She stretches, cracking out her knuckles.

He laughs heartily and instantly pauses the game, narrowing his eyes challengingly towards her. His hand hovers the controller in her direction like it's a gauntlet.

"Sure you can handle it?" he asks with a cocked brow. Which a ridiculous question. Because she has beaten him at everything she has ever tried.

She just grins and grabs the controller and, with a determined look, presses play.


"Can someone get that?!" is the aimless, distant shout across bobbing heads and pounding music as Ashley squeezes herself through the doorway of the Washington residence. Okay, so maybe she hadn't been expecting a grand, fancy ball with glittering lights – but something a little less crowded, a little more subtle would have been appreciated.

Instead, all that surrounds Ashley is laughing, drunken teenagers, mind vibrating music and sloshing alcohol in red cups. She grimaces, pushing herself past some guy that looks like he's about to puke up on the cold, wooden flooring. In fact, as she manages to get past him, moving towards the open plan living room, he wretches, a sound of splatting hits the floor and a chorus of cringing, "Duuuuuude."'s shudders around him. Gagging, she cups a hand over her mouth and nose to block out the smell.

"Ew," a nearby girl looks pained as she casts a withering look at the mess on the floor. Her face, framed by straight, dark hair, makes it look as if she's making a regretful, mental note of it for later. With a sarcastic grimace, she sing songs, "One more thing to clean up."

The room shudders with an uninterested grumble. The girl, sporting a pair of black rimmed glasses, rolls her dark eyes and shivers her shoulders in disgust as she turns, and-

"Don't worry about," Ashley spurts out of her mouth in passing, the words even shocking her. "He'll be bending down and eating it up in no time."

Instantly, the girl flickers her gaze towards Ashley, blinking the surprise out of her eyes. Then, with a brief curious look, she chuckles and nods. "Oh, I get it," she grins brightly and, as smiles are always contagious, fact, Ashley can't help but grin back. "Because he's a dawg."

"Yeah, something like that," Ashley mumbles behind her smile, shrugging in her uncomfortable dress.

"You must be, uh," the girl continues, glancing at Ashley as if she's studying her. Ashley won't be surprised if this ends up being a thesis on the social awkwardness of the subject of Ashley Brown. "One of Josh's friends?"

Ashley squints.

Isn't everyone hear one of Josh's friends?

"Something like that," she shrugs, her smile twitching. And her cheeks are definitely not flushing. Even as her mind flickers to Chris. To his crooked smile and glowing eyes. And his complete ineptity with books. She chuckles. It's mixed. "I'm sort of a friend of a friend."

"Right," the dark haired girl smiles, her eyes flashing like she understands – which makes Ashley glow just a little bit more.

Then a voice breaks through the air.

"Han!" a girl shouts across the crowd and, almost like it's made of cogs, Ashley's companion's head swivels to the sound. "Hannah!"

Soon, the girl is squeezing her way through the crowd, holding two full red cups above her head – as if that spacial area can protect them from being bumped and sloshed about.

"Please," the blonde girl droops, lilting as she finally reaches where Ashley and – she now assumes – Hannah is standing, pulling down the cups and offering one to Hannah. Hannah glances at the contents dubiously before taking a sip.

"Save me from your brother," the blonde grimaces.

And Ashley recognises her. Instantly. Like something has just been aligned inside her brain.

She's convinced the shock is written on her face.

This is the girl from the library – the one who had called Chris away the last time Ashley had seen him. What was her name? Sam?

"I think my brother needs saving from himself," Hannah rolls her eyes, Sam awarding her with a laugh and a nudge on the shoulder.

"You can say that again," Sam snorts, shaking her head and taking a sip of her drink – which Ashley can now see is just water. Or maybe vodka. Or both.

Then Sam callously throws her eyes into the air – and they land straight onto Ashley.

"Oh. Hey," she stops, passing Ashley an inquisitive, curious look. Ashley feels like stumbling back – but if she did, she'd end up falling into the back of someone else. Or, you know, being swallowed up into a ferocious crowd of strangers. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"Well, I mean," Ashley starts to ramble, scratching her arm subconsciously, "We're all at the same high school, we've all probably bumped into each other at some time or another-"

Then, as if anything that Ashley just said makes no different, Sam's eyes suddenly light up and she grins like a Cheshire. "Yeah. Right. The library," she proudly points at Ashley with a confident, index finger. "You were with Chris."

"Uh," Ashley starts, feeling rather uncomfortable. "Sure," she shrugs with a half smile, remembering the moment Sam had walked in on them. And how embarrassed Ashley had felt. And how excited she had been so see Chris again.

Ashley catches a look pass across Hannah's face – one that says, 'ah, that friend of a friend', and then she's smiling just as mischievously as Sam. Which makes Ashley feel even more uncomfortable. Like they're plotting something. Like this whole thing was an elaborate plan to hitch her and Chris up together, send them off to Vegas and elope into the sunset.

Which is, by all means, completely impractical. Though not entirely unwelcome.

"Did Chris invite you?" Sam asks coyly as if she already knows all of Ashley secrets.

Which is completely impossible. There's no room inside anyone's head to store all of Ashley's secrets. She has to write them all down in her journal every night.

"No," Ashley replies slowly, aware that any slip up of her tongue might make her tumble into one of Sam and Hannah's traps.

They pass a look between the two of them.

Then Hannah takes a step forward, smiling too brightly and too friendly, and says, "Let's go find him anyway." She giggles giddily.

Sam's eyes flash. She drapes a motherly arm around Ashley's shoulders, steering her through the crowd. Then she says, so simply, like it's an easy fact; "I'm sure he'll be happy to see you."

"No!" Ashley snaps, yanking herself out of Sam's arms. Sam and Hannah both glance back at her, shocked. Ashley bites her lip but isn't apologetic.

Because what is the point of a dramatic entrance if the perpetrator just goes searching for the subject and ruins the surprise? Chris has to be the one to notice her first. That's what happens in all the romantic movies.

If the girl goes storming up to the guy – well, that's when they usually break up.

Not that Ashley and Chris were ever dating, but-

"Uhm. I mean," Ashley stutters, pulling her shoulders up just slightly, wishing she'd actually worn heels. "I'm actually looking for Matt."


"You called?" Chris cocks an eyebrow as he reaches the doorway to the games room. He'd been dragged away from Beth completely thrashing his high score when he'd heard Josh holler up the stairs; "Pizza!"

Which, by all means, had been a complete and utter lie. Because, by the time Chris had pushed his way eagerly down the stairs to grab a slice – or five – all of it had already been gobbled up. By some evil, malicious creatures. In legend, they call them... drunk teens.

But before Chris could mope about the shockingly void, empty pizza boxes lying on the kitchen counter, he'd heard Mike yell from the games room that Chris' presence was indefinitely needed. When is it not?

"Right!" Matt snaps up next to the pool table, cue in hands, a fierce, competitive look his eyes. "You need to sort this out."

Mike groans, rolling his eyes witheringly. "Get over it already. You scuffed."

There's a nattering sound in the background and it doesn't take long for Chris to realise that it's Jess and Emily, huddled up in the back corner, obviously so tired of their two dates bickering that they've resorted to gossip and selfies instead.

"This guy," Matt throws his hand up at Mike in a huff, "thinks I made a foul move."

"In that shirt?" Chris passes with a cheeky smirk, eyeing the two guys confidently. "Yeah, you did."

Mike whistles, which is followed by a conclusive high five shared by the two girls in the corner – who are maybe not so engrossed in their phones. And, uhm, shouldn't Chris be the one getting the high fives here?

"Ha ha, funny," Matt sighs sarcastically before Chris grins cockily.

"As the pool champion here," he cracks his knuckles and hears a consensus groan ripple around the room, "It's clear who needs to show you how it's done."

And as Chris strides across the room, ready to grab hold of Matt's pool cue, a voice calls out behind him.

"Hey, Matt!" Sam shouts across the room. Everyone swivels – except Emily and Jess who have been wrapped in by their phones again – to see Sam standing in the doorway, a Mike engrossed Hannah beside her and a very familiar red head; who's looking straight at Chris.

He swallows.

"There's someone here to see you."