I'm sorry this update took so long but it was for good reason! This chapter is relatively long compared to the other ones and I plan on making them like this because it's more story and of course, that's what you guys want right? So yeah. Also, in this chapter, there's a new friendship hehehe okay that hehehe made it sound stupid but just read because you won't regret it ((hopefully?))

I knew parties had changed since I was in eighth grade but I had no clue this was what it all the line dances and pizza lead up to.

I followed, closely I might add, behind Eli into a house that was overfilled with teenagers with a background of Around the World by Daft Punk playing louder than I've ever heard with the bass turned up to a point where the tables were vibrating. I walked through, examining my new environment. I tried to hide my surprise for the stuff I saw considering, these kids did this stuff almost every Friday night. I knew that teenagers drank and did drugs, it was inevitable that some of us would experiment with it. But sitting there on the table was a huge bowl that used to be used for candy at parties that every kid tried to get the most of, except there was no pixie sticks or Smarties, there were drugs. Piles and piles of what I assumed were prescription drugs. I couldn't understand how none of them were worried about overdosing as they grabbed handfuls and chugged them down with wine coolers.

As I kept going through I saw couches filled with couples, practically eating each other's faces off as if they were trying to compete with each other. I didn't understand why they wanted to show to everyone how much spit they could swap, literally in some cases as you could see the spit transferring from one mouth to the other which wasn't the most wonderful thing to see. Scratch that, it was one of the most disgusting things I've seen.

I kept walking behind Eli when he stopped abruptly and turned around to me with a bottle of green apple Smirnoff Ice and handed it to me.

"I assume you've never drank alcohol before." He said just loud enough over the speakers so that I could make out what he was saying but had to infer the rest, making me feel like the little kid in this entire party, "So that doesn't have that much alcohol content."

I wanted to give it back to him but I already was the senior who never drank before so I walked over to a table and grabbed a bottle opener and popped the top off. When I turned back around to find Eli, he was gone. Of course, he was probably in the midst of the crowd but I couldn't find him. Instead of attempting to go and find him, I stood there, as I took my first real taste of alcohol. It burned my throat slightly at first but went away fairly quickly, I assumed because of the less alcohol that was actually in it.

Trying to not seem as antisocial as I always was, I walked into the crowd of people, hoping that wouldn't be as scary inside as it was observing from the outside. I couldn't have been any more wrong. As I walked in, I couldn't find a way out and everywhere I turned, there was another person moving quickly, spilling alcohol over their cups or smoking what I only assumed was weed but come have been anything for all I knew.

Finally, I attempted to push through the crowd as claustrophobia started to overwhelm me. But right when I got to the border of people, someone wrapped their hand around my wrist, pulling me back into the depths of darkness. As if it was hoping for the exact moment, the lights started to go dark with strobes of colored light spreading through the crowd, not helping me at all. My heartbeat started accelerating as the stranger pulled me closer. I closed my eyes as they pulled me as close to them as was possible. But as I inhaled and exhaled, trying to calm myself down as I was expecting the worst, the smell of burnt vanilla and mint calmed me down on its own.

"Eli?" I asked, still not sure as I knew that anyone could have that smell if they really wanted to.

"If you're mad at me because I left you alone, I could make up for it," he said, putting his mouth to my ear, sending the same chills up my spine that I always had when I could feel his words move across my skin.

I wanted to say something about how I could practically smell every drink he devoured in the last hour as they all contained alcohol but I was losing my ability to talk and think straight as his lips moved from hovering over my ear in speech to touching my neck in small kisses. I wanted to push him away as I was losing the feeling to use any of my senses but he still had his hands around my wrists, controlling yet another part of me. Then he moved my arms from my sides and lifted them up to put on his shoulders and wrap around his neck as he wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me even closer to where our bodies were touching. He kept kissing my neck and as I much as I wanted to stand there and let him, I knew that I couldn't do this.

I couldn't let Eli's drunk affection make me feel good. He wasn't Eli. In body, he was still the same Eli but his mind was being controlled by liquid confidence. Eli wasn't kissing my neck, the alcohol in his bottle was. I was enjoying something that was merely a thing that he would forget it even happened in the morning while I would try to pretend that he knew. This was all a memory to Eli as it was happening. He wouldn't remember it, he wouldn't even know it happened. And I was here, enjoying it but I couldn't anymore.

I pulled his arms from my waist and pushed him from me. A green strobe light came across right in time for me to see Eli's face shocked and confused.

"Why'd we stop so early?" he asked, moving closer to me to start again.

I pushed him back again to an arm's length distance and I yelled, "Because you're drunk Eli! You won't remember this in the morning, it'll be nothing!"

"Isn't that the point? Do things you couldn't do sober so that you won't have to remember it tomorrow?" he asked.

I stared at him blankly trying to think if I heard him correctly. He was kissing me because he couldn't do it sober and didn't want to remember it. I bit my lip as I tried to stop the tears from falling even though no one would see them anyway and even if they did, I would be the girl crying at a party so why would they care. I couldn't think of anything to say to Eli that would even amount to what was racing around in my head. Instead of standing there which would only make me more upset, I pushed myself through the crowd, relentless to get away from Eli and try to forget what happened.

'You won't have to remember it tomorrow', the thought kept running through my head. I didn't want to remember it now, I wanted to forget everything about this night. I went to the kitchen and instead of getting the bottle that did nothing except burn my throat, I went for the bottle of vodka sitting on the table. I never had it before but I heard that it was strong and the stronger it was, the more I'd be able to wake up tomorrow with a huge headache but a clear mind. I poured the bottle until the liquid reached the top line of my cup.

As I drank it down, my throat started to burn. When the burning was too much, I stopped and just stood there. I felt like my body was getting warm as it kept going down. I looked into my cup to see that half of it was still remaining. Trying to escape Eli running through my mind as fast as I could, I started to drink the other half but as I swallowed the burning was unbearable. I leaned on the table, as tears started to form in my eyes as I started thinking about how I could do nothing right, not even drink a full cup of alcohol.

"Hey." I heard someone say. My mind wasn't thinking straightly so I couldn't tell if it was Eli or not but I hoped and prayed that it wasn't.

I turned for a second and wiped my eyes so that it wouldn't be visible that I was teary eyed. I opened my eyes and turned my head back to see that Eli wasn't standing there, but instead there was a boy with sandy brown hair and soft brown eyes. He had on a red hoodie that his hands clutched tightly onto. He looked a few years younger than me and he stared at me, probably waiting for a response as I was just staring at him.

"Hi."

"Are you okay?" he questioned, walking slowly over to me.

"Is it that obvious?" I replied, looking back down at the table, "Parties suck."

Soon, he was right next to me, looking at me, "I agree. I don't even know most of these people."

I smiled as I found someone relatively similar to me, "Me either. I guess we're pretty much alike."

"I guess so." He smiled back and held out his hand, "I'm Cam."

I looked down at his hand with the intention of shaking it but as I held out my hand to take his, in my mind, his hand was moving back and forth. I tried to catch it with mine but whenever I was close enough and tried to grab it, it moved again. When, I suppose he saw my trouble, he held my hand for me and shook it.

"You're pretty wrecked, huh?" he asked, "Wrecked is used for being drunk, right?"

I laughed at the fact that I didn't know either, "I think so."

He started to laugh as well and with me being under the influence, somehow it was even funnier to me and that made him laugh too. So long story, not really long story, short, we just stood in the kitchen laughing for about five minutes for no reason really at all.

When we finally got finished our laughing frenzy, he looked at me and asked, "So why are you getting so drunk for your first time drinking?"

I paused. I had just met this kid, I didn't know if I really wanted to tell him about it or not. But as I looked at him, it looked like all he really wanted to do was help and I was in need of help so there was no legitimate reason for me not to tell him. Plus, I needed more than just Eli as a friend, especially at this moment when I probably wasn't even a thought in Eli's head.

So we sat down and I told him. I let it all out, about how I really didn't want to come to this party in the first place but I'm so easily impressionable that I did. How I was in a way rejected but it was worse than being directly rejected. As I was talking, I felt like I sounded ridiculous, complaining about things that I had no control over anymore but Cam didn't seem to mind. He paid attention and actually cared about how I was feeling and what I was saying. Either that or he was just a really good actor. I hoped it wasn't the latter as I was telling things to him that only I knew and was really close to me.

As I finished, he just stared at me and said, "I think we'll be good friends. We go through a lot of the same things and feelings. We could help each other out. Like Batman and Robin. But you'll be Batman because I'm more of a Robin."

"Nope," I shook my head and laughed, "Just because you chose the sidekick, you're going to be Batman."

"But I'm not Batman!" he exclaimed.

And for some reason that was the funniest thing to both of us and we just laughed and laughed until there was a presence behind us. You know, when someone walks into a room and you can just feel that they're there, watching. That's what I felt. I turned around to see Eli standing there.

He looked horrible, but that's what you could expect for being drunk off your ass. His hair was plastered onto his forehead with sweat and his eyes were visibly red even from the few feet away from him I was. His eyes kept closing and opening as he was falling asleep right there but woke himself up just to fall back asleep. As his balance was becoming off, he leaned onto the doorway and stared at us.

"Sorry for interrupting but it's probably time to go."

I wanted to say that time to go was hours ago but he already looked a mess and no matter how upset at him I was, I didn't want to bring anymore nonsense upon him.

As Eli walked out, I stood up and turned back to Cam, who was staring at me with raised eyebrows at what I would have to deal with. I held in a laugh and said, "Well, I have some saving to do so I'll see you later, Batman."

"Alright Robin, be careful." he said, waving at me as I walked out behind Eli, who had the eyes to his car in his hand.

When we got outside, I grabbed the keys from his hand. Neither of us was legally able to drive but I was less drunk than him and I was able to walk in a straight-ish line which counted for something considering we did have to get home, drunk or not. He turned around and looked at me angrily, "First, you reject me then you take the keys to my car."

"I didn't reject you," I said, under my breath not trying to make anything worse than it was, but still not being able to fight the urge to say something back, "I just rather someone want to remember when they kiss me."

"Hey I heard that!" he said, stumbling into the passenger's seat.

I knew for a fact that he didn't hear what I said, he just heard me mumble but wanted me to think that he knew. I got into the driver's seat and started the car. I had my driver's license but I didn't have a car. I figured it was too much responsibility and I hated anything that had to do with gas money. But I was thankful that I knew how to drive or else me and Eli Drunksworthy over here would have been shit out of luck.

I looked into the rearview mirror for any cars, which I was positive there wouldn't have been because it was about two in the morning on a Friday night but I made sure just in case. I pulled out slowly and drove on the way to Eli's house. I changed the station from his classic rock that was pulsing a hole in my brain to an Indie station that was playing Two Door Cinema Club, which happened to be one of my favorite bands. As I was driving, I swerved a lot of times as cars looking farther and closer than they actually were, but I tried to focus and finally made it with no accidents or police pullovers, which was just luck, really.

When we pulled up to his house, Eli was staring at me with his head limp and cocked to the side. I turned to look at him and he smiled drunkenly, "You're so beautiful."

"And you're so drunk." I said, trying to make myself believe that he wasn't serious and he didn't think I was.

"I'm serious," he said, pointing at me, "You're really, really beautiful and don't let anyone tell you any different."

I shook my head as I got out of the car and went over to his side to help him out of the car. As he wrapped one arm around my neck and balanced the left side of his body on his own, he lifted himself out the car and closed the door with his foot. I locked it and we started walking towards his house.

"The key is the blue one." He slurred.

I looked through the keys and lifted the blue one and stuck it in the keyhole, turning the lock and opening the door. As we walked in, I closed and locked the door behind us and put the keys on the table. We walked upstairs, which took about five minutes as I tried to pull both our weights up at the same time without either of us falling. Finally, when we got up there, I found the door to his room which of course was the one with the big "Keep Out" sign on it.

I opened the door and he laid down on the bed, grabbing one of the pillows and pulling it underneath his head. He snuggled closely to it and then looked up at me as I was standing up and just watching him.

"Aren't you going to stay here?" he asked.

"Well, I have to, I can't take your car home. Plus, I drank. I only drove us home because you're way more wasted than me."

He stared at me like he was comprehending what I was saying but then blinked a few times and shook his head, giving up, "Well then lay down, you're not one of those people who sleep and stand up right?"

I looked at the bed questionably. I didn't want Eli to wake up, wondering what I was doing in his bed but I figured I was just over exaggerating. Plus, there was nowhere else I would be sleeping instead, so I just laid down next to Eli. When I did, he let go of his pillow and laid his head on my stomach like Sam does when he has a bad nightmare in the middle of the night. At first, I was surprised but I just let him lie there because after all, he wasn't in his right mind.

As if he felt my curiousity, he looked up at me, which made him look like a helpless little kid and asked, "Is this okay?"

"It's fine," I said, and he put his head back down. As much as I wanted to deny it after tonight's events, I couldn't help but enjoy being in his company, just lying there, doing nothing but falling asleep. Of course, in the morning, we'd both wake up feeling like we just walked out of hell which was a good explanation for tonight but right now, it was the opposite, and I tried to push the hatred I had for tonight just enough so that I could appreciate just being in his company.

This chapter was kinda hard to write because I don't go to parties that much so I don't really know what teenagers actually do at parties but I tried to get it as right as I could and hopefully I did the party scene justice? And I know the chapter name is off from the two word names but I couldn't think of anything! Anyways, review and tell me what you think because I want to know what you think because you're really, really beautiful and don't let anyone tell you any different. ((wow i'm so corny i used my own line but i think i should get a review for creativity of using my own stuff hahaHAHAH))