So I want to finish this story before this season ends, so I might start uploading new chapters twice a week. I'm not sure how long this is going to be, but I'm just getting started. I'll probably start making each chapter longer to fit more in, so let me know if you like the longer chapters, or find them too boring. Thanks for letting me borrow your time!
Eli
After I drove to Adam's house, we sat in his basement for half an hour talking with Drew and Bianca. They were technically married, they had the legal documents to prove it, but they hadn't had a wedding yet. They decided to wait until they were both finished with school and had enough money to have a great ceremony. Drew knew Bianca deserved the best wedding possible after all she had been through in her teen years, and Bianca decided that Drew should wait until all his family could come, so he could have a big ceremony surrounded by his friends and family like he had always wanted.
Having invited the couple out to the club with us, only to have them decline, Adam and I called a cab. We were told there would be a taxi arriving at Adam's house in about 15 minutes.
"Where's the girlfriend tonight?" Adam asked, propping his feet up on a coffee table. "Cassi-o is a no-go?" He questioned as he chuckled at me. Adam had met Cassie once during Spring Break. It was a very short encounter. We were at a party and we were wasted, so naturally, honest words came out and people had been offended. Although the next morning, none of us could remember who had said what to whom.
"She's at my house. I decided I needed a night separate from her." I nonchalantly shrugged towards him. He threw a questioning eyebrow raise at me. "What? Do you want her to be here?" I asked a bit irritated.
"No. I'm not a huge fan of her, no offense." Adam quickly told me.
"Neither is Clare." I mumbled under my breath, thinking he hadn't heard me, but of course, he had.
"What?! You introduced her to Clare?! What happened? Why doesn't Clare like her? Clare likes everyone! Am I going to get the answer to why Cassie isn't here with us tonight?!" Adam asked breathlessly. "Answer me, emo boy!"
"Adam! Slow down!" I interrupted his frenzy, rolling my eyes. We still had time before the taxi came, so I decided to share the details of this evening's encounter with him. As I explained everything, I saw Adam's eyes widen, then slant, filled with bewilderment and anger. The story reached the end and I sighed, dropping my shoulders.
"Holy. Shit." Was all that Adam could say. "Dude. Cassie is crazy." Adam shared with me. I closed my eyes, not wanting to discuss this anymore. I didn't want to have to chose a side, especially since I knew I wouldn't pick Cassie's side, who I was supposed to support. Luckily, headlights passing on the street interrupted us as we found our taxi pulling up on the curb. We quickly got up and left through the basement door.
The ride wasn't all that long, but it seemed to drag on because Adam wouldn't stop pestering me about my story.
"Did you apologize to Clare? What'd you say to Cassie? Does she even know why you and Clare broke up?" He kept bugging me.
"Adam, I already told you. Yes, I apologized as I was leaving, I even texted her earlier. I barely talked to Cassie, I was too upset. And no, she barely knows anything about me and Clare, why should she? That's all in the past. Now can we please stop talking about this? I haven't seen you in weeks, what's been up in the world of Adam?" I answered his questions and changed into a happier tone while asking the last question.
"Eli, you know things have been boring. That's why I'm so interested in your drama." He smirked at me and I couldn't help but smirk back and nudge his shoulder. "But seriously, tonight is going to be so awesome! But hopefully, I won't remember any of it." Adam cheered, and I chuckled. Of course, Adam was already planning on getting wasted. In all honesty, I was sort of hoping to drink until I could feel my liver groan.
We arrived at the club and were early enough so we didn't have to wait all that long in line. After we were admitted in, we made a bee-line straight for the bar, each of us ordering a shot of whiskey. I crinkled my nose as the burning sensation traveled down my throat. We then asked for a bottle of beer and took our seats at the bar.
"We going dancing tonight?" Adam asked me as I took a drink from the bottle.
"You can if you want, but don't sign me up as your dancing partner." I teased him as he stuck his tongue out at me. I wasn't in the mood to dance, besides, would Cassie consider that unfaithful of me? Maybe if I was too drunk to remember, I could get away with it. I took another gulp of my drink and looked around, trying to find somebody who I would be able to tolerate for at least one annoying main-stream song. There were plenty of single girls dancing with their friends, considering most people at clubs were single and looking for a hookup, but they were all yelling and being obnoxious. Maybe somebody decent would show up as it got later.
"See that blonde in that pink shirt? With the sparkly shorts?" Adam yelled towards me over the music.
"Yeah, that really narrows it down." I rolled my eyes at him, seeing about four blonde girls with sparkly shorts and a pink top.
"Shut it, smart-ass. She's twerking with her friend." Adam shouted as he raised his bottle and took a big gulp.
"Wow, that really helped me out, thanks. Because you know, there's only one girl twerking out there." I replied sarcastically, just to frustrate him.
"You are such an asshole. She's by that girl with the blue dress." Adam said, pointing at a small cluster of girls laughing and dancing together.
"What about her?" I asked, hoping Adam didn't want to dance with them. I'd put my foot down. No way was I going to dance with that group.
"She's Leslie, you know, my ex." Adam said calmly as he took another swig of beer. Leslie and Adam had dated for about a month, I had never seen her in person, but Adam would always tell me about her and send me lots of pictures. Their breakup had apparently been pretty smooth. Leslie was high-strung and she couldn't handle laid-back Adam. He wasn't upset though, she was starting to get on his nerves, so he was thankful she had ended it before he had to.
"So you want to go dance with her and win her back?" I teased him and saw his eyes widen as he shouted out no. "Calm down. I was only kidding." I laughed at him as I ordered another beverage.
After another round of beer and laughing at old stories with Adam, a few girls approached us. "Oh my God, Adam! How's it been?!" Leslie shouted as she gave him an awkward hug. "You guys look really bored sitting here, maybe you want to come up and dance with us? My friend Addie thinks your friend is really cute." she smiled at me.
"Oh, no. We're fine, really. Besides, Eli has a girlfriend, and he'd hate to dance with anybody but her. Thanks for the offer, though." Adam shooed them away quickly. "Sorry man, I just don't think it'd be best to get involved with her again." Adam apologized to me.
"Thanks for saving me. They didn't look like the best dance partners." I raised my bottle and Adam clinked glasses with me and we started chugging them, trying to see who could finish theirs first.
Clare
Alli and I ended up waiting in line for about 15 minutes. We knew the club wasn't really that full, the bouncers liked to make it seem that way, in order to make it look more popular, somehow attracting more customers.
We entered the doors and I could immediately feel the bass pumping in my heart and the flashing lights blinded me momentarily. We went around the sweaty dance floor and found a bar. Alli ordered some foo-foo drink as I got a long island iced tea. We started drinking and I knew this glass would be all I needed for tonight. I wasn't a big drinker, so I started feeling tipsy before the drink was even half gone. Alli was already on her second drink while I still had about 1/3 to go. I didn't want to drink so fast, but I really wanted to let loose and let the fun begin, so I gave in when Alli started cheering for me to chug to rest of my drink.
Pretty soon, I was with Alli out on the dance floor. I was drunk. We were laughing and having fun, despite being surrounded by sweaty people and stuck listening to overplayed music. Before I knew what was going on, Alli had found two men for us to dance with. Well, calling them men was pushing it. They looked to be 19 and even though they weren't that much younger than us, their constant flirting made them seem even more immature.
The boy I was dancing with was named Tyler, and I was having fun with him. "I'm such a bad person.," I slurred a bit, then laughed at how drunk I must be. Tyler laughed and looked at me with a questioning expression. "My boyfriend is at a wedding with his family and I'm dancing with strangers!" I yelled out above the music then started laughing again," I mean he's a guest at the wedding! It's not like he's the one getting married!"
I continued to dance with Tyler, his friend, and Alli. We were all laughing and they seemed to be nice. Everything was going great until Tyler started getting too comfortable with me. I felt his hand lower to my butt as the other caressed my side. Without drawing attention to how uncomfortable I was, I brought the hand that was resting on my butt back up to my back. He respected me and we fell into a comfortable silence.
After another song, my throat felt dry and I needed water. So, I grabbed Alli's arm and after letting the boys know we'd be right back, I pulled her over in the direction of the bar so we could get a drink.
Eli
"Seriously, what time should we go back home? It's already 10:30." Adam asked as he checked his phone for the time. We had been here for about two hours doing nothing but exchanging stories and drinking. It had been a great night so far. I missed guy's night with Adam. That was yet another thing NYU had ruined for me.
Seeing Adam quickly reply to a text, I realized I hadn't checked my phone all night. Pulling my phone out of my back pocket, I unlocked it and saw I had some new messages from Cassie, all of them were her questioning where I was. Then a new message popped up with a picture attached to it. As the picture loaded, I read the caption. Come home soon. Within a second, the picture loaded, revealing an exposed Cassie. I let out a breath before quickly locking my screen, embarrassed that anybody could have peeked over my shoulder and saw it.
"Dude, what was it?" Adam questioned, having seen my reaction. I shook my head, indicating I wasn't going to let him in on what had been sent to me. "Oh, come on, unless you want me to steal your phone and take a look myself." He taunted. I shook my head, almost daring him to try taking my phone. "Elijah, you know I have ways of getting your phone. You better tell me unless you want me to get you so drunk you black out so I can snatch our phone from you." He threatened and I knew he wasn't lying. It wouldn't be exactly hard to buy me a few more drinks and make a grab for my phone.
"Fine. It was Cassie. She sent me a picture of... you know." I told Adam, looking down while a blush took form on my cheeks.
"Is Eli Goldsworthy Blushing?! Because his girlfriend sent him some nudes?!" Adam called out loudly, announcing to anybody near us what had just happened. I glared at him and mumbled for him to shut it. "You could be at home, getting some action, but instead you're here, with me, getting drunk at a crowded club. Man, you need to sort out your priorities." Adam laughed.
"Look, even if I was at home right now, I'd be on the couch ignoring Cassie. Do you not recall what she said to Clare?" I shot at him while he put his hands up in surrender. "I'll be right back, I have to go to the bathroom." I said, standing up from my stool. Adam smirked and gave me an acknowledging look.
"Oh, get your mind out of the gutter. No. I have to pee." I clarified to him while I headed off towards the sketchy club bathrooms to pee.
Clare
As we emerged from the crowd, I took in a deep breath, which seemed almost clean compared to the humid air amidst the crowd.
I pulled her over to the bar and ordered a small cup of water. The bartender handed me my water and I emptied the cup with one big gulp. I thanked him and handed the cup back. I took a deep breath and turned around, intending on going back into the crazy group of people, but my eyes caught on somebody sitting right to my side. "Adam!" I screamed and bent down to hug him.
"Finally, took you long enough to spot me." he said as he stood up and greeted us.
"It's been for-ever! I miss you so much! Oh my God, how has everything been? You know what, never mind that, we should hang out and then you can tell me all about life! How about a sleepover tonight?! No wait, Zach wouldn't be too happy about that." I slurred everything out as fast as I could and laughed at Adam's bewildered expression.
"Woah Clare, take a breath. Are you okay? You seem kind of..." Adam trailed off.
"I know, I know, I might be a liiiittle drunk right now." I finished the sentence for him and gave him another hug. "Do you remember Alli? She took me out tonight. We're having fun." I told him as I yanked Alli closer and she gave a small wave towards Adam. "Why are you here alone, Adam? Are you lonely? You can dance with me if you'd like." I told him as Alli headed back to boys we were dancing with.
"Oh, no. I'm, um, here with Eli." Adam told me and I exasperatedly rolled my eyes.
"Is Cassie here too? Did you hear what that bitch said to me?! I have some more words for her to hear, let me at her." I shouted over the music as I looked around for Eli and Cassie.
"Woah, slow down tiger. Eli's angry about what Cassie said, so he came here with me to get away from her for a bit." He told me.
"She was so mean to me Adam! I went home and cried! Why was she so mean?" I asked him with a pouty face.
"You know what, Clare, why don't we just get you home?" Adam said as he put a hand on my arm, helping steady me.
"But Adaaam, I'm fine! It's not like you haven't seen me drunk before!" I whined to him. I had been drunk with Adam and Eli plenty of times.
"Yes, but Eli was always there to make sure you were safe. So let's just get you home, okay?" He said as he pulled out his phone and talked to what sounded like a taxi driver.
Eli
I walked out of the dingy bathroom and noticed Adam was holding on the phone, holding onto a girl who I automatically recognized as Clare. My breath hitched for a moment as I stopped walking. I had seen her backside enough to become familiar with it.
Deciding it'd be best to face her, I continued my journey towards what used to be 2/3 of the misfits.
"Eli, I'm calling us a taxi. We're gonna take Clare and Alli home. Can you watch her while I go fetch Alli?" Adam asked as soon as he hung up the phone.
Clare turned towards me as Adam went off to find Alli. "Eliii! I haven't seen you in hours!" She giggled as she gave me a hug. I realized she was drunk. "Eli, why was your girlfriend so mean to me? Does she hate me?" Clare slurred out and started rocking a bit. I reached a hand out to make sure she didn't fall.
"Oh, she doesn't hate you Clare. She's like that to everybody. She's just jealous that we used to date." I told her, frantically searching for Adam with my eyes. I used to love drunk Clare, back when we were together. But now that she was upset with me and Cassie, I was afraid about what would come out of her mouth.
"But she shouldn't be jealous because you love her now. If anything, I should be the jealous one! I was so happy when I saw your text, Eli." She told me. I started feeling guilty. I knew Clare was so honest whenever she was drunk, and even though I was happy she was sharing this information with me, I felt bad knowing that sober Clare probably wouldn't want me to hear this.
Adam came over, saving me, as he dragged Alli behind him. We headed towards to taxi and all piled in. Clare sat in the seat next to me rested her head on my shoulder, stating how tired she was. She drifted off to sleep and we decided that she would stay the night at Alli's house and we'd drop them off first.
When we stopped at Alli's house, I carried Clare out of the car and into the Bhandari residence. I carried her up the stairs and laid her down on Alli's bed, while Alli went to go change into pajamas.
I looked down at Clare's peaceful body and knew I shouldn't do what I was about to do. But instinct took over, and against my better judgment, I leaned down and planted a soft kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight, Clare-Bear." I whispered before I headed back to the taxi so I could spend the night at Adam's.
