I DO NOT endorse any drug use, illegal parties, and underage drinking. In fact I highly encourage not doing any of these things and staying out of legal trouble! This chapter is really all over the place, but so are all the drunk kids so... Just bear with me here.
Nathan checked the time on the stove clock as the doorbell rang. It was 8:30 at night and he figured it was either the pizza man or Giselle.
It was both.
"Hey, I paid for you so that loser would leave." Giselle entered as she saw someone walking to the door through the glass.
"Do you normally pay for stranger's pizzas and enter their house?" Nat spit out.
Giselle just smiled and handed him the pizzas. "This place is fucking huge." She giggled at her echo in the lobby. She followed Nat down the hall and into the kitchen, smiling at everyone gathered around the counter bar stools.
"Everyone, this is Giselle, the party planner for tonight." Nat announced, setting the pizzas in front of the people. "Plank gets his pieces last since he's the reason we had to order in." Nathan laughed around a bite of pizza at the cold glare he got.
"Thanks for giving us something to do tonight." Nazz smiled at her and offered her a seat next to her. "Why did you happen to come so early though?"
"I came early to kind of map out where we should have certain things and what decorations to hide so nothing gets broken."
"Ah, very mature party planner." Eddy muttered receiving a smile in return.
Plank was leaning on the counter the farthest away from the guest, watching her silently, enjoying the way she talked and the way she smiled.
Giselle made her rounds talking to the large group of people, she got along very well with the girls, Edd, Ed and Kevin. She didn't attempt to speak to Rave since he singled himself out and Nathan was desperately trying to get his attention. She and Edd walked around the house talking.
"You're so adorable, such a shame you're gay. I know a few girls that like weak men."
Edd blushed and Kevin noticed from across the room, trailing behind them.
"I-I'm not gay."
"Oh?" Giselle looked at him from the corner of her eyes and then looked back to Kevin. "I'm afraid I will have to disagree. Your boyfriend has followed us. He looks pretty pissed that you're alone with me. I didn't mean to start trouble." Giselle teased, getting Edd to blush more.
"He's, uh, he's not my boyfriend."
Kevin heard that. His eye twitched a little as he moved to the stairs, his feet thudding on every step and looking down at Giselle and Edd looking up to him as he walked into the room he shared with Edd. He felt kind of rejected, cursing him in his mind. How could he feel rejected when Edd truly wasn't his boyfriend? Kevin sat on the edge of his bed and thought hard about Edd. Kevin knew he wasn't gay and that the feelings he was having for Edd were weird. But he didn't feel guilty about it. He liked the dork.
Downstairs Giselle quit teasing Edd and had moved to watch how the lights around the pool made the house light up in different colors. She looked around, watching the group of friends interact and started moving around things she knew were going to break. She advised everyone lock their bedroom doors and hide any personal items in the bathrooms. She went to the iPad placed next to the speakers in the house, it was bolted to the counter but she figured she could hide it. After playing around on it and getting a sick music lineup she hid the device and started looking around. Edd stood just feet away talking to Kevin, they looked pretty deep in conversation. She turned and found Plank sitting with a bottle of whiskey facing the opposite direction.
She made her way to him, not knowing what she would say. Instead of saying anything she just sat next him and looked in the direction he was looking. He watched her from the corner of his eye and then looked forward again.
"She has a boyfriend. She said so in the store earlier." Kevin said.
"Still, you guys just randomly meet people in stores and invite them with who knows how many people over for a night of trouble?" Edd's voice rose in panic but the look Kevin gave him made him slightly angry.
"What were we supposed to do? Run a background search on her? Plus this was all Nat's idea. Don't get angry with me."
"I'm not angry with you, I just don't feel comfortable." With that Edd turned and walked away from Kevin to his friends. Eddy and Ed were talking outside on the back porch and Edd felt the heat of the night in the Florida air soothe his skin.
Plank looked over to Giselle and handed the bottle to her. She smiled and took a swig, handling the liquor well.
"So, Plank, I have yet to hear you talk." She turned in the seat to face him.
But the doorbell rang and Nat yelled for Giselle to get it.
"You invited the people, you get to let them in all night."
Sighing, she left Plank and walked to the door. Her boyfriend was the first person in the giant crowd to face her. Welcoming them in he swept her up in a kiss. After a few minutes she pulled back and closed the door to the empty stoop.
An hour and a million teenagers coming and going, Kevin could feel the alcohol settling into his body. He felt relaxed and in his zone. He was swinging between people, making new friends and exchanging phone numbers. He walked into the emptying kitchen to find Edd cleaning up empty bottles and cringing at spills.
"C'mon dork, give up. It's just going to get worse." Kevin slurred, putting an arm around the dork's shoulders and handing him the rest of his half full cup. "Drink up." But Edd shook his head no and walked off from Kevin. "What, do you not want to party with me?" Kevin pouted. "I thought we were friends."
"We are friends, Kevin." Edd said calmly. "I just do not wish to partake and partake too much to only feel it worse in the morning. But make sure you enjoy enough for the two of us." Edd gave a tense, small smile and walked out of the room.
Giselle had lost her boyfriend. She was definitely on her way to drunk town. She saw Edd brush Kevin off and felt like a huge jerk for teasing him earlier. She saw Nazz kissing Marie on the couch and grinned like a goon. She stepped out on the porch, pulling a random girl with her and started dancing with her outside. She could smell heaven on earth and traced the marijuana smell over to the corner. Rolf sat there, a million other faces she hardly knew looking at her as she stole the blunt from one's hand. Taking a long hit off the blunt and then giving it back she saw the tall brooding and mysterious Plank gently pushing drunk girls from him, kindly turning them down without saying a word. She made her way to him, stumbling over the constant people and finally making her way to him.
"I still haven't heard you talk." She pouted and got a smile from him.
"I don't talk much." He simply said. Sensory overload. Hearing his voice, so deep with the slightest accent, she was his the instant he spoke.
"You need to talk more often." She pulled him inside, the kitchen empty except for the few walking in for drinks every once in a while. They leaned against the counter, Giselle getting balance while Plank felt comfortable.
"You really remind me of Alex Turner." She giggled a little, thinking of him singing to her, and playing with the opening of his black leather jacket on top of a Misfits shirt with ripped black jeans and black Doc Martens.
"Interesting." Was all he said, although she would have thought he wasn't interested in talking, the way he said it encouraged her to talk more.
She leaned to him, eyes sparkling. "Tell me about yourself."
Plank looked at her from the corner of his eye, loving the way she was looking at him. "What do you want to know?"
"Everything." She bit her lip and watched him smile.
"Giselle?"
"Oh! Anthony! I want you to meet my friend Plank. He's the one that asked me to throw the party." She pulled Anthony over and he gave Plank an up and down look, sizing him up. "Plank, this is my boyfriend Anthony." Plank's blank face did little to let them see how disappointed he was.
"Nice to meet you, dude." Anthony said, they shook hands and Anthony pulled Giselle away from him.
"He looks like a dumb punk, Gigi. Why haven't you been spending time with me?"
"I thought you brought Ashley for a reason." She said, full of venom, slightly pushing herself away from him. They walked over to the next living room where couples sat kissing among other things.
"Ashley is leaving soon."
"Leave with her." Giselle crossed her arms across her chest and glared off into the other corner not facing Anthony.
"Really? This shit again? Gigi, I am not into her."
"That's not what you said the last week. No, seriously, leave with her. I'm not leaving for a while because I have to be the one to shut down the party and I don't want you to wait around."
"Why don't you want me around Giselle?"
"Because you're fucking Ashley." She sighed. "Look, I know I said I could get over it, but I can't. I really can't. It's like how could you do that to me, you know? So just leave with her and don't call me ever again." She smiled and stood up.
"You're breaking up with me? Does this have anything to do with the faggot you were talking to before this?!"
"Don't act so surprised, tiger." She giggled and walked past Rave hoping to find Plank again.
Rave watched Giselle pass him, he was walking all over looking for Nat. He walked into the kitchen and saw a flash in the corner of the room. Nat was drawing on someone's face, they had appeared to be passed out drunk and Nat was loving every second of it.
"What the fuck are you doing, Goldberg?" Rave pushed him away from the poor kid as Nat laughed.
"I was looking for Kev and found this chump."
"You're the chump. He's going to wake up and have that stained on his face."
"Why do you care?"
"I don't. But his mother will." Rave crossed him arms. "You sure are belligerent when you drink."
"I haven't been drinking."
"The point still stands. Just without the drinking cause."
"I don't understand why you're getting mad at me all of a sudden, I apologized for the pool thing a million times."
"Maybe I am just always mad at you?"
"Maybe you should chill out and enjoy a fucking party." Nat smiled sweetly.
"Maybe I don't want to."
"I dare you." Nat looked at Rave, their glares meeting. Rave's glare of hate and Nat's glare of knowing Rave would back out.
"You know what? Fine." Rave turned and grabbed a drink from the cooler and downed it then grabbed another one.
Nat and Rave stood together, hardly talking and when they did talk it was "You don't have to prove anything to me..." "Shut up, Goldberg."
Finally Edd had had enough, six trash bags had filled the hallway to the garage from inside the house and he decided to take them out. Opening the garage door and turning the light on he pressed the button for the mechanical door to open, waiting patiently while he lined the trash bags up. Once in the garage, someone closed the door behind him and although it did scare him he could always open it again or walk the short few feet to the front door.
Edd opened the trash bin's lid all the way back, letting it hit against its body. He grabbed the first bag and heard someone shuffling around behind him. He turned, seeing two people leaving the party. A girl was talking a boy out of starting a fight and just leaving with her. Suddenly they both looked at him and the boy came charging over and took a swing at Edd.
The fragile boy gasped feeling knuckle connect with cheek and fell down with the impact.
"Fuck you, Plank." The guy started wailing on Edd's small body.
Edd tried very hard to gasp out that he was not Plank, but maybe that didn't matter. After at least three minutes, which felt like seventy years, the girl pulled the other boy off Edd and they ran for her car, leaving Edd crying on the cobble stone drive way. Distantly, Edd heard the garage door to the house open, loud music spilling out, and a very sad voice calling his name.
"K-Kevinnn?" Edd gasped, holding his stomach as he tried to pull himself up. But Kevin couldn't hear him.
Another three minutes passed before Kevin sauntered out into the garage, seeing the larger door opened and checking outside he jumped at the sight of Edd.
"Holy shit, holy fucking shit, oh my god, oh my holy shit fucking god." Kevin said rushing to Edd. "Where are you hurt the most? Can I pick you up? Do you know if anything is broken?" Kevin moved his arms this way and that, checked his ribs and felt under his back for any protruding bones. He gently took his fingers over the swelling on the poor boy's cheek. "Who the fuck did this to you?"
"I-I don't k-know. The-they wantedddd Pl-Plank." Edd gasped, a little winded as Kevin picked him up, setting him on his feet and leaning him against him.
Kevin and Edd walked through the house, Edd keeping his head and face turned down so that he didn't draw attention.
"What?! No way! Little Edd got too hammered!" Nat laughed walking up to Kevin and pulling a hiccuping Rave along with him.
"Shut up, Nat. He's not feeling very good. I'm just trying to get him to our room."
"Yo, wait, is that a bruise? Kevin, what did you do?" Nat's eyes widened and he lowered his voice.
Kevin stopped just long enough to smack Nat upside the head. "I would never hurt him. Some drunk guy thought he was Plank and beat the shit out of him."
"Oh! Shit! That must have been Giselle's boyfriend." Rave slurred, reaching a hand to hold himself up on the wall.
"What?" Kevin asked, turning him and Edd towards Rave.
"Yeah, she broke up with him for Plank. I'd say it was a lost cause, she's not very attractive."
"She's quite attractive, everyone that met her earlier thought so. Even Kevin." Nat reasoned, Edd frowned a little at the last bit.
"Anyways, so her boyfriend did this?" He pointed to the quiet boy under his shoulder.
"More than likely."
"Alright, cool, great." Kevin mumbled, walking off with Edd again.
Kevin carried Edd on his back up the stairs and gently untangled him from his shoulders and waist onto the bed. Not just anyone's bed Kevin's bed.
"Please tell me you checked the sheets before setting me on them." Edd shut his eyes.
"Nope. Just going to have to deal with that not knowing I guess." Kevin smirked watching the boy physically shudder.
The boys were barely talking over the music level downstairs. Once they stopped talking and Kevin ran downstairs for ice and then found a first aid kit, there was a very relevant song playing. Kevin paused at the top step listening to the lyrics.
"What song is this?" He asked to one of the random kids sitting on the upstairs lobby's couch.
"I think it's called Crave You? I know it's by Flight Facilities." A kid shrugged.
"Ah, okay. Thanks dude." Kevin shot him the thumbs up and walked into the room.
Apparently Edd found the lyrics interesting as well, he sat up on the bed with his head tilted to one side to listen better.
(You should probably listen to the song because I'm too lazy to write lyrics c: Crave You by Flight Facilities featuring Giselle.)
Kevin tended to Edd, putting warm wash cloths on the places he said hurt the most. Kevin hunted down a bottle of aspirin and a non-alcoholic beverage and returned to Edd in the bedroom. He had now snuggled up on the right side of the bed and had his eyes close until he heard Kevin enter. Kevin had to admit, he was still feeling a little boozy, but seeing Edd crumpled on the ground like that immediately snapped him into reality. He was feeling tired more than anything now, knowing Edd was somewhat safe next to him, he collapsed.
"Kevin?"
"Yeah?"
"Thank you." Edd whispered.
"For what?" Kevin opened one of his eyes and watched Edd carefully.
"For taking care of me." Edd blushed lightly.
"Don't even worry about it. I wasn't just going to leave you." Kevin shrugged.
"But you also didn't have to do all this." Edd motioned around himself.
"Look, I got really scared. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. If you want, I can move you over to your bed?" But Edd shook his head, much to Kevin's approval. "Alright then, I'm going to turn the television on and we can find a movie or something, okay? Just worry about getting better."
Edd already felt much better, he snuggled into the bed even more, realizing that Kevin had snaked an arm around his shoulders. Blushing slightly, he leaned into Kevin's arm and felt him squeeze his shoulder for a split second. It happened so fast, Edd didn't even know if it actually happened or not.
Downstairs, Giselle found Plank again. She had drunk much more by now. The house was starting to empty, soon she was the only person left. Everyone had gone to their separate rooms, Rave being the only on around the kitchen still, eating vanilla ice cream and reading a black book. Plank looked glad to see her and she was definitely glad to see him too.
"Look, I haveta go hommmme." She was almost too drunk to handle.
"No, why don't you stay?" Plank said with a cool tone, playing it off if she declined.
"I'm too drunk to fuck dude." She hiccupped and crossed her eyes.
"Not at all what I was even asking for." Plank slid his hands into his pockets, watching her carefully.
"Sorry. Most guys just take what they can get." She shrugged.
"Why don't we get you changed and put into a bed?" She nodded and Plank took her hand, leading her to the bedroom under the stairs he won in a staring contest with Jonny.
Plank gave her a blue button up flannel, he got this as a Christmas gift from Jonny's mom last year. He loved it and he loved the way it looked on her.
"Is it cool if I just sleep in my panties? I'm not too fond of boy's pants." Plank just shrugged.
She walked into the bathroom and closed the door. Plank put on his Marvel character pajama pants and took his shirt off. He stretched out on his side of the bed and turned the television on then peaked up when he heard the bathroom door open. The sight before him took his breath away and he was seriously questioning what kind of hell he just put himself through. She stood there, flannel shirt ending just under her underwear, hair tied up in a messy bun. It looked like she had washed her face too. She gave him a questioning look when she saw his eye light up.
Taking her place on the bedside next to him, she curled up facing the wall, her back facing him.
"Thank you a lot. I don't think I would have been able to drive home, even if it is just across the street."
Plank just grunted and turned the television down so they could fall asleep.
Leaving his room, Nat walked down the stairs in only a pair of pajama pants. He wandered his way into the kitchen to find Rave reading at the bar with a carton of ice cream.
"You look comfortable." Nat commented, noticing how Rave jumped and glared at him as he made his way to the cabinet with the cups in it.
"You need to put more clothes on to make me comfortable." Rave muttered but Nat just laughed.
"Are you coming to bed anytime soon?"
"Why would you think I'm sleeping with you?"
"Whoa, I just figured you'd want a nice warm bed to curl up in after dealing with an island party." Nat raised his hands innocently. "The bed is big enough for me to stretch out and not even be close to touching you. But if it will make you feel better, they moved a pull out bed into the room. I can sleep on that."
Rave just looked at him confused. "What?" Nat said, feeling like Rave was looking right through him.
"Why are you being nice to me?"
"What do you mean?" Nat furrowed his eyebrows.
"You're trying to make me feel comfortable?"
"Well, shit, Rave. I bring you on a trip to make you feel so uncomfortable that you constantly want to leave. Where's the logic in that? I just want you to enjoy yourself and if that means I'm sleeping on a pull out bed for three weeks, then so be it."
Rave thought this over.
"You've got one chance. If you can prove to me, in this large ass fucking bed, that you won't touch me and won't make me want to murder you, then I might consider letting you sleep in the bed for the rest of the vacation."
Everyone in the house could hear Nathan's victory cheer and it made Rave cover his face with his book to hide his smile.