It took me all of ten minutes to reach the Newton's house. By the number of littered beer cans on the front lawn, I could tell the party had been going on for a while. I decided to park a block away to decrease the chance of my precious Malibu being violated during the night. It wasn't until I was met with the chilly winter air that I seriously regretted having worn the black super mini. Sure, my upper body was comfortable in the form fitting hoodie, but the legs were crying out from exposure even with the cotton leggings. I have no clue how girls are comfortable in these skimpy outfits but then again, confidence is either at a raving high or an all time low in high school. I'll try to rock this outfit for one night.
"Bernadette! So glad you could make it!" With the amount of booze permeating the house I was pleasantly surprised to be welcomed by the actual host of the party and in a pretty sober state. "You look hot!" Okay not that sober.
"Thanks…I guess. " And because he referenced my looks, it was then that I noticed his slightly messy locks and crooked shirt. He gestured me in with a lazy wave although it seemed like it took him a lot of effort. I stepped in, a speaker blaring Lupe in my ear. I internally chuckled, half expecting to hear the Jonas Brothers being featured at the party.
"Food and drinks are in the back. Bathrooms are upstairs as are the…uh bedrooms." He attempted to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively. I let out a dry laugh to indicate I comprehended. He put on a goofy smile and offered his arm. I obliged assuming he was going to introduce me to any stranger faces. Or introduce my stranger face to all the normies. I ended up only remembering one girl's name, Laura or Lauren…something like that. I only remembered that much because the girl was off in some corner with Jessica Stanley harassing some poor nerdy type girl into talking to some jock. Ah, the persuasive skills of teenage females. It only took about twenty minutes for Mike to lose track of me, or me to lose track of him. I couldn't remember and I found myself getting thrown into a mosh pit of sorts that congregated by the 'DJ' of the evening, even though his equipment consisted of a laptop, three ipods, and about fifty cables leading to different rooms in the house. I was one to enjoy my personal space so when some lanky brunette decided it would benefit him to grind into me, I took it as my cue to escape. Which I managed to do, only to trip over about three teenagers who decided it would be a brilliant idea to crash on the floor of the foyer sending me stumbling in my heels and slam right into some guy carrying two cups of liquid. And it wasn't just anyone.
"Sorry about that Tyler." He looked down at his tight fitting green and white striped shirt that was now spotted with pink drink and shrugged.
"No problem. I'll just throw it in the wash." If my memory serves me correctly I went to say something along the lines of: I'll get you some paper towels to dry it for now. But somehow it ended up coming out as a girl-like squeal of surprise. Because he thought at that moment it would be acceptable to strip out of his dirtied shirt. "You mind escorting me to the laundry room." After taking in his less than spectacular but still surprisingly good looking bod for a teenage boy, my adult sensors clicked in and told me it would be a bad idea to follow the half naked man child into a room where no one else would likely be. "Don't worry I won't try anything." Well, if he's alert enough to sense my unease and his breath isn't screaming brewery, I guess it'll be innocent. And even if he tried anything, my two years of self defense classes will have to come into play. Adult sensors effectively dulled again.
"Lead the way." So I followed him down the hall and down a staircase that led to the washing machine and dryer in the basement. It was dark and dingy like most unfinished basements so I decided to spark up a conversation. "So Tyler what's up?" I really tried to make that as nonchalant as possible but I think he even caught on to the forced tone.
"You don't have to talk to me if you don't want." He pulled out some detergent from a cabinet that I hadn't noticed until he opened it. He measured a small amount of it into the cap then poured it into the washer. "I know Mike can be a little overwhelming. He tries to make everyone seem welcome." He turned on the water and threw his shirt in. "I mean you've seen how big our circle is." He shut the lid and it echoed in the room making me think it was bigger than I previously thought. The fact that he knew his way around his friend's house so well and was comfortable clued me into the fact that they must share a strong bond.
"It's fine. I'd like to meet as many people as possible. You know being new and all." He nodded then took a few steps closer to me. "Have you guys been friends long?" I asked taking a few more steps backwards.
"Since we were five. Small town and most of us have been here our whole lives so everybody knows everybody even if we don't necessarily like everyone." He added a slight chuckle. " Mike, Yorkie, and I always ran in a group."
"Yorkie?"
"Eric." I nodded that I understood. "Yeah Ben didn't start hanging with us until middle school. It was always us four after that. Mike's always been the leader." By this point he'd moved to make his way back upstairs and I dutifully followed.
"Where are you in the pecking order?" I asked curious to this hierarchy within a hierarchy.
"I'm second I guess you could say. Whenever Mike wasn't around or busy with work or with Bel-uh girls, the guys would listen to me and we would hang out wherever." He added a shrug at the end. I didn't let his almost slip escape my notice. We'd made our way back to the main floor. The party was still in full swing and the house was getting a little more crowded. A few girls tried latching themselves onto Tyler because of his obvious 'shirtlessness'. He turned around to me suddenly before we even made all the way back through the foyer. "You wanna go somewhere less crowded?" I nodded, not bothering to attempt yelling over the music like he had to. We turned and headed back the way we came. He opened a door across from the basement stairs and revealed a small closet like space that held a ladder. Tyler walked in and began to climb.
"Um?"
"It leads to an empty space connecting to Mike's bedroom. Don't worry no one will be up there. He locks it during the parties. " He explained and continued his ascent. It obviously didn't bother him that he was breaking into his friend's room. I followed after closing the door back as I climbed. He pulled me up when I made it to the top and after a few steps found myself inside Mike Newton's closet.
"It smells like boy in here." I complained. Tyler laughed then pushed open a door revealing the bedroom. "So is that how he sneaks girls up into his room?"
"I don't know, you'll have to ask Jessica." He flipped a switch and the room was illuminated. "Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he's never showed her up here. Or if she found it herself." He laughed at a joke that I was being left out of.
"Are they not close?" I asked curiously. Not that it would surprise me if they weren't.
"Jessica was the first female friend our quartet made. I mean we had girlfriends don't get me wrong, it's just none of them really lasted over two weeks tops so…" He trailed off and started busying himself with little knick knacks on the desk. "Anyway Jessica got pulled in by Mike so it was only natural to assume they would start going out. It's like we had this unspoken agreement. He'd get the first girl. Then the next girl would date me. So on and so forth."
"And that's what happened?"
"Nope. They became good friends. Really good. Jessica didn't really see anything in the rest of us. So she just stayed attached to Mike even though he doesn't have any feelings for her." He suddenly stopped playing with the thing in his hand. I realized he must feel uneasy about revealing so much to me.
"Don't worry I'm tight lipped." I said and his tense shoulders immediately relaxed again. "I mean it's high school right. Maybe the feelings just haven't manifested yet." I suggested. He nodded distantly.
"Maybe. I don't know. Everything just went wrong once we hit high school." He paused for a few minutes. I took the moment to peruse the room. On a dresser sat a picture turned face down. While Tyler's back was turned I flipped the picture up to look at it. I was met with a younger version of Mike Newton leaning amicably on a red head and vibrant green eyes. Her freckles and glasses only added to her youthful look. She smiled and it was obvious that the two were very happy. "Snooping I see." I jumped at Tyler's voice. He was smirking and watching me as I held the picture.
"Sorry. It was turned down so I-"I noticed his smirk change into a slight frown. "Is this one of his relatives?"
"No. Mike has friends besides us. He used to keep all his groups separate. Like he would hang with the girls then hang with us another time but then Angela and Ben became a thing and it all got messed up." He shook his head. "That's not a relative. That was one of his friends." His use of the past tense didn't escape my notice.
"Was?"
"Yeah was. That's Bella Swan." My stunned silence went on for an incredible amount of time. I kept blinking at the picture, then recalling the one I carried in my wallet and was plastered in the school. They didn't compute.
"Wait…what? Isn't –wasn't she a brunette with brown eyes and pale impeccable skin?" I asked. I was sure there were no blemishes on the girls face even if she looked a little plain.
"Yeah we don't know what happened but that's how she was born." He said pointing to the picture. "She shows up in the middle of tenth grade looking like a completely different girl. I preferred her as a red head." The admission caused Tyler to break his gaze with me.
"Did you like Bella?" This caused him to whip back around to face me. "I mean you said you should get the second girl that comes into the picture."
"No, that wasn't it. I knew Mike liked her. A lot. She just treated him the same way he would treat Jess. Friends only kind of thing. I mean she would tolerate his advances but that winter she came to school and was completely different. I mean no disrespect but she was a little insane." This news interested me but I couldn't let it show too much.
"How so?"
"Well the drastic physical changes she went through, sent Mike into a frenzy. Then how she starts acting depressed and distant. No one believed me when I said she needed professional help even after the incident with my van." His words sped up and I knew he was getting frustrated with his memories.
"Should I even ask?" I asked in reference to the van incident. He waved his hand but proceeded to explain anyway.
"We went to the beach one day, our whole little group and it was the first time Bella and Mike had gone to any gathering together in a while so we took my van and Ben's car. We get down there and everything's cool. I remembered I left something in my van so I jog back to get it. I put the keys in the ignition and pop open the back get in, and the next thing I know, someone is jumping into the driver seat and pulling off. I mean, if I didn't have upper body strength I would have flipped right back out the van. Anyway I look up and low and behold, I have a crying brunette squealing my tires like a mad woman."
"Bella stole your van?" I asked finding the incident random and slightly amusing.
"I didn't know what had gotten into her head but she's pushing 90 miles per hour on a back road. I try yelling at her to stop but she's not listening. She just keeps mumbling to herself and holding her chest like it's about to break and the next thing I know she lets go of the wheel about to send us careening out of control and to our sudden deaths!" His arms' flailed up dramatically and I didn't find the story amusing anymore. "I know teenage life can be hard but I was not about to let her drive us both to our graves."
"So how'd you stop it?"
"I eventually stumbled from the back to the front of the van and whipped the wheel around. We were going so fast that we ended up spinning out but we came to stop before we tipped off the edge of the road and down a cliff. By this time she's crying and apologizing and then she's out of the van and running down the road. I didn't know if I should follow her or not, so I called Mike and told him."
"And? Did he go find her?" I asked despite the fact I saw the dangers in leaving a suicidal girl alone.
"He yelled at me and cursed me out and said I was a liar. He said his Bella would never do anything that stupid and that I'm just a jealous douche out for cheap laughs." How easily he said the words told me that he had to have been repeating the sentence in his head for a while. "Only I and maybe Angela seemed to get the hint that this wasn't his Bella anymore. Let's just say we haven't been as close since then."
"Angela?" I asked curious to her involvement.
"Yeah she was friends with Bella longer than Mike. She was the one who took my call seriously and called Bella at home to make sure she got there safely. She did but Angela didn't let me in on any specifics. Just said she was really torn up about it and wanted to apologize to me. She never did though." By this time we were both situated on opposite ends of Mike's bed, Tyler looking down at the floor, me still holding the picture of pre-10th grade Bella.
"Do you know why she changed?" Tyler shrugged.
"I heard about her mom leaving. Everyone did. We just figured that was why she was so moody," I listened not quite believing that was the case. "I'm not sure like I said, she changed and I was still looking out for my buddy. I didn't think she was good for him so I kept my distance hoping he would get the hint. He didn't and now look where it's got him."
"Where?"
"Having parties to drown out his sorrows. I'd watch yourself if I was you. He may start clinging to you because of your hair color." He pointed in the direction of my head. I decided to change the subject.
"If you guys aren't close why do you still come to his parties? You obviously aren't having much fun." He shrugged again and turned to face me.
"He's still my friend. I just come to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid." At that point the door unlocked from the outside and someone came in.
"Oh hey guys. Did I interrupt something?" Mike drawled, more intoxicated than when he had greeted me at the door. He took in both our appearances, mainly Tyler's lack of a shirt and our seated positions on his bed.
"No." I said quickly placing the picture back in its place before he caught me holding it.
"I was just heading back down to get my shirt." Tyler shot out. "Bernie got it a little dirty." He said with a suggestive undertone. I shot the boy a disdainful look just as Mike's eyes widened in surprise.
"Well well, that sounds interesting. I'll let you get to that." Mike glanced between us again before closing his door and locking it once more. Tyler turned to me and let out a pent up breath.
"Sorry about that, but it seemed better to lie then let him know we've been up here talking. He would have started asking questions." I nodded. The guy was pretty quick on his feet. I'll just have to deal with the repercussions of the lie at school on Monday. "I probably should go check on my shirt though." I agreed and we were on our way back down the ladder and to the basement.
A/N: Okay, The DimPrint series is complete so I can focus on this a little more. A little longer chapter. Hopefully the events aren't too confusing.
