A 28-9 victory by the Wawanakwa Gophers had Geoff's mansion overflowing with drunk teenagers and red solo cups littered everywhere. With a small town, his dad worked on the police force and coached the football team, so getting busted was at the bottom of Geoff's list as he was crowd surfing in his backyard whilst chugging a beer.
Gwen raised an eyebrow at the sight, standing next to Bridgette, who was still in her cheerleader uniform and smiling at her boyfriend, before turning to Gwen, yelling in her ear. "Let's get a drink!"
The two met up with LeShawna, Harold, and DJ by the drinks table, and by the next ten minutes, each had a shot glass full of alcohol in their hands, ready to be downed.
"Where's the D-man?" Harold asked Gwen, referring to Duncan. She shrugged in response, adjusting the tiny cup in her hand as she checked her phone, seeing no text from Duncan in the past few hours. He had said that he was going to the party, but never specified when or how.
Everything was normal between them after the park incident the week before, and it wasn't mentioned again. Duncan acted as his regular, flirty self around her so she attempted to do the same, despite catching herself staring at his lips more often. Although Gwen convinced herself that it was all in her head, she couldn't stop thinking about what it would've felt like if they did kiss.
"Cheers bitches!" LeShawna suddenly yelled out, interrupting Gwen's imagination, and the black girl threw back her shot while everyone followed in suit.
The goth had had worse alcohol than what the party offered, no thanks to Duncan and his sketchy, older acquaintances, so she giggled as she watched her friends scramble for soda to use as chase. They all settled down after the aftertaste subsided, and the group migrated over to the dance floor.
Gwen was never a dancer, while on the other hand, Bridgette and LeShawna were constantly moving. DJ and Harold, no matter how derpy they looked, also moved to the beat, and Gwen amusingly stood next to them, not caring that she was the only one standing still.
"What's wrong, goth girl? Not your usual death metal noise you call music?"
When she turned around, she was greeted by a slightly taller Asian girl with a different wig, she's counted nine so far since school started, perched on her head. Gwen tried not to visibly show disgust, but remembered who she was talking to and her face scrunched up into a scowl.
The feud between the mean girl and the goth had gone on ever since they met back in middle school when Gwen accidentally spilled her acrylic paint all over Heather's "new silk top that her mom got from Milan!" during art class. They never missed a beat when it came to tearing each other down, and Gwen refused to let another rich girl have power over her.
"None of your business Heather, unless you want me to rip that bird's nest off of your head."
"I'll have you know, this is made out of real horse hair," Heather growled, petting her mane that was hanging over her shoulders.
Gwen scoffed, shaking her head, "Always thought you looked like a horse."
As Heather retaliated, DJ's voice caught Gwen's attention, overpowering the hurt of Heather's insult.
"Hey, when did Duncan and the CIT get back together?" he yelled over the music, his height giving him an advantage to overlook the living area of the home. Gwen looked over to where DJ was staring at the wall on the other side of the room, and she saw on a couch his infamous green mohawk that stood out in the crowd.
Courtney was sitting next to Duncan, and the punk had on a cocky grin directed at the brunette. The pair began talking, with Courtney's obvious flirting and touchiness causing the peers around them to take a second look and whisper into each other's ears.
Are they dating? Courtney's never going to let him go. Duncan's going to break her heart again. I knew they would get back together.
That's what Gwen imagined everyone was saying, and she couldn't stand it. She chewed on her bottom lip, her mind going every which way as she forced herself to look away from her best friend and his ex. She wasn't supposed to be feeling this way. Jealousy? Anger? Hatred?
Gwen never hated Courtney, she disliked her sure, because Duncan was her best friend and she liked him the way he was, not the person Courtney wanted him to be. But she never felt like she hated Courtney until now. Until the minute the Princess playfully smacked Duncan's arm, laughing as she did it, and Duncan amusingly winked at her.
Shaking her head, Gwen looked away and saw that Heather was giving her a confused look when she didn't respond to her. The goth didn't need that bitch to have more information to use against her, so she stepped away from the group, heading towards the backyard.
"You okay, Gwen?" Bridgette asked, trying to grab her arm, but Gwen shook it off.
"Yeah, just need some air," she yelled out, pushing her way towards the exit and fumbling in the pocket of her black shorts for her cigarette box. Once she was outside, she found a quiet corner of the giant backyard away from people to light up the cancer stick, taking a long and heavy drag, feeling a sense of relaxation once the smoke filled her lungs.
Gwen tried to ignore the sickly feeling in her chest when she thought about how this interaction confirmed all the rumors she had been hearing about Courtney and Duncan talking again. It confused her, especially when she had recently asked him about Courtney, he dodged her and said "Don't think about it too much, babe, I'm just having fun."
Yeah, they never talked about his relationship with Courtney before, but Duncan was never shy about it. He certainly didn't hide things from her.
Her mind then raced to what happened in his car; did he really try to kiss her while he was talking to Courtney? Duncan was many negative things but if there was one thing he isn't, he was never unfaithful. He was a man of his word and his morals, and it had always been like that. But there was no denying how different her friendship was with him compared to last year. He was like two different people she didn't recognize.
"I feel like I'm losing my mind," Gwen mumbled quietly to herself, taking another deep and long inhale of her cigarette, enough that the stick was halfway burnt out by the end of the drag.
"Got an extra one?"
The goth looked up, startled at the male voice that pierced through her thoughts. She watched as a tall, muscular guy with long black hair walked up to her, his green eyes glimmering under the lights of the house, and another weird feeling bubbled in her chest.
"Who's asking?"
"Sorry, I'm Trent."
"Trent," Gwen dragged out, opening her cigarette box and delicately taking one out with her fingers. "Never seen you around here before, Trent."
"Yeah, well, I'm new to Wawanakwa. Just moved here from Dallas."
Gwen raised an eyebrow, handing over the cigarette as she leaned against the fence, watching as he lit his own cigarette with a lighter. There hadn't been a new kid at McLean since Izzy Crown, and maybe it was the lunatic ways of Izzy that scared off other potential students, but it's been three years since a new face was present. "Got a lighter, but no smokes?"
Trent grinned, slipping the lighter in his pocket before exhaling a puff of smoke. "Tossed my pack because I needed an excuse to talk to a pretty girl."
A tint of blush raced up Gwen's cheeks, and if it wasn't for the alcohol, Gwen would've turned away to avoid eye contact with the male. Gwen Adams was not the type of girl to get hit on, but she was also not the type of girl to back down from a flirt either.
"Cheesy much?"
Trent shrugged, "Worth a shot right?"
"I'm Gwen."
"Yeah, I know. You're in my chemistry class."
"Stalker alert."
Another grin broke out on the boy's face. He threw his hands up defensively, "Pure coincidence. You're not hard to miss with your hair, you know?"
Nodding, Gwen slightly smiled. "I'll give you a pass for that one."
"How about you give me your number instead?"
"Cheesy pick up line number two within the first five minutes? Trying to set a record?"
"Hey, if it works, it works, right?" Trent dug into his pocket for his phone as Gwen scolded herself for falling for the guy's lame attempt at flirting. If Duncan saw this, he would've laughed and teased her about it for the rest of her life.
But she had to admit, Trent was really cute and charming, with his soft features and kind eyes. His smile showed no intent of disrespect, just purely interest in her, so she allowed herself to grab his unlocked phone, slowly typing in her number.
Just as she was about to hand him his phone, she decided to have some fun, "So Trent, tell me. What do you plan on using this number for?"
"Um… Chemistry purposes?"
"Interesting…" Gwen raised an eyebrow teasingly, and she retracted the phone back, much to his disappointment. Her finger hovered over the erase button, making Trent's hand waver. It was so strange to have so much control over someone for a change, since with Duncan, he always had the upper hand.
"I-I mean, there's that new restaurant in town. Or I can-"
As he stammered trying to find a good excuse, Gwen giggled, finally handing him back his phone, and she looked up to see his satisfied grin, which immediately turned into a sly smirk once she looked at him. She walked away from him without a word, deciding to go back to her friends, and she heard him call out,
"Hey, there's only nine numbers here."
Turning around, she winked at him, "You can figure out the rest. Think of something better than chemistry purposes, and maybe I'll respond."