Revamped!

Beware of Sharp Thornes: Part Four

After the Party

A sudden beeping noise fills their ears, making them wince at the timer's loudness. It wasn't until that very moment that they realized silence is beautiful.

Thorne unplugs the machine before pouring himself a cup of coffee. He then passes the pitcher around and they take turns pouring it into their mugs, putting any additives they want. Thorne's kitchen only had the finest creams and sugars to choose from.

They relocated into the kitchen which was as messy as the living room with empty cups and bottles all over the place, arguably more. They hoped being in a different location with more natural light and caffeine would help them recall the events of last night (or even a few hours ago) but they were still drawing blanks.

"How do we all know nothing?" Kai asks, pouring sugar in his mug.

"I don't know," Cinder responds, sitting back in her chair. She looks over at Wolf. "Did you bring drugs?"

Wolf shakes his head, putting his now empty cup on the table. "No, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone else did. I don't remember taking any."

Suddenly, Winter gasps. Since it came out of nowhere, everyone jumps a little as they look at her. Then, Winter grabs Thorne's phone which was on the table in front of them. She holds it up as if that gesture alone proves her point, but her friends look at her confused because they need her to explain her point. They're too hungover to think and, even on a normal day, they're not mind-readers. Holding up Thorne's phone could and would mean a lot of things if left to interpretation so they wait for Winter to start explaining herself since nobody's in the mood to play charades.

"We can check social media," Winter states, putting Thorne's phone back down. "Everyone needs a camera nowadays because if you don't document yourself, you don't exist. And Thorne's party was a place where you needed to prove your validity, from what I could barely remember."

They nod their heads at that amazing idea. As a group, they knew they had a series of posts and stories that could explain the night from start to end, and poke around at what their classmates shared to fill their empty minds. However, when they search their bodies for their phones, none come up.

"What the stars?" Cinder exclaims, turning her pockets inside out and finding nothing.

Scarlet goes back to the couch they were all sleeping on to see if they fell out between the cushions. She returns seconds later shaking her head. None of them, except for Thorne, have their phones.

"How are we going to keep from messing up if we don't know when or how we messed up, to begin with?" Thorne asks as he goes on his phone to see what he could find.

-o-

Before the Party

Winter stands in front of her full-length mirror, looking at her outfit to make sure that it's perfect. She tries out different poses and angles, taking mirror selfies and posting only the best ones as a sneak peek for people attending Thorne's party. She's wearing a black and white striped sleeveless top, black miniskirt, deep blue jean jacket, white sneakers, and her hair is in a full afro with natural-looking makeup. Winter snaps the perfect selfie and captions it ootn before posting it to her story.

She looks up from her phone when she sees Cinder make her way into her room with three filled shot glasses. Winter rolls her eyes before capturing a photo of Cinder to add to the pre-party mood, just in time before Cinder puts the glasses down on Winter's desk, wiping a small spill with her hands before wiping them on her pants. Winter narrows her eyes and takes a deep breath at Cinder who doesn't even notice. Winter has to give Cinder credit for wearing a cute party outfit: tight grey crop top showing off her midriff, tight grey high-waisted leggings, white sneakers, and her usual ponytail.

"Here," Cinder says, passing Winter a shot glass.

Winter smirks as she puts her phone in her jacket pocket. She skips over to Cinder and happily accepts the glass. The Blackburn girls clink their glasses before downing their pre-party shots in one go. They wince and tense as the strong drink makes its way down their systems.

"Wow, what a start!" Winter exclaims.

Both girls turn their heads at the sound of knocking at their door. Slowly, it opens and Kai peeks in before walking inside. Instantly, Cinder throws her arms in the air before embracing and kissing him. Kai holds her close as Winter smiles to herself.

"You look great," Cinder tells him, topping it off with a small peck. He was wearing a white V-neck, navy jeans, black shoes, and a grey jacket with the sleeves rolled up.

"I see you're getting started early," Kai says, tasting the alcohol on her mouth.

Cinder grins as she gestures to the last shot glass. Kai shakes his head.

"I'm driving us there," Kai tells her.

Cinder nods, completely understanding. As a solution, she takes the shot for herself before kissing him again. He'll never get tired of her kisses. Her soft lips are a perfect fit with his, never making him able to form a coherent thought when they're consuming him.

Winter makes her way around them, snagging Kai's car keys from his pocket.

"I'll meet you two in the car," she tells them. She jingles his keys. "You can get these back when you show up."

Cinder and Kai nod at her without parting. Winter rolls her eyes with a grin on her face as she lets them be.

That's love: when they can co-exist with other people.

-o-

At the Party

Just before the party starts, Wolf and Scarlet show up with the booze delivery. The door to Thorne's house was unlocked so they just invited themselves in, knocking as they stepped inside. They were immediately taken aback by the interior of Thorne's house. The exterior was immaculate but the interior was a place beyond the stars. It's a gallery that runs along with the seemingly wall-less house with Art Deco and statuettes. Every object seems imbued with a patina of timeless elegance as if it's been there for a thousand years and time didn't there touch it but increase its value.

"I feel so poor," Scarlet whispers to Wolf, readjusting her cropped leather jacket. She feels out of place in her white tee with a criss-cross pattern across the chest, tight black jeans and combat boots.

"You're telling me," Wolf replies, gesturing to his outfit with his hands full of bottles. He was wearing a dark blue V-neck with dark ripped jeans and boots as well.

"At least we match."

Scarlet grins as she puts down the crates she's carrying on the stairs. She keeps her eyes on Wolf and approaches him. She leans into his body and starts to tousle with his hair as a vehicle to wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. He's one of those guys who's so hot that he can't even be considered as cute. Wolf puts down his items to hold her by the waist. The party hasn't started and he already wants to eat her alive.

"My bedroom will be off-limits for the night!"

Scarlet and Wolf part to see Thorne running down the grand staircase. His red unbuttoned flannel flies behind him like a cape, standing out against his black t-shirt, jeans, and white sneakers. Thorne smiles at them when he reaches the bottom step.

"Wolf, thank you for your services," Thorne says, referring to the drinks. "I just sent the money to you."

"Pleasure doing business with you," Wolf responds.

"I never knew you lived in some museum palace!" Scarlet yells at Thorne.

"It's not a museum palace, it's just a big museum," Thorne responds.

"It looks like a suite in a luxury hotel!"

"Just because it looks like a hotel doesn't mean you two could book a room to play with each other." Thorne eyes them.

"We weren't going to use a room," Wolf tells him.

Thorne scoffs in disbelief. "Please, the sun hasn't set and drinks haven't been served yet."

-o-

At the Party

Well into the night, Cress shows up to Thorne's house. It's about an hour since the party's start which means that music is already blasting, people are making out or grinding on each other, drinks are being spilled, and some are already buzzed. She sees a lot of her classmates and some unfamiliar faces she could only assume belong to people from other nearby schools or Thorne's neighbours (or even her school).

One thing she's glad for is her outfit: an olive-green shirt with open shoulders, white high-waisted jeans, and purple high-tops. Other girls are relatively dressed the same (at least, the modest ones are) which means that she blends in.

Cress always wanted to go to one of those parties but now that she's here, she isn't so sure. Is it too late to leave? Maybe if she backs out slowly, nobody will notice she was here. Besides, she blends in so well that she could just say that she was here. She always thought of herself as a wallflower before she met her friends and started becoming close with Thorne. Being with them made her laugh so hard and experience so much that she's blooming into a new person.

She tries to look around for one of her friends. Based on their messages, they were here and waiting for her to show up. Cress figures she could ask someone but didn't want someone who was half hammered or drunkenly drooping on her.

"My girl is here!"

Cress jumps a little and feels her heart warm up at the sound of his voice. He called her his girl. The patio door from across the open concept living room opens and Carswell Thorne, the man of the night saunters back into his house with a red cup in his hands. Boys bump fists with him and chant at him as he makes a run through the house to approach her.

That's the power Carswell Thorne has over people: handsome, charming, wealthy. There's so much about him that's hyperventilating.

"Hey," Cress greets once he's close enough to her.

Thorne throws his arm around him and Cress looks at his half-filled plastic red cup. The other half of the drink is on his breath.

"My friend thinks you're hot, and by a friend, I mean me," Thorne whispers to her.

Cress laughs a little to herself, blushing to the point where her face is as red as Thorne's cup. Instantly, Thorne leans in closer and, eventually, his lips meet hers. Cress leans back as Thorne puts down his cup so he could use both of his hands to hold her. Cress runs her hands through his hair, ignoring the loud music and noise from other people just to focus on him. When his hands start going a little too far down for Cress to tolerate in public, she jumps a little and they part.

"Aces…" Thorne mutters, running a hand through his hair. "Sorry about that."

"Just not here," Cress says, walking away from him to find her other friends.

Before she goes, she stands on her tiptoes and kisses him on the forehead. Then, Thorne watches her go into the party. He exhales with a small smile. That's the one that gets her because the real lover is someone who can thrill your world just by kissing your forehead.

-o-

After the Party

Despite their hangover-and-caffeine-induced minds, Scarlet, Wolf, Cinder, Kai, and Winter are on the frantic hunt for their phones. They were young people who are capable of surviving with their phones (most of the time) and they were fine up until the point where they realized they were missing. If anyone untrustworthy had their phones, not only was their personal and banking information at risk, but the stupid, embarrassing, and secretive selfies could be exposed for anyone and everyone to see.

Thorne continues scrolling through his social media to learn more about his party as his friends continued searching. Eventually, they come back to him defeated after looking through the mess on this floor.

"I could try calling," Thorne suggests, starting to dial someone's phone. "Let's see who isn't set to vibrate."

"Wait…" Winter mutters, looking around from where she's standing. "Where's Cress?"

Thorne drops his phone. He and the others can't believe that it took them this long to realize that Cress wasn't here with them.

"Well…" Thorne mutters before clearing his throat. "Crescent Moon, are you still here?!"

[And in this chapter, I have blessed you all with Kaider, Cresswell, and Wolflet. (Sorry Jacinter shippers but you'll get a little something soon).]

[I'm not kidding, as I was typing all these cute make-out snippets, my friends were blowing up my phone about their sexual activity and I was just reading them as they appeared.] [2020: I've revamped a lot of my stories and this is the second AN that had me questioning past me.]