Revamped!

[So it's been almost a month since my last update and I apologize. I've been busy with a lot of other stories and school.] [2020: Meanwhile I haven't updated in two months because of other stories, revamping this story, and school.]

Beware of Sharp Thornes: Part Seven

After the Party

Winter looks at her missed messages and sees a lot of them from Jacin. She bites down on her bottom lip in a panic because she was supposed to text him when she got home which never happened since she was blackout drunk on Thorne's couch. But at least she was safe since she was still at the party. Spades, he must be worried now because these messages were sent hours ago. Winter sends him a quick explanation which he'll understand since they always partied back in Artemisia. She'd need many fingers to count how many times they've been through this before.

"Should we leave you to clean?" Wolf asks, backing out towards the door.

"No!" Thorne yells. "We're a team and you should help."

They stare at him unamused. Sure, they're a team but when it comes to cleaning a gigantic mess after a party that Thorne arranged without consulting them except to invite, they're fine with abandoning ship. Besides, if Thorne's the captain, which he says he is, then the saying is that the captain always goes down with the ship.

"The mess isn't that bad," Kai reasons. "It's picking up cups and bottles. Throw them in the recycling."

Cinder laughs as she looks out the window. "You'll need a whole garbage truck for the outdoors."

Thorne whines as they all start to make their way outdoors. Maybe some fresh air and a look at the scene of the party crime will help their amnesia.

-o-

At the Party

Thorne's house and the party look alive. Music blasts as people dance to the beat. Camera flashes fill the air, bringing light to the darkness. Drinks clink and hit the cobblestone path before people litter across the lawns. In contrast, the people at the party aren't completely themselves. Drinking is about feeling loose, light, and unstoppable. People say and do things without filtering or thinking which is fine since nobody else will remember it. Drunk people are basically zombies. Once one person is infected, they want everyone else to go down with them.

Thorne's backyard resembles the teenage party of the zombie apocalypse.

Within the scene, Cress and Thorne sit sideways on a bench with their feet in each other's lap. Thorne continues to kiss the side of her head, holding her across the waist. Cress holds her phone up for some cheek-kissing selfies which Thorne lovingly partakes in.

"I'm good at this for someone with short arms," Cress brags as she photographs countless pictures.

She keeps tapping the capture button even and especially when Cinder appears in the background. Cinder makes many stupid faces mostly towards Thorne. Then she mocks him by kissing Cress's other cheek.

Meanwhile, across the garden, Kai watches as Scarlet balances herself on the stone border of Thorne's garden. Scarlet teeters from side-to-side, starting to windmill her arms as if she fell several feet. It couldn't be more than an inch. But when she starts to lose her balance, she hops off. Scarlet stumbles a little and that's when Kai approaches her.

"Do you always pretend to be on a trapeze when drunk?" Kai asks.

"I'm naturally like this," Scarlet responds.

Kai nods. "I believe that. You almost fell into the rose bushes."

Scarlet drunkenly looks at the rose bushes before back at Kai. "You'd better beware of those sharp thornes. They're evil, I tell you, evil!"

And like before, Kai believes her. Together, they step away from the evil rose bushes.

On the other side of the party, Winter chews on her straw as she leans against a stone pillar. From where she stands, she sees a girl trying to flirt with Wolf. Winter walks closer to get a better view of the situation. Once she's close enough, the girl leaves and Wolf turns around to see Winter. She narrows her eyes at him and Wolf's entire face turns as red as the plastic cups wandering around. Winter knows Wolf didn't do any flirting back but still, something happened.

"I saw that!" Winter exclaims.

"I didn't flirt back," Wolf responds.

"I know. It's not like you know how."

He's not offended. "Don't tell Scarlet. She'll rip out the spine of any girl who flirts with me."

"She'll go to jail."

Wolf grins. "She ain't scared because I'll bail her."

-o-

After the Party

For some reason, they expected a whiff of fresh air when they stepped outside. They didn't get anything like that or even close. To match the mess (or the aftermath of the drunk teenager apocalypse), the entire Thorne property reeks of stale alcohol with undertones of cologne and body mists. How those survived the night and didn't get carried in the wind? Nobody knows. Thorne leads them to the backyard, walking through the already open gate. He sighs, knowing that calling this scene a mess was much too modest. It looks like a hurricane crashed the party, got drunk, and enjoyed its time.

Thorne points at the rose bushes which, to his surprise, survived the evening better than him. "Beware of sharp thornes."

"Didn't I say that at one point?" Scarlet questions.

She looks at the others and they shrug. Kai is the only one who has some recollection of that. They continue to go on their phones, scrolling through social media to see if it has any more posts from last night. Nothing that stands out pops. The photos, even the ones they posted, looked basic.

"I have an idea," Thorne states. "We were drunk at the party so why don't we drink to remember more of it?"

All hungover, they, minus Cress, look at Thorne as if he's the biggest idiot on the entire planet. They, minus Cress, all drank double their weights in booze and woke up with no memory of the party. And he suggests drinking more. What are they going to do with him?

But Cress nods her head. "It makes sense. The party seems to be a state-dependant memory. You guys were all drunk when everything happened so drinking would retrieve those memories."

They look at her strangely at that logic and Thorne smiles at her.

"I love you," Thorne says, causing Cress to blush.

"But you were sober as the stars and you forgot everything when sober," Cinder says to her.

Cress shrugs. She tried.

"Hey, look," Kai says.

He runs over to the fountain and sees a jacket floating in it. Wolf grabs a stick and fishes it out like the gentleman he is. He wrings it out and once it's finished dripping, he holds it out for the others to see and identify it.

"That's mine!" Winter exclaims, claiming it. "Aces, how did that get there?"

Winter hangs it on a tree branch to dry off as Cinder starts laughing. She shows Winter a post she found on someone's story. It has her and Kai dancing on the second tier of the fountain. Winter looks at Kai and they both shrug. Kai looks at his phone and just notices that he reposted it to his story. Clearly, he's too hungover to look at his profile for some memorable events of the night.

Winter feels her phone vibrate in her pocket. She pulls it out and sees that Jacin tagged her in the post of her in the fountain.

Jacin Bae: Did that happen before or after our call?

Winter: I'm not sure. Tag me in something that might come with an answer. You know, something that could explain how I got in the fountain. Kai has nothing.