Revamped!

[Payton, I saw your review and came here when I read it. This chapter is for you because you've been waiting for a long time. (And no, I'm not giving up on this story).] [2020: Let it be known that I won't give up on this story until it's over.]

Beware of Sharp Thornes: Part Eight

After the Party

Winter is beyond mortified of what she did last night, more so that so many people posted and reposted it. She can't believe that she went from crying on the phone to that in the span of a drink (or a few, give or take. She didn't keep count because she knew she would lose it.) But Winter doesn't remove it from her profile because she has to admit it's hilarious. And everyone's already seen it so there'd be no point.

"I don't see the point in everyone reposting it," Winter mumbles. "What makes you more interesting if you have the same story as everyone else?"

Wolf coughs into a fist. "Denial." He coughs again. "Bedtime story." She said so earlier.

"Levana would call you a disgrace of a Blackburn," Cinder comments, flipping her hair to pretend to be Levana.

Winter playfully rolls her eyes mostly because she knows Cinder's being sarcastic about it. The eye roll was also for Wolf as well.

"You look bomb in it," Scarlet comments. She looks down at her phone and smiles as she plays that video on loop.

The internet is so huge and unknowable but also so predictable. One person posts something, everyone else at the event has a version of it on their profile as well. Minus clout, it's to show that they were there at Thorne's party, which is clout.

Winter looks at the version she reposted and scrolls through the comments. Most touch on her beauty and grace, her being goals, her being a mood, and one from Jacin asking what the spades. Winter responds blaming the booze although he knows that.

Everyone knows that. That's another reason why they reposted it.

-o-

At the Party

A haze goes through Winter's mind as she stares up at Thorne's statuette fountain. She's mystified by the mermaid on the second tier. It's posed as if it's perched on a rock and water streams out of a conch shell in the dainty stone hands. The entire fountain looks like a layer cake and she wants to be the mermaid on top. She wants to be that fountain cake topper.

So she goes for it. She feels like a pirate mystified at sea when a siren calls out. Is it calling her?

Winter removes her jacket and hangs it over the edge of the fountain. The collar contacts the surface of the water but she doesn't care. Nobody stops or notices when Winter steps in the first tier of the fountain. It wasn't the weirdest thing to have happened so far in the night. Even Cinder doesn't remark anything except for the fact that Winter took off her jacket before entering the fountain.

"Fashion is supposed to keep you warm and cover your bathing suit parts!" Cinder scolds. "It doesn't have to look nice, it just has to do its job!"

Cress gives Cinder more of a strange face than she gave to Winter. "Are you okay?"

Cinder smiles and takes another sip from her cup. "I'm thrilled." She looks over at Kai. "Make sure my cousin doesn't fall or you'll feel Levana's wrath!"

Kai looks at Cinder and blinks. His mind has a constant hum drumming through it and it gets interrupted with imaginations of Levana screaming in his face. That woman was scary enough when she was in a good mood, if it can even be called a good mood. Next thing he knows, Kai's attempting to climb the fountain.

Winter sloshes through the top tier and helps him up. He isn't aware of how high he is until he's face-to-face with a stone mermaid.

"What a woman…" Kai mutters, checking it out. He hopes Cinder didn't see or hear that.

"Kai!" Winter screams once she sees him.

She waddles through the water to get closer to him. Kai blinks hazily as he looks at Winter. Slowly, her face starts to morph with the mermaid statue and he's hypnotized like a pirate at sea. And when she touches his arm, he slips and takes her down with her.

Snapping back into reality, Kai and Winter slide down the fountain's rock slide and right into the garden's rose bush. Most of the party was unaware of what occurred, but Cinder cheers loudly.

"Those are my two favourite people!" Cinder exclaims, clapping.

Thorne gasps as if he was about to cry. "I thought I was your favourite."

"Even drunk, I know you're full of spades! Alcohol is when the truth comes out!"

"You mean the nonsense."

Winter gets up from the ground, brushing off the dirt and rose petals from the fall. To her, that was nothing but the express route back to the ground. She hears Kai struggle beside her before getting back to his feet on his own. Winter can't tell if he's swaying because of the fall or the alcohol, maybe both.

Oh well, it's a party.

Scarlet approaches her and picks out a single leaf from Winter's afro. After that fall, all she has are wet clothes. Kai looks dishevelled and Winter is unfazed. How life worked for her in such ways is miraculous. It wasn't fair that people could still be that beautiful as drunken messes.

"You're so strange," Scarlet tells her. "I honestly don't get you."

Winter smiles. "Want to take a selfie?"

"Duh."

Scarlet squished herself beside Winter as she pulls her phone out and holds it out for them. It was hard for them to take a good photo together since their hairs were so big that it took up almost the entire screen and covered their faces. The blurring emphasizes their curls which improved the aesthetic. On the bright side, curly fries was always a good caption option. And everyone loves curly fries! Those two are selfie bait for anyone and everyone.

"Why isn't the camera focusing on us?" Winter whines. "We're beautiful!"

"Pieces of our faces are in it," Scarlet says, trying to see if she can get a better angle.

Wolf shakes his head as he takes the phone for the photos. "I don't understand those selfies with only half a face. You're not even in the photo!"

The curly fries start posing for him.

-o-

After the Party

Winter smiles to herself as she scrolls through the pictures of herself from that night, or more realistically, a few hours ago. From fountain goddess to a beautiful curly fry, she truly had an amazing night. If only she could remember it as vividly as the pictures present it.

"That's why I have all these cuts!" Kai yells at her. He just noticed them since he was preoccupied with trying to figure out what happened at the party this whole time. As they all were.

Winter looks up from her phone screen for a moment. She knew that she was responsible for Kai falling in the rose bush, but he was being melodramatic. He's acting as if he has gaping wounds and will bleed to death, but they look like tiny paper cuts that have no pain if they remain unnoticed. Spades, they still have no feeling even when seen.

"Sorry…" Winter mutters not that genuinely. "But what young man doesn't appreciate a new scar from time to time?"

Kai is taken aback, looking at his small cuts with a new perspective. He pops his non-existent collar. "I do look manlier, don't I?"

Cinder cringes. " … don't flex what you don't have."

Cress sighs, taking a seat on the fountain's wall. "What a whirlwind of mental and physical intoxication. They say that friends improve with alcohol but you guys were messes."

Thorne smiles. "I'm happy that none of my neighbours called the cops."

"They probably called your parents instead," Wolf says.

Thorne thinks that over and realizes that may be true. Besides, his parents came home early and that couldn't have been a coincidence to bust him.

"I would've rather seen the cops," Thorne says. "At least there's the chance they'd let me have a warning."

"Are you going to start cleaning anytime soon?" Scarlet asks, opening her arms to the giant mess outdoors.

"We will."

"No, you have to." Scarlet jabs her finger into his chest to emphasize that she's not helping. Even if she wasn't hungover, she'd go home.

"Hire a cleaning team," Cinder suggests. "Or a cleaning army."