Capítulo 5: a Love Unrequited
Delores and Nicholas arrived at the party which already looked like it was in full swing. In case he tried to bail on them, Delores texted Mo to ask him how far he was. Why Moeata did not want to come with them was beyond him. Nick was standing beside him with one of his red and blue flannel shirts and a white tee. They both had Vans on, and he started regretting the matching shoes thing when he started thinking about his comfortable trainers in his room.
As soon as they stepped through the door, his eyes immediately took in the entire scenery. Soft lighting cast a warm glow across the room, where groups of people mingled and animatedly chatted. The air was filled with the gentle hum of laughter and the clinking of glasses.
"This is one hot mess," Nicholas commented, and he followed his gaze to the group of people widely dancing on top of the table, stating his thoughts exactly.
He could not help nodding his head in agreement. "Remind me again why I let you drag me here?"
"You," Nicholas started moving towards the door and he followed behind him, tucking his hands inside his jean pockets, "needed a distraction from Inina."
"I told you," Delores sighed as they stood outside the door, waiting before they fully entered the vibrating mansion, "I do not need a distraction from Inina."
Nicholas ignored his statement and said, "I am going to get Moeata to order us an Uber in case we get drunk—which is likely to happen—but if I head upstairs with someone then you can leave without me. Unless you're also going to head upstairs with someone as well?"
"If Inina isn't here then no," he replied.
Nicholas shook his head, irritated by what he was going to guess, all his responses revolving around her. "Brother, shut the fuck up about Inina. Tonight you're getting drunk and laid."
Delores still thought this was a bad idea. For Brandy to invite random people in here was calling for trouble. He got that it was her twenty first birthday and let all hell break loose, but… this was dangerous.
This was probably why Moeata insisted on spending the night at home. For the first time ever, he actually agreed with the hermit. They could have been watching Fifty Shades of Black or something funny like that, but no, they had to attend a party a reckless teenager decided to throw. There was a reason why they only invited the people they knew and people they felt like… well, shagging.
"Yeah, maybe this was a bad idea," Nicholas finally admitted and he felt reprieved that he had finally gotten some common sense knocked into him.
"That's our cue to leave."
"Wait!" Nicholas exclaimed and his eyes were trained on something or someone inside the house. "Mate," he tapped my chest urgently using the back of his hand, "redhead. Twelve o'clock."
He scans the inside of the house, but all he sees are a bunch of people he doesn't know humping each other with blue cups in their hands—Brandy likes being spontaneous and doesn't just use the cliché red cups. Delores sees a few familiar faces, such as Cleo, Finn, Alejandro, and some other people from school. The rest of the people in the crowd seem older than them. Older college students perhaps.
"Who?" he muses, still looking for the redhead.
"The one on the sofa with the brunette," Nicholas explains, eyes still on the redhead.
Delores's eyes move over to said sofa and he finally sees who his friend is talking about. It's a red-haired girl who is laughing at something her friend, the dark-haired, is saying. They are both holding cups in their hands and he won't lie, they both do look quite attractive.
"I get the redhead and you get the dark-haired one," Nicholas says.
"Wait." He puts a hand out to stop Nicholas from walking towards the sofa. Nicholas throws a questioning look at him and Delores squints his eyes, studying the redhead. "Mate, that's Brandy."
"What?" Nicholas exclaims incredulously. He looks over at the redhead and his eyes widen further. "Holy fuck. That is her. Gyat! I'm definitely still hitting that tonight."
Nicholas turns around and strides into the house.
He lets out a deep sigh and follows after him as they both head over to the two girls on the sofa. The dark-haired girl sees them first since she's facing more towards them, she taps Brandy and cocks her head in their direction. Brandy turns around and sees them as well. When they're standing in front of them Brandy gives them a confident, expectant look, while the dark-haired girl trains her gaze to the ground shyly.
"If it isn't the birthday girl," Nick greets, having to shout over the loud music while he just stuffs his hands down his jean pockets, glancing around the quite spacious room.
Most of the people aren't on the dance floor, but rather lounging around, doing some illegal shit. If Brandy's parents ever find out about what she does in their house, they'll probably have a heart attack. To them, she's they're good grades retaining, golden girl and this is the exact opposite of that girl.
"Hey, Delores," Nicholas calls him and he glances at him in enquiry. He has his arm slung over Brandy's shoulder and is smirking at him proudly. "I'm just going to take Brandy to the kitchen for some drinks. Why don't you stay over here with my sister since you're being such a snooze?"
Delores slowly gazes over at the dark-haired girl who is clamping her hand around her cup pretty hard. Talia. She looks extremely nervous and he doesn't have the heart to tell Nick that he just wants to leave. Plus, his friend wants to get laid so he's not about to cock block.
"Yeah, sure." Delores answers half-heartedly, running a hand through his already messy hair. Before he can take a seat next to her, Nicholas' grip curls around his forearm and he tugs him close to him.
"Don't fucking ditch my sister to sit here all by herself. If you even think about taking advantage of her, I will fucking castrate you." After discreetly whispering that at him, Nicholas smiles charmingly at Brandy. "Let's get us some drinks, baby."
After throwing a sly smirk at him, Brandy pulls him along with her and instead of heading to the kitchen, they climb up the stairs with Brandy leading him. Nicholas turns around to look at him and opens his mouth to let out a silent, gushing scream. Delores' head twists sideways, but an amused smile twitches onto his lips. He never thought he'd ever see a girl confident enough to drag Nicholas upstairs. It's always the other way around.
He looks down at the girl who still has her chin buried in her chest. His brows furrow at her shyness and he takes a seat beside her, leaving a respectable amount of space between them. He clears his throat awkwardly when she doesn't even acknowledge his presence. His gaze lingers on the dance floor and he almost considers just heading to the kitchen for some drinks, but the thought of leaving Talia here on her own after his friend stole her friend away forces him to stay.
When he feels a pair of eyes on him, he snaps his head in her direction and catches her eyelashes fluttering down immediately. Under the luminous light, her pale skin is darker and he has to admit, she is quite the epitome of beauty. After a long moment of just staring at her, she slowly glances up at him and his eyes connect with her appealing jade orbs. And all he can think is… "Jesus Christ, she's really pretty". For a second, he almost forgets about Inina.
Almost.
"Hey," he says to her, grinning alluringly. He sticks his hand out in front of her, watching as she licks her lips anxiously. "I'm Delores. You're Talia, right? I think Nicholas told me your name is Talia. You're friends with Inina."
She says something back too softly so he has to move his ear closer to hear her. "What was that?"
She just nods.
"Uhm… okay. Nice to meet you, Talia." She places her small hand in his palm with a timid smile on her face.
"It's nice to meet you too, Delores."
"So… what is a place like this doing in a girl like you?" he asks casually, trying to make some conversation to get her out of her nervous bubble.
She furrows her eyebrows in bemusement. "A girl like me?"
"I mean, you seem very tense right now. Obviously, this isn't your type of scene," he quickly makes sure to clarify.
She drops her confused look and nods slowly. "Yeah, well, Brandy invited me. I think she thought it would be beneficial for me to get the rigid pole out of my posterior."
"Post-what-now?"
Her eyes widen and her cheeks seem to turn into a red colour under the dim light. This causes a small smile of mirth to curl on his lips. "It means arse. Sorry. I forgot to leave my wide vocabulary back at school."
"That's fine. I forgot Nicholas told me you're like a super genius or something like that."
"I mean… I wouldn't say super genius, but… yeah, I'm smart."
"I like smart." She blushes again and he clears his throat awkwardly, trying to think of something to say to change the subject. "Hey, do you wanna get some drinks?" he asks until Nicholas' words hit him and he adds, "Some non-alcoholic drinks, of course. I'm sure they have some cold drinks in the kitchen."
"Uhm… no thank you," she answers and more colour spreads over her cheeks as she drops her gaze to her hands and he instantly gets reminded of earlier when he saw her back at school when Cleo was bullying her.
"How… old are you, if you don't mind me asking? You look like you're eighteen or something."
"Yeah, eighteen," she says and glances up at him through her lashes shyly.
He's taken aback by her response as he takes another look at her. She smiles stiffly. "But you have been in uni for like two years, now. Right?"
"Yeah."
"So you've just turned eighteen this year?"
"No, I'm turning nineteen this year," she responds. "My birthday's in like two months."
His eyes widen more. "Really?"
She nods.
"That's really cool." He smirks and says, "So in a couple of months we'll be doing this at your house then?"
"I like someone," she suddenly bursts out, giving him a guilty look. "I'm sorry, but if you're looking to have rebound sex with someone it probably isn't me. I'm sorry for wasting your time. Wait, were you flirting with me? Oh, God!"
"Uh… wow!" He clears his throat again and feigns disappointment. "There's nothing like a girl rejecting your advances."
"I'm sorry."
Instantly his thoughts head over to the girl of his dreams, the one who keeps overlooking his advances whenever he hints at wanting to be with her. I mean, how can a person be so oblivious?
He sighs.
"Is it Inina?"
His gaze shifts to her and he sees her eyes on him curiously. "What?"
"The girl who keeps rejecting your advances? It's Inina, right?"
"She's not necessarily rejecting them… I mean, she knows that I like her, and she said that she likes me too, but she apparently doesn't do relationships. I was hoping she'd be here so we could talk it out, but…"
"Yeah, I hate to break it to you, but that's the one thing she has her mind set on this year. After Marshall, I don't think she wants to risk being in another relationship. Even though Marshall is probably the scummiest guy she has ever been with. I'm sorry."
"It's whatever. I don't wanna think about her tonight," he releases a large suspire. "I just wanna drink myself into oblivion."
Talia places a hesitant hand on his knee and smiles at him as a friendly gesture. He stares into her gaze. For some reason, he likes how light her touch is on him. "If it was meant to be, then it'll happen."
He grins. "Same goes for you."
— Novo capítulo em breve — Escreva uma avaliação
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder