A small party means it won’t be so easy to just blend in, to linger in the background and pray that no one notices the stranger in the room. I’ll stick out. People will realize that they’ve never seen me before. And I’ll hate every moment of it.
The second Tyler swings open the front door, I’m deafened by horrendous house music. The beat drops drill into my ears and I can feel them giving me brain damage. The place reeks of weed too. Nonetheless, the party is much less crowded and I don’t feel like I’m suffocating as I trail after Tyler into a room that has been set up to store all the alcohol. Kaleb doesn’t follow.
“Tyler, you made it,” a guy says when we walk in. Surprisingly, he looks totally sober. “Who’s this?”
“My stepsister. Eden, this is Declan. She’s hanging with me for the night if that’s alright with you.”
“Whoa.” Declan’s blue eyes widen as he passes Tyler a can of beer. “Dude, when the hell did ya get a stepsister?”
“Last week, bro,” he murmurs, but quickly turns to smile at me. “What do you want?”
“Anything,” I say, running my eyes over the table. “Actually, I’ll just take another Coke and vodka.”
Tyler rolls his eyes as he grabs a cup, makes up the drink, and hands it to me. All the while, Declan watches us. “I’ll show her around,” Tyler tells him, and then he places his hand on my shoulder and directs me toward the door. He nudges me back into the hall, but he doesn’t join me. Instead he quickly turns to Declan and pulls him over to the corner of the room.
I watch as Tyler murmurs something to him, to which Declan nods in reply. Their voices are so low that it’s impossible for me to hear, but Tyler heaves a sigh and finds his way back over to me, stepping out into the hall by my side. Several people greet him as they pass, but he keeps his attention mainly on me. “Alright, you see these people?” We stop by the door to the living room, and he uses his beer can to motion toward the group of people lounging on the couches. They all look deflated, and many of them appear to be in their twenties.
“Yeah?” I don’t see where he’s going with this. “They look bored.”
Tyler stifles a laugh and turns away from the door. “They’re far from bored. Hey, check out this guy.” He points his can to the floor, and down by the hall table, a small orange-and-white cat is cowering. “Aw, man.” Laying his beer down, he bends and scoops the cat up into his arms, ruffling the fur on the back of its neck. “Why not date this little guy? It’s probably got bigger balls than Jake.”
“Put it down,” I say forcefully, but the cat seems to be enjoying the attention, because it begins to playfully climb up Tyler’s arms.
“What can I say?” he says as he rubs its ears, and it purrs in satisfaction. I can feel my lips twitching into a smile as I watch them. “I’m a pussy magnet.”
I pull a face and turn away from him, but he laughs, places the animal back down on the ground, and switches it for his beer. It darts off into another room. “Look, even that cat has had enough of your bullshit.”
Tyler rolls his eyes, but his smirk soon fades. “Go talk to some people. I’m heading out back for a while.”
Heading out back? I know that reference. I know what’s out back. I know what he’s up to. Immediately my mood changes. “Are you kidding me?”
He stares back, his expression nonchalant, and he takes a swig of his beer. “Huh?”
“Don’t act stupid,” I hiss as I step closer to him, leaning in so he can hear me, my drink almost crushed against his chest. “I didn’t come with you to this bullshit party so that you could just leave me by myself while you stand around in the backyard smoking joints and making pretty little coke lines to snort.”
“It’s none of your business,” he shoots back, stepping away from me. “Go make some friends and leave me to do whatever the hell I want.”
He tries to head off down the hall, but I follow close on his heels and quite literally shove my body between him and the back door when we reach it. “You’re not going out there. It’s so stupid.”
All of a sudden, a wave of fury comes over him and he slams his beer into the wall, crushing the entire can against the plaster as the liquid inside showers to the floor. “Get out of my fucking way.”
“No!”
He lurches forward, wrapping his long fingers around my wrist and squeezing it tightly, almost numbing my entire arm. His body is so close to mine, and his eyes are so fierce that I find myself shrinking beneath their force. “Eden,” he whispers slowly. “Don’t.”
“No,” I object once more, shaking off his grasp. I will myself not to back down despite the crushed beer can and my numb wrist. “Why do you do it?”
“Because I need to, okay?” he almost yells, and he quickly glances around to ensure no one is listening.
“You don’t need to,” I say. “You want to.”