"Is there any chance I can stay at yours?" Luella asks me, her face worried and I just stare at her.

"I thought you were staying here?" I ask quietly. We were sat on the carpet now. The party had died down, it was late. Like two in the morning late and people were now drifting off to like their different houses. Apparently, that is the norm.

But Luella, Britney and I were sat on the carpet. August was to my right, ignoring me but following me everywhere. He was sat in the armchair, his legs thrown over the side of it, his head up to the ceiling, resting his back on the other side horizontally and I am actively trying to ignore his presence like he has mine.

"Bro." Trev says to Lue, hearing her ask me that. "I thought you were staying here."

Luella was drunk, like me drunk, but not too much like me. I think we were an okay level.

But her angry eyes say that she was still not like okay. Since it was only this morning that she came into work clearly upset.

"I decided I am not." She mumbles, stretching her legs put over mine.

"Lue?" Trev says, sitting forward on the couch and staring at her. His eyes were slightly struggling to focus but he had gone from just a second ago laughing loudly with this guy called Phoenix and this girl called Claire to suddenly serious and staring at the girl besides me.

"Yeah." I say softly. "You can stay at mine."

She smiles and I gently move her legs off me to stand up, going to grab myself another drink and I have to balance myself when I get up a little too quickly.

"Drunkie." Lue says, her hand on my ankle and I laugh.

More like vegetarian and hardly eaten enough today. I did eat before I came here. I just forgot to take my iron supplements the last few days. Plus, the alcohol.

"I am good." I mumble, ignoring the way August sat up as if he was going to do something.

"Can you bring more alcohol in here." She whispers up at me and I laugh, blinking away the woozy feeling and heading into the kitchen.

The music has drowned down from the party playlist to like chill music and I was enjoying it. I would be enjoying it more if Rayne was here. He would like this, well- I don't know he did say that these people were his type of people.

But I liked them. They were definitely imperfect. It was nice. There was little pressure I don't know.

I just liked the vibe. Even if it was a slightly bad vibe. It was fun.

"Hey." Trev says walking up behind me and I bring my attention to him, realising I was stood just staring at the bottles, thinking about my missing best friend.

"Hi."

"You blue, blue?"

I smile at that, nudging my shoulder against his as he stands beside me.

"I am trying to find tequila."

"It's here." He laughs, reaching for it and bringing it out from a sea of glass that well I am way too innately clumsy to be near.

"You are very different to the people we usual hang out." Trev says and I just shrug.

"I like you guys."

He smiles, amused. "You seem a little scarily innocent."

"Why's innocence a scary thing?" I ask, looking up at him and he leans his side against the kitchen counter and cocks his head at me.

"It's not. But it ... probably explains why August is in a mood."

"That's just August." I mumble.

"Not my August." Trev laughs and I raise an eyebrow at that.

"He doesn't seem like he- like he'd enjoy this sort of thing." I say but then I remember the other night when August was high as a fucking kite and take the words back in my head.

Trev just laughs, as If I really didn't know him. I shrugged. I didn't. August never let me or well anyone close enough to know him.

Apart from these guys apparently.

"Come on." I smile, nodding towards the door that leads to the living room where everyone was at. He smiles, letting me lead and then his hand holds my shoulder in place, just before we step back inside.

"Emersyn?"

"Mm?" I hum, slightly surprised at the contact. I look over my shoulder and meet Trev's serious eyes straight on.

"Don't use Luella as some sort of slip into rebellion. If you are going to be her friend... be.her.friend."

My eyebrows raise, surprised at his protectiveness and then my heart grows warm because it's cute.

"I am not one to use people don't you worry. You care for her?" I ask quietly. We look like we are whispering, my back pressed against the door frame and his head tilted down besides my ear.

"Slightly complicated question that. But just don't hurt her."

"I promise you." I whisper and he lifts his head.

"So fucking sincere." T mumbles, looking amused and slightly surprised.

"You wanna be serious I will be serious. You wanna have a laugh I'll have a laugh." I say quietly and he narrows his eyes at me then, curious.

"And what do you want?" He whispers.

"Tequila."

The bottle feels heavy in my hand and this is when Trev laughs, pushing me away from him and I just grin at Luella as I walk over to her.

But my grin falls slightly when Luella's returned smile wasn't at all as happy as mine.

"I brought tequila." I say softly and her smile lifts only slightly.

The thought and the action sort of happen all together and before I know it I am sat on Luella's lap in the floor, arms wrapped around her neck and she's groaning at the sudden impact.

"Why you mad?" I say, pouting my lips and searching her face with my eyes.

"Em." She laughs, trying to push me off her but I cling on.

"Nope. Not until you smile properly."

"Em." She groans again and I just hold on, making people laugh around us and I know not all the looks are of amusement. I know me straddling Luella's lap isn't exactly my sorta game but I am um just doing whatever the fuck comes to mind.

That's the theme of today.

"Okay okay." Luella laughs, smiling brightly in amusement and I let her push me off this time.

Then she leans her head forward, and I do the same, our foreheads connected, and our hair creating a barrier for everyone else.

This is like our own private meeting room, it's pretty warm, but we could-

Focus.

"T is off limits." Luella whispers and I freeze slightly.

Oh.

I pull back and I give her a reassuring smile and lean forwards again.

"I caught that don't worry. We were talking about you."

I wanted to add that I am also supposed to have a boyfriend. Goodness.

Then she properly frowns, ripping her head back from mine and she glares at him.

"T you dick don't talk about me to anyone."

"Aw Em man." Trev says, his head shaking in disappointment and I just give him a guilty smile, settling down on the carpet properly and unscrewing the tequila bottle.

"You are savage." Luella laughs, watching me as I take a sip.

"I just-"

"She's not normally. The girl gets tipsy off a glass of wine. I don't know what anomaly this is." Everyone looks at August, surprised that he had spoken. He's been pretty silent all night. He's not even fucking drinking. Or smoking. He's just watching.

I send him a glare.

"Leo."

He glares back at me.

"Who is Leo?" Luella cried out, still utterly confused.

"August." I mutter, turning around and lying down on the floor, my head resting on her thigh and I face him.

In spite.

"You should go home." He says slowly and everyone is sort of just listening to us.

Trev and Phoenix on one sofa, Claire balanced on the side and Cal on a chair opposite August. Luella, Brit and I were sort of just spread out between them all on the floor.

"You should go home." I reply and he rolls his eyes slowly, literally dripping in annoyance and I just smile at that. I never ever have wanted to wind him up like I do tonight. Like sometimes I will purposely talk to him because Rayne and I find it fun to see him ignore me but tonight he's literally pissing me off.

To be fair, it might just be my frustration with Rayne coming out. Emersyn don't take things out on other people. I drop my eye contact, softening and I look back at Trev.

"You live here in the summer?"

He nods, watching August in amusement and then he turns his eyes to mine. But I was already smiling up at Luella because she was taking a sip of the tequila.

"You live here?" He asks me.

"Yeah in town. Until Uni."

"You're first year?" Phoenix says in surprise and I nod, confused.

"Yeah?"

"How you two know each other?" Britney says and when I look up at her she was leaning against Cal's legs and I smile at that.

"Who?"

"August." She says to him and he just lowers his eyes to mine again.

"We don't."

I didn't mean to laugh at him. But he's always so serious. I look up again at Britney.

"Our families are close." I tell her. Which was the truth.

"Oh." She says looking between us.

"She's my kid brother's girlfriend." August clears up and I look back at him.

"You make it sound weird." I mutter. "Rayne's my age. Eighteen. August just seems to think we're ten still."

Trev laughs, leaning and smacking August's shoulder. "I am pretty sure my man knows you aint a kid Em."

I raise an eyebrow at that and Luella huffs at Trev. "Pack it in."

He raises his hands in surrender.

"Well your brother's a dick apparently." Trev laughs, getting August's attention and I just sigh dramatically, dropping my head back down into Luella's lap and she looks down at me.

"I miss him." I say quietly and she laughs, handing me the bottle.

"Yeah me too." She whispers and I am not supposed to have caught that, but I do. So, I sit up, take a sip of tequila and tequila Em throws her arms around Luella in a hug.

"You need to be less sad." I mumble and this makes her tense slightly, but she just wraps her arms around me too and we snicker together when we are just a bundle of limbs on the carpet.

"Working on it." She smiles and I raise the bottle up to cheers to that.

No one else does and I sigh heavily, relaxing back down.

"Shall we play never have I ever or something?" Britney says, stretching her legs out and I huff.

My huff of outrage was a little louder than expected and everyone turned their eyes to mine.

I sheepishly smile.

"Not a fan Em?" T says in amusement and I just shrug.

"I wanna drink. If you play that game, I will get sober." I laugh making Luella look at me curiously.

This caught T's interest and he sits forward, looking at me.

"Let's play it in reverse."

My eyebrows raise.

"Drink if you haven't done it."

"You trying to get me pissed?" I mumble, heavily amused and Claire just smiles.

"Don't worry I am a pretty good girl compared to these lot. I will be drinking with ya."

I just raise the bottle and let the game start. Goodness.

"Okay simple-" T says and I know everyone's attention is on me. I know I am subject to their curiosity this evening and to be quite honest I don't really mind it.

"Never have I ever smoked."

"Smoked what?" Phoenix laughs, relaxing on the sofa and he takes another drag of the joint going around the little circle.

"Tobacco." Trev says in amusement and I just take a sip, so does Claire.

"Baby I have given you joints with tobacco in." Trev says to her and she just shrugs.

"Never smoked a cigarette though." She smiles, sliding down to the floor with us girls and I grin when she lays her legs over mine.

The floor is probably really freaking gross but just for tonight I don't care about that. I am comfy.

"You've never smoked?" Luella says to me surprised and I shake my head.

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Um... it's bad for you? I don't know."

Trev chuckles but he nods. "It is in fact bad for you. In case you guys didn't know."

Cal lifts the joint away from his lips and he stares at it- real fucking hard.

"Well shit Em. I never knew."

I just throw him a glare, but my glare grows amused at how everyone is smiling so widely.

"Okay whatever."

"Never have I ever smoked weed then." Phoenix says and I just huff, sitting up and taking a sip.

"Does anyone have a straw this is effort." I mumble and August is the one to make an annoyed noise, but he gets up and returns moments later with a straw.

"Wow Leo." I say and he pauses, his hand mid-air to hand me the little plastic and then he puts it in Trev's drink instead.

"Wow." I mutter, shaking my head in pure amusement and I almost see a little hint of a smile grace his lips, I think his pettiness made him laugh to.

On the inside of course, right now he's practically a brick fucking wall.

"You haven't even smoked weed?" Luella says and I just throw a glare up at her.

"Lue you are going to waste a lot of oxygen if you ask these follow up questions every time."

She reaches over to Cal and he hands her the joint. "You wanna try?"

"Nope." I smile, my head already too ass woozy from the alcohol. "Maybe another day."

I was slightly concerned there would be some sort of pressure, but instead Luella just passed the joint to August and he passed it on to Trev.

"You not hitting?" T asks and August shakes his head, rubbing his eyes and I watch him get comfier on the armchair, ignoring us all.

"Never have I ever... done class A drugs." Cal says and this time Claire, Phoenix and Callum himself drink with me.

Meaning Luella and Trev have tried like the scary stuff. August doesn't drink either but I don't really know if he's playing to be honest.

"What counts as class A?" I ask genuinely and they all turn their eyes, amused again, back to me.

"You are so pure." Luella laughs and August looks up then, his eyebrow raised as if he too was surprised by my question.

"I don't think not knowing what is classified as class A really counts as a character flaw." I laugh, grinning at them and their somewhat oddly placed judgemental looks.

Trev laughs at that. "Once again, blue is correct." He grins. "Class A is like coke, heroine, mushrooms, meth and that shit." He informs me and I just nod slowly.

"You've done those?" I ask.

He shakes his head. "Nah we did mushrooms one-time last year." He nods to August and Luella.

"It was mad. Don't do it." She tells me.

I just smile.

Our eyes drift to Britney and she shrugs.

"Never have I ever had sex in a public place."

I drink, of course. And so does Phoenix. Meaning we hadn't ever had sex in a public place.

"Angel Em, wanna go correct this?" He smirks and my eyes widen in surprise.

"Leave her alone." Luella laughs and I just smile at that. Then they start talking about their little sexual adventures and I try very hard not to blush.

It doesn't work.

Especially when August starts talking, as if forgetting my presence and his bad mood.

"Beach sex just isn't it." He mutters. "Unless you're actually in the water that's better."

"You just have a water fetish." Trev laughs and August actually cracks a smile at that.

"No Trev. I swim. That doesn't mean-"

"Water fetish." Trev cuts him off and we all laugh at that.

August rolls his eyes. "And abandoned classrooms really?" He says in boredom to Claire.

"It was hot at the time." She mutters and Trev talks now.

"Library?" He says and I start blushing again because my little job is in the library and well I don't know this topic is hard for me to join in with.

"Yeah Library's good." August says.

"Especially if you don't know the guy." Cal says. I've learnt over the past few hours that there is I high chance that Cal is bi. I mean he just changes up the pronouns to his stories all the time so I am just assuming and I look at August's face.

His face scrunches up in disgust and I swear the amount of disappointment I feel at this reaction is immense.

God Rayne.

"Sex with Randoms is shit." Leo mutters, sliding down into his chair more and my eyes widen at the fact he pulled a face at the whole random conquest thing not at the fact Cal said a guy.

Oops.

Sorry Leo almost attacked you.

Shit Em. If you had have gone off, then you might have spilled Rayne's secret. This tequila was making me a little too word vomitie.

I sit up, distancing myself slightly from the girls and I take a deep breath.

"What's wrong?" Luella whispers, moving to my side again and I throw her a small smile and shake my head.

"Nothing, just needed to...."

"Have a drunken- where am I moment?" She says and I just nod.

Sorta.

"Never have I ever gotten with two guys in one night." Claire says and then looks at the boys. "Or girl I guess."

I just take a sip again, shrugging because honestly, I haven't done anything for goodness sake.

I kinda like it. I mean, I- they make me feel sort of whole. Which is ridiculous because I don't see any of these people as broken.

But for a while I have been feeling like I am slightly detached from my peers and damn I probably am so fucking different from the people in this room, but I don't feel isolated. Whatsoever. The things they have done, that I most definitely haven't, it's not embarrassing to me, they don't make me feel like that. It's like they're impressed. I don't know.

I focus back on the questions.

"Never have I ever been in the back of a police car." Luella laughs and everyone drinks apart from Luella, August and Trev. Meaning they had been arrested before.

"Leo." I whisper in mock horror and he gives me a bored look.

I pout.

"Where does your dad think you are Em?"

My eyebrows lift in surprise, at how he called me Em, at how he talked directly back at me.

"Out."

"With my brother?"

I nod.

"Where is my brother?" Leo says in confusion.

"If anyone asks with me." I blurt, amused to myself and then my eyes widen when I realise I said that out loud.

"Where is he?" August says again, sitting up this time. "What shit has-"

"He's at home." I mumble, pulling my phone up and actually reading the message from Rayne that said he just got home. "Like he's at yours now. We were just doing our own thing tonight."

"And that includes lying and saying you're with each other-"

"Bro I am bored." Trev mutters. "I don't care where Blue's daddy thinks she is. Unless you're talking about me." He says, a smirk slipping onto his face.

"Never have I ever called a guy daddy." Trev says his eyes directly connected to mine and I blush at his intensity and he throws his head back and laughs, literally drawing from me the reaction he wanted.

"I love her." Trev says sitting back up and I just throw him a glare and I drink because obviously I fucking haven't done that.

"Innocent girls' man." Phoenix mutters and I pull my eyebrows together uncomfortably.

"Stop now." I say. "I don't like it."

They immediately stop laughing and Trev pouts at me, not in a teasing way but more of a pleading way and I just smile a little.

"Innocent girls with a strong mind." Cal stage whispers and every laughs, Luella wrapping an arm around me and I just groan, slumping against her side in embarrassment but a smile is pulling at my lips.