Find My Heart - Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Cole
"P to the A to the R T Y - It's PARTY TIME! Whoop Whooop!"
I swear there was something medically wrong with her sometimes.
"My god girl, you've not even had a drink yet!" I said to Natalie as we walked up the street where the party was being held.
"That's what you think," she said with an overly exaggerated wink.
"Oh man, I'm going to be carrying you out of here tonight, aren't I?" I said with a groan.
"Hey, just think of it as payback for last time," she said with a mischievous glint in her eye.
Ah, I guess she had a point there.
I looked up at the house that was now infront of us. It was a large detached stone house, with a huge drive, lined by immaculately pruned conifer trees. I could never quite get my head around how people managed to have parties in homes like these. Where were the parents? Surely they couldn't know what was going on. The damage alone from a party like this would probably cost hundreds if not thousands to put right.
As if someone could read my mind, there was an almighty crash as a guy came hurtling through the front door riding on....on an upturned table?.... Which immediately smashed into several pieces when it came to land on the concrete floor.
We stepped cautiously towards the front door and peered in. Directly in front of us was a rather grand looking wooden staircase, and there were people cheering at the top of it.
"Man, you totally Princess Brided that!" came a voice from next to me, and the guy drunkenly high fived the idiot who had picked himself out of the bits of table.
"Can we go home?" I whispered to Natalie.
"No," she said, grabbing my wrist and pulling me inside. "Not everyone is an idiot like them."
I hoped rather than believed that to be true.
The lounge was packed with people, most who already looked off their face. The music was deafening. I say music, but actually all I could hear was a deep pounding bass beat that made my head vibrate.
We stepped over and around people until we made it out into the back garden.
The music was quiet enough out here that I could at least hear myself think, and people were either stood in groups having conversations, or were dancing to the music coming from inside.
"Hey Natalie, Cole!" came a voice from the left.
Natalie quickly dragged me over.
"Hey Charlie," Natalie replied, "I didn't expect to see you here."
Charlie shrugged. "I thought I'd come to see what all the fuss was about. So far I've got to say I'm disappointed. I haven't seen one peepee or set of jugs and it's already 10 o'clock."
"Don't worry man," came another voice, belonging to a very tall and lanky blonde guy, "the night is still young my friend."
Natalie smirked, "If you've had no luck by the end of the night Charlie, come find me and I'll flash you one of the girls," she said pointing between her two breasts.
"Hey, can anyone get in on that?" the blond asked.
"The more the merrier," Natalie replied with a wink.
"Jeez, please excuse me while I go and hurl in that bush," I said, before wandering off to see if I could find a drink.
I was already feeling massively out of place here. I had no idea why I agreed to come.
And then I was promptly reminded as I saw Percy stood talking to a rather pretty brunette, who lets face it might as well have been stood there in just her underwear, her clothes were that non-existent.
Percy on the other hand looked good enough to eat.
Damn my perverted brain!
He was dressed all in black and his hair was slightly longer on top, but still with tracks buzzed into the sides.
There was no way I had the confidence to go up and talk to him, so I skirted my way back into the house in search of a drink.
It was nearly midnight before I spotted him again.
I'd had a couple of drinks, but had learned from my past mistake, so I'd been drinking water for the last half an hour.
I'd spent most of the last hour tracking Natalie, making sure she wasn't doing anything stupid. Sure, I'd had a few conversations here and there, but I just struggled with the whole being sociable thing.
Natalie had disappeared off to the loo, leaving me to scan round the room. I saw Percy sat with a group of people, playing a drinking game.
"Hey, come and join in," Charlie shouted at me.
I went and seated myself next to him.
"Never have I ever......vomited in someone else's house," the guy to the left of Charlie said.
Half the group took a gulp of their drink.
Charlie must have seen my confused face as he leant over and whispered, "If you've done what they say, you have to have a drink."
I nodded at him.
"Never have I ever......had sex outside," Charlie said.
I was rather surprised to see quite a few people take a drink, Percy included.
I suddenly realised everyone was looking at me.
"What? I haven't even had sex," I said in a slight panic.
"That's good to know," Charlie said while patting me on the shoulder, but it's your turn to say something."
I felt my cheeks light up on fire, and I quickly looked down at the carpet. Not before I saw Percy smirk though.
Oh fuck, how humiliating....and now I've got to think! Hmmm, what could I say......
I suppose it wouldn't be too hard to think of something. It would be a lot harder to think of something I actually had done.
"Come on!" a girl shouted from the other side of the circle.
"Errm, never have I ever...............stolen something from a shop."
I looked up to see a couple of people take a drink.
Then the turn passed to the girl on my left and I let myself sigh in relief.
The game progressed, and with time to think, I was able to come up with a few more when it was my turn.
By the end of the game, I hadn't taken a single sip of my drink. It was rather pathetic when I thought about it. Percy on the other hand practically took a gulp at every single turn. I was surprised he could still stand.
"Let's play spin the bottle!" Natalie suddenly said, plonking an empty beer bottle in the middle of the circle, then wedging herself in between myself and Charlie.
The rules of spin the bottle seemed to be simple. People took it in turn to spin the bottle, then they had to kiss whoever it pointed at. I was relieved to see that not everyone was diving in for a full on tongue in mouth snog. Most kisses just lasted a couple of seconds. I could manage that without having a nervous breakdown.
A girl with purple hair spun the bottle and it landed on me.
"Ooo, come here cutie," she said, before leaning over and kissing me for a few seconds on the lips. She tasted of strawberry.
I felt myself blush, and was relieved when the attention went back to the bottle. Next it was a rather fed up looking guy.
And it landed on me again.
The circle laughed in recognition that it was me again, and the guy rather reluctantly came and gave me a quick peck on the lips, pulling his face afterwards.
If I had the courage, I would have dramatically wiped my lips on my sleeve, but I just sat back quietly.
It was Percy's turn.
And it landed on me again.
The group whooped with laughter, and for the first time tonight I felt a shiver of excitement.
I looked up and met Percy's eyes, then he smiled and started crawling across to me.
I forced myself to breathe and stay calm. I couldn't let them see how this was making me feel.
As Percy approached, I sat up onto my knees in anticipation.
He leaned over......then lunged to the side and grabbed hold of Natalie and gave her a big sloppy kiss.
The group laughed as Percy went back to his seat.
"Hey!" said Natalie, looking a little shell shocked.
"What?" Percy replied shrugging. "He can't have all the fun."
I felt my whole body deflate. 'He'. Not only did he clearly not want to kiss me, but he couldn't even remember my name.
I waited till another two people had a turn before I excused myself under the pretense of going to the loo.
I took my time and by the time I got back, the game had finished and everyone had dispersed.
I wandered round for a while, not really seeing any familiar faces.
I wanted to go home.
This was definitely going to be my last party. I just didn't belong here. Would I ever find where I did belong? Would I ever feel included? And wanted?
Frick, wasn't alcohol supposed to make you happy? I just felt depressed and miserable.
Maybe I would go and find Natalie and tell her I was leaving.
Eventually I found her dancing with some redheaded guy who I'd never seen before. They were just rocking gently, her head against his chest. To be honest I wasn't sure if she'd fallen asleep or not.
After watching for about 10 minutes, and plucking up the courage, I walked over to them.
"Natalie," I said tapping on her shoulder.
Thankfully the guy didn't say anything, and Natalie lifted her head up to look at me.
I was relieved to see that her eyes were still focussing and she didn't seem that drunk.
"I'm going to get off," I said to her.
"What?! Already? But it's not late," she said.
"I know, but I'm bored senseless," I replied.
"Oh come on Cole," she said rolling her eyes. "Have you even tried talking to other people, or maybe, oh, I don't know, introducing yourself?"
"You know this isn't my thing," I said, sending her a pleading look in the hope that she'd drop the conversation.
It didn't work.
"Come on, you're just so boring sometimes. Why don't you live a little? Maybe then you would have more friends."
I knew she was slightly drunk, but that still stung. I knew I was boring, and that I didn't have many friends, but I didn't need her pointing it out to me.
"Look, I'm going to go," I said taking a step back.
"No you're not," she said letting go of the guy in front of her and grabbing hold of my wrist. "You're going to have some fun for once. Go on, I dare you. Walk up to a random guy and kiss him."
"What?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yeah, go on. You can pick. Which one of these guys do you find attractive?"
"Hang on a second," came a voice from behind us. Finally the redheaded guy had come to life. "Are you saying that he's gay?" he asked Natalie.
"Yeah, so?" she said back.
"Oh my god, dude, that's disgusting!" the guy said, looking at me like I was something on the bottom of his shoe.
"Aaron!" Natalie chastised.
"Do you know how wrong that is?" Aaron said back to Natalie, "I mean, why would you want to stick something up your arse?"
I cringed at where this was heading. And what was it with guys always fixating on the arse thing?
"I'm going," I said, turing round to leave.
"Hang on a second," said Aaron, coming round to stand in front of me. "If I ever see you near me again, perving on the guys I invited to my party, you're dead, you understand?"
By this time, my nose was practically touching his puffed up chest. I just stood stock still, my heart beating like a train inside my chest.
Please don't let me get hurt tonight!
I could just picture my dad's face when I came home sporting a black eye.
"DID YOU HEAR ME YOU FAG?" the guy spat in my face. And yes, I mean that literally.
"I'm sorry, were you talking to me?"
My eyes widened slightly as I nearly had a heart attack thinking that had come out of my mouth.
I breathed out a sigh of relief when the redhead turned round to face the actual person who had said that.
It was Percy. Shit.
"For fuck's sake, is the whole place full of gay shit tonight?" Aaron said, glaring at Percy.
It was interesting to note that he hadn't stepped any closer to Percy. I guess you could say Percy was a lot more intimidating to look at than me. I also noticed that tonight Percy was wearing quite a collection of heavy duty rings that would probably do a fair amount of damage if swung against someone's face.
"I'm sorry, do you have a problem with me and Cole being here?" he said, coming to stand next to me.
Oh my god, he does know my name! Wait, does that mean he intentionally insulted me earlier? Oh crap, I'm such a girl! Come on Cole, focus on the bigger issues here....
"Yes, I do," the redhead replied, "it's just I don't remember inviting a bunch of fags to my party."
I saw Percy draw himself up taller, and I swear I actually saw his muscles get a little bigger.
"Call us that one more time, and you'll be drinking your food out of a straw," he growled.
I looked over to Aaron and I could see him having an inner battle with himself. He clearly didn't want to back down, but he must have been able to see that his physique was nothing compared to Percy's.
"My house, my rules," he spat out, before stepping closer to Percy. "Now get out. And take your friend with you."
There followed a stare down. I stood rooted to the spot. Adrenalin soaring round my body, just waiting to run the hell outta there.
Eventually Percy took a step back. "Fine, I'll go. Party sucks anyway. Come on Cole," he said gesturing at me to follow him.
I let out a sigh of relief that this hadn't ended badly as I scurried off to catch up with Percy.
"That's right!" the redhead shouted at our retreating figures, "Get your faggot, arse humping shit out of my house!"
Percy stopped in his tracks.
So close.