Shattered Dreams [EDITING] - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

COREY'S POV:
I can't lie when I say that I am not having a good time here tonight, the vibes just feel off. I'm near the kitchen counter talking to Logan and Nathan as they talk about what some of the girls are wearing and who they have their eyes on tonight. I'm only half listening to the conversation because who actually cares?
Willem ditched me around ten minutes ago. Some girl pounced on him as soon as we walked through the door and he didn't complain so he has been upstairs with her ever since. At least one of us is having fun tonight.
I take a sip of my lemonade as a bunch of girls come and stand next to us, the potent smell of perfume engulfs the air around me and I almost choke. I hate when girls layer themselves in perfume it knocks my senses off, a little perfume is fine but when it is so overpowering it makes me lightheaded and almost causes me to pass out.
A girl with ginger hair places herself to my side and thankfully she isn't the one with the overpowering perfume so I can survive being next to her. A tanned girl is giggling at something Nathan says and Logan is refusing to even look at what the blonde haired girl is saying by his side. He isn't interested in hook ups, he has been disinterested ever since his long term girlfriend of five years cheated on him with another girl. That shit really messed him up. Nathan doesn't believe in love so he hasn't exactly been helpful with supporting Logan through this but Willem knows what it's like so he has been helping Logan sort through his feelings.
It's going well so far if you couldn't tell.
"Hey, what's your name?" The girl by my side says. She doesn't look familiar so it is most likely her first time at one of these parties. Plus, the people that come to the parties know my name, I'm a well known guy.
"I'm Corey, you?" I ask her, and finally look at her face. She's pretty, with freckles covering her cheeks and her eyes are a deep blue and they are very distracting.
"I'm Holly. Do you want a drink, Corey?" She asks, batting her eyelashes at me trying to be seductive. I'd be into it if I wasn't having such a shit time tonight.
"Nah, I can't drink tonight." I tell her bluntly, I don't want to explain my schedule to some random girl, that's not a good topic of conversation. I hate not drinking, it makes parties boring but all the other guys still seem to have fun when they are here without being drunk.
I guess I just need the drink to stop my head from spiraling all the time. I can't focus when I'm here.
Holly doesn't reply and instead goes into a conversation with Nathan and the girl next to him. I feel bad, she looks so awkward because she doesn't know what to say to me and I am not exactly being the most open person to talk to right now. I feel so distant and I don't even know why. I would be feeling so much more comfortable if Willem was here instead of upstairs. Willem is a sort of safety net for me, he holds me up when I need it, in public situations especially.
Now feeling awkward I look around the room to see if there is anyone else I can go and talk to whilst I wait for Willem to come back down. It's not very busy here tonight compared to our other parties, due to the team not being able to get drunk. Most of them don't bother turning up because who wants to go to a party when you can't get drunk?
The music has been turned down slightly as we don't want the police to come and tear the party up but the lights are still flashing along with the beat. People are gathered in the living room, with the sofa and table pushed to the side so that they can dance. Their bodies are huddled together jumping and I can see the sweat coating all of their bodies.
I look towards the corridor and I see a face I didn't expect to see here today, Nadia. Why is she here when she can't even go to school or training? I won't go and say anything to her though because I can only assume that Willem knows she is here, he knows everything about her they are that close.
Of course, wherever Nadia is, Jasper and Maddy are. Jasper is clung to her, holding her from behind, almost holding her up with his own arms. I wouldn't be surprised if she couldn't breathe with how tight he seems to be holding her, he truly is obsessed with her. It gets a little concerning sometimes. Maddy is now pointing towards Zack and they go off to the dancefloor and start dancing together, I wonder when those two became a thing.
"Corey!" A voice makes me jump as I completely forgot my surroundings which is something that happens to me a lot. "What's on your mind?" Logan asks and I realise now it was him that was the one to break me out of my head.
"Nothing, I'm just a little out of it lately." I shrug, forgetting that it's not just me and him here as the girl that was by his side is now pulling me into a hug.
"It's okay, Corey. I'm here for you." She whispers into my ear and it sounds more flirty than comforting.
Nathan doesn't say anything about me and Logan suddenly turning the conversation into something deep so I imagine that he is already making out with the pretty girl.
I look over to Logan over the girl's shoulder and he gives me a knowing look. He knows I don't want this girl near me, he knows that I am distracted lately and he probably has figured out why. Logan is the most caring out of all of us because he is the one who has been hurt the most so he is the big brother figure for us all.
When you have a good heart like Logan does it always gets you hurt in the end. I just hope that one day he will be able to love again after all the hurt he has been dealt with. I won't be able to open up to Willem about what is going on in my head so Logan might well and truly be the only person I can talk to about this shit with. When he is ready to talk about what happened with his ex I will be there for him, I know I am not the most emotional and supportive but he deserves to have a friend there for him too.
He's a good guy and he doesn't deserve how he has been treated in life by people at all.
The girl is still clung to me so I push her off me gently being careful not to hurt her, I don't exactly have light hands. The girl clings to me for a moment longer and tries to put her mouth on mine but I turn my head away just before she can kiss me. Logan starts laughing but covers it up with a cough and I glare at him.
"Holly, if you go with this lovely lady to have a dance I will join you shortly." I tell her with a wink so she can have some hope.
"Sure, I'll see you later then." She gives me the biggest smile I've seen from her tonight. She's happy now that I finally seem to be giving her some attention. I feel like a dick flirting with her to make her do something for me but I don't want that girl anywhere near me. She was so drunk that she was flinging herself at me and it was making me uncomfortable.
"She was into you, man. Why did you send her off like that?" Nathan takes his mouth off the girl he's with long enough to ask.
"Didn't fancy her." I shrug.
"What the fuck man? She was fit." He says in shock.
"If she is so fit then stop making out with her and go get her." Logan says, getting annoyed with how he is talking about women again. Logan grew up with a bunch of sisters and had a girlfriend for the longest time so he knows how to be respectful to women. It annoys him when any one of us degrades a woman by only talking about their looks. I get why he gets mad, I do but it's a party we hook up with people purely based on physical attraction.
"Fuck you." The girl that Nathan was kissing only moments ago pushes him off her and she walks away. I would've walked away much sooner than that if I was her so she's stronger than me.
"Look what you've done now." He says before following after the girl or going to get the other one off the dance floor, I never know with him.
"There is something seriously wrong with that boy." Logan says, taking a sip of his lime coke and I cringe, whoever thought inventing that flavour was a good idea deserves the death penalty.
"Yeah, and he's sober, that's the worst part." I mutter into my red plastic cup.
Logan doesn't reply to what I said, he seems too interested in something that's going on behind me to be engaged in a conversation. "Don't look." He almost shouts as I go to look and I turn back to him.
He looks almost worried and I can't figure out why. I narrow my eyes at him and he gives me a sheepish smile in return, he is protecting my feelings from something.
I turn around and search for what could possibly be wrong but I don't spot anything. I must stand here looking like a deer in headlights looking through the room for five minutes before I give up searching.
"Over by the sofa." Logan says to me before I even get to ask him the question.
I look over to the sofa and there sits Nadia on her own, looking miserable might I add. "What's up with her?" I ask Logan because he seems to know everything about everybody, he has a good eye at reading people and their emotions. I'm quite envious of it.
"Look at where she is looking." And I do, I follow her line of sight and see Jasper dancing with Maddy in between the bodies of people. Zack is nowhere to be seen, he could be getting them drinks but I doubt that's true as Nadia's face looks like a slapped arse.
I suck in a breath when I see Jasper place his hands on Maddy's hips and I swear I hear Nadia's heart break then and there. I want Willem to come down so that he can rip Jasper a new arsehole because Nadia won't stick up for herself, she never has with Jasper or Maddy. They walk over her again and again as if she's a pavement but she is too blindsighted to see that.
She's too nice to tell people 'no' and too nice to tell people when something is hurting her feelings because she doesn't want to hurt people or for them to see her as weak. She needs to realise that sometimes you have to focus on yourself, sometimes you have to hurt people in order to be better for yourself.
"Oh, yikes. Looks like J baby is in deep shit tonight." Nathan's voice grows closer indicating that he's back. I look and there is no girl on his side this time, whatever he was doing was quick even for him.
No offence Nathan.
"I doubt that, I'm sure she will just let him back into her bed again tonight." Liam says with a laugh. When the fuck did he get here?
"Hey, not cool." I say to him with a glare which causes him to let out another laugh again.
Liam is kind of close with Jasper so Jasper feeds him the gossip about him and Nadia. Liam doesn't know how to keep his mouth shut so that information then gets passed onto us. We try to keep that stuff getting back to Willem's ears as some of it is stuff no brother should hear about their sister but it still ends up getting back to him somehow.
Liam isn't a bad guy, he just doesn't know what respect for women is most of the time, he is like Nathan in that sense.
Logan must see the look on my face as he says, "Don't cause a scene, Corey."
"I'm not going too. I'm just going to have a word with her." I reply and then take off walking towards her.
"What the fuck was that about." I hear either Nathan or Liam ask Logan as I am walking away.
I stride trying to dodge the bodies that bump into me along the way, drunk people are annoying but at least they are having fun unlike me.
Another body bumps into me and spills alcohol all down my shirt. Am I really not that big enough to see? "Sorry, Oh my god," The girl squeaks at me then starts rubbing the liquid into my shirt. "Let me lick it off for you." She says and then lowers her face to my shirt and then she is pulled away by her friend who gives me an apologetic look as she drags her away.
What the fuck is it with people throwing themselves at me today?
I ignore the alcohol leaking through my shirt and stand in front of where Nadia is sitting on the sofa. If she notices me standing there she doesn't let me know, she continues staring at where Jasper and Maddy are dancing in the middle of the living room.
I wave my hand in front of her face and she stays unblinking as she takes her earphones out and only says, "You reek of alcohol."
"That would be because someone spilt beer on me, not because I'm drinking." I feel the need to explain myself to her as I don't want her getting the wrong impression and her then telling Willem about me drinking even though I'm not.
"I don't care, Corey. Where's my brother?" She asks, still uninterested with the conversation.
"He's shagging right now." I let her know boorishly.
"No surprise there then." She almost laughs but she can't seem to bring herself to do it.
I want to know what she's doing here and I can either be nice about it or I could be a dick about it and in true fashion I decide to be a dick about it. It's a natural thing for me so I can't help it.
"What are you doing here?" I ask her nicely, hoping she will accept the subject of conversation.
"Same thing as you, minus the being soaked in alcohol part." She states bluntly.
"You usually like a guy that reeks of alcohol though, right?" I flash her a dry smile.
"Don't start, Corey." She warns.
That was a dick move to say that, I know. Jasper has an issue with drinking too much alcohol, he isn't an alcoholic because he is fine not drinking when it is under coaches orders but when he can drink he takes it too far.
He doesn't know his limits when it comes to alcohol, just like Nadia doesn't know her limits when it comes to Jasper.
"You can't go to college or skate for your team yet you can come to a party?" I ask her.
It's a valid question, I may not have asked it in the correct way but it needs an answer all the same. She only seems to go out when it's something she can do to have fun, she hasn't gone to college in weeks and she hasn't been skating properly for weeks either.
She has been diagnosed with depression, I haven't been diagnosed with it but sometimes I think I have it so I somewhat know what she feels like. And in my opinion she's being dramatic about it.
"This is my first time coming to a party in months, Corey. You're reaching." She finally takes her eyes off Jasper and looks straight into my eyes.
"So what? You're going to go to college on Monday? Or go training tomorrow?" I don't back down because I'm a dick.
"Probably not, no. Why? Are you wanting to spend some time with me? Want me to lick that alcohol off your chest like that girl wanted?" She jokes, or at least I hope she's joking.
"Are you jealous, Naddy?" I smirk at her and she narrows her eyes back at me.
"You wish. It's not like I can go to practice anyway." She mutters the last part so quietly I almost don't hear it over the music.
"Why not? Your legs work." I point out.
"Because my coach kicked me off." She shrugs as though she's not affected by this whatsoever but I know better.
"That's what you wanted though, right? You're too lazy to go so you got him to kick you off because you have too much pride to quit." I accuse her, not knowing where any of this is coming from because I don't believe my own words at all.
"Sure Corey." She focuses her gaze back into the makeshift dance floor and she frowns.
I look there myself and see Maddy laughing at something Jasper is saying. Zack comes back with three drinks in hand and Maddy focuses her attention back on him.
"Sacked from skating and your boyfriend doesn't want you, I truly feel sorry for you." I challenge her. If I can get her to the point of breaking she can show her true feelings and let them out instead of bottling all of them up.
"If you say another word to be I'll fucking kill you." She jumps up off the sofa with a visible wince and points in my face.
She sways on her legs a little and puts her hand on her head as if she's going to pass out.
"Woah, you okay?" I ask her.
"Don't pretend to care now, Corey." She snaps and sits back down on the chair.
"You know I do. I'm sorry I was being a dick, you know I didn't mean it." I apologise and I genuinely mean it.
I'm having such a hard time with everything right now that I seem to be taking it out on people weaker than me. She's going through an even worse time than I am right now so I should be here supporting her instead of ripping into her about it.
I'm a shit excuse for a person.
"Whatever, please just go back to those girls over there, they are glaring at me." I refuse to look back to Holly or her friend because I don't want to give them the wrong impression plus I'm more worried about Nadia than I should be.
"Does Willem even know that you're here?" I question her and she shakes her head hesitantly. I don't know why but she stands up in front of me again. "Have you been drinking?" She shakes her head again and it causes her to lose balance on her legs a little so I grab her arms to keep her steady.
"What the fuck is going on here?" A new voice, which I presume is Jasper, appears and I know I'm right when he comes to stand in front of me, blocking me from Nadia but I don't let go. I genuinely don't think she can hold herself up right now. "Get your hands off her."
I don't move my hands until I see Maddy put her arms around Nadia so she has someone else to hold her up. I don't say anything to Jasper I just stay standing here looking toward Nadia, she's gone deathly pale and has sweat beading on her chest and forehead. She hasn't even been doing anything other than sitting down all night so she must be coming down with another infection or something.
"Corey just back off." Maddy spits out whilst giving me a glare.
"Leave him be, he was helping me." Nadia says before I can even get a word in.
"Yeah, you're looking too much into it man, she's not feeling well so I was helping her stand up but she's too stubborn to accept help." I admit, which was apparently the wrong thing to do because Jasper's and Maddy's face twist into shock and Nadia starts profusely shaking her head at me.
"Come find me next time, I will look after my girlfriend." Jasper spits, pointing a finger in my face as if that's going to add any emphasis onto what he's saying.
And of course, Willem chooses this exact moment to come downstairs. Why can't he just stay upstairs with that girl? I look towards where he is storming over to us and the girl who he hooked up with stands there for a few moments before walking out of the house, looks like he won't be seeing her again. He watches her walk out for a few moments before carrying on towards us, and he looks like he's about two seconds away from ripping all of our heads off.
"Care to explain what is going on here?" Willem demands as he stands in between Jasper and I.
"Nothing, Willy. They are just being dramatic." Nadia says from where she is hiding behind maddy's body.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He almost shouts with how shocked he is. I'm surprised he didn't see her when he approached but I suppose he was filled with blind rage and she was covering herself but still.
"She came here with me and Maddy and Corey started putting his hands on her." Jasper says, twisting the truth. He knows that it wasn't like that but he is saying it anyway because he has always had something against me.
"Is this true?" Willem looks between Nadia and Maddy.
"No."
"Yes."
They both speak at the same time and Nadia forces Maddy's hands off her when she speaks, her rage towards her is very visible.
"Have you had much to drink?" Willem's next question is directed towards Jasper this time.
"Only like two beers." He responds gently.
"Get her home now." Willem says to Jasper and Maddy and then he grabs my wrist and draws me towards the front door. I would make a joke about how rough he's being with me but I decide against it as it genuinely seems like he is pissed off at me.
I don't know why, I haven't even done anything. I was just trying to help. The one time I don't stay out of it and try to do good people end up getting mad at me for some fucked up reason.
Once he has remembered where his car is parked he opens the door for me before getting in himself. He takes a deep breath before driving, he doesn't say anything for the whole journey and when we arrive outside my house he just looks at me.
I turn my head to look him in the eyes and his eyes look as though he's expecting me to say something. I don't have anything to say until he speaks first because I don't know what is going through his head right now. I want to calm his anxieties without making it worse so he is going to need to communicate with me here.
"Inside now. And then you can explain to me what the fuck that was about."
He sounds mad, this is going to be a fun conversation.