You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

-Mae West

XI | HOT AUSTRALIAN BOYFRIEND

I groaned quietly as Reece closed the door behind him, making sure to secretly give him the middle finger. I didn't know the first thing about teenage parties, except they included sex and alcohol, drugs too most of the time. I shivered, even the mere thought of it made me highly uncomfortable.

I went to my closet and searched for my choice of clothing to wear, I decided to wear a white sweatshirt and sweatpants for this unholy occasion. Nothing like the dress my sister had given me.

A sudden knock came to my door and in entered Gwen, "hey baby sis," she greeted, closing the door behind her. I stared at her with confusion, she didn't normally come to my room this late at night.

"Everything okay?" I asked as she sat down on my bed.

"Duh, my little sister is finally going to her first party! Ugh, I'm so proud of you Vivi. I could literally cry!" She said fanning herself dramatically. I raised my eyebrow at her words. Sometimes I questioned who was more dramatic: Gwen, Ronnie, or Reece.

I narrowed my eyes at her, "who told you I'm going to the party?"

"Your hot Australian boyfriend, that's who. Who also told me to make sure you don't dress how you normally dress." Well I was insulted, Reece going behind my back and clearly saying I have bad taste.

I definitely know how to dress. They are probably just jealous that I have better fashion sense than both of them combined...oh, who was I kidding?

I crossed my arms and glared at Gwen, "I know how to dress Gwendolyn." I still had the need to try to defend myself.

She glanced at my sweats that laid on my bed and scrunched her nose is disgust, "you are not seriously thinking of actually wearing that are you?" she stated and I rolled my eyes. It's funny how Ronnie said the exact same thing to me on the first day of school. Clearly I was getting a reputation.

"Of course I am, it's just a party. It's not like I'm going to the Met Gala or something," I protested and she shook her head in disappointment and stood up from my bed.

"I'll be right back," she left my room. I sighed as I put the sweats back inside my closet, knowing she was bringing me something to wear.

Gwendolyn re-entered my room with a black dress. I looked at it and frowned, "there's no way I'm wearing that after having to wear the other one."

She looked at the dress, raising it up with the hanger to analyze it, "I don't see anything wrong with it." She stated.

I slightly scratched the back of my head, "it's kind of - um--"

"Kind of what?" She rested her free hand on her hip with a scowl on her face.

I bit my lip and took the dress from her, "nothing, it's perfect! I love it." I lied, giving her a small smile.

She smiled in satisfaction, "good, now try it on."

I sighed mentally as I started to remove my previous clothing and replaced it with the dress. It was strapless and stopped to the middle of my thigh. I looked at myself in my full length mirror, looking at how it fitted my curves perfectly, but I still felt weird wearing it. I hate dresses and wearing one right now that wasn't to any formal event generally irritated me.

Gwen smiled, "awe, you look so cute, come on let me do your hair and makeup!" she titled in excitement for me.

I sat down begrudgingly in front of the vanity table as Gwen went to her room to get her curler and makeup kit.

"Who has a party on Sunday anyway? Not to mention, especially on a school night." I pointed out as Gwen entered back inside my room.

She chuckled at my comment and started to apply my makeup, "to be honest, parties happen pretty much everyday. Just don't drink too much, and if you do have a hang over and can't go to school, I'll just tell Mom and Dad you have a headache from a cold," she said simply, not caring seemingly if I get drunk out of my mind.

"But I've never missed school before, even when I had the flu!" I stated.

She rolled her eyes, "trust me Vivi, going to school with a hang over is the worst thing ever. You will feel like utter shit."

"It's not like I am going to drink anyway, it is such a useless mineral," I declared.

She stepped back and examined my face with a smile, "whatever, I don't really care. I'm just saying I won't be surprised if you come home drunk. At least try to have fun," she tried in a serious tone. Fun? Such a very weird expression. What does one do when using the term 'fun'.

I sighed, I probably won't drink anyway because I am underage, but I'll at least try to have 'fun' or pretend to have 'fun'.

"--And voila!" Gwen cheered as she finished my hair with soft, loose curls that fell on my shoulders. I checked the time on the wall, Reece would be here in five minutes. Gwen quickly helped me put on my heels and helped accessorize with jewelry and perfume.

"I'm so proud of you!" Gwen grinned happily, I gave her a thumbs up and stood up from the vanity chair, grabbing my purse and putting some items inside.

We left my room to see Cole outside, exiting the bathroom. He looked me up and down and raised an eyebrow, "why are you dressed like a prostitute?" He asked and I immediately scoffed.

"Shut up Cole, you can be so disrespectful some times!" Gwen scolded, taking my wrist to drag me down the stairs. I made sure to slap Cole behind the neck along the way, causing him to groan in pain as he entered inside his room.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" I whispered in Gwen's ear as we went down the stairs.

"Sleeping, so is Millie. So you're safe from Mom gushing and Dad bombarding Reece with questions even though he already loves the guy." Gwen said as we entered into the lobby.

Gwen smirked as a knock sounded,
"oh, your Daddy's here!" Gwen whisper-shouted. I shook my head, why does Ronnie and Gwen keep saying that? Gwen opened the door excitedly, "why hello Reece, don't you look dashing as always!" Gwen complimented heavily as I sighed at her words.

"Hey Reece," I said simply, giving him a genuine smile.

He obviously checked me out, smirking, "not bad Maxwell," he said proudly and I laughed. He looked really good too, with a black shirt, a varsity red jacket over the top, black jeans and sneakers. He had the perfect popular guy image and man did he work it well.

I joined him on the porch outside. "You two have fun and please Reece, make sure my dear little sister of mine doesn't come home pregnant!" she said causing me to glare hard at her.

Reece laughed, "will do," he grinned, grabbing my hand. We quickly said goodbye to Gwen as we went down the driveway to Reece's black BMW.

"Just out of curiosity Reece, how many cars do you actually own?" I asked, this was the third car I had seen him with in the almost two weeks we have been fake dating.

"Six," he shrugged like it was no big deal.

"You have six cars? What the heck!" I exclaimed. I wasn't really surprised, but still - wow.

He chuckled and opened the car door for me, "you and I both know you're not surprised," he stated as I got into the car. To be honest, I wasn't even surprised in the slightest, but that did not mean I still didn't question what his family does for a living.

He closed the door for me and walked towards the driver's seat. As soon as he sat down, he started the car. A few seconds later, cold calming air from the air conditioner blew on my face. It was freshening.

Reece turned to me quickly, "you ready for this?"

I pulled my seatbelt across my chest, plugging it in, "you mean, going to a idiotic drunken teen party with no supervision of an adult whatsoever, sure!" Sarcasm was strongly intertwined in each word.

Reece chewed on the inside of his mouth before pulling out and heading away from my house. "You know, I realized somethin' 'bout you," he started.

"Oh please, do tell," I said, rolling my eyes, not really caring about his comment that will probably be useless anyway.

"You're a very negative person and it's quite annoyin'." He finished. To say I was taken back would be an understatement. I looked straight ahead, crossing my arms and sealing my lips shut. I had no intention of answering his comment because I knew what he was saying was true. "By your silence, I'm guessin' you agree," he figured.

I sighed, "look, throughout my whole sixteen years of existence, I made sure to keep my head and not get caught up with the drama. I guess by doing that, some negativity I had towards those who were popular and ric--"

"--People like me." He stated with a strange new voice that almost sounded sad, yet hard.

I blew a tough breath out and ran a few fingers through my hair. "It's just, you guys made everything look so easy. I hated it. I hated basically everyone that associated with the term 'popular'. I know I'm sounding like a hypocrite, considering I fancy Xavier and all, but - I don't know," I stopped, not knowing how to continue. I rested my head on the cold window.

From the corner of my eyes I saw Reece bite his lip, "is Ronnie and Chase coming to the party?" He completely changed the subject.

I shook my head 'no', "um, no, I mean Chase and Laurianne are at his house and I don't believe they plan to go anywhere for tonight. Ronnie is at her aunt and uncle's house, they live an hour away but she should be arriving back home before school tomorrow," I explained and Reece nodded in understanding. "Reece?" I asked, slightly turning to him.

"Yeah?" He replied.

"If it's not too much to ask...can you tell me how you found out Brooke cheated on you?" I asked lightly, trying to step carefully.

I heard his breath hitch before he sighed, "I had to do somethin' and I told Brooke I would be runnin' late to meet with her at her house. Bottom line is, whatever I was doin', I finished early and my phone was dead - so I couldn't call her. I went directly to her house, knowin' where her parents placed the front door key outside, so I used it and when I went upstairs to her room, the rest is pretty clear--" his face showed the pain in reciting what had happened.

"So why do you want to get back together with her?" I asked the obvious question even though he had already given me the answer before.

"She reminds me of someone, that's all I am goin' to say," he murmured. I nodded, sitting in complete silence for the rest of the ride.

When we arrived at the party, I could already hear the music blasting through the neighborhood, light flashing harshly through the windows. The area circling around the owner of the party's house was completely packed with various sorts of cars, people were flooded around the front of it, drunk already, or near that point. We stepped out of the car, two girls were making out on the grass floor nearby as guys were cheering them on, most likely popping boners at the act. Reece gently grabbed my hand, greeting a few people along the way. We made our way towards the entrance of the medium creme house. I did not miss the way girls were staring at me with envy, even those who sat on their boyfriends laps - couldn't resist to throw glares at me.

It was a little hard to see the inside, considering the place was very much so crowded. We made our way into the living room as couches and coffee tables were moved around in order to create space for a so-called dance floor. Bodies upon bodies grinded on one another, girl's on boy's, boys on boys, girls on girls, etcetera. Everyone was just free with each other. It did not help that the drugs people were smoking, caused the air to be quite thick. I slightly coughed, due to how it was suffocating my lungs. We pushed through, reaching a large brown couch to see a couple making out heavily. I removed my hand from Reece's and went inside my bag to get out a tissue and hand sanitizer.

"Ew, ew, ew," I chanted, squirting the hand sanitizer on the couch, cleaning the area that I intended to sit on. Once done, I sat down, placing the used tissue inside a small plastic bag I had brought with me. I looked up at Reece to see him staring at me with one eye brow raised in judgment, "what? You do not know how many people have sat on this couch, there's most likely sperm and too many other germs to count." I declared.

He did not say anything to that and shook his head, not wanting to discuss the topic, "I'll go get us some drinks," he called over the booming music. Before I could reply to him, he already left. I sighed, bringing out my phone to entertain myself. As I was in the middle of playing a game, a hand went across my face slightly. I looked up to see the couple making out had began basically shoving themselves on me. The girl's arm was touching my shoulder firmly, causing me to slightly flinch as the guy attacked her neck.

"Excuse me!" I tapped the girl's shoulder lightly, she only moaned as the guy assaulted her neck roughly. I frowned as her hand pulled my shoulder harder, this was very disgusting. I was about to insult the two until a voice interrupted me from doing so.

"She said excuse me," the couple immediately broke from their make out session to see Jake glaring at them. Oh, so they would break apart for Jake but not me, okay. Forgetting about my thoughts, I smiled at Jake as he was literally the person I wanted to see.

I stood up sharply, "thanks." I said and he gave me a warm heart felt smile.

"No problem, where's Reece? I assume you guys came together," he said, taking a sip from his plastic red cup.

"He went to get us drinks," I replied and he nodded.

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you something in private," I said, looking at him. He raised a surprised eyebrow.

We made our way to a less crowded area if the house. Thankfully there was no making out couple here, I decided not to clean this couch with my hand sanitizer otherwise Jake would give me the same weird expression Reece had given me earlier.

We sat down and he looked at me expectantly, "so, what do you want to talk about?"

"What do you think about Veronica?" To be honest, I think Jake would be the perfect guy for her. I knew he wasn't much of a player, I had a good feeling in my gut that he would and could treat her right.

He looked at me and slightly titled his head to the right before answering, "I mean, I've never personally spoken to her, but she seems nice." He answered, looking like he had zero interest in this conversation, "why ask though?"

"Veronica is ready to settle down and I just want her to find someone that can treat her right," I said truthfully, lowering my eye.

He bit his lips before they formed into a straight line, "I don't know, from what I have heard, she has slept with a lot of guys and I am not looking for someone like that," he stated and my plan of making the two end up together completely diminished. Though it made sense, I wouldn't want to date a guy who had slept with a lot of girls ever.

I groaned and rested my body back on the couch, "I just want her to be happy," I stared at the stairwell near me.

"I'm sure she will find a guy eventually, there's no need to rush," he murmured, though loud enough for me to hear.

I chewed on the inside of my mouth, "I hope." I mumbled as me and Jake both watched party goers dance to the music playing.