Daniel POV

Ethan picked me up at eight. I told him about Max inviting me to the party and he kept a neutral face, leaving me confused on what he thought.

"So...?" I said, hoping for a positive response. He looked at me, surprised.

"What?"

"So should I go?" Please say yes, I already promised Max. Ethan laughed.

"Daniel, you don't have to get my permission to go to a party! If you want to- go for it, just please promise you'll tell me if there's any weird shit going on and I'll pick you up." I smiled at him,

"Will do."

"Wait- that kid Mason won't be there right? Cause if he is I'll come and beat his-"

"No, it's a private school party like half an hour away I think." I said, suppressing my laughter.

"Okay, good."

"But you're welcome to come if you want?" I responded, trying to keep the hopefulness out of my voice.

"Honestly I would love to, but Ace would kick my ass if he found out I went to a high school party. I'm lucky he hasn't said anything about me hanging out with you so far." He gave an annoyed sigh. I tried not to let my disappointment show.

"Okay. No problem." He gave me a sad smile.

"I can pick you up from the party though, just send me an address." I nodded. We reached my house, and I grabbed my bag, opening the door. Ethan grabbed my arm, and I turned, surprised. He's so close.

"Don't forget to text me if anything weird happens." He grinned. I smiled back and nodded, then he let go of my arm. I got out of the car,

"See you later!" I said and went inside to get changed, the butterflies fading in my stomach.

Around forty-five minutes later, I heard honking outside the house, ran to the window and saw Max hanging out of the driver's seat of the car waving frantically at me. I laughed, then nervously walked down the stairs, trying to avoid-

"Wait." Too late. I turned.

"Hey mom." She scowled at me.

"Who's honking outside?" More honking. I cringed.

"Oh just some-" more honking "-just some friends of mine. We were going to go to the movies..." I'm gonna kill Max. She saw my lie and scowled at me, before turning back to her room and leaving me. I shrugged it off and left, walking to the drivers window of what seemed to be a new toyota highlander.

"Oh yeah Daniel are you readyyy-"

"You need to lay off the honking Max, are you trying to get me murdered?" I asked, gesturing to my house. He laughed.

"Oh come on let's get this party started! Me and Angie are gonna switch seats so we can pregame in the back- oh- Angie this is Daniel, Daniel this is Angie-" he gestured to a pretty brunette sitting next to him who smiled kindly at me- "and in the backseat we have-" he looked back quickly then turned back to me, a worried look on his face- "...two of Angie's friends..."

"-Oh Max I've introduced them a thousand times!" He looked away guiltily.

"Daniel, this is Carmen and Leah, we used to go to school together," she said, and the two girls in the back gave me small waves. I smiled back awkwardly.

"Right, right I knew that, okay-" Max said as he got out of the car and hurried to the back "-one of you sit in the front so we can get going-" Leah quickly moved to the front while he got in the back, and I followed him in. Angie started driving to the highway and Max pulled out a bottle of vodka and a bottle of Coke, pouring some of each into an empty water bottle he brought with him, and spilling some in the car. Angie looked in the rearview mirror at the perfect time and saw him hastily trying to wipe the seat with his sweater.

"Max this is my parents car, they'll kill me! Please be careful," she moaned.

"Don't worry I'll clean it up later! They won't be able to smell a thing," he smiled at me before drinking a third of his newly made drink and offering it to me. I nervously remembered the last time I had alcohol and hesitated. He saw me pause.

"Hey, you don't have to drink anything. I'm perfectly fine drinking this by myself," he said laughing and taking another drink. It's fine... it won't be like last time... I told myself and put a smile on my face, taking the bottle from him and drinking some of it. Obviously not as good as Coke... but not as bad as beer... I had some more and handed the near-empty bottle back to him, where he added more, this time pouring it carefully over his sweater with a hasty look at Angie.

He gave some to Leah and Carmen, and by the time we'd gotten to the house, all of us  were talking a little louder. We'd driven up a long paved hill and reached a street called Rosebay Court, with many two to three story houses on either side. We could hear the music from the street, and Max grabbed me by the shoulder and pulled me over to walk next to him;

"Okay, so this is a private school party which means that around forty percent of the people here are in college, and they're going to try to give you some pills or ecstasy or some shit, if they do, all you have to do is pretend you can't hear them, shrug your shoulders and walk away. It's that simple." He acted it out while walking backwards to the house, tripped on the sidewalk, and fell on his ass. Angie laughed and helped him up, then they held hands when going into the house. I felt out of place as soon as I walked in.

It was a two-story house, and it was packed full of people. They all seemed to be holding plastic cups and talking loudly. The music was deafening and I couldn't hear any specific words or conversations, just a lot of noise. There were pink and blue strobe lights flashing quickly, which- combined with the music- made my head throb.

Angie and Leah led the rest of us to the back of the house, where - as Max had predicted- them and Carmen immediately recognized some of their friends and ran over, giving them hugs and starting conversations, leaving us. Max looked at me and shook his head, then led me to the backyard, where I saw a beer-pong table and a large pool, with about fifteen people occupying it.

The music was still loud in the backyard, but I could hear Max talking to me.

"Did you see those fucking lights inside? Damn rich kids- and look at the goddamn pool!" He dragged me over to the pool- "why was I born poor god, why?!" I laughed at him and he led me over to the beer pong table, where two guys had just lost against two girls, and were shamelessly chugging their beers while the girls giggled at them.

"Ok, who're we playing?!" Max asked loudly, and as soon as the words had left his mouth, two older college-looking guys came forward to the other side of the table. Max grinned and set up the cups, pouring beer into them.

They were good, but Max was better. I, obviously, was less than mediocre, but nobody seemed to notice, thanks to how perfect Max's shot was. There was a crowd surrounding the table, watching eagerly. Max and I had each drunk four cups when we tied to the college boys, with two cups left each. Max moved his arm so it was aligned with one of the two cups, tossed the ball, and sunk the second to last one in. Everyone cheered us on and he looked to me and motioned, it was my turn. I picked up the ball and anxiously tossed it across the table, where, to my shock, it splashed straight into the last cup. Max cheered the loudest, and the two college guys only made one of the two shots they got for redemption, so we'd won.

They didn't look too bummed that they had to drink the rest of their beer. Max and I walked back inside the house where everything was too loud and too crowded. I was getting claustrophobic, so I told him that I'd wait for him by the pool while he made us more drinks. I found an empty pool chair and breathed in the fresh air, closing my eyes.

"Hey-" I jumped when I heard the voice inches from my face and opened my eyes. It was one of the guys we'd just beat at beer pong. I smiled at him, uneasily. He smiled back and held out a bag of starbursts.

"Want one?" I gave a nervous laugh.

"Oh no, I'm good thanks-" but then he held out something else. Small blue and white circular pills lay in his hand.

"Or do you want something stronger?" I paused.

"Uh, I'll just have a starburst, thanks though," I muttered, grabbing one out of the bag. He gave me a smile before walking to the people a few feet away from me and offering them the same. I sighed, relieved. That wasn't that hard I thought, and popped the candy in my mouth.

Max came out a few minutes later, holding two cups in one hand. He walked over to me and shoved one under my nose.

"Daniel you've got to try this, I've made a masterpiece— wait, what are you eating?" I was chewing the starburst as he sat down next to me, sipping his new creation.

"Just a starburst." He handed me my drink.

"Whaat they have candy here?! Where's it at?" I shrugged.

"I don't know that guy just gave me one." I told him, pointing. Max got up to get himself some too, talked to the guy for a few minutes before turning around, looking stressed. "Daniel please tell me you didn't finish that starburst yet?" He asked me, feebly. I nodded.

"Sorry, is he out already?" I asked laughing. He laughed nervously with me and paused for a few seconds. I quickly finished the drink he made me. He's right, that was pretty good.

"...No it's just... Do you feel okay?" I sat up slowly, and looked at him curiously.

"...Yeah... Why?" He looked away,

"That guy might have mentioned there being some, uh, LSD... in those... Starbursts..." He looked at me nervously. I gave a halfhearted laugh,

"Nice one, Max." He looked down,

"While this would be a funny joke, I'm being serious."

I paused for a moment before standing up, underestimating how drunk I really was and stumbling a few steps. I turned to face Max, with my back to the pool.

"What?!" Max looked panicked.

"Okay, first you just need to calm down, sit back down in that chair, and I'll text your boyfriend to come pick you up- the party's winding down anyway." I took a step back and swayed. I could feel a panic attack creeping up on me. Max took a step towards me but somebody walked between us, accidentally bumping me. My heart skipped a beat as I lost balance and fell into the pool.

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