54. Party Crashers (Liona)

As the butterbeer pong tournament wrapped up, and the winner got their prize coupon for free drinks at Aunt Hannah's Cafe, it was time to start the treasure hunt. Liona handed out the first clue to the scavenger hunt-like game so that those participating could work their way around the house looking for the other clues to lead them to the treasure. This time Erik participated in the game, so she wished him luck when he drew his first clue. He smiled at her which made her stomach flutter again. She loved seeing that smile on his face since he rarely seemed relaxed enough to show it without some level of anxiety.

After Erik drew his clue, Alli and Chloe both drew theirs as well and then it was a race to find the next clue hidden around the house. She watched her guests rush from one end of the house to the other and out to the backyard, all looking for clues to solve the riddle that was the answer to where the hidden treasure was found. It didn't take long for people to get discouraged as the clues got harder and some downright gave up after getting nowhere. She knew where the final clue was and it was on her person. The problem with the clues was that she wasn't stationary and people weren't taking that into account when they were looking for the chocolate coins that housed the clues.

After about fifteen minutes, Liona saw it was down to just a handful of people and while she was distracted by the ones that hadn't given up, she didn't notice that her guest count had gone up from the number of people that had RSVP'd that they were attending. As she wandered the house and grounds, she kept her eyes on Erik, Chloe, and Alli who were all in the running to find the last clue. There were two others that were also looking for it, but she was putting her money on her friends. They knew her like no one else and since she had come up with the clues and the riddle, she figured they would solve it soon.

She was right. She saw the moment that the person she was rooting for most, solved the second to last clue to get the final clue and answer the riddle. Erik was smiling from ear to ear as he organized the clues into their proper order and presented them to her and asked her for the final clue.

"Here you are, Erik, I knew you could do it! So, show me where the hidden treasure is!" She smiled at him since he looked so happy to have solved this.

She watched him walk over to the pot of gold decoration in the room and reached in and pulled out the chocolate coin that wasn't like the others. It was slightly bigger since it housed the gold coin that was the treasure. He smiled more as he brought it over to her and unwrapped it as proof of the treasure, before he broke the chocolate in half, revealing the gold coin.

"We have a winner! Congrats! Erik has found the treasure! You will all get to keep the chocolate coins you found along the way as your consolation prize! Thank you everyone for participating!" She announced before handing the mini mic back to her Aunt Kat.

"I did it, Liona! I solved it and it was so much fun! Who came up with all the clues? They were so unique, and it took me a minute to realize that the second to last clue meant that it was you we had to seek out! That was really clever!" Erik gushed at her. 

She giggled, "I wrote all the clues and came up with the riddle at the end of the rainbow. I'm glad you got it! I thought I had made it too easy at first!"

"Hah! Easy?! You call that abomination of a poor pathetic goose chase, easy?! Not a single person could figure out what was given! You rigged the game to let this nobody win!" A shrill voice fumed from the crowd.

A loud murmur arose in the crowd of her guests and for a moment, Liona was taken aback at the accusation. She hadn't done anything of the sort! She had come up with this game and riddle of clues, long before she had met Erik and hadn't changed anything since its conception. She was about to speak up and say as much, but Erik beat her to it.

"Liona didn't rig the game, it was a fair collection of clues, and anyone who could put two and two together could figure out where the clues led. It doesn't take much to figure out the pattern of clues and the full riddle. Just look at Liona's theme! How could one not figure out that 'What lies at the end of the rainbow, shall be yours.' Was the most obvious final clue that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow was in fact the pot of gold?!" Erik gestured to her St. Patrick's Day theme of rainbows and clovers everywhere. 

Clovers were her favorite thing, next to mermaids, so since she had wanted to show that she had outgrown the mermaid phase of her life, at least publicly, she had chosen her theme to match her literal birthday of St. Patrick's Day. 

She wondered who the one being a sore loser in the crowd was, so she asked, "Which one of you has a beef with me for my choice of birthday game? Will the sore loser please step forward?" She would kick out anyone that was determined to cause trouble at her party. As the crowd rippled and murmured, most everyone stepped away to reveal the troublemaker. Or should she say troublemakers as in there were two people who she really didn't want here.

Pissed off seeing the person she knew shouldn't be here, standing next to the person who was causing the scene, she was starting to feel really unkind things as she saw them. "Jeffery Peterson, what the fuck do you think you're doing here?! I distinctly remember disinviting you to my party and I know I didn't send you an invitation, so explain yourself!" She was struggling to contain her anger at the smug face of the girl next to him that had caused the scene.

"What's the matter with you? Don't you want to see your boyfriend? How cruel you are to not invite him to your party! Well, I took pity on him and invited him! I mean he just wanted to see you after all!" Brenda said in a sickening sweet voice.

"Don't feed me that bullshit! I broke up with him over three weeks ago when I caught him with his tongue down your throat, Brenda! He's not my boyfriend and he doesn't get the right to miss me and come uninvited or otherwise circumvent the cold hard fact that he wasn't permitted to come! You are also being a terrible guest since there was no 'plus one' option on the invitations. You only barely got your invitation because they were sent out before I decided I didn't want you here either! Yet here you are with my ex in tow spouting bullshit to me at my party. How about you get the fuck out and don't bother me with your stupid excuses!"

"Babe! Come on! Please! You never let me explain! You can't break up with me! We were meant to be! I feel nothing for Brenda, she was just showing me how I should kiss you when I confessed!" Liona could hardly believe her ears with the nonsense he was saying.

"Don't call me Babe! I am not your babe, nor was I ever! I didn't want to listen to you explain because yet again, you have proven to me that the space between your ears is empty!" Liona was seething and was clenching her fists as she listened to Jeffery spout more idiotic bullshit. 

What she didn't expect was the hand that she felt clasp hers and slowly and gently work her fingers from her palms so that they were no longer digging into her flesh. She looked up to see Erik's concerned face as he studied her palms. She looked down at them and realized that her nails had been biting into her flesh so hard in her anger that she had made them bleed.

"Liona, are you alright?" Erik asked almost too quietly to hear, but she heard him and sighed. She forced herself to relax a little and looked at him. "I'm alright, Erik. Sorry that you had to witness that. I didn't want to show you my ugly side." She looked down, embarrassed that she had been yelling over the music and ignoring her important friend.

"What the fuck is this little twit doing? I see how it is! You dumped Jeffery just to hang with this little beta? Is that your thing? Just look at him! He's not even wearing anything designer, if my eyes don't deceive me, he's wearing knockoffs! So, is this some kind of charity project that you decided to take on? I know! You did it to look good for your daddy so that he doesn't realize you're failing every subject in school!" Brenda mocked Erik and insulted her, and she was about one step away from asking her Aunt Yui, who was waiting for the signal to step in; to escort Brenda and Jeffery out of her party.