1

"Come inside Ellie"

He was getting a little impatient standing outside with her when a big party was crashing inside. She stood still, staring blankly at him. "Don't you think the party will end soon if we keep standing here, huh?" he sighed angrily, "I wonder why you even called me out when I'm not the one you came to see". He dug his hands into the pocket of his deep blue denim jeans and turned back to the door "I'm off, so have fun standing outside".

"You invited me here", her eyes glaring at him. "You invited me to this party so don't be a fool right now. I barely know anyone".

"I didn't invite you, it was... just forget it anyways. Be a nice girl, do whatever I say and talk politely too".

He slipped his left hand out of his pocket and turned towards her.

"What?" she asked staring at the arm reaching towards her. "You want me to hold your hand?" she paused and laughed. "So pathetic".

"You're insane Ellie that's not what I said".

She could sense the tension in his voice. A wide smile appeared on her face.

"Seems I drained your pride, haha I win again. lets go inside and better stand close to me all through".

"Hey if you talk too much I'd make sure you pay, little thing". he scoffed and walked in.

The party was really loud as he had told her over the call earlier. Everywhere was filled with beer; a beer fountain, a beer Pyramid, literally everything was beer.

"Is there food or drinks, something that's at least not beer?" Eleanor blurted out.

He glared at her, a little bit not surprised. "Dumbass, this is a party not some Christmas carnival". he shrugged his shoulders, "she's going to be a pain in the ass today", he thought.

"Hey Asher, where did you go? its your turn to play". An average blonde boy walked up to him and smacked him on the head. Asher grabbed him by the collar, his face red with anger.

"Do you have a death wish, huh? don't touch my head again Kevin" he roared

"Chill bro, I'm sorry".

Eleanor chuckled, "He still has his anger", she thought.

He released his grip on the blonde boy a walked off towards a closed door of a room. She waddled behind him, half walking, half running.

The next room was much bigger, maybe because it had less tables and people. It was just one table, two seats at both ends of the table and a wide sofa. She counted the people inside, "five boys and two girls, this should be safe", she muttered.

A smile beamed on his face. "So who am I trashing this time around?" He laughed and dumped on one of the seats at the end.

"Asher must really think he's some demi god". she stared at him disgustingly, "I wonder what the game is", she thought. She leaned on the wall with her arms crossed below her chest.

The door flung open.

"Asher's finally here, good to know. I wonder if you left right before your turn so you'd hide". A sarcastic laughter followed behind.

The boy walked to the other end. The stripped shirt he had on was left open from the collar to the fourth button, he had the same color of denim jeans as Asher though his own seemed a little faded.

"Nice build", Eleanor thought.

He had well shaped shoulders and his sitting posture gave him an older look. His ear piercing gave him a bad boy look but his hair was cut nicely and combed to the back.

She couldn't tell his hair color because the background light made it look odd in her eyes. When the light turned blue the hair had an auburn look but when it turned green it had a darker shade.

"Cut the crap dude, I had to babysit". Asher cut in. She turned her gaze from the competitor and glared at him.

"Babysit you say?" she scoffed at him. "Its not like you're doing anything special" she muttered

The competitor searched his pocket and brought out a pack of cards.

"Cards? so the whole game was cards. I wonder why they're making a fuss about it, dumbass boys", she muttered and shrugged her shoulders.

"What's your take dude", the guy grinned shuffling the cards.

"One hundred dollars", Asher cut in.

"Make it a hundred and fifty". The competitor stared at him, a wide grin on his face.

"That look is suspicious", Eleanor thought.

"Fine, two hundred dollars"

Her eyes widened, "Why is Asher staking two hundred. Jeez this boy is so stupid", She exhaled heavily.

"Two hundred it is", the other guy smiled and shared the cards, ten to each of them.

The game was getting tough compared to the game of cards she knew. "Did they make their own rules", she thought to herself.

There was a gentle push on the door and her heart started beating faster.

"Why am I anxious?" she placed her right hand on her chest and took deep breaths.

The person she least expected walked in. Jason. She turned her face quickly from him so he wouldn't see her. He walked up to Asher and bent over placing his hand on his shoulder.

Maybe he saw her, maybe not. He seemed too focused to notice her presence. She wondered if he knew she was coming to the party, if he did he could have asked Asher. The door was now open, she could see the other room from there. The music that side was louder, it seemed that was the main party while the room she was in was where the cool kids did their own thing.

"So much of a party", she blurted out. She had no idea it was loud enough for everyone to hear. The loud music from the other room deceived her and she thought they wouldn't hear her.

Everyone turned towards her, "Didn't know a pretty lady was here", a guy standing close to Asher's competitor chuckled. She swallowed hard.

Jason was about to talk when a slim blonde suddenly walked in. "Who's on the seat now? oh Asher and Trevor. Interesting",

She walked over to Jason and hugged him. "I'm surprised you came to my party, you liar. You said you weren't coming", she hit him gently.

"Oh, right", he put in and rubbed his shoulder gently.

"Did that hurt, I'm sorry", she said.

"Cut the noise Vivi, we're trying to concentrate", Trevor shunned.

"Fine", she put in and dragged Jason along with her outside the room.

The short blonde Asher attacked walked in with some drinks.

"Y'all playing like this is a funeral, drink up". He dropped the tray on the floor and sat close to it. Two boys took drinks each. They were the only ones using the sofa with the girls Eleanor guessed were their girlfriends. Then she realized she was the only one standing. The boy on Trevor's side walked towards her.

"Seems you're alone",

She stared blankly at him. "Not really", she replied.

He smiled and leaned on the wall close to her.

"Well I'm Arnaldo. Spanish for eagle power",

"Oh, well hello. Im Eleanor", she worked hard enough to prevent herself from stammering.

"She doesn't like Spanish names", Asher cut in giving Arnaldo a threatening look.

"I win", Trevor screamed.

"Hey, you cheated", one of the girls said.

His smiling face quickly changed to a bad storm

"Do you have a death wish girl?" he roared and she quietly turned towards her boyfriend.

"C'mon Trevor what's your deal?" Asher bawled.

"I won dude so get my money, plus nobody said cheating was against the rules," he smirked.

Asher's gaze turned from Trevor to Arnaldo.

"Don't glare at me. I didn't do anything though, I was only talking to the pretty lady". he chuckled.

Eleanor turned her gaze abruptly towards the door. "Pay up let's go", she muttered.

He passed the money hesitantly to Trevor growling.

"Growl for all I care, you got distracted because a guy was talking to your girl, such a weakling", Trevor put in mockingly.

Asher hit the table hard and stood up "… she", he was about to say when Eleanor cut in.

"Are you that desperate?"

"Huh?"

She turned from the door towards him. "Are you that desperate for two hundred dollars so you had to cheat. You didn't win though, you just duped him. You could have been patient enough, his card was a big mess so he couldn't win too. But all the same, you still didn't win". Her arms were folded below her chest, her eyes glaring at Trevor.

The whole room was absolutely silent with all eyes gazing on her.

She just talked back on Trevor_ Trevor Garfield. He called him desperate, the richest bully in school desperate for two hundred dollars. He seemed much surprised than angry, nobody has ever talked back on him_ well apart from Asher who he always has fights with.

"What's with the look", she sighed deeply "So much of a party". She walked towards Asher and dragged his hand.

"I'm thirsty", she muttered.

The gaze turned from her to Trevor. All he could do was just stand; speechless, confused.

He wiped his eyes with the back of his palm and seemed to regain consciousness.

"Who's that girl?" he asked nobody in precise.

Everyone was quiet, the blonde guy_ Kevin quickly stood up and raced out. The others were starting to move quietly towards the door.

"I said who is she?" he roared. They quickly scrambled out of the room and shut the door so he'd calm his rage on his own.

"What was that?" Asher asked.

"What was what?" she put in giving him a confused look.

"The shit you told Trevor",

"So his name is Trevor, well I had no idea". She talked rather casually, like nothing had happened.

He stared at her "She is so dead" he muttered to himself.

"Who won?" Jason asked walking towards them. Two glasses of champagne in his hand. He passed one over to Asher. Eleanor stared at him perplexed, "why is he acting like he doesn't know me" she thought.

"Trevor cheated", Asher said in a rather carefree manner and passed the glass to Eleanor. "You said you were thirsty right".

She took the glass slowly.

"I was going to give her this but it all ok then", Jason said.

She looked up to him from the sparkling red wine she had. In her mind she thought of giving Asher back his own and taking Jason's own, she shook her head and bent her face back to the drink.

"I have this stuff I'm helping Vivienne out with so you can go home whenever you're tired", Jason said leaving.

Asher turned to Eleanor, he could see the pain she was feeling in her heart. Her eyes were wet like she'd cry and second.

"This is so boring", he said stretching his body.

"Can I go home", she put in without letting him make his second statement.

"Yeah, right, sure. I'm tired anyways. I'll walk you home since its dark already". He took the now half filled glass from her and dropped it on the table.

They walked silently for a while. Her bright, sparkly face was now dull and gloomy. He had seen this look before; yes, when she broke up with her boyfriend she had that look.

That day was the first time he didn't understand her, he saw her at a game house that day playing happily. Unlike someone who just broke up she was unusually happy. Then she suddenly got a text on her phone and her mood got sour. He didn't know who texted her but he knew one thing was that the person must have said something very disappointing. At first he didn't think much about the way she randomly raised her head and took deep breaths but now he knew why. She wanted to cry; that was the secret she had. She'd raise her head high enough to take deep breaths so nobody would see her cry.

He stopped and grabbed her hand, dragging her to himself for a hug. She didn't resist; she dug her head deep into his jean jacket and let it all out. The tears kept coming, he had never seen her cry so much. She has always been rude and stubborn but here she was wailing her eyes inside his jacket.

He stood still patting her back gently. The tears were reducing now "Such a relief", he thought.

"Want to go to the park?" he whispered.

The tears were all gone now, though she was still sniffing lightly. This was a version of her he had never seen before; was this how she cried alone. This was the real her, weak, volatile, fragile… whatever it may be. she wasn't as tough as she always acted.

Maybe she didn't cry at the game house that day but he knew she obviously cried at home. When he asked her why she was moody that day, she simply said 'the reason why I broke up with my ex and the reason why im playing games I barely like'. He had seen her reason as a very dumb answer, she didn't like her ex anyways and they both agreed to call It off. But then she became sad because of a text. He stared at her as she slowly sipped the drink he had gotten along the way, she was sipping it was too slow though, she always liked chocolate drinks.

"You owe me two hundred dollars and a chocolate drink", he blurted out. He didn't know why he said it; though he was trying to find something to say so she'd cheer up.

"Damn it", he thought to himself. That was the worst choice of words for starting a conversation with someone who was sad.

She looked up to him, her now pale blue eyes were still sparkling. A slight curve formed on her lips.

"You smiled", he said. "You smiled for reals",

"I don't owe you anything, you were already loosing the game", she scoffed.

"Hey, that's not fair. I had my own plan anyways. Why did you even defend me, now I'll look so weak".

"I didn't defend you, don't feel special", she turned back to her drink and sipped it less slowly.

He smiled, it did work anyways.

She stood up from the bench and stretched her arms. The moonlight gave room to see her clearly. She had a milky skin which glowed both day and night, her long black hair gave her an exquisite young look. He had a clear view of how slender her waist was from the purple crop top she had on; he looked at his hands and imagined it on her waist. Yes, his hands would cover her whole waist. He shook his head "What am I even thinking". He looked back at her; she was beautiful.

"Why are you staring at me that way, huh? Do you like me?"

"What? no, hell no I don't".

"Better. So stop staring or I'll pluck off your eyes", she shunned.

He shrugged his shoulders and stood up. "Some weird character", he sighed.

"Be nice and give me your jacket", she said tugging on his jacket as they walked home.

"Oh c'mon. Must you be this way, I get cold easily too", he complained. She dragged on till he grudgingly took it off.

She smiled and flipped it onto her body.

"Awful cologne". She gave him a stern look showing how serious she was.

"You liar, you want my cologne on you right".

"No!" she screamed and ran off.

"I wont run after you El", he screamed to her but she kept her pace. "So much trouble", he thought to himself and ran after her.

He stood at the door and waited for her to catch up. She was panting heavily.

"Told you not to run, now you have sweat all over my jacket", he put in mockingly

"I'll wash it dummy", she said. She sat leaning on the door, "go home Ash"

"I wasn't waiting for you", he said. He bent over to pat her head "little thing", he said sarcastically.

"Hey, was that sarcasm",

He laughed loudly and turned to go.

"You remember that day at the game house right? like after your break up", he started.

"Yeah, what happened?"

"Who texted you then?" He didn't really know if he was too straight forward with the question. Eleanor he knew won't answer such questions anyways but he still asked. Her face was blank; he could barely imagine what she was thinking.

She had just gone through an emotional moment and here he was asking her about her break up.

"Just…" he was about saying.

"Jason", she said plainly. "Jason called me".

Her face remained the same, plain but calm. she had never answered his questions plainly before; from the first day he met her two years ago.

That was his answer_ her biggest regret. She did tell him she was over it but every little moment brought back the memories.

She couldn't get over Jason Myers.