Together We Fall

Chapter 2 | The Lightning Does Strike Twice In The Same Place

I stood in a driveway of Max's house, looking at the surrounding to find any presence of Tyler but that scumbag was nowhere to be found. All I saw was a bunch of people making out in the porch, seemingly couldn't find a room or the rooms provided were all used.

My mind told me to go home and just get back to bed but some part of it forced me to go for the party, convincing that Tyler was somewhere in there. If I didn't appear in his sight, the deal would be off and there would be no chocolate bars.

I sighed, throwing my head back in exasperation before sauntering into the house of madness. I didn't know how Max got everyone in our school invited to his same usual party. He just hired a DJ, bought some drinks and snacks then told everyone he was throwing a party. Nothing interesting happened.

I mean, how did he manage to clean his house up when his parents went overseas for two years? Did he get a maid service or something? Or did he just do everything by himself? If he did, how was he supposed to clean all the pukes on the floor? How about the drinks flooding in the kitchen? Where did he get the money to buy those alcohol drinks?

And the worst question was...how did he wash the bed sheets?

Ew. Just to think of it made me want to throw up.

Some people might say that I was one heck of a curious cat who'd never afraid of getting killed by curiosity.

As soon as I walked into the house, it was poorly lit and crowded, all of the people in here were sweating and dancing— I mean, grinding against each other with red plastic cups in their hands. How did they get to breathe in this circumstance?

I squeezed through the crowds, hoping Tyler would appear out of nowhere to save me from this semi-hell—and carefully not to step onto any pukes or stains on the floor. If I stepped onto any, this pair of shoes would go straight into a trash bin.

For who knows how many minutes I'd been wandering around the house, still I found no presence of Tyler. And thanks to him, sweats began to trickle down my back. I fanned myself with my hands and my shirt, trying to shake the sweats off as I perched on the arm of a sofa where I assumed one of the guys from my English class was lying unconsciously in with his phone in his hand.

This was the third party I'd been into this month. And this was thrice worst than all of the previous ones.

Suddenly, I felt weird, somehow. Like someone was staring at me from my left. But then, when I turned my head to where my instinct told me to, I saw a camera, filming me right in front of my face.

I frowned at the owner of the camera who happened to be Dennis, a guy who posted any videos of great parties on YouTube he went to. Including Max's. Then, he got paid. Basically, that was what he did for living.

"What the hell are you doing, Dennis?" I pushed his camera lens away from me.

"What?" He laughed a little. "I'm just filming a lonely girl at a crazy party. Hold still, this is a good angle."

"I'm not interested in any kind of your activity, dude," I pushed the camera away again as he continued to film me.

"Come on, you look perfect for my next video," Dennis urged. "Don't you want to be famous?"

"Well, you look perfect for my fist," I faked a smile.

"Lennox, come on—" when he began to babble about fame, money and some other stuffs relating to YouTube, I instantly walked away and continued to find Tyler as fast as I could. "Lennox! Just one shot, please!"

I turned my head back and saw him, trying to catch up on me. I had no better idea than squeezing in between the crowd and fitted myself in with them, so that he could never find me.

It wasn't that easy to get through a large number of drunk and sweating people, jumping and dancing to the loud upbeat music. I almost got showered with their alcoholic drinks while they were doing their peculiarly wild dance moves.

Initially, I thought mingling with the crowds would hold Dennis off and yet, he could still trace my paces.

"How am I going to get rid of this dolt?" I asked myself as I moved around to find a way to get the hell out of this place.

My hand unexpectedly was being grabbed by someone who somehow seemed like a guy, I couldn't see the face clearly since the house was dim and this person hauled me out of the crowd to get to one of the hallways on the right side of the house where I saw a lot of closed doors which I believed they were all occupied.

In this hallway, I finally realised that the person who had been lugging me here was the biggest jerk yet most wanted, raven-haired bad boy, Luke Donovan. I knew him since years ago when we were in 8th grade which was the same day Tyler, Max and I became friends. He used to be so close with Tyler and Max but then he suddenly broke their friendship up a week after that. Never knew why.

"What are you—"

Abruptly, he slammed his lips on mine with his hands on the wall. And it all happened just in a blink of an eye.

I tried to push him off but he was beyond my limit. My hands were on his chest where I could feel his heart beating slowly and calmly while mine was thumping crazily. How could he ever feel so tranquil, kissing a girl in all of a sudden?!

Then I heard the sound of dropping cups and a gasp from a girl...

...before Dennis's voice came piercing in to my ears.

"Oh. My," Dennis squealed, pointing his camera lens towards us. "This will hit a million of viewers!!"

The girl whom was gasping with her jaws dropped on the floor walked away angrily, stomping her heels all the way to the place she was heading to.

When Luke eventually pulled his lips away from mine with his smoky grey eyes staring at me breathlessly—like he was staring deep into my soul through my green eyes searching for something, I slapped him in the face, really hard. But instead of bursting his anger at me, he snorted in disbelief and smirked.

"Do I look like I'm doing a kissing booth for charity?" I angered after wiping my lips harshly with the back of my hand.

"What, you're afraid that Tyler might see you kissing with me?" Luke raised his eyebrows.

He seemed like he was trying to dig the past up.

"We're not dating anymore, idiot. That bond lasted years ago," I clenched my hand into a fist.

Yes, Tyler and I used to date last two years. So, what? I broke up with him a week after we dated because it didn't feel right to date my own friend.

Then I jerked my head to the side to face Dennis whom was still filming the situation. "And you!"

Just with one furious step towards Dennis, he'd already made thousand paces backward. I wanted to chase after him and smashed his camera with his head, but he got away so fast.

"Thanks for the kiss, anyway, cheesecake. Gratefully Max had taught you how to kiss so well," Luke said as I strode away from him which made me stop for a second with my fists tightly clenched on my sides, mentally making a decision whether to beat him up or just ignore him. I could feel him smirking even when I wasn't looking at him.

And I've had made a great decision to ignore him then continuing my journey to find Tyler.

Cheesecake? My ass.

I needed to get the hell out of here. ASAP.