quick change of plans! evangeline and xochitl got an invite from a mutual friend to come over to their apartment for a new year's eve party. and since the hotel room that evangeline and her family was staying in would be too small to add any more people, the two girls asked if they could bring a few extra people to the party. fortunately, they were delightedly given the green light to do so and evangeline texted brady and connor the address of the apartment.
none of the parents found it ideal to spent their night at a boisterous party. so they all decided that to spend some time in evangeline's hotel room. just mr. martinez, mrs. martinez on a video call on the laptop, and mr. and mrs. noon counting down the new year together while their kids attended a new year's eve celebration.
which brings us to right now.
many partygoers filled up the dimly lit living room space, the kitchen, and the hallways. music blared throughout the apartment accompanied with the television that had the new year's eve countdown on on low volume. one moment, evangeline strayed away from her group of friends to greet some other friends she hadn't seen in a while. the next moment, evangeline was dodging people left and right to find anybody else; dylan, xochitl, nate, brady, connor. with no signs of any one of them, evangeline just kept walking straight. she headed straight for the terrace.
there weren't many people there. eva counted about three other people on the terrace with her. two were engrossed in their own conversation on the couch and the other one was on their phone occupying the corner of the balcony. evangeline started gravitating towards the other corner and placed both of her hands on the railings. she enjoyed the coolness of the air dancing along the skin of her bare arms. eva stared off into the distance, watching cars and people go by — all of whom lived lives of their own. and when she looked towards the upper left of the scenery, she could see times square if she really paid attention. she could see the lights from the buildings being even brighter than the other ones, the huge crowd of people, and the new year's eve ball that everyone was waiting for to drop.
after standing there for a couple of minutes, the cool air began to turn cold, but evangeline didn't want to go back inside. instead, she stood there for a few more seconds. the door to the terrace slid open. brady entered with his face lighting up when he saw evangeline. "eva." he grabbed her attention and stood in the spot right next to her.
