Page 28 of Clichés & Curses

Shooting Nina a smirk, Miles took up her bait. ‘Challenge accepted. Come on.’ He ushered us to the beer pong table.

A round had been in session between two baseball players against two basketball players. Looking around, I noticed that most of the baseball team was there, and I slowly started to scan the faces to see if I could find the one who had invited me, trying my best to be subtle.

‘He’s not here,’ I heard someone whisper to me. Turning my head to see where it came from, I saw Miles looking at me.

So much for being subtle.

‘Oh,’ I trailed off, struggling to think of what to reply to that.

‘Something urgent came up, but he said he’ll be back in an hour or so,’ he continued.

I just nodded my head at him, bringing my attention back to the round of beer pong that was on.

I couldn’t help the feeling of disappointment emerge at Colton’s absence. I hadn’t even realized, until that very moment, how much I was looking forward to seeing him outside of our Wednesday ASL practice sessions.

What was so urgent?And why didn’t he tell me anything?

I quickly brushed the thoughts out of my head.

Colton did not owe me anything just because he had invited me to the party. I was pretty sure he invited most of the people there, which didn’t make me anything special. I rationalized myself.

Did I put a bit more effort into my looks tonight in hopes of seeing him?

Maybe. Okay, fine. Yes, I did.

But I refused to let this affect me further.

I was at a party at the baseball team’s house with my best friends.

Looking around at all the people having a great time, I told myself to forget about Colton.

Let the fun commence.

After participating in a few rounds of beer pong myself and doing very poorly, Lily took me out to the dance floor to sweat the alcohol away. I even caught up with some of the people I had known from my other classes, along with those on the track team who had made it that night. I have to admit, I was having a lot of fun. But, as the clock got closer to eleven, my energy was starting to drop.

Excusing myself from the group I was with, I went to search for a bathroom to get some alone time and clear my head for a few minutes.

As I passed through the kitchen, I noticed that the back door was open, with people coming in and out of the house. I decided to change where I was heading, after seeing there weren’t many people outside.

Exactly what I needed.

I went back to look for the girls to inform them where I was going, so they wouldn’t panic when they couldn’t find me inside.

Heading over to the dining room, I saw Claudia and Lily play against two baseball players at a round of beer pong, while Nina was in conversation with someone.

I squinted my eyes to get a better look at who she had been talking to.

It was Miles.

Observing her body language, she was definitely flirting with him, and from the looks of it, he was flirting right back at her. I internally squealed and chanted ‘Go best friend’in my head, happy that they were hitting it off.

I decided to not distract them and went straight to the backdoor, stepping outside to the backyard, thinking I’d be gone just for a short while.

There were groups of people scattered all around, but everyone seemed to be in their own little bubble. I wasn’t planning on being out there for long, just enough to get my bearings straight before heading back in.

However, as I glanced around, I saw an unoccupied seating area.

I could stay out here for a bit.

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