Chapter 5

I woke up to a beam of light peeking through the blinds. We got back to the house so late last night I thought I was going to pass out on the front porch. I rolled over onto my side so I could squint to see the clock. Hmm. That's weird. I could read the numbers perfectly. I blinked a few times and rubbed my eyes. Shit.I didn't take my contacts out last night. I went into the bathroom and put a few drops in my eyes. When I came out, Adrianna was starting to roll over.

"Hey what time is it?" Her voice was extremely hoarse and groggy, probably a result of all the screaming she did last night at the show.

"It's like 11:30." I told her. As I walked back into the bathroom I heard Adrianna groaning. I looked at myself in the mirror and made a face. I was still wearing my clothes from last night. I looked like I had just been hit by a bus. I decided to take a shower to get all the make up off my face and to wake me up a little. When I got out of the shower I towel dried my hair and changed into some new clothes.

I stepped back into Adrianna's room where she was now sitting up on her bed braiding her hair, which had gone back to being wavy. "Happy birthday!!!" I jumped on her bed. She was still in her clothes from last night. "So what happened with you and Drew last night?" I asked her.

"Well he's really sweet." She looked down at her lap and started blushing like crazy. "He was teaching me to play guitar, but I kept messing up so he had to keep putting my fingers on the right frets."

"You guys are honestly the cutest." I told her genuinely. She nodded, but she turned away and started looking out the window with a sad expression on her face. "What's wrong? You guys are perfect!" I said grabbing her shoulders, and trying to literally shake some sense into her.

"I've only turned 17 today, Drew's so much older than me. He's going to be 19 in October." She said sadly.

"So what? Age doesn't mean anything!" I told her meaningfully. "You can tell that Drew likes you for who you are. You only just met yesterday, but I can see that he's already crazy about you." After I finished talking I could see the smile come back onto her face. SHe buried her face into her pillow.

"Ugh you're so right. I'm being lame!" The sound of her muffled laugh filled the room as she lifted up her head. "I've only known him for a couple hours. We have tons of time to hang out."

"Plus lets not forget that he invited us to his house so we can celebrate your birthday!!" I reminded her.

"Oh yeah! I forgot about that!" She over torwards her dresser where her shorts were crumpled on the floor. She ran back over to the bed with the piece of paper. "Okay Drew Chadwick," she said "let's see where you live..." She opened the piece of crisp, white paper. Written on the scrap wasn't an address, but a phone number. Under it was a boy's messy scrawl that said:

Here's my number, text me and I'll give you the details ;) -XO Drew

I couldn't help it. I broke out into a smile. "Oh my god. This guy is smooth." I started swatting at Adrianna's shoulder. "Well?!" I asked her anxiously.

"Well what?!"

"You have to text him!" I screeched at her.

"What am I even supposed to say?!" she asked flipping her blackberry around in her hands. I took her phone and casually typed in Drew's number. I opened a new message and spoke out loud as I typed:

"Hey Drew. It's Adrianna. What's up?" send.

"Seriously? That's what you said? How is that going to help us get his address?!" She asked me.

"Well we have to make small talk first. We can't just be like 'oh hey Drew, it's Adrianna, where do you live?' it's weird." I replied. Before she could say anything else, the red light on the top of her Blackberry started to blink. 1 new message. "He replied!" I started swatting Adrianna again. I opened the message and both of our heads were bent over the phone to see what he said.

Hey girl, I was wondering when I was gonna hear from you :)

"What should we say now?" Adrianna looked at me and I genuinely had no idea. She took the phone back and hovered her fingers over the keys. She started to type, but then thought better of it at last minute and deleted it. "Maybe we should-" She was interrupted by the light blinking again: 1 new message. "It's from Drew." she said excitedly.

So birthday girl any plans for tonight?

"Oh my god what do I say now?" She turned to me.

"Just play it cool. Don't try to sound too excited, but don't seem uniterested either." I told her.

"Nothing really," Adrianna said out loud as she started to type "Why?" send.

For the next few minutes we waited in silence for Drew to reply. When he finally did, Adrianna broke out into a smile and started texting him back.

"So what did he say?" I asked excitedly.

"He said: 'why don't you swing by our place around 8?' and then I said that we would!" She started jumping up and down. "I can't believe they're throwing me a party!" She said as if it had just sunk in.

While we were freaking out another text came. Adrianna and I both looked down at the screen to see the message:

17215 Elm Lane. See you then babe ;)

I kept a loose grip on the banister as I made my way down stairs. Owen was chilling on the couch with and arm tucked behind his head.

"Well it's about time you got up. It seems like you guys had a pretty wild night." He said without making eye contact. His eyes were focused on his phone, scrolling through twitter. Before I could say anything to defend myself, Adrianna and Owen's mom came floating into the room.

"Oh my gosh I can't believe it! My babies are 17!" She bounced around the room stopping to strap paper party hats on everyone's head. "Come on into the kitchen and we'll do cake and presents!" Adrianna offered Owen her hand and pulled him off the suede cushions.

We sang and Adrianna and Owen were both smiling. I thought back on my time in Huntington so far and realized this was the first time I saw the two of them getting along. I smiled along with them and watched as they playfully pushed eachother out of the way to blow out the candles. My mom helped cut the cake and we passed the plates down until everyone had a slice. I dug in immediately. It was yellow cake with chocolate frosting, my favorite.

"This cake is amazing Mrs. Fisher!" I said as I finished my first piece, "Yellow cake with chocolate frosting is my favorite." She came around and put a hand on my shoulder,

"That's the twins's favorite too! And call me Selene!" And even before I could ask she came around and dropped another slice of cake on my plate. We were all talking and laughing and just having a good time. Sam was talking with Emily, Adrianna's younger sister and my mom and Selene were having a blast talking about when they were 17. After all the plates were cleared, it was time for the twins to open their presents.

"Aw mom, you shouldn't have." Owen said, holding up a sweatshirt with a bright aztec pattern grimacing slightly.

"Oh it was nothing!" Selene waved her hand and leaned back in her chair.

"No really mom, you shouldn't have." said Adrianna with a slightly worried tone as she held up an identical sweatshirt. I laughed out loud.

"Aww! That's so sweet! You guys should totally wear them at the same time and match!" I chuckled. The look that passed between Owen and Adrianna was hilarious.

"Yeah like I would ever be caught dead wearing the same thing as her." Owen jutted his thumb in Adrianna's direction with a smile. They looked at the sweatshirts hesitantly, but they put them on anyway. I think they just did it to make Selene happy. Their mom was standing on the other end of the table taking pictures as the twins opened their gifts. I passed them my presents next.

"Okay, so when I bought these I didn't really know you guys, so I will not be offended if you return them for something else." They laughed, but I secretly hoped that they would like what I picked out for them. I watched anxiously as they opened the presents. Adrianna went first. She opened the box and her eyes light up as soon as she saw it. She took out the leather bracelet first.

"Oh my god! I love this, I've always wanted one!" Then she picked up the two remaining bracelets. They were stretchy with tiny beads. The first one was red orange and yellow, and the second was all sorts of blues and turquoise. She happily slid them all onto her wrist. "Thanks so much Avery!! I love them!" She beamed at me across the table. I smiled. Okay, now for Owen. He was harder to shop for because he's a guy.

Owen carefully unwrapped his gift. He pulled out a bottle of Axe body spray and chuckled. "Haha nice Aves, you can never go wrong with that." He smiled and I watched as he pulled out the second part of his gift. I had also gotten him a bracelet, but it was a guy bracelet. It was a faded brown, skinny leather cuff bracelet that I saw at the mall in Jersey. I just saw it and hoped he would like it. "This is pretty sick, you rock!" he said clamping the bracelet closed around his tan wrist. Adrianna and Owen both got up and closed me in a giant hug.

"Squishing. Me." I managed to choke out, but they just squeezed me tighter. We all started to laugh and Selene started snapping pictures. I was finally released when a ringing sound came from the computer. Selene walked over and clicked a couple of times. A skype window opened up and I saw a man sitting in a modern office.

"Selene." The voice said kind of irrate.

"Gary." She glared back at him through the camera. Then she turned around to look at us. "Kids, it's your father!" she called to them. Owen, Adrianna and Emily all ran up to the computer. Emily got there first.

"Hi daddy!" she said to him through the computer.

"Hi sweetheart! How are you? Oh! There's my special birthday boy and girl!" Mr. Fisher smiled at them through the computer. Selene and Gary were separated, just like my parents were. Owen and Adrianna kept in contact with their dad though, unlike me. Mr. Fisher wished them happy birthday and promised to visit the kids soon. And with that, he signed off.

"Oh hey mom, I almost forgot," Adrianna started after she finished talking with her father, "A couple of our new friends are throwing us a party tonight, can we go?" Selene looked over at us and smiled.

"Sure, I don't see why not! Tess?"

"Yeah of course, that's fine!" My mom said. So it was settled. We were going to party with Emblem3 tonight.

Hours later, we went up to get ready for the party. I had no idea what to wear. I've never been to a party here before, so I asked Adrianna.

"Well nothing too fancy, most parties down here usually have a pretty chill vibe to them."

"Okay. I'll see what I got." Shit. I looked down into my suitcase realizing that I had only brought a bunch of t-shirts. All the stuff I had was too casual. "Can I borrow a shirt or something? I've only got t-shirts that are all cut up."

"YES!" She pounced on me and I was slightly freaked out.

"Haha chill Avery, I'm not going to attack you. Sorry I just got really excited. I've always wanted a sister to share clothes with!" She squealed happily, leading me over to her closet. I laughed at her,

"You have a sister Ade, remember?" I told her.

"Yeah but she's 8. And I'm not looking foward to borrowing any of her power puff girl shirts any time soon." I nodded at her. She had a point.

"Touche." She grabbed a blue and turquoise ombre top off a hanger and held it up to me.

"I think this would go really well with your faded ripped black shorts." I looked at the shirt and agreed. Adrianna had really good fashion sense. She tossed me the shirt and I pulled it over my head. I wore a tie back bikini under it, and the shirt fell nicely off one shoulder. I left my hair down and headed to the bathroom to do my make up. "Oh! Just wear sneakers! Their house is pretty close, so we'll just skateboard over there." She called to me as I stepped onto the cool tile. I was facing her so I could listen to what she was saying, so I wasn't looking where I was headed. Of course, I run into Owen again. God. does this guy ever wear a shirt?

"Yes I do Avery," he chuckled "can you hand it to me? It's right behind you." I felt my face turn red. I had said that out loud. I tossed him the loose tank and he slipped it on. The shirt fell loosely around his body so you could see his well toned arms and his contoured abs. I tore my eyes away before he could catch me staring.

"Sorry I didn't mean to say that out loud." I said, the redness still extremely visible in my cheeks.

"Haha, it's all good. I usually have my shirt off though, not really used to having extra females use this bathroom." He said.

"Yeah, sorry. I need to use the mirror again." My words came out kinda sheepish. Does every guy have a hot body over here?

The answer to that question was yes. When we arrived at Drew's place, my mouth almost hit the ground. There were so many guys in here. And the amount of shirts on them were extremely lacking. Music was pounding throughout the house and there was a table filled with all kinds of food against the back wall. Drew was the first to see us. He came over and greeted us at towards the front door.

"Hey guys! Glad you could make it!" Drew came over to us, Corona in hand. He gave Owen one of those bro hug things where they go to do a handshake but then bump shoulders and pat each other on the back. He gave me a normal hug though. He slipped his arm around Adrianna's waist and nodded to the backyard. "You guys wanna get a drink?" He asked. We all nodded and followed Drew to the back.

Owen and Adrianna ran into some kids they knew from around town. They intorduced me and wished them a happy birthday. A few minutes later we made it with Drew to the backyard. "So do you live here?" I asked him.

"Yeah. Wes, Keaton and I all live here. We recently moved here from Washington State to pursue music." As we got our drinks, Keaton came over to join us.

"Hey, we haven't really officially met, I'm Keaton." I looked at him. It was weird, he didn't really look like Wes. He seemed kind of young actually.

"Avery. You were awesome at the show last night!" I told him.

"Thanks." he said shyly. This kid was too cute.

"How old are you Keaton?" I asked him

"I turn 15 next week." He noticed my jaw dropping to the floor and laughed.

"No worries, Wes and Drew don't let me drink anything." He nudged me. I was relieved. At least Wesley had some sense. I ruffled his hair and then pulled back, maybe I shouldn't have done that. He laughed again. "Haha, it's okay. That happens a lot. I'm kinda the baby of the group." He told me.

"Hey! Stromberg!" Keaton turned his head. Another guy around his age was calling him from the middle of a crowd. He said goodbye to me and went to meet his friend. I saw Owen and decided to get another drink. Still no sign of Wes anywhere. We made our way back into the house and passed by a game of beer pong. They had just finished the round and were about to start a new game.

"Alright guys new game!" Said a guy in a red snapback wearing a pair of aviators. Who wears sunglasses indoors? I thought. "Everybody find a partner!" I watched as people started to pair up. I'm not very good at beer pong so I was just going to sit this one out. I leaned on the table when I was almost bumped into by a guy trying to balance five drinks. I manuevered out of the way so I wouldn't get spilled on, and my mom wouldn't ask questions when I got home. I was in the midst of backing up when I hit someone. I whirled around to apologize.

"Sorry wasn't watching where I was going." I said, still turning. When I was facing foward I found myself staring into a pair of familiar brown eyes.

"You play?" Wes asked me holding a white ping pong ball between two of his fingers.

"Eh sort of. I'm not that good though." I confessed.

"Me either. Wanna team up?" I didn't see why not. I took the ball from him and got ready to play. Four games later, Wes and I were undefeated. We made a pretty good team. Owen was talking to some guys he knew from school and Adrianna was hanging with Drew talking to Kenny and Kyle.

We got more drinks from the backyard. This was probably my fourth and I was already super buzzed. Wes didn't really seem that fazed though. He was a lot bigger than me, and even though we were roughly the same height, but something told me he had a higher tolerance for alcohol.

We sat down on the couch and just talked for a while. A couple other people wanted to sit down too, so we were now awkwardly sandwiched together. I was basically sitting on top of him. Drew came by and gave us some more drinks. After that I kinda got tired. I decided to rest my eyes for a while. With my eyes closed I heard Wes laughing in the background. His laugh made me smile. It was cute, the way he laughed, it was familiar. And then, I fell asleep.