60

irl

while waiting for the party, everyone passes the time pretty easily. chris ends his stream and matt and kaia reluctantly get out of bed to get dressed.

by the time it's 9, everyone had just finished getting ready and they were all putting their shoes on at the front door.

"excited to see zeke?" kaia asks nick.

he blushes and quickly tries to hide it with a laugh.

"same as you guys." he answers.

"mmmm, i don't know. you kinda seem the most excited." she teases him as everyone walks out the front door and to kaia's car.

"i am not. i don't know what you're talking about." nick shrugs.

kaia playfully rolls her eyes and matt offers to just drive there because he's gonna be driving later anyway.

she agrees, him driving gives her a couple extra minutes to relax.

matt starts the car and begins driving to the address nick had read to him off of his phone.

as they approach the road, they see dozens of cars lining up and down the street, and they can already hear the party as they turn onto zeke's road.

he lives in a relatively secluded area, there's not houses directly next to eachother. every house has a decent amount of property and space between them, perfect for parties.

matt finds a parking spot a bit down the road and kaia sighs about how long the walk up to the house is gonna be.

"i'm gonna have to walk this far back to the car drunk later?" she complains, grabbing matt's hand as the group begins walking towards the house that's practically shaking.

on the walk there, kaia recognizes one of the cars on the road, but can't place where she knows it from. she shrugs and chloe passes kaia her vape as they step up onto the front porch.

the whole front yard, back yard, and everywhere surrounding the house was packed with people.

"i thought he was just inviting school friends." matt laughs, opening the front door for everyone to walk in.

"yeah, doesn't look like it." she laughs.

"boston rager." nate makes a silly face, walking in and looking around at everyone.

"should we try to find zeke?" nick asks casually.

"i bet you'd like that." chris jokes.

"shut the fuck up, chris." nick slaps his arm.

chris rolls his eyes and holds chloe's hand to guide her through the crowded house, same as what matt is doing so kaia doesn't get lost.

as they walk around, kaia recognizes a few people from her school and says hi, giving all the girls she knows a hug and introducing matt as her boyfriend to the ones that didn't already know them.

"help yourself to any drinks, everything has been covered by the hosts dad." some teenage dude says to kaia's group as they approach the table with all the alcohol.

"thank you." chloe smiles.

as kaia and chloe pour their drinks, matt and chris stand behind them, making sure everything is safe and not tampered with.

chloe and kaia thank the boys as they start walking through the house with their drinks in hand, matt and chris following close behind like dogs.

nick and nathan had wandered off on a mission to find zeke, nick claims he just wants to thank him for inviting them out.

kaia spots zeke through the crowded and shaking room, and his face lights up as he squeezes through the crowd to say hi.

"kaia! so glad you could all make it." zeke gives kaia and chloe a side hug.

matt and chris smile at him, acknowledging his presence as zeke's eyes begin darting around the room.

"is, uh, is nick here? or was he not able to make it?" zeke asks matt.

he forces himself to contain his smile before he answers.

"yeah, he's around here somewhere. nathan just went off with him looking for you." matt happily answers.

"he can't be far, then. i'm gonna go find him, you guys have fun. i'll see you around." zeke waves goodbye as he re-enters the sea of people obnoxiously singing, dancing, and drinking.

"that's 100% happening." matt smiles to kaia.

"absolutely it is." she agrees, sipping her strong drink.

"kaia, come say hi to bethany with me. i saw her by the kitchen." chloe grabs kaia's hand.

"have fun! be safe, baby!" matt shouts to kaia over the loud music as the two girls disappear into the crowd.

"how's things with chloe so far?" matt raises his voice to ask chris.

"prettt great, i really like her!" he shouts so matt can hear him.

kaia and chloe had found their friend bethany from math, and said hi to her and all the girls she was with.

they make casual friendly conversation and the girls offer them shots and more drinks over the next few minutes that they're there talking to them.

"kaia!" she hears a voice shout.

she turns around to see zeke approaching with another guy, her vision was just starting to get blurry so she couldn't quite make out who it was.

"kaia, let's go." chloe taps her on the shoulder.

"what? what are you talking about?" she laughs, taking another shot as zeke and the boy are stood right in front of her.

"this is my friend from my old school, he mentioned he also used to go to our school before he transferred back." zeke starts.

kaia looks up at the boy, and can now clearly tell who it was. she was completely speechless, unable to move or say a word.

"do you know him? this is james, he's one of my best buddies from back home." zeke introduces james.

"i- yeah, i do-" she stutters as chloe grabs her by the hand and does her best to drag her away.

"kaia? chloe? where you going?!" zeke shouts, confused.

she turns back to see james and zeke walking towards them, a confused look on zeke's face, and an angry one on james'.

as kaia and chloe pick up pace, trying to get away from him, kaia makes eye contact with matt from across the room.

he sees how scared she looks and immediately darts over with chris, finally noticing james close behind the girls.

kaia practically collapses into matt's arms once she reaches him, clinging onto him for dear life as she hears james getting progressively angrier at chris from behind her.

matt holds her as tight as he can, running his hand over her hair as he tries to help her re-focus her breathing on just him.

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