I allowed my hips to move faster along with the beat of the music, not paying heed to the swaying bodies around me. I was enjoying myself so far and I didn't feel like going home, which was abnormal in my case.

I'm socially awkward, I don't make friends and I get anxious around crowds.

Blame it on the alcohol, if you must, but none of that matters to me right now. You could say I felt like a different person.

I felt a pair of eyes on me and when I looked in that direction, I saw someone drinking from a beer bottle as he occasionally stared at me. He seemed to be my age, if not slightly older, and he was quite robust.

His eyes slowly raked over my body and I swallowed hard when his gaze met mine and he licked over his bottom lip.

Creepy.

Suddenly, I felt a little on edge.

The way his gaze was fixed on me made me feel really uncomfortable but I couldn't see anyone I knew so I could ask them to keep me company. I decided to ignore him and continued dancing by myself.

I didn't know where the others were, I was just lost in the music. Spencer left a couple of minutes ago, claiming he needed to freshen up or something of that sort. I don't blame him, it's pretty hot here. Even I was a bit sweaty now.

I soon felt a soft touch on my arm as I danced.

Well... why not dance with a stranger? The sober me would probably panic and overthink a lot if this happened. But, this is the drunk me. There's a big difference. 

YOLO right?

The person gently pulled me towards them so he could whisper into my ear, "Would you care to dance with me?"

Without turning back to see who it was, I just nodded my head and continued moving my hips to the rhythm of the music. Although he came a little closer, he seemed a little reluctant touch me in any way and I found myself taking his hands and placing them on my waist.

"Are you okay with this?" He whispered into my ear once again, making a shiver go down my spine as his breath lightly brushed my skin.

I was actually enjoying the feel of his touch, his hands were warm yet comforting and his touch brought unexplainable tingles to my skin. I also liked how he kept his hands away from inappropriate places and made me feel comfortable.

Suddenly he groaned. "I had to go through the torture of staying away from you for most of the night."

I momentarily froze when that creepy guy invaded my thoughts. Could it be him? No, no, no. My breathing quickened in slight panic and fear as I hurriedly turned to look at the person.

Letting out a deep sigh of relief as soon as I was met with Miles' gaze, I closed my eyes and put my hand over my heart, which was beating eratically.

His brows furrowed in concern as he took in my current state, "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

"Miles, oh thank God." I breathed out. "I thought you were that creepy guy."

"What creepy guy? Did someone hurt you?" He asked, raising my chin so he could get a good look at me.

On instinct, my eyes moved on their own accord to see if that guy was still sitting at the bar. Catching on quickly, Miles turned back to look at him as well. Just as I thought, he was still there and he was still staring. The only difference is that now, his gaze was fixed on the both of us.

Miles looked down at me, "Is it him? Is he bothering you?"

"No, he was just... staring a lot." I told him. "It's okay, I'm probably just being dramatic."

"No you're not. I can tell by the way he looked at you that his intentions aren't good." He told me.

Miles turned, seemingly heading in that guy's direction, but I held onto his arm.

"No, don't. I'm fine." I reassured him.

The last thing I wanted was for a fight to break out all because of me.

"You sure?" He raised his brow.

"Come on, let's just dance." I gave him a small smile.

He seemed hesitant, but he eventually returned my smile and came closer. I rested my arms around his shoulders while he kept his arms around my waist. And just like that, we slow-danced to the music.

No such thing as true love
It's all just luck, lucky love

The chance is that we'd meet and just speak
And I'm just lucky this is it, this is it.

Miles kept his eyes on me and I'd occasionally break the eye contact after a while. Reality had dawned on me – he was close. Really close. I was in his arms and the butterflies in my stomach, as well as the tingles that ran all over my body did nothing to calm my nerves.

"Do I make you nervous?" He suddenly asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. Biting onto my lower lip, I shook my head.

Instead, I decided to ask him about something that was bothering me. I had to. If I didn't, I'd probably be overthinking about it the whole night.

Taking a moment to gather my courage, I finally asked, "Are you perhaps... interested in me?"

He let out a breathy chuckle before his lip spread to give me a smile, "What if I said I am?"

"Then, I'd ask you why a guy like you would want to be with a girl like me." I told him honestly. I don't think any guy has ever given me attention, let alone a good looking guy like him.

He tightened his arms around my waist and pulled me closer, making my breath get caught in my throat. "Why wouldn't I want to be with you? Tyler, you're beautiful. All these idiots are blind if they hadn't noticed that before today."

Thump, thump.

My heart skipped a beat.

Feeling the heat build up on my cheeks, I couldn't stop myself from smiling as I looked away from him. Catching on, he laughed softly.

"Hey Tyler!" Shelby called out excitedly from a distance. Miles and I removed our hands from each other immediately before Shelby could see.

Oh shit. I'm crushing on my bestfriend's boyfriend. I just danced with my bestfriend's boyfriend. He told me I was beautiful and possibly hinted to having an interest in me. What's worse is, I really like him and I've gotten to the point where I can't hide it anymore.

This is not good.

Shelby cannot see him here.

When I looked back to him, he was no where to be found. Luckily he disappeared before she could see him and put two and two together.

"You look so drunk!" She laughed. "But so do I, here's more of the good stuff." She said with a wink as she handed me a full bottle of Hooch Fox. "Use it wisely..." She advised with raised eyebrows. I just nodded in response. 

Suddenly she started looking around in frustration, "I wonder where Miles is. He's my date yet it looks like he's avoiding me. He always does this and he's embarrassing me!" 

Then she looked at me, her piercing gaze holding me captive. "Have you seen him?" 

"Uh, me? No." I shook my head vigorously, hoping she couldn't see that I was lying. 

She then just walked away, not suspecting a thing. 

I'm a terrible liar. How lucky am I to have a friend who still doesn't really know me after being friends for quite a long time.

---

"What's going on between you and that Miles guy?" Spencer asked curiously.

"What about him? Nothing's going on." I told him honestly. Me liking him doesn't mean there's anything going on.

"Really?" He raised his eyebrow at me and I took a swig from the bottle of Hooch Fox that I got from Shelby earlier on. Spencer and I were currently in the back yard. There were hardly any people here and it seemed like the perfect place to catch up. The rest of the gang was inside the house with everyone else, either making out, drinking, smoking, dancing, or probably fighting for stupid reasons too.

And as for Miles... I don't know where he is. I haven't seen him since we danced together earlier. Just simply thinking about it brought heat to my cheeks and those same unexplainable tingles to my body as I remembered the feel of his touch.

"Yeah." I told him.

"I saw the way he looked at you," He made me choke on my spit when he said this. "And you don't fool me either. You looked at him in the exact same way. You like each other."

"Spence," I started. "You're imagining things."

"Am I really? This is the guy you had feelings for in junior school." He said.

I groaned. "Don't remind me," But I still felt the need to correct him. "You're right, by the way. I still like him."

He gaped at me, "What?"

"I said I..."

"I heard what you said, Anna-Marie!" He exclaimed. "You mean you like your best friend, Shelby's, boyfriend?"

"I knew him first, he was my closest friend in the sixth grade!" I defended.

"Tell me something. Since when are you so possessive?" He asked with a chuckle. "Must be your love for him talking."

My face turned red. "Would you shut up?" I said, smacking his shoulder and causing him to laugh.

"Stop what, future Mrs. Kramer?" He teased.

"I'm not in love with him!" I smacked him once again, harder this time.

"OW!" He said, annoyed. "I was just joking."

Suddenly he looked confused. "Wait... you guys were friends in junior school right?" I nodded. "How does he not know it's you?"

"Spencer, you know that everyone here only knows that my name is Tyler, not Anna-Marie. Just like in junior school, I was registered as Anna-Marie instead of Tyler." I shrugged.

"So you left out your second name in your application form?" He asked.

"They asked for a name, they didn't say which one," I said with a raised brow. "Besides, I'm going to tell Miles that it's me, sooner or later."

"You better." Spencer said, giving me a stern look.

"Spence, it's not going to be easy. He rejected me in junior school, do you know how embarrassing that was for me?" I asked him.

"Aww," He pulled me in for a hug. "Don't worry about it. What's more important is that he likes you now."

"How do you know that?" I asked, pulling away from him.

"He was pissed when you ran into my arms, and stormed off when I massaged your shoulders," He explained. "Is that not jealousy and love interlinked?"

"Stop mentioning that four letter word! He doesn't love me and I don't love him. Stick to saying like, it makes more sense," I told him with a sarcastic smile.

I held the bottle up to my mouth and tilted it up, taking several large gulps before moaning as the cold contents travelled down my throat in a soothing manner.

Spencer just watched me, "You've turned into a drunkard."

"Shut up!" I pushed him with a small laugh. "You don't see me complaining about how annoying you've been the whole time we've been talking here," I pointed out. Now it was his turn to laugh. He was probably right though, I was already way past tipsy but I kept drinking.

Shelby stumbled outside, almost tripping on her own feet. She giggled and held herself up. "Hey guys... come on in, stop being so depressing Tyler, and dance for once." She said.

Even though I was drunk, I could still tell that she was drunk too.

"The fuck? You're the depressed one." I found myself saying. Spencer raised his brow at me but looked quite impressed.

I put my hand over my mouth as I realised what I said a little too late.

"Whatever," Shelby said as she stumbled back into the house.

"I think I like you better when you're drunk." Spencer told me with a large grin.

I giggled. "Hell, I like me better when I'm drunk."

"Yeah," He started. "Who knew you could stand up to Shelby like that? Alcohol probably deserves a little more credit than we give it." He held his fist up in victory and I squinted at him before laughing.

"She's the one who's being ignored by her own date, and she has the audacity to take it out on me?" I really couldn't stop blabbering nonsense.

Spencer laughed out loud at what I just said.

"Come on, let's go in." I told him, taking one last large gulp and throwing the empty bottle in the bin nearby. "It will probably be fun."

"Sure," He said sarcastically.

"I know parties and alcohol aren't really my scene but this Hooch Fox is amazing!" I said as we walked into the house and Spencer laughed at me.

"Hey guys!" I said with a laugh as Spencer held onto my arm to support me, helping me settle down in one of the few empty seats on the couch.

Spencer then sat opposite me since it was the only other seat available. 

Shelby sat a bit far off when she spoke up. "Hey, isn't that my seat?" She asked, referring to the one I currently sat in.

I scowled and squinted at the same time. If this is her seat then why was she sitting there? I felt myself start to get annoyed.

"No, don't be delusional. I'm sitting here so it's my seat now."

People in our group started chuckling.

"She's a mean drunk isn't she?" I heard Oliver say, and the person next to me released a deep chuckle.

In case you're wondering, our squad was in the lounge seated in a circle and ready to play a game of some sort. Most people had already passed out, while some had already left to go to a second location to end the night. So they decided to play their usual sexual games.

Fun, right?

"Hey Tyler, remind me to buy you new shoes." Shelby chuckled. "Every other girl here is wearing heels while you always stick to sneakers." She put her hand on her mouth while snorting. "Ohh sorry... that's right, I said girl. You're like a tomboy right? Partly both girl and boy?"

"Shut the fuck up," I huffed. "That doesn't even make sense, Einstein!" Weirdly enough, I started laughing. "At least I don't walk like a constipated duck." I bit back. The entire group fell into a fit of laughter in response. 

"Just play the fucking game already!" Shelby said, seemingly irritated. "And Tyler, I think you're sleeping outside today." She added.

"With pleasure." I muttered to myself, making the person next to me laugh.

I thought I said that softly, but I guess not.

"Okay." I heard Derrick say. "Let's begin, shall we?"