(hey!! this chapter mentions and briefly covers triggering topics like underage drinking (more than just mentioned), dr*gging drinks (this is just mentioned, it doesn't happen to anyone don't worry), gr*ping, etc. i would rather play it safe than be sorry for not putting a trigger warning, so take this warning seriously!! we mustn't put down people for their triggers. it's 2021, grow up.)

December 31st

Skye rushed out of the door the night of New Year's Eve, Levi honking his car horn as they were running late to the party already. Now shoulder brace-free, Levi could drive with ease, but all of the New Year's made driving all over creation to pick up everyone a little bit of a struggle, but he was always glad to see Skye's face.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Skye yelled out as Levi continued to honk the horn, which was from Xavier's repetitive encouragement. At least she got the front seat, so she could rub that in everyone's faces by the time she made it to the car.

Once Skye did get to Levi's car, she swung the door open and hopped in, slamming the door shut without caring about how cold she was. Fashion was the main priority tonight, not warmth. "Let's go, party people!"

"Finally!" Xavier scoffed, still forever salty that his permanent shotgun privilege had been revoked. "We almost drove off without you!"

"Hey, I was fixing my makeup, okay?" Skye shined. "Perfection takes time."

"Skye, you're always perfect." Levi cooed, which inspired Xavier to cough insults under his breath.

"Loser!" He said, resulting in Nini elbowing his side really hard (with the support of Danny), which made him wince a little bit.

"Do you want to get kicked to the curb?" Levi threatened.

"No, I wanna party." Xavier pouted.

"I think what Levi said was sweet." Nini saw in awe.

"I may seem obligated to agree, but I do agree with Nini over here." Danny chimed in. Of course, the cutest couple of all time would think it's adorable, but Xavier was very much in need of a lucky gal or guy in his life. He'd find it eventually, but right now he was stuck sitting next to a couple in the backseat of a car whilst watching a future couple sit in the front. Totally not the dream life.

"Well, I think Levi should press on the gas already, Mr. brace free!" Skye exclaimed. Levi's healed shoulder would definitely be an excuse to party even harder, but not too hard. Nobody really needed another "is he alive or dead" incident, that's for sure.

"Going into the new year with a newly healed shoulder as I should." He beamed, although Skye didn't really care at the moment, she just wanted to get to the party already as it was her first legit high school party.

"What did I say before? Go!" She yelled. "I wanna party!"

"Skye knows what's up, go!" Xavier added.

"I'm going, I'm going!" Levi exclaimed.

"Party, party, party, party-" everyone chanted as they waited for Levi to drive off already, which annoyed the shit out of him. He still loved his friends though.

"Shut up!"

•••

Upon arriving at Hunter's house, the party was well in motion, so crowded that some people even stood out on the front porch instead of being inside the actual party. Tonight was bound to have some chaos, but the squad was down for it on this New Year's Eve.

Squeezing into the party, they were immediately greeted by Hunter with a drink in hand. Skye had no idea there would be alcohol at this party, but she was going to have to be extra careful avoiding it considering how Hunter was already acting more idiotic than usual. She didn't think of him as a drinker, but she didn't know him like she knew Levi. Plus, Hunter's parents were nowhere to be seen right now, so it wasn't all that surprising he'd take advantage of an empty house.

"You made it!" Hunter said excitedly, wrapping his arms around his friends, being more physically affectionate than he would when he was sober.

"Hey, man," Levi replied, trying to push Hunter off of him. He wasn't that much of a fan of drunk Hunter, but Skye didn't know that, at least she didn't know it yet.

"Drinks are in the kitchen." He slurred. "Oh, and I got your favorite cause you're such a wuss."

"Thanks." Levi cringed. The "favorite" Hunter was referring to was soda as Levi didn't drink, but nobody else was aware of that nor did they know where the normal drinks were.

Ignoring the boys, Nini take Skye's hand, dragging her along to get a drink with her as she refused to do it alone. Unfortunately, it had to be that way, but Skye was willing to go with her regardless. "Skye, come with me. I'm not getting a drink without a girl by my side."

"Baby-" Danny began, not wanting to be left alone with the boys.

"Hang out with the boys, baby." Nini rolled her eyes. "I know Saturday's are for the boys, but yeesh."

"Sorry, Danny," Skye said as she was being dragged along.

"Keep her safe." He said, which Skye thought to be extremely sweet.

"I'll bring her back to you, don't worry!" She yelled out, getting lost in the crowd with Nini, no longer able to spot out the group anymore.

The two girls walked into the kitchen, looking at all of the numerous bottles of alcohol scattered around the place. Neither was interested in any of it, especially Nini, who was getting a little aggravated. "Jesus, what is all of this stuff? Ever heard of water? A soda? Apple juice?"

"I'm just gonna pass on getting a drink for now." Skye sighed. If she knew that the party would be full of all of this, Skye would've completely skipped out on it. Well, not exactly. She would've still gone if Levi begged her to.

"At least help me figure this stuff out," Nini begged.

"Uh, smell it?" Skye furrowed her eyebrows.

"I guess." She groaned. "Smell with me."

"Fine."

Skye and Nini would realize that none of the drinks out were non-alcoholic, even after looking in the fridge that had already been completely raided at this point. They would just go to the sink and snatch some tap water, but there were so many people crowded in the kitchen it would just be impossible to push through them. Plus, you don't want to piss off a drunk person, ever.

Nini lets out a grunt as she gave up on her search for a drink, walking out of the kitchen to go back to Danny, Skye following right behind her. "Ugh, I give up. I'm so gonna kill Hunter."

She extended out her arms for her boyfriend, running towards him while Skye kept a normal pace. Skye noticed how Levi was now absent from the group, but Nini was more focused on planting kisses on Danny's cheeks and lips.

"Baby!" Nini exclaimed as she leaped into Danny's arms.

Skye caught up, letting out a giggle as she joked about what she and Danny had said earlier before Nini dragged her to the kitchen. "I brought her back."

"What happened to getting drinks?" Danny asked.

"Couldn't find anything that wasn't alcohol," Skye replied, which didn't satisfy Xavier at all.

"Man, I can't dance without proper hydration!" He complained.

Skye looked around for Levi, wondering where he was and when he'd be coming back. It wouldn't kill to ask, but she didn't want to try to make a big deal out of it. "Do any of you know where Levi is?"

"He went to the bathroom," Xavier said.

"Oh, okay." She frowned.

As the minutes passed, Skye waited around for Levi, trying to make conversation with everyone as she grew more and more impatient. Going to the bathroom definitely didn't take this long, but Levi wasn't even in the bathroom anymore. Skye figured he had to be somewhere, so she decided to excuse herself from the group and attempt to search for Levi.

Before Skye could find the opportunity to leave, Xavier went and begged Danny for help flirting with the people at the party. "Danny, help me flirt with people."

"Um-" he began, but Nini interrupted before Danny could say no.

"Wait, let me help!" She exclaimed. Now, this was an opportunity to leave as Skye didn't exactly want to witness Xavier's poor flirting skills nor did she want to have to be a babysitter for them, so she made her move.

"I'm gonna try to find something to drink again," Skye announced to the group. "Wish me luck."

"Okay, we'll be around here somewhere!" Nini replied, waving as she, Danny, and Xavier, went to follow Xavier on his quest for reciprocation. That was definitely easier than she thought, but Skye quickly pushed through the crowd and made her way to the kitchen once more, which would be a path to other parts of the house.

Skye's search for Levi ended before it even started, finding the adored teenage boy with a silver can in his hand, bumping fists with some football players. Truth be told, he managed to get some soda from the basement despite its questionable expiration date, but hey, it was better than partaking in underage drinking.

Walking up to Levi, Skye tapped him on the shoulder, taking a step back as Levi immediately turned around and greeted her, a greeting that was extremely energetic, which she wasn't expecting. "Hey!"

"Hey, party animal!" He said enthusiastically. Skye never heard that one before, so she was going to assume Levi was a bit under the influence.

"Are you drinking?" She raised an eyebrow.

"No!" Levi replied, showing Skye the soda can in his hand. "It's root beer, don't worry."

Skye didn't want to bother him while he was talking to his football friends any longer, so she was just going to get going and find the gang again. God knows where they were now, but Skye would try to find them anyway. "Well, I'm just gonna grab a water and go-"

"Wait, wait are you going?" Levi interrupted.

"I don't know." She shrugged. "Wherever the gang is. They're probably up to no good now."

"Bet. I'll find you at "I don't know" then." He chuckled, which made Skye want to cringe a little as it was kind of corny to say.

"Cool..." she said, grabbing a random cup with clear liquid without thinking and walking out of the kitchen as quickly as possible, although Levi tried to stop her, but she didn't hear him.

"Wait, I don't think that's-"

Skye stood in the middle of the crowd, scanning for her friends and failing to find them. She looked down at the drink in her hand, sniffing it and not smelling anything, so she took a chance on taking a sip, which was a huge mistake. Immediately after sipping it, she immediately spits it out, realizing that was definitely not water.

"Oh my god, that's disgusting." Skye gagged, unsure of what to do with her cup now. If she just set it down somewhere, someone would just grab it or someone would slip something in it, and she didn't want to go back into the kitchen and bother Levi more, so she just kept on holding the drink for now.

As Skye tried getting through the cramped crowd to find the gang, a familiar face came towards her out of nowhere, making her jump a little before realizing who it was.

"Simmons!" The familiar face was Hunter, who Skye hadn't seen since she first arrived at the party.

"Oh, hey, Hunter." Skye greeted, trying to be as friendly as possible as he was definitely drunk at this point if not totally wasted.

"Hey..." he slurred, using his fingers to twirl Skye's braids.

"Um, don't touch my hair." She said, taking his hand and moving it away from her.

"Hmph. I like it though." Hunter pouted.

"Mhm, sure." Skye rolled her eyes, then figured it would be best to ask Hunter where the gang was. "Do you know where Xavier, Nini, and Danny are right now? I'm trying to find them again."

"Xavier is trying to flirt with anyone that breathes in his direction while failing miserably and Danny and Nini are trying to save him from more embarrassment." He said, which was a lot for his drunk brain. "Whew, that was a lot of words."

"Oh, okay." She frowned. "Um, is there any reason why you're here then or-"

"Well, uh, I thought we were cool and-" Hunter interrupted, wrapping his arm around Skye which made her noticeably tense up. As his words blocked out in Skye's mind, she felt Hunter's fingers trail down the waist of her sweater, those same fingers then going to grope her without hesitation.

Skye immediately pushed Hunter away from her the moment he grabbed her, causing Hunter to bump into a random person in the crowd. "Get the hell off of me! What the hell is wrong with you, dude?"

"Hey, watch it!" That random person yelled, having no clue what was happening, they were just mad about Hunter being pushed into them.

"What made you think that was okay?" Skye asked furiously.

"I thought something was going on between us!" Hunter exclaimed, which was no excuse at all. Actually, absolutely nothing could excuse that, ever.

Remembering what was in her cup, Skye yells at Hunter, throwing what was left of the drink in his face. "Next time don't try to force girls into doing shit they don't want to do, asshole!"

"You bitch!" He yelled.

As Skye turned to storm out of the party, she met eyes with everyone in the crowd, who had all of their eyes on her and Hunter. Completely mortified, Skye puts her head down and pushes through the crowd, hurrying out of there as quickly as possible, managing to escape while everyone now looked over at Hunter.

"Yo, O'Neil!" One of Hunter's teammates yelled, that teammate being Nikki's boyfriend Victor, who had other teammates follow him.

"What is that? What did she throw on me?" Hunter asked as his teammates went to help him. "Oh my god, my eyes!"

"I can't believe Daniels even hangs out with that weird-ass girl." Victor scoffed, helping Hunter wipe away the alcohol from his face.

"She's just a slut playing hard to get," Hunter said, which would prove to be a mistake as a certain someone heard him.

Levi, who happened to be the one who overheard what they just said, taps Hunter on his shoulder. He turns around, only to be met with a fist to his face, which was well deserved, of course. Hunter then falls to the ground, completely pissed off, but his teammates hold him back when he tries to get up and go after Levi as even they knew this wouldn't end pretty for him.

"I could've done a lot worse." Levi scoffs, then tries to get through the crowd so he could find Skye, who was already gone from the house at this point. "Excuse me, thank you."

Xavier, Nini, and Danny stood from afar, jaws dropped as they held back laughing at Hunter's pain. Xavier then walks up to Hunter (who was still laying on the ground) and laughs right in his face, not giving a damn that they were supposed to be friends. "Damn, you just got yo ass beat!"

•••

MARIA TALKS!

um 👁👄👁

some people may say that was "unnecessary" and "stupid", but it's not. if you consider hunter's character from the beginning, it's sadly not out of character and it's sadly something that commonly occurs in real life. i'm not trying to romanticize or idealize anything, make note of that. i actually hope i did this right and didn't do it all wrong.

this is an instance where i would deeply appreciate legitimate criticism so i can fix things that may not be right (don't say "erase hunter doing that" cause i won't), so please, if there's something i can do, tell me!

there will be a light at the end of the tunnel, don't worry.

see you next time <3