Chapter 19 | Heads Or Tails

The house the party is at isn't far, it only took us about twenty minutes to get here but it feels like we're hours away. The houses over here are huge, bigger than any person needs really but if you can afford it why not.

As I slowly walk in the front door behind Elijah, the party already seems to be in full swing. A blonde girl with long hair and bangs walks over to us, excited to see Elijah I presume.

"You came! Oh, and you brought friends I'm so glad. I'm Vanessa. My brother is outback but he'll be so glad you came. They're all playing heads or tails, let's go."

She grabs him by the arm and we all follow her to the backyard where a different party seems to be going on. The music is faded out here and it seems like the people are too. Everyone inside is drinking but out here smoking seems to be the drug of choice.

"Elijah, you came. Come over here bro introduce your friends."

Elijah walks over and dabs up the guy. He looks like your typical rich playboy, the black button once tucked down his pants is now half out and wrinkled and his hair is disheveled from the girl running her hand through it. He has a soft, kind face with a sharp jawline. The scar right on his left cheekbone giving him a tougher look.

He passes a blunt over to Elijah but he just passes it on to another guy. "No thanks. These are my guests. Alora, Grant, Abigail, and Isabella. Any idea where Vinnie is?"

The playboy ignores Elijah's question and his eyes go straight towards my direction. "Alora huh? Where'd that name come from?"

"My parents I guess. I don't really know." I respond, caught off guard.

"It's cute. I like it. I'm Max." He shifts his focus back over to Elijah, "Vinnie said he'd be back. Went to take a leak I think."

Elijah nods his head. "Um, where is the bathroom. Do you mind if I use it?" Abigail says.

"Go straight down the hall, up the stairs, and take a right then go all the way down. No one was probably smart enough to look all the way down there so it should be empty." Max responds taking another hit.

"Thanks." Softly she then says, "Bella will you come with me?"

Bella nods her head then they go off.

Grant walks over to me and whispers in my ear, "Don't do anything too stupid, have fun. Trust me, you'll thank me later."

I go to respond, confused, but he cuts me off, his words now directed at the boys. "I actually saw some old friends of mine inside. You mind taking care of Alora for me?" He says to Elijah.

"No problem at all. She's in great hands." They give each other the stereotypical guy nod, communicating with each other then Grants heads off inside.

"You two look good together. The matching usually would make me gag but it's working for you guys." Max says.

"Oh um, w-we're not together." I look down at my shoes.

Max looks both of us up and down, "We'll fix that." He says. "Feel like playing some heads or tails?"

"What's that?" I ask.

"It's easy, the person on your right will ask you a question. You have to answer the question out loud with the name of a person in the group playing. We flip a coin and if get heads you spill the beans and tell the group what the question is if you get tails your safe along with your secret. There's a catch though. If the time comes where you get heads are really don't want to spill, the person who's asked you can give you a dare to complete." He smirks, "Feel like playing?"

Elijah looks over at me as Grants words replay in my head 'Have fun.' I sigh, "Yeah alright, let's play."

"Cool. This is my sister Vanessa as you probably know, that's Aileen, that's Brian, Tasha, Jeba, Marc, and Brianna. You two can sit in between me and your matching buddy." We take a seat in the empty chairs as we observe them finishing up their previous round.

"The question was if I could spend the night with one person where what happens is never spoken about again, I would spend it with Aileen," Max says cockily.

Aileen gives him a lustful look and tucks her black hair behind her ear where the words "Fuck Toy" are tattooed right above it.

"Your turn Alora," Max whispers his question in my ear and I can feel my face getting hot. "So, who'll it be Alora?"

I look around the circle but my eyes land on one person, Elijah. There's no doubt about it. "Elijah." I say, strange confidence overtaking me.

Max smirks and Elijah seems surprised. "What about me?" He asks.

I grab the coin from Max's hand and toss it up in the air. If he knows what the question was it won't be too bad. I just don't want to embarrass myself. It feels like the coin will never be done slipping but it finally comes back downs and I catch it then slap it onto the back of my hand.

Head.

"You going to tell the truth, or are you going to take the dare?"

"What's the dare?" I ask. All the confidence I one had left along with the color on my face. Nevermind, I will definitely embarrass myself.

"Take a hit and blow the smoke into Elijah's mouth."

I look over at Elijah who seems both curious and amused. The dare doesn't seem that bad, but will he mind? It just seems better than the truth right now.

Elijah shrugs his shoulders and I take that as my sign. There's no going back now. I grab the blunt from Max's hand and inhale the smoke till I feel it reach my lungs, I inhale a second time before inching closer to Elijah. I cup his face with one hand and make it so my lips are almost touching his then exhale the smoke into his mouth.

His face is hot and his breathing small. His eyes finally open and our lips linger in their place for a couple of seconds before we each pull back and sit back down completely into our seats. "I don't like to smoke but that wasn't too bad." Elijah says with a small smile on his face directed towards me.

I playfully roll my eyes as I prepare my question for Elijah. Suddenly a body appears between both of us and Vanessa speaks up. "Elijah! You promised you would dance to a song with me and this one is my favorite. Let's go."

She grabs him and pulls him off his chair before he can get a chance to resist. Before I know it Elijah's gone and it's only me and the group left. "Still feel like playing?" Max asks.

"No um, I think I'm going to go inside and see if I can find Grant and the girls. But thanks I had fun."

He chuckles in response, "Trust me, me too. We'll catch up later before you go." I nod and get up to go back inside. After a couple of minutes of searching, I find Grant over by where the drinks are and go over to him.

"Have fun yet?"

"Kinda. The game ended early."

"Where's Elijah? He still outside?"

"No, he's playing a different game now." I point over to the bunch of dancing people, specifically the blonde with bangs and the boy in an open red dress shirt who she's practically on top of. I sigh and spot the snack table across the room. "I think I'm gonna go stress eat real quick. I'll be back."

Maybe I overthought our almost kiss. That's all it was anyways, an almost. We're friends, he probably didn't want me to embarrass myself. I'm the one who didn't want to share the question anyways.

"Hey thinker-bell, what's going on in your head?"

I quickly turn around to face the owner of the voice, Elijah, "Oh hi, um- nothing. Just got the munchies I guess." 

"I was surprised watching you smoke tonight, you seemed to know what you were doing." He said, one of his eyebrows up and curious.

"I used to dabble in it I guess you could say. Not really anymore though, it's been a while." I open up my bag of chips and stare into it to avoid Elijah's gaze. 

I feel the touch of his hand on my arm and I look up, "Sorry about earlier by the way. There's no arguing with Vanessa. When she gets mad she gets... mad."

I nod my head and allow for a pause in the conversation before speaking again. "I'm sorry about earlier too. Not the Vanessa thing obviously but the whole dare thing." Before he can get his first word out I interrupt him and say, "It's not gonna make our friendship weird or anything right? Friends can almost kiss, it was just a dare anyways."

His eyes shift over to the floor then back to me. That was totally so uncool of me, I probably made it weird saying that. "No yeah, it's all good. Don't worry about me."

Vanessa bounces her way over to us and grabs Elijah's arm, "Elijahhh, come dance.", she whines. Before another word can be said she pulls him away and I lose him back in the crowd. 

Well so much for that.

I wonder if my friends are having a better time then I have. I walk back over to Grant. "Hey, have you seen any of the others? I feel like I haven't seen any of them since we got here."

"Oh well, I haven't seen Abigail or Vinnie all night since they ran into each other in the bathroom according to Bella. And Bella disappeared into the crowd with an old friend of hers or something; Emily I think."

"I'm glad everyone is having fun but I think I'm going to call an Uber home or something, I've had enough party for one night. Quiet is what I need right now." I tuck my hair behind my ear and look at Grant waiting for his response. "I just kind of want to be alone."

Grant pulls me into his chest and gives me a hug, "Alright ra-ra. I'm going to stick around for a bit longer and make sure the girls get home okay as well. I'll see you at home?"

"Thank you for understanding. I'll see you at home."

I make my way outside to the curb, feeling the crisp air hit my burning skin. It shouldn't take long for the car to come by.

I just want to go home and rest.

What did I expect anyway? I don't have the best track record with relationships and I'm just not in the place for one right now. Plus, Elijah is just a friend and nothing more. I don't like him in that way and he definitely doesn't like me back. 

He probably has his tongue down her throat right now.

"Who has their tongue down who's throat?"

Startled, I turn but misplace my foot at the edge of the curb as I start to lose my balance. "Woah, watch out there. You almost fell."

"I wish I had." I mumble to myself.

"You alright? I saw you leaving and Grant said you weren't feeling well."

"I'm alright. I just want to go home. My uber should be here any minute."

He shakes his head, "Cancel it, I'll take you home. I just have to grab my keys. I gave them to Vinnie earlier and-"

"No, it's alright." The black car matching my phone's description pulls up at the curb.

"Alora?" Asks the driver.

"Yes, that's me, hello." I turn back around to face Elijah. "I gotta go."

"I'm coming with you."

"I just want to be alone right now."

"No one ever wants to be alone. Let me make sure you get home safely and then you'll have the rest of the night to yourself." He opens the car door for me and I shuffle into my seat.

"Alright."

He follows me into the car and for the rest of the ride home, we're silent. I stare out the window while Elijah and the driver, TJ, make conversation every now and then.

I've gone through this before. 

Relationships and boyfriends and feelings. I know I'm not cut out for love and still, my brain just likes to put me through it. 

I can't believe I ever loved him. Or thought I loved him. He's was a huge mistake in my past and that's where he belongs along with all those feelings that come along. 

The car suddenly feels like it's moving too fast. A million words and pictures per second pass through my mind as I start to remember him. My vision starts to blur and the room starts to spin as the pounding in my head begins.

I don't want to do this right now. I just want to go home. 

I feel my eyes start to burn as my first tear escapes from my eye and down my cheek. I hold my breath to stop myself from crying. 

I can't do this right now. 

The car finally stops in front of my house and I say thank you to the driver as I hurriedly exit the car. 

I reach into my pockets and quickly grab my keys as I head over to my door. 

"Alora! Wait up, what's wrong?"

I quickly wipe the tears from my face and replace my sad expression with a small smile. "Nothing, I'm just really tired and I want to get inside and sleep."

He steps up to where I'm standing in front of my now open door and lightly grabs my arm. He pulls me to face him as he examines my face. He lifts my chin up with his finger, forcing me to look up at him. I can't hide it anymore. "You're not okay."

I shake my head finally letting go of everything, allowing the strands of tears to run down my face. He pulls me into him and hugs me. "You don't have to explain. Let's just get you inside and into bed."

"Go upstairs, take off your shoes, and change into something comfortable, I'll be right up."

I do as he says and make my way upstairs, silent tears still escaping. I pull my hair back, take off my shoes, and change into my sleeping shorts and a loose t-shirt. After looking in the mirror I notice my mascara has smudged and the bags starting to come back that I always seem to acquire at night. I take off my makeup and sit on my bed when Elijah comes back into my room with a bottle of water, a packet of M&Ms, and my laptop which was sitting on my kitchen table.

"C' mon, get into bed."

I shift back and lay against my pillows while Elijah sits down next to me. He hands me the bottle of water and I start to drink from it slowly. "I brought your laptop in case you don't want to sleep right away and want to watch something and I brought M&Ms because you can't watch tv without your favorite snacks."

"Thanks." I say, placing the bottle down. "I just want to lay here for a bit. I just need some quiet."

"Whatever you need Alora." He tucks a loose strand of hair behind my ear and we stay silent for a moment.

His eyes shift down to the bed as he begins to get up. "I'll leave you alone now. You call me if you need anything okay?"

I grab his wrist lightly before it's out of grasp, "No!" I say quietly.

He looks back at me surprised. "Do you mind staying for a little? I just- I don't-."

"Okay." 

He gives me a small smile before joining me in bed. I shift over to my side and bring his hand with me so that it's wrapped around my waist.

"Thank you." I whisper.

"Always."

-:-

i hope you guys liked the rest of the chapter! i know it was a long one but hopefully it was worth it.

comment where you guys are from if you're reading this!