A/N : Late Night Talks is #9 in Teen Fiction!!!! I'm super stoked!!! 🤓 All thanxxx to you awesomesauce people who read it!! A bigggg hug & kisses! I love you guys :') :')

PLAYLIST : Good Girls - 5SOS

     "Who?" I asked lamely.

     "You," Derek pointed to me. "How are you getting out?"

     "My room's just next door. No one would find it weird that I was in Gina's room."

     He tilted his head and looked at me like that was the strangest answer he ever heard. "You're not coming to the party at Nate's house?

     Oh, the party. I had forgotten about it. Not that I was going to go. Tiffany told Shayna and me about it when we went out shopping. Shayna wasn't coming because she had other plans with Caleb. Parties weren't really my scene, so I said no. But mostly, I refused because of Derek. He'd be there too and being around him in prom was already too much for me. This was before we went to the prom. Now, I wanted to go because of Derek. I wanted to spend more time with him.

     He was sitting on the window ledge with his hands resting on either side for support. I wondered how he was always so relaxed, like nothing could ever go wrong with him, when I was on the verge of a panic attack.

     I let out a sigh. "I can't. It's past curfew."

     "Your mom saw you come in."

     "Exactly."

     Derek's lips curled up in a half smile. "Exactly," he repeated. "You're home according to her. We'll go out through the window."

     Sneaking out of my own house? Now that sounded incredulous and out of the question. Or maybe . . . it was time I broke free from the monotony of my boring, routine life. I wanted to do exactly what Derek said. This was as far an adventure as I'd have in my teenage life.

     Seeing the glint in my eyes, Derek jumped back down into the room and pointed outside the window. "After you."

     "I can't jump from the window. I'm wearing a dress."

     "I won't look. I promise," he said innocently.

     "I'm going to trust you on this one. But I'm not making a habit out of it."

     He smirked. "We'll see."

     I took one last look at Gina, who was now peacefully sleeping in her bed, took off my stilettos and carefully threw them outside the window. They landed on a patch of grass with a dull thud.

     I put my whole weight on my hands, thrust myself on the window, twisted around and sat up on the ledge. This was more difficult wearing a dress. Sucking in a large amount of air through my mouth, in one swift motion I flung both my legs over and landed on the other side. It was the clumsiest I'd ever been, and that's saying a lot.

     Derek climbed after me and we were now standing on the roof of my house. The jump down would be long. But there were big pipes on the side of my house. We could walk over there on the roof and climb down the pipes.

     "Fucking hell!" Derek said under his breath.

     "What?" I asked alarmed. "What happened?!"

     "I'm guessing that's your brother," he whispered.

     I followed his gaze and to my horror, saw Eric, standing at the door to Gina's room. His brown hair was sticking out messily from the sleep and one of his pant legs was rolled up to his knee. His expression showed that he was enjoying what he saw. Maybe, just maybe, he was too sleepy to make anything of the scene in front of him.

     Clearly, I had no such luck. "What are you doing?" he laughed. "Are you running away?"

     Here ends my adventure! I mentally started thinking of all the ways I could bribe him to keep his mouth shut. He chuckled some more. Oh, he was going to make me pay for this.

     "Hey, big guy," Derek said from beside me. "Keep our secret, yeah?"

     Eric looked Derek up and down, silently assessing him. I waited with bated breath to hear what he'd say next. "Okay," Eric said.

     What! How did he agree so readily?!

     "You're the champ, bro." Derek gave him a salute, turned around and signaled me to walk down the roof. I quickly got away from Eric's stares, muttering a bye. I walked to the side, slid down the pipe and planted my feet firmly on the ground.

     Derek came down after a few seconds. I walked below the window to collect my heels and put them on. When I looked up, I saw Eric's little head peeping from the window. Derek waved at him and he waved back.

     "Let's leave before he changes his mind and and decides to blow your whistle."

     "How did you do that?" I asked baffled. "He'd never listen to me!"

     "He's your brother. He won't listen to you."

     "You're no one." That sounded wrong. So I said again, "I mean he just met you. Why would he listen to you?"

     "The key is to use the right words."

     "Huh? I think you're making it up. You just got lucky."

     "Call it whatever you want. Can we go now?"

     "Yah. That's what I jumped down a window for."

~~~

     Every corner of Nate's house was packed with people. We had to push our way through to get in. I didn't even see these many people at prom. I doubted if they were even from our school because I didn't recognize half of them.

     "Hey! Derek!" someone shouted. It was the girl I saw him with at the movies.

     "Hi, Nina. This is Vivian."

     "Okay." She ignored me completely and pulled Derek's arm. "Come with me. I was waiting for you."

     "Uh . . ." he started to say something to me.

     "I'll just hang around here. You go on," I said.

     "Come on." She pulled Derek with her.

     "Save me," he mouthed to me before disappearing in the crowd.

     How do you save a guy? I didn't know. So I just smiled at him and left him on his own.

     I found an empty couch in the living room and slumped on it. I had yet to find Tiffany.

     After some time of me sitting alone sipping on a can of coke, Tiffany found me. "Viv! Come up," she shouted from the top of the stairs.

     "Ya, coming."

     "What are you doing sitting alone on a couch at a party?"

     "I just came."

     "And a big favor you did by that. Come on up, quick." With those words, she climbed the stairs and entered one of the rooms. I followed her to find a smaller group of people sitting there playing video games. Nate and Derek were there too.

     Derek was playing the video game in absolute concentration. After playing a round, he high fived another guy and passed the console to him.

     He made way to some people who were sitting around a table. I joined them and pulled out a chair to sit beside him.

     "So you saved yourself," I said.

     He noticed just now that I was there. He stared at me angrily, but there was playfulness in his voice. "You left me alone. I had a hard time escaping. You are a bad friend!"

     Oh, we were friends now.

     Tiffany came and sat at the table in front of us. "Where did you both disappear at the prom, huh?" She asked in her interrogative voice, curiously wiggling her eyebrows.

     "Um, I'll tell you later."

     "Okay." She let it go. "Nate's parents are home. We couldn't smuggle in alcohol," she pouted.

     "Oh crap, man!" Derek grumbled.

     I shook my head and rolled my eyes at them.

     "Okay, people. Gather around." Nate clapped his hands together standing at the head of the table. "We're playing spin the bottle."

A/N : Thank you for reading, voting & commenting so far in the story :) I hope you continue to do so! Eeek! Oh and by the way, I'm posting another chapter, about right now.

#What is your favorite food? Mine's pizza with mozzarella cheese! 🍕

Thank you illegurlanna for reading this book when I first published it and it had like no reads XD You're one of my first readers & you inspired me to continue writing <3
Guys check out her books The Love That Made Me and Stuck With Love. She also makes awesome covers!