Ariel

Considering she's a drug dealer, she looks incredibly annoyed at her boyfriend for being as high as a kite.

Her eyes are narrowed and her lips are pressed together tightly as she watches him. Oblivious to her growing irritation, he continues to wave his hands around while his mouth moves like those wind-up chattering teeth that I loved playing with as a kid. Apart from her, everyone around him, looks entertained by whatever bullshit story he's telling.

And it will be bullshit.

The boyfriend lives in my apartment block, and I know his parents are strict. I'm talking 'you'll be disowned from the family if you don't follow my rules' strict. His life is all school, study sessions and, recently, basketball. I'm surprised he's at a house party. I'm even more surprised he has a girlfriend. Then again, the having a girlfriend part may not be for much longer by the look on her face.

As everyone laughs at what he's saying, drug dealer girl sinks further back into the couch she's sitting on, looking like she wants to dump him. Why is she so upset when she supplies the drugs which are making him so hyper?

Raising the bottle in her hand to her mouth, she sips a warm beer. I know it's warm because she's been holding the same bottle for the last hour, and it's boiling in here.

I can't figure her out. She probably directly supplied the drugs her boyfriend is currently tripping his balls on, but she looks like she wishes drugs weren't invented. The irony is not lost on me.

Drug dealer girl leans forward, says something in her boyfriend's ear which he nods and follows up with a wet sloppy kiss. It must have been really sloppy because she wipes her mouth with the back of her hand as she gets up. If that isn't an insult to your kissing style, I don't know what is. Not that he notices. He's still chattering away again like he's a children's entertainer and he gets paid per laugh. He's going to have a serious jaw ache tomorrow.

I watch drug dealer girl weave through the crowded room. No one notices her. She's almost invisible which is strange as she's the supplier of everything the teenagers in our school use to fuel their late-night study sessions, weekend parties and days of sleep when the buzz won't wear off.

There's no dancing in this room of the house, that's happening in the living room across the hallway, but the music is loud enough that I can still hear the words of the song drifting through the walls. I can't remember the name of it or who sings it. I can never remember shit like that.

I do remember, they played the song at a party last week. And these two girls started having a fight over some boy, then they started ripping each other's hair out which resulted in one of the girls crashing into the sound system and damaging it. The kid who it belonged to went mental then chucked us all out. I was raging. One, because girls like that let the female population down. I mean, if a guy is cheating on you, don't fight the over victim, join forces and kick the guy in the dick repeatedly until he learns how to use it correctly, aka don't double-dip. And two, it meant I had to go home because I hadn't yet sorted out who's place I was going to stay at. And me having to go home on a Saturday night, when I haven't prepared myself for having to stay at home on a Saturday night, makes me rage.

Ah, I got distracted. Where's she gone?

"She left out that door," Poppy says, pointing to a door to my left.

"Who did?" I ask, looking down at Poppy who I'd forgotten was standing in-between my legs, and has been for the last hour while I'm sitting on the kitchen counter.

Poppy's three friends stand in front of us. All look as pissed off as Poppy does.

"The girl you've been eye-fucking for the last hour," Poppy hisses.

Poppy is too needy. This is our third date, and I'm already getting sick of her constant need for attention. She's like a lovesick puppy staring at me with her big puppy eyes and slobbering all over me every chance she gets.

I roll my eyes. "No, I haven't."

"Yes, you fucking have," She growls. She turns to her friends for back up. "She has, hasn't she?"

They shuffle uncomfortably and mumble a half-assed agreement. Speak up and support your friend, or shut the fuck up. Not that it matters what they say, because I wasn't eye fucking the drug dealer girl. I have zero interest in her, sexually anyway.

Not that she's bad looking. Actually, on closer inspection, she's really good looking but she dresses down. She'd be the girl on a makeup show who goes from plain to gorgeous model with a bit of makeup and a decent outfit.

Currently, she's wearing an outfit which is way to causal for a party. It's like she wants to blend into the background. And she does, because no one would expect plain Jane from next door to be supporting our schools' massive dependency on prescription drugs. According to Poppy's brother, she supplies everything as long as it's available on prescription.

Someone slaps my arm. It's Poppy.

"You're not even listening to me," Poppy snaps. "I know you're ditzy but seriously-"

"I'm not fucking ditzy," I snap.

I hate it when people call me that. I'll be the first to admit I sometimes get distracted. That doesn't mean I'm an idiot or some ditzy girl who's daydreaming about which boy I should let finger fuck me after school in the nearest alleyway.

Poppy steps back clearly shocked at the harshness of my tone. I'm not going to apologise. She shouldn't make assumptions or label people. She doesn't know anything about me and, to be honest, after three dates I'm not planning on revealing any of my concentration problems to her.

My whole life I've had to deal with people telling me I get distracted. I try to not let it affect me. My mum always says people who aren't willing to understand and accept you for you aren't worth your time or energy. Only problem is my energy is running out trying to not spend time caring what they think of me.

And I zoned out again because Poppy is still having a go at me and I haven't heard a word of it. I really need to gain some distance between us. A whole continent would be good right now. Luckily, she's stepped out of my legs so I jump down from the counter and start to walk away.

"Where the fuck are you going now?" Poppy snaps.

"For some fresh air," I say.

"You're going after her, aren't you? You're going to hook up with her when I'm right here," she shouts.

Fucking hell, if I knew Poppy was so dramatic I seriously would have hesitated when she asked me out on a date. I swivel round to face her and I notice several people are looking our way. Well, if they want a show then let's give them a show.

"No, I'm going for some fresh air. The only girl I've been eye-fucking is you but if you're too insecure to believe that I don't think we're going to work. And that's not an excuse for us to break up so I can then hook up with anyone else. The only person I planned on doing anything sexual with is you, but if that's not going to happen I won't hook up with anyone else. I'll just go home and use my fingers like I have every night since our first date."

Several people snigger. A whole lot more, display facial expressions ranging between disgust and mortification. Maybe, I'll regret what I said later. I do have a habit of speaking before thinking about what the consequences of my words will be.

Poppy's puppy face crumples. "You said, you thought the rule about having three dates before doing anything more than kissing was a good idea."

Now, I feel like a complete bitch. "It is a good rule but do you know what's even better? Waiting till you trust someone, and you obviously don't trust me. I don't cheat. I never overlap. Once I go on a first date, I'm exclusive until we are both fully aware it's not happening anymore." It's true. Admittedly, all my relationships have been very short-lived. However, none of them have ended due to me cheating.

I step back. "And this is not happening anymore. When you're ready to believe and trust me, let me know."

"I thought you were staying at my house tonight?" She says quietly.

Seriously? Does she not realise this is not going to work. "I'll call you later."

Turning away, I push through the crowd. Unlike the drug dealer girl, I'm not invisible, I'm well known. My reputation is built on talking to everyone and always getting into trouble at school.

People call out my name, then add an insult or praise. I seem to have that sort of personality. You either love me or hate me. Whichever one it is, you definitely know of me.

Sometimes, I wish I was invisible. It'd be a lot easier to figure out what I want to do with my life, without everyone's expectations weighing me down and pressuring me to do what they think and expect me to do.

In the hallway, the music thumps loudly and the smell of alcohol, bodies and sexual tension permeates the air. I'm pretty upset I'm not staying at Poppy's tonight, but it's probably for the best. If she's this needy already, it will only get worse once we're sleeping together, and I don't think I'm that interested. Poppy's nice, but I'm not sure if she's long term girlfriend material.

"You alright El?"

I focus on Faithful who is standing in front of me. He's got a beer in one hand and the other arm slung over a girl's shoulder. I think her name is Mia, or maybe it's Maddy. I nod. "Yep, why?"

He shrugs. "Just checking. You'd zoned out so I wanted to make sure you weren't on your way to do something important."

"Nope, nothing important. How are you?"

Faithful knows me well. The two of us developed a friendship after being sent to Ms Healey's office daily and hours of detention together. However, a lot of the times we've been singled out and gotten into trouble was due to our reputations proceeding us. Which is sad because I've learnt, despite Faithful's threatening frame and permanent scowl, he's incredibly clever and intuitive. He's also the only one out of my classmates which has worked out that all the trouble I get into isn't down to me going through some rebellious teen phase.

Faithful tilts his beer in the direction of the stairs as one side of his mouth curls up. "I'm good. Going upstairs to get away from the music." He glances at the girl he's got his arm slung over.

"Use protection, the world isn't ready for Faithful juniors just yet," I say.

The girl next to Faithful chokes on the drink she's sipping.

"Always saying out loud what most people simply think," Faithful laughs and pats the girls back. Maybe it's not Mia or Maddy. But her name definitely starts with an M. Michelle? Mandy? Melissa?

This is going to annoy me.

"Don't forget to use protection yourself. The world isn't ready for El juniors either." Faithful guides the girl up the stairs.

"Lesbians don't have to worry about accidental pregnancies. Only thing we have to worry about is catching an STI."

"T.M.I., El," Faithful calls over his shoulder.

Marley? Mark? I know they're traditionally boy's names, but people are all about naming children untraditional names. Then again, that's a new thing, not something many parents were doing seventeen years ago. Gender-neutral probably hasn't even been heard of by most parents in this place currently. Then again, we use gender-neutral words for a lot of things without realising it like firefighter instead of fireman, police officer instead of policeman and I'm sure there's a million others. But right now, I was trying to figure out what that girl's name is.

And it's too late to ask because they've disappeared upstairs. Momo? Miri? Mimi? M...

"I still think it's a real shame you only allow girls access. You got the full package; face and body." An arm snakes around my neck while hot breath corrodes my ear.

I dodge out of Caleb's grasp. "The full package would be beauty and brains, you fucktard."

"Brains are good too. Means we can think of more things to try out in bed." Caleb waggles his eyebrows, sealing the title for one of the most perverted guys in school. I guarantee in ten years time, he'll be the guy who multiple women get restraining orders against.

"Never going to happen," I say, walking away. "And not because I'm a lesbian but because you're a dickhead, and I think fucking you would be like fucking a dead body: disgusting, risk of infection and very unsatisfying."

"You're such a bitch, El," Caleb shouts.

"Rather be a bitch than nice to you," I call out. "Remember, if they're too drunk to stand, they can't give their consent, a bit of free advice for you so you don't end up arrested before the school year is up."

I slam the door behind me. Caleb is the reason male teenagers get such a bad rep. He's popular, good looking and relatively clever, and does he do anything good with all that power and influence? No. He spends his time making lewd comments about girls and hooking up with drunk girls where the boundaries between them being able to make a decision they won't regret and him taking advantage of them is very blurred.

He's done it to two girls I know and, let's just say, they both wouldn't have been up for everything they did if they'd been sober. They're both embarrassed by what happened, and the fact he then told everyone what they got up to with a very detailed account didn't help. Personally, I think they should have spoken to the police or at least their parents, but both of the girls said they'd agreed. How can you agree when you can barely walk or string a coherent sentence together?

The first girl, Li, has tried to put it down as a learning experience and now she doesn't get drunk unless she has a buddy looking out for her. Tess, however, ended up moving schools because Caleb told everyone she enjoys a finger up the ass and everyone started calling her stinky fingers which doesn't even make sense. Caleb would have the stinky fingers. It should be his name, not hers.

"Caleb is such a fucking dick," I huff to myself.

Now back to more pressing matters. Mila? Milo? Martha? Milly?

Author's notes
What do you think so far?

I always get so nervous posting the first couple of chapters. I really want you to like it.

Originally when I wrote this chapter there was loads of swearing and I've actually cut a lot out. There's still a lot... Oh well.

There are two main female characters; Ariel and Taylor. Ariel is gay so if your homophobic don't read my book.
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