Everything's Changing Now

For the rest of the week, Sophie and Stephen continued to hang out on a regular basis, sometimes joined by other people and sometimes alone. Delaney and John had also gone out once since the party, to a movie and dinner, and Delaney gushed to her cousin how she had never met anyone like John, and being the overly dramatic one as always, talked about transferring high schools and moving to Scottsdale for her senior year to be closer to him. Sophie told this to Stephen and the two of them had a good laugh, because John had a similar but slightly less eager reaction to the date.

“John said he wouldn’t mind them hanging out again. There was no mention of moving or kids as Delaney’s account went,” Stephen laughed. He and Sophie had gone out to lunch on Saturday, and they were going to a party together that night.

“Hah, I don’t think Delaney has ever mentioned kids, and I don’t think John could change that, even if they are “meant to be”.” Sophie said in a mock tone. “Talk to me about this kid’s house we’re going to tonight.”

“His name is Danny Hinchman, and he throws like five giant parties a summer. His parents go up to California all the time because they own some beachfront property or something, they’ve been trusting Danny home alone since he was in eighth grade. Oh, they’re kind of rich too, and have a shit ton of alcohol,” Stephen grinned.

“Well, I don’t think I’ll be touching the alcohol tonight. Once a week is enough for me,” Sophie replied. “I can be the babysitter and DD of the night.”

“Hey, I’m not one to stop a volunteer DD, if you want the job you can have it. We’ll have to have another driver too if we wanna take everyone in one go. I’ll make my brother do it,” Stephen laughed. “You and your cousin should come over at like 8 tonight, we might pregame then if she wants in.”

“Oh, I’m sure she will. If you thought she was nuts at the bonfire, wait until you see her around unlimited alcohol.”
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At 7:45 Delaney and Sophie made their way to the Gomez house. Stephen was allowing Sophie to drive his car to and from the party, so the girls walked over. John opened the door and greeted Sophie with a hug and Delaney with a kiss, much to the surprise of Sophie.

“They’re already at the kissing stage?” Sophie asked Stephen as she entered the kitchen.

“Huh, I guess so. That’s kinda really weird,” Stephen replied. “By the way, even though you’re driving you gotta do a shot with everyone at the party. It’s a sort of tradition.”

“Yeah sure, I can handle one shot.,” Sophie agreed. “So how many people am I carting around tonight?”

“I convinced Josh to drive, and he has a big ass van so we could all get there in one if we squished. But we won’t, so you’re just driving us two and your cousin and my brother,” Stephen answered.

“All right, sounds good. Everyone else needs to hurry up so we can get there!”

By 8:20, 15 people gathered in the kitchen. Sophie recognized Josh, Jess, Brian, Slade and his date Allie, Taylor, Adam, Justin and Charis, and she was introduced to Ryan and Logan.

“How come there are so few couples in this group? You guys need to get on with the hooking up thing!” Sophie laughed, and was answered by several glares from around the room.

“Most of the girls in Scottsdale are bitches. Example A, Leigh,” Josh laughed, receiving a death glare from Stephen. “Bro, what’s that look for? You’ve got one of the prettiest girls in Arizona now, she’s a million and one times better than Leigh.” Realizing she was the one being referred to, Sophie started blushing. She wasn’t used to being called pretty, but it was something she could get used to. She looked over at Stephen who was trying to hide his face by pretending to look in the pantry for something.

“I snagged the last available nice girl,” Justin said, kissing Charis on the cheek, and welcoming a chorus of groans from the rest of the group.

“They have acted like this since they started dating…ten months ago,” Brian groaned. “It gets a bit old after awhile.”

“This is the only time I’m ever going to say these words: Brian, I agree with you. No other couple acts that way in public and I for one think it’s disgusting,” John stated.

“Bro, after the way you’ve been acting with Delaney you have no room to talk!” Justin laughed, loving to make his friend squirm. “Anyways, when you’re in love you’re supposed to show you affections around people.”

“Exactly. You should be used to us by now, come on!” Charis laughed before returning Justin’s kiss.

“Okay, let’s get the hell out of here before we have to watch this again,” Stephen said, walking out to his car.

Sophie waited and made sure not to go out with him, not wanting anything else to be said. She wasn’t sure why Josh’s comment earlier bothered her so much, but she didn’t feel comfortable being associated to Stephen as his girlfriend, or date, or whatever people thought they were. Assuming she was to take the passenger’s seat as her cousin and John were in the back and Stephen was in the driver’s seat, she let herself in and sat down.

“Uh, I decided I’m not gonna drink tonight, so I’m good to drive. You can drink if you want to now,” Stephen stated bashfully, not meeting Sophie’s eyes.

“Oh okay. No, I still don’t feel like drinking, but I’ll still take that one shot if you are,” Sophie replied. Stephen smiled and nodded his head, still not looking at her.

Delaney and John spent the duration of the forty minute car ride kissing and whispering to each other, and half way there an annoyed Sophie played obnoxiously loud country music to annoy them right back. Stephen laughed at this, singing along at the top of his lungs. Sophie gave him a weird look and hoped he wasn’t planning on taking her to any country concerts this summer.

When the car pulled up to the house, Stephen tugged on Sophie’s arm to stay in the car after Delaney and John got out.

“Hey, uh, sorry for what Josh said earlier. I mean, you are one of the prettiest girls I know, but that other thing he mentioned,” Stephen said, feeling uncomfortable as he did so. “ I don’t really know what to consider us, if there even is an us. I thought we were just hanging out, but everyone else seems to think differently.”

“You don’t have to apologize, I already knew Josh was an idiot and doesn’t censor what comes out of his mouth,” Sophie stated, causing a laugh from Stephen. “We are just hanging out, as friends. I don’t even want anything more than that right now, but if that changes, you’ll be the first person I tell. Deal?”

“Deal.” Stephen continued laughing. He held out his hand for Sophie to shake, which she accepted. “Come on, let’s go have a fun, sober time!”