Love By Our Side

One of Stephen's friends from his math class informed him of a party at one of his friend's houses that night, and as nothing else seemed to be happening, the four teens decided to head there. Sophie and Delaney complained about how they wouldn't know anyone there, to which Stephen and John said they were in the same situation, but didn't care.

“There's gonna be free booze, we'll make new friends!” Stephen exclaimed, ever the socialite when there was poison in his veins.

“You would be the one to say that...” Delaney mumbled, earning a glare from her cousin.

“Let's just have a fun, nice night out. No drama, got that?” Sophie asked rhetorically, staring at her cousin in the rearview mirror.

“Don't worry babe, we'll behave. Right, Delaney?” Stephen directed towards her.

“Absolutely! Seriously, I was just pissed off earlier, I'm over it,” she answered. There would be no angry words from her mouth tonight, not just because Sophie would kick her ass if she started anything, but because she wanted to have an enjoyable night. She was learning that her group of friends were harder to please than she originally thought; one little trace of a not “for fun” fight would put them all in a bad mood. Maybe they all needed a break from each other...

Her thoughts were interrupted by an abrupt stop in front of what looked like a set from either a low-budget horror film or a house full of twenty guys who never picked up after themselves. The house itself would have been considered quaint if it weren't littered with plastic cups of an assortment of colors, empty beer cans and liquor bottles, and the occasional pair of underwear.

“I am not setting foot out of this car,” Delaney announced, crossing her arms.

“C'mon babe, it could be a good time inside!” John tried to reassure his girlfriend and himself at the same time.

“I think I'm with my cousin on this one. If you guys wanna go in, be my guest. We'll hold down the fort out here,” Sophie said, glancing at the house one more time.

“It's not that bad,” Stephen said, skeptically. “Well so what if it is, there's free booze inside!”

“Is that really all you care about?” Delaney shot, instantly regretting it. “I mean, you should be afraid of our safety. I'm concerned that Sophie or I would be ruffied if we went inside. You're putting your girlfriend in danger by being here!”

“Seriously? Okay, whatever. You guys stay here, I'll go in quickly say that we can't stay, and try to jack a bottle of something,” Stephen muttered, getting out of the car. For the ten minutes he was inside, the three others tried to think of another place they could go in the likely event Stephen couldn't get alcohol. Nothing came up.

“I'm down for just going to sleep, I'm tired as fuck,” Sophie claimed, changing the radio station to a Top 40 channel.

“That's not really bad idea,” John agreed, as his brother made his way back to the car.

“They have a day old, half empty keg and that's it. I say we hightail it outta here,” he stated, climbing into the driver's seat and driving away before anyone else could agree with him. “What do ya say we call it a night and reconvene tomorrow at the same time?”

“That sounds like the smartest thing you said all day,” Delaney grinned. Stephen flashed her a smile.
------------------------------------------
Sophie and Delaney decided on going out for a later lunch around two the next day. Delaney snarkily asked for consent from Stephen when she picked her cousin up from his house, and he replied by tackling her onto a couch and sitting on her back.

“I have to do this before Soph comes back, but this is revenge for yelling at me yesterday,” Stephen whispered while stifling a laugh. “I would tickle you but there's not enough time.” He jumped off of her in time for Sophie to walk into the room, not giving Delaney time to retaliate.

“Ready? Hey, why are you on the couch?” Sophie asked upon seeing her cousin's awkward position.

“She tripped and didn't feel like getting up,” Stephen answered, still trying not to laugh.

“Yes, that's exactly what happened,” Delaney stated in a monotone voice. She followed her cousin out the door, enough distance behind her so that she could give Stephen a swift kick to his knee. “See ya later, bro!”

“Definitely, sis,” Stephen spat back while clutching his knee in pain. He and Delaney had taken to calling each other brother and sister recently, to the delight of John and Sophie, but to the annoyance of anyone else present.

Sophie and Delaney made small talk on the five minute car ride to the restaurant, Delaney holding her breath that her cousin wouldn't bring up school. She didn't know why, but she wasn't sure if now was a good time to bring up her potential major change. Delaney wasn't sure why she was afraid to tell her family and friends about it, she wasn't the type of person who cared about what others thought about her actions. Maybe she was changing, “maturing” as her mother would call it. She figured that she had to get someone's opinion on it eventually, but a different day might be better. They finally pulled into the parking lot, the school question averted.

They were quickly seated and ordered without looking at their menus, a caesar salad and iced tea for Sophie, and a chicken fingers kid's meal with Coke for Delaney.

“You seriously got a kid's meal?” Sophie asked with a strange look on her face.

“Menus always say “for kids 12 and under,” but I bet that the majority of people who order off the kid's menu are teenagers,” Delaney responded, shrugging her shoulders. “Plus, it's cheaper.”

“Yeah, by like two bucks...” Sophie laughed. “Anyways, I feel like there's something you wanna talk to me about from the way you fought with Stephen yesterday about this lunch, yeah?”

Delaney took a sharp breath in before answering. Of course Sophie would know she wanted to talk about something, Sophie always knew these things. “I was uh...actually thinking about changing my major.” she let out in a somewhat jarbled manner.

“Ooh, to what?” Sophie asked, interested.

“That's it? You're not going to lecture me on how I need to stick to one thing like you normally do?”

“Why would I do that? Maybe if you were in your last semester or something I would, but you're barely into your first year, who cares? Almost everyone changes their major.”

“Really? Hm, I was really expecting a different response from you,” Delaney stated, still surprised. “But uh, I wanna change to an English major. I'm not entirely sure what I want to do with it yet, but I figure I may as well get started on that track now.”

“Definitely a good idea, look into the requirements for you school soon so you can plan your four years,” Sophie said. “Was that all you wanted to talk about? You seemed really worried for something like that.”

Delaney thought about bringing up the way Stephen acted while Sophie was gone, as well as how protective (if you wanted to call it that) he was while she was visiting, but instead Delaney smiled and shook her head no.