Burn Out

I board home after a nice long chat with the boys. I reach our house just after Cassie gets there.

“Hey, Chase.” She says with a kind smile.

“Hey! How was school?” I ask following her inside.

“It was alright. Just another long day.” She says while hanging her jacket up by the door. “Did you do anything exciting?” She asks.

“Actually, I had an interesting lunch.” I start while slipping my shoes off. She looks at me quizzically. “I had lunch with those guys: London, Grey, and Kade.”

Cassie’s brow furrows. “I don’t really like the idea of you hanging out with my ex-boyfriend.” She says, walking upstairs to her room. I follow close behind her.

I roll my eyes. “It wasn’t like that.” I reply, shaking my head at her. “He’s actually totally into you still.”

This catches her attention. “How do you know?” She asks, tucking a strand of her ember red hair behind her ear. I sit down on the edge of her bed, while she sits at her desk.

“Just his demeanor. He did ask about you this time, and asked about your mom. I can tell he’s sorry for treating you the way he did… Maybe you should reach out to him?” I offer, to which she scuffs.

“Yeah right. He ignored me for two weeks, for no reason. If he wants to be with me he’ll have to make the effort.” She says, crossing her arms.

“Okay, fine. I can’t disagree with that… Anyway, tell me about Grey.” I say with a smirk.

“NO.” She shouts.

“What?” I ask with a chuckle.

“He’s like a huge jerk; he’s hooked up with so many girls.”

I roll my eyes. “He seems like fun.” Cassie gives me a look of disbelief. “Anyway, he invited us to his bonfire tomorrow night. You want to go?”

“I don’t know… It’s easy for me to avoid London at school, since he’s not there half the time. That’s kind of hard to do when I’m at a party hosted by his friend.

“Maybe you should stop trying to avoid him.” I offer. “It’s so obvious you still love him. We can get dressed up all cute, and make it impossible for him to resist you.”

“I’ll think about it.” She says turning around to begin her homework. I take this as my queue to begin dinner and head to the door.

“We’re going.” I say before leaving.
~
"I don't know what to wear." Cassie says. She lets out a sigh, and flops on her bed in defeat.

"I told you to wear that black leather skirt and my misfits tee. It'd be super cute with tube socks and your all black vans."

"Yeah I guess. Is that what you're wearing?" She says pointing to oversized black t-shirt I was wearing. I paired it with black shorts (though you couldn't see them under the shirt) and ripped tights.

"Yeah, can I borrow your red docs?"

Cassie nods. "They're in the closest." I fetch them out of the closet and slip them on.

"Come on! Get dressed so we can go." I urge and toss the fit to her.

"Yeah yeah." She says and starts dressing. I run a brush through my hair, and straighten out my bangs so they lie flat over my brows.

It's about 10:25 when Cassie is finally ready. We head outside and get in the truck to make out way to the party. Cassie told me Grey’s family owns large cabin on a big piece of land and he has bonfires out there quite often. She used to go with London when they were together, but she hasn’t gone to one since.

“Don’t be nervous. I’ll be there if you need a distraction.” I say and nudge Cassie’s arm.

“This was a bad idea.” She replies, staring straight ahead at the road. I roll my eyes.

“Stop it, there’s going to be a lot of people there, right?”

She looks at me sympathetically. “Not really, it’s usually just the guys, and maybe four or five other people from school.”

“What? I thought this was a party.”

“I mean it is considered a party, this is a small town…I’m sure the parties in New York are a lot more exciting.”

I slump, a bit disappointed. I wouldn’t have gotten so dressed up if I knew it was only going to be a few people.

“Turn here.” Cassie says as we pull up to a gravel road. “You just follow this all the way, his house is at the very end.”

I do as she says. The road is long, and the fastest the truck gets is about fifteen miles per hour. It takes us twenty minutes to finally reach the cabin. His house looks almost like a cabin, and is a lot bigger than I expected, which leads me to assume that Grey comes from a family of money. There were three other cars pulled into the grass in front of the cabin, I park next to them.

We get out and Cassie is already looking uncomfortable. “Stop that, try to have a good time, for me?” I ask and offer Cassie my arm. She locks her arm with mine and we head towards the back of the cabin where the smoke trail begins. Grey is poking at the fire with a long stick in one hand, the other hand holding a beer. He nods in our direction as we approach.

Kade and London were standing on the back porch, chatting with a few other people I didn’t recognize. Cassie let’s go of my arm as I walk towards Grey.

“Welcome!” Grey says. “Please, help yourself to a beer.” He gestures to a large tub filled with ice and beer. I hand a cold beer to Cassie, then crack one open for myself.

“This is a nice place.” I say as I look around the yard. The fire pit was just a hole dug about two feet into the ground. There were a few lawn chairs on the opposite side of us. Four quads rested just outside of a trail leading into the woods.

“Wait until you see the inside.” He says with his ever so charming smile. He rests his arm around my shoulders and leads up the stairs to the back porch. There was a barbecue and picnic table to one side of the porch, on the other was a large hot tub. Kade had disappeared inside with one of the strangers. London was leaning over the railing, looking at Cassie who was staring at the flames.

“Guys, this is Chase.” Grey introduces me to the three strangers sitting at the picnic table playing some drinking game with cards. I offer a smile and a small wave. “Chase this is Ellie, Justin, and Michael.”

He leads me into the house through the backdoor, which enters into a large kitchen. It has an open floor plan, and from the kitchen I could see into the dining area. “This is the kitchen.” He says and his arm drops from my shoulder. He walks to the fridge. “There’s more to drink in here if you get tired of beer. And help yourself to any food.”

I follow him through the dining area and into the living room. A large sectional filled most of the space. The couch faced a wood burning stove, above that was large flat screen television. There’s a spiral staircase in the corner of the room, next to the fireplace. “There’s a bathroom through there.” He says gesturing to a closed door. He opens a door next to the bathroom which lead to a downward staircase. I follow him down. “This is the game room.” He says as he opens another door. Kade was playing beer pong with three other strangers. There was also a dart board on the far wall.

“Chase, this is Kimber, Blake, and Nathan.” He says introducing me. We exchange quick hellos before heading back upstairs.

“There’s three rooms upstairs.” He says. He shuts the door to the downstairs staircase, and walks to the spiral staircase. “Do you really want to see those?” He asks with a smirk.

I shrug. “Sure?”

“Alright.” He says and walks upstairs. “That’s the guestroom,” he points to the first door we pass. “My parent’s room is the one at the end, they’re not here though.” He says gesturing to the room down the hall. “This is my room.” He says as he opens his bedroom door.

It’s not huge, but the space is inviting. I’m surprised at the cleanliness; his bed was nicely made and there was nothing on the floor. There was a small dresser in the corner of the room and 3 long shelves lined the opposite wall. I walk to the shelves, surprised to find crystals of all shapes, sizes, and colors lining them neatly.

“You collect crystals?” I ask, and pick up a rose quartz.

“Uh, yeah. I used to all the time with my dad when I was little.”

“You found all of these?” I inquire, setting the crystal back down in its designated spot.

“Most of them. My dad used to bring some back from his business trips as well.” He says and stands next to me. “This one’s my favorite.” He says, picking up a geode. “It was the first geode I found and broke.” He hands it to me.

I run my finger over the prickly edges. “It’s beautiful.” I say with a smile. “You’ll have to take me sometime.” “I hand the geode back to him. He sets it back in its spot.

“Hey, you wanna smoke?” He asks while walking towards his dresser.

“Of course.” I reply and sit on the edge of his bed still gazing at his crystal collection. He grabs a small box from the top drawer of his dresser and sits on the other edge, his back towards me. He opens the box and pulls out a perfectly rolled joint.

“Ladies first,” He says and reaches across the bed to hand it to me. I place the end between my lips and lean towards him to let him light it. I take a long drag, holding my breath for a moment, then let the smoke escape my lips. “So, how are you enjoying yourself?” He asks as I take another drag. I lie down across his bed facing him.

“I suppose I’m doing well for only being here about fifteen minutes.” I tease. “Not really what I expected though.”

“Oh? And what was it that you were expecting?” He questions.

“More people? I don’t know, the parties I went to in New York were just different; they were huge, and more club like.”

“So are you disappointed?” He asks as I hand him the joint.

“Not necessarily. I suppose just teach me how it’s done country style.” I tease.

He chuckles loudly, “I think of us more at mountaineers.” He says proudly and I laugh in return.

“Yes, because you’re so manly.” I roll my eyes. He smirks and drops the half smoked joint into his nearly empty beer can. He sets the beer can on the night stand and leans to kiss me. It’s soft at first, but quickly turns passionate and almost aggressive. His hands hold either side of my face as our lips move fast.

He suddenly pulls away with a confused expression.

“What?”

“Your boob is vibrating.” He says. I had forgot my phone was tucked there. I pull my phone out of my bra and glance at the screen to see 3 new messages from Cassie.

I let out a long sigh. “I promised I wouldn’t leave her alone.” I say. Grey shrugs and leans back in to kiss me again, but I pull away.

“Come on, your party awaits.”