When the Party's Over

“Mom!” I shouted from the floor of my closet.

“What? Where’s the fire?” She rushed in, opening my door behind me.

I turned to her with an annoyed expression. “What did you do with my boots?”

“I didn’t touch your boots. Did you look in the closet downstairs?”

“Why would they be in the closet downstairs?”

“Alright, lose the attitude. I’m trying to help you.”

“I don’t have an attitude,” I faced my closet again and rolled my eyes. She was so dramatic. “Miles is picking me up in like five seconds and I can’t find my boots.”

“It’s not the end of the world, Harley. They’re probably somewhere in there.”

I groaned and moved the garbage bag of winter clothes away from the right side. Under it were my boots. “What the fuck,” I breathed and sat back to pull them on. I stood up and closed the closet door to look at myself in the mirror on the back of it. I fixed my hair and pushed one side behind my ear. Miles texted me when he was outside. I grabbed my overnight bag and turned my light off.

“I’ll be at Jill’s tonight!” I shouted through the house and rushed outside before my parents could say anything. I hoped into Miles’ car and buckled myself in as he drove to our spot.

“Do we have to go out tonight?”

“What? Now you don’t want to?” I teased him.

“Well, you look like that.”

“What does that mean?” I laughed, touching his shoulder.

“I’d rather take you back home so I can see what you’re wearing under those clothes.”

“There’s a perfectly usable backseat.”

Miles grinned to himself and shook his head. “Nah. It wasn’t comfortable that time.”

“I don’t know. For me it was.”

Miles took my hand into his and kept it against his thigh as he drove to the restaurant. It was our date night, even though I told my parents we were going out with friends and that I was sleeping over at Jill’s. In reality, Miles and I were going out and I would be spending the night at his house. His parents didn’t know either and they didn’t need to since they were out of town this weekend.

Miles and I sat at the bar like we usually did and we ordered burgers and fries and milkshakes. I never got sick of eating all of it with him. The bartender said she loved seeing us sitting there, pretending to be adults. She had missed us for a few months when we stopped coming here and she was ecstatic when we were back. It was good to see her.

“Hey, Miles!” We both looked over our shoulders at one of Miles’ friends. He walked over to us from where he sat with a girl I didn’t recognize. “Hey, how you guys doin’?” He put his arms around both of our shoulders and I shrugged him off. He glanced at me oddly then looked at Miles, clapping his free shoulder. “Yo, are you goin’ to that party over on Beckett?”

“I don’t think–,” Miles shook his head, but it peaked my interest.

“We’ll be there,” I interrupted, giving his friend a smile.

“Awesome! I’ll see you guys there!”

Miles looked at me questioningly when the guy left. “What? We had nothing else planned.”

“We can go as long as you promise not to drink a lot.”

“Two drinks, I promise.” I held out my pinky and smiled when he wrapped his around it. Our burgers came and we stuffed our faces until we were full. We skipped on dessert since our milkshakes were filling enough and Miles paid for everything. I thanked him as we walked out and got back into his car to head to the party. “I wish you didn’t miss the Halloween party. It was a lot of fun.”

“What’d you dress up as?” He looked over at me as he stopped at a light.

“Take a guess,” I grinned.

He thought for a moment, leaning his head back. “I don’t know. I think you’d make a good serial killer.”

“Fuck you,” I punched his arm as the light turned green. “That is close though. I was Harley Quinn from Suicide Squad.”

“Jesus Christ.”

I laughed as he turned onto Woodbridge, the street over from Beckett. He parked the car and I left my bag on the seat as he locked it and we walked the rest of the way. We went through the backyard and I held the back sliding door open for him as I walked in and heard the chatter throughout the house. I could faintly hear the music playing from somewhere. Miles followed me into the kitchen so I could grab a drink. He poured himself one too then took my hand to lead me toward the music. I hummed along to the song and leaned against Miles as he found a few of his friends, including the guy from the restaurant.

“We didn’t know you were coming, man.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, but Harley wanted to.”

“I think they’re playing a game of beer pong, you wanna be a team?”

“Nah, I gotta drive tonight, but I’ll watch.” Miles kept an arm around my shoulders with my back to him. I watched most of the girls staring at me, or Miles, I couldn’t be sure. It pissed me off, but I kept my cool with Miles here with me. If I had been by myself I would’ve confronted them. Miles, in some weird way, calmed me down more than usual. People were always quick to make me annoyed or angry, but Miles’ presence soothed me.

We went outside to the beer pong table as the two teams filled their cups. I sipped from mine as I waited for the game to start. Miles stood beside me, his hand in his pocket while the other held his cup.

“Hey! How’s my Little Monster doin’?”

My eyes met a pair on the other side of the table as he smirked at me. I knew that smirk. I remember that smirk on him when he was wearing his cop costume. I felt Miles’ eyes on the side of my face. He was looking at the cop guy when I looked up at him and touched his forearm. “Let’s go back inside. It’s cold out here.”

“What’s he talking about?” He motioned to the guy with his head.

“I-I don’t know. Come on,” I pulled on his arm, but only managed to get it out of his pocket.

The first ball was tossed, hitting the table and bouncing to the grass. I swallowed nervously as I looked back at the guy. He glanced at Miles and widened his smile as he started to make his way around the table.

“What, you move on already? I thought we had a good time.”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“Aw, come on, Harley Quinn. You knew my name on Halloween.”

Miles stepped in front of me then and switched his drink into his other hand. “What’s he talking about, Harley?”

I clenched my jaw as I looked away from Miles’ worried brown eyes. “Who are you? Her boyfriend?” Miles gave the guy a hard look and his arrogant expression instead stayed right where it was. “Looks like she had a better time with me than you, man, sorry.”

“Shut the fuck up.” I hissed, but Miles nudged me away before his fist met the cop guy’s cheek. I grabbed Miles’ shoulder to stop him, but he pushed me harder this time, knocking my drink onto my jeans. “Miles, stop it!” His fist connected again and again before he gave up and threw his drink down on the grass. Miles took a deep breath and didn’t look at me as he headed toward the gate. I followed him, trying to think of what to do next because I had no idea what just happened. I was nervous to even approach him. I wanted to punch everybody, including cop guy, as they watched us leaving.