The Party Scene

Chapter 12
The Scene of the Party

The next day, and the following days after, things for Athena and Alex stayed the same. Alex didn't let her know that he'd found out that she had raided through his inbox of text messages. He so badly wanted to ask her why she had invaded his privacy, but then he knew the answer to that. He'd most likely do the same thing if he were in her shoes. He shouldn't be trusted and he knew that. He was constantly reminded of his actions when he would see and talk with Athena, and how she could still manage to put it past her that she was being cheated on. So on the brink of the cloudy Friday morning that was rolling around, Alex perked up the courage to ask her just what he had been wanted to ask.

"Athena, can I ask you something?" he said as the two were holding hands down the hallway of school. For a second she didn't answer, and he knew that she wasn't expecting him to be the one to bring it up.

"Yeah, of course you can." she hesitated with a scared look in her eyes.

"Tuesday night..." he began.

"Oh Alex! I'm so sorry I know that I shouldn't have, I let curiosity get the best of me. I just had to know, although I already knew the answer. It's really unhealthy for us to both be sneaking around like this..." she said breaking down amid the center of the hall. Alex looked at her in utter shock as she chocked on the words she was saying to him.

"Hey, hey hey." he sighed combing his fingers through her hair as she pressed her face against his chest. "It's not your fault...you had all the rights to go behind my back and do this all. What I don't understand is why you let me continue on...it's clearly hurting you." he said placing his hands on her face making sure she looked at him as he said this.

"I didn't stop it because I knew you wouldn't stop. I don't want to loose you. I've already lost you, and I will continue to loose you...is there anyway that you can just make this all stop. Can't we both give this up..." she spoke hushed and sobs began to escape from her mouth. Alex embraced her in another hug where once again her face was buried in his chest, and he squeezed even more tightly as she began to sob even more. He lifted her chin up and kissed her forehead softly.

"I'm so sorry for this all...I can't imagine how hard it's been for you. I didn't mean for things to spin out of control." and that wasn't a lie, he never meant for this to happen, but it did and he couldn't stop it. No matter how much he wanted to.

"The truth is." she paused. "I don't know how much longer I can put up with this...I said I'd give you one more chance, and you've blown it, yet here we are...this is a really long chance, I'm going to give you some time to get this all straightened out...and when you've figured out who you want to be with let me know. Because it's killing me waiting and keeping these secrets from you." she said drifting away from him.

"Wait!" he called out to her, and she turned around. "Does this mean...?" he paused.

"Yes..." she sighed and nodded and made her way through the mob of students who'd probably witnessed the whole thing. She didn't care. She didn't have time to care. All that was on her mind was the guy of her dreams was left behind her, and she never thought she would be the one to say they were...

"On a break!?" shouted Jack during lunch.

"I think so...Jack I don't know what to do..." he said slumping down in his chair.

"END THINGS WITH LENA!" shouted Amanda.

"Take it easy, I don't think the whole cafeteria heard you." said Alex.

"Then I'll say it again. END THINGS WITH LENA NOW!" she said even louder, people were staring at her.

"She's right, Alex. You need to end it...it's not right...Athena cares about you." said their friend Amy.

"It's not that easy...don't you think I want to?" he questioned, regretting it instantly.

"NO!" everyone said together.

"What!" he exclaimed.

"You never showed that you cared for Athena, and if you had wanted to be with her enough, you would have learned to let go of Lena. You didn't show any signs of moving on from her. Which means you didn't work hard enough to be with Athena. You didn't want her enough. So obviously it wasn't hard to cheat on her like that." said Amanda furious with him. Everyone stared at her for a minute. Rian had never known that she had it in her to talk that was to anyone, and especially to Alex. No one ever talked to him like that. And for good reason.

"You know what...I don't need this from you Amanda. And if you knew what was good for you, and your secrets it would be wise to keep your mouth shut. Don't forget you and I know a lot more about each other than one would think." he bellowed and belted out of his seat storming out of the cafeteria.

"Oh great, you made him mad Amanda, why'd you have to go and do that?" exclaimed Samantha who had kept her mouth shut the whole time.

"I didn't mean to, but you ALL know that it's true, everything that I said, it's all true. Maybe him and Lena do deserve to be with each other." she said looking down at her food, she suddenly wasn't hungry. She never just lashed out on someone like that, especially one of her closest friends.

"What secrets was he talking about?" asked Rian looking at her, if Alex knew something about Amanda that he didn't know, then there was a problem, because he and Amanda were actual best friends, and always shared everything with each other.

"I have no idea." she mumbled. Lie.

Hours later after school the boys met up at Alex's house, even though Alex really wasn't in the mood to have anyone over, even them.

"This Athena thing is really messing you up isn't it?" asked Jack.

"I'm fine...how are you handling Cayden being with Tyler?" he asked changing the topic so he didn't have to answer the questions.

"That's his name...I didn't even know that." he sighed. "I'm okay I guess, I try not to think about it. But every time I do, I picture myself slamming my fist into his face. He's such a pretty boy. And is disgusts me." he replied.

"Alex is a pretty boy, does he disgust you too?" joked Rian.

"Shut up!" laughed Jack.

"That's not true...I'm not a pretty boy." smirked Alex, there was no denying it...his style had definitely changed over the years.

"You guys, seriously....what am I going to do about Cayden, I still like her, and yet every time I see her I'm upset with her. And I can't talk with her, it's been a while since we've hung out. She'd even stopped trying to get me to say hi back to her." he pouted.

"Maybe you should try to put it behind you...and get over the fact that she's with him, and just try to be her friend again...?" suggested Rian.

"Why is that the explanation for everything, 'just put it behind you and forget it all.' What does that do? It doesn't solve anything." said Alex bitterly, "It's still always haunting you, it doesn't go away." and with that he walked out of the room. The others didn't follow him, knowing he needed to get the steam off of him.

As he entered his room his phone sounded off in his back pocket, he reached for it, and noticed it was Lena.

"Hey." he sighed.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"Athena and I...like always." he said knowing he sounded like a broken record to her by now.

"Well, forget about her for right now...how would you like to come to a party?" she asked with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"A party, who's party?" he questioned.

"Yes a party...mine..." she paused giggling.

"Yours?" he asked confused.

"My parents are out for the weekend.

"And they left you alone?" he asked her.

"Well, I'm suppose to be over at a friends house, but where's the fun in that. You can invite Jack, and Rian...and Zack even if you want. It's not going to be big or anything, but I just want to have some fun, let them invite the girls you all hang out with too, if they want." she explained.

"Well, it sounds like fun...I think we will definitely come, even if I have to drag them...time?" he asked suddenly feeling better.

"Seven or so...and no specific time to leave either." she answered.

"Great see you later!" he exclaimed ending the call. Maybe this wasn't a good idea, since he was trying to win Athena back...he could do that after tonight. A party was exactly what he needed now.

Back downstairs Rian and Jack were wrestling each other...and Alex frankly couldn't tell who was winning it appeared the couch cushions were to be honest.

"Hey you two...want to go to a party tonight?" he grinned.

"Who's?" they said in unison.

"Lena...I know, I know but come on, it will be fun!" he shouted. They both looked at him concerned.

"I don't..." began Rian.

"She said you can invite the girls, and we can have Zack come too." Alex quickly interrupted to inform them.

"Jack likes to party!" he exclaimed. Granted none of the boys had ever been to a 'real' party.

"Great! So we'll call the girls up, and Zack!" shouted Alex.

"And how about Athena..." questioned Rian.

"What about her... she wouldn't come to this, and we're on a break, so it doesn't even matter." he responded. Rian looked at him again. "You are exactly like Amanda, maybe some of her rubbed off on you..."

For the next thirty minutes or so the boys all called their friends, all were able to come, and it was bound to be a good night. But with everyone together in a room full of teens with no adults, and lord knows what else, things were bound to also get out of control. However this was one thing no one was aware about just yet. It didn't seem important to worry about.

"Hey Zack, it's Jack...party tonight can you meet us here at Alex's?" he asked calling the last on the list.

"Umm, well I don't have a ride right now, but can I show up a little later at the actual party...who's party by the way?" he said on the other line.

"Lena...and I guess... Just have your mom drop you off here and then walk down the street so she doesn't know what you're up to." he explained thinking of this plan all on his own, so not to get Zack in trouble for being at a unsupervised party. Alex and Rian glanced over at him and gave him thumbs up.

The night was quickly approaching and it was now six thirty, and the girls were all showing up. First entered Amanda in a pair of regular shorts, and a designed v-cut tee. She walked over to Rian and whispered something to him, then took a seat on the couch. Behind her followed Samantha with Amy. Samantha was dolled up in a pair of shorts with gems outlining the pockets, and a festive shirt full of colors. And Amy sported the casual kaki Capri's with a elegant light green shirt.

"So is this everyone?" asked Samantha.

"This is all we had on our list, except for Zack, and he's showing up later. So yeah." said Alex.

"Good, no Ali!" she sighed in relief.

"Well...yeah we didn't think you would want her, just hope that Zack doesn't invite her..." he chuckled back.

"He better not. We had a talk about this on Tuesday." she said bitterly.

"There isn't going to be beer or anything at this party right?" asked Amanda with a worried look on her face. She was the clean one of the group. Well, they all were really, none had experienced a party like this. But even then, she could bet on it, that most of them would fall under the influence and have a drink if it was provided. And she pledged to herself to stay clean.

"Amanda, it's a party, and it's that Lena girl she's wild. No parents...it's bound to have alcohol there...if you can't handle it maybe you should sit it out." suggested Amy, she always looked out for Amanda, but didn't understand why she was going to attend this party if she really didn't want to. But Amanda had her reasons. She knew if she made her appearance here that Alex wouldn't tell her secrets. Well, she could only hope so at least, she had a little surprise for Alex. Hopefully he wouldn't hate her, but that wasn't likely.

"We should leave now." said Alex seeing the time on the clock was ten till seven.

They all gathered up and made their way down the street, a few minutes later they all stood on the steps of Lena's porch. She greeted them all as she opened the door, and immediately pulled Alex to the side, causing everyone to stare.

"I'm so glad you came, and brought them." she smiled getting closer to him. He looked around and noticed only a few others here, none that he knew.

"Who are they?" he pointed.

"That over there is my best friend Stephanie." she pointed to the girl dancing with some guy." And that's the only important person you need to be concerned by, the others are her friends.

"Oh okay...well Zack is coming later..." he mentioned.

"Great!" she grinned mischievously, leading him more into the room.

Over the course of the next half hour nothing exciting had seemed to really happen yet, everyone just sat around eating the snacks that were laid out on a long table. More people had shown up now. It was a pretty decent size party, students from school were here, obviously other friends Lena had made, or was hoping to make friends with. And Amanda and Rian sat around near each other on the couch whispering things to each other. Just then the door opened, and both of them looked up quickly, as if expecting someone... It however was Zack, and some girl that no one else knew. No one, except Samantha.

"Jenna!" she shouted rushing over to her best friend.

"Samantha!" she shouted back giving her a huge hug. Samantha released her and looked at what she was wearing. Jenna stood there shyly shuffling her feet and fixing her hair. "You look fantastic!" she said looking her up and down. Jenna wore a light blue spaghetti strap blouse with white tropical flowers lining the bottom of it, and the shirt practically covered up her shorts that she was wearing and she had on a pair of brown flip-flops, her accessories we're a pair of sunglasses that she was now taking off. And they didn't look cheap, on the side was a fancy design and she also wore a silver locket chained necklace, she made samantha look completely underdressed. But that didn't even matter, all that Samantha knew was she was thrilled to have Jenna here, and secretly jumping up and down at the sight of Zack. He had cleaned up well for the evening. There was only one thing that got on her nerves about him, and that was the fact that his hair was practically longer than hers was. But tonight he had it out of his eyes, so Samantha could fall madly into them for the night. It now appeared that everyone was here that knew about it, but that was before the doorbell rang again. Amanda and Rian both looked up again.

"What's with you two?" asked Alex. Neither answered until they saw who it was entering.

"Nothing..." they answered together. Entering the room was Ali, and no one was shocked by this, except for Samantha, she looked over to Zack, and it didn't phase him on bit.

"She called and asked what I was doing...I told her going to a party, I didn't tell her who's but I suppose everyone knows about this here..." he explained. The place was now getting more full by the minute. Everyone was telling their friends about it.

"ZACK!" she shouted over the sounds of R. Kelly blaring through the speakers. Now I'm not tryin' to be rude, but hey, pretty girl, I'm feelin' you, the way you do the things you do. "Zack, this is the party you were coming to, what a coincidence." she squealed. Samantha groaned, and Ali heard. "What was that about, are you still not talking to me?" she spat.

"Thats right, how can I...I can't trust you anymore." she spat back. The song had just ended, and everything was silent except for the two bickering back and forth.

"Hey!" shouted Lena. "This isn't a time to be fighting, come on this is a party everyone start dancing more!" she said grabbing Alex's hand quickly and placing herself against him. Ali ran over to Zack and thrust herself towards him, giving him no choice but to dance with her. She shot evil glares to Samantha, whom couldn't believe this was happening. Her ex-best friend someone she thought she could trust, was being one incredible pain in the ass.

"Want to dance?" asked Rian to Amanda.

"Not to this song, I can't even understand what they're saying besides 'booty poppin'" she laughed.

"Yeah I can't stand this Rap music either..." he sighed. She couldn't help but notice a hint of desperation in his voice as she turned down dancing with him. Across from them was still Samantha wanting nothing more than to strangle someone. *cough* Ali. And Amanda saw the frustration in her eyes. "Sam...it's going to be okay, maybe on the next song you can steal him, you said he doesn't want to be with her anyway...so he'll have to take a break from her eventually, and by the looks of how she's grinding him. He's going to need a break soon, he'll probably hide from her or something. It's obvious he wants you." she said trying to comfort her friend.

"She's right...Zack wants you whether or not he knows it yet. You've just got to get that hoe out of the way. Maybe talk to Lena, and see if she can kick Ali out." suggested Jenna sitting next to Samantha.

"HA, I can't get her kicked out, besides I hardly know Lena, none of us do except Alex." she quickly said.

"Then tell Alex to tell Lena to kick Ali out. She'd do anything he asked her to right?" asked Jenna.

"She'd do anything he asked her, for sure." blurted Amanda. Samantha and Jenna, as well as Rian all looked at her oddly. "Sorry, but it's true, she's a pushover." she said embarrassed.

"Maybe I can talk to him...and have him ask her. But that makes me look bad." said Samantha frustrated. "I'm just going to deal with her being here." she finalized.

Back to the real scene of the party, was its hostess. The sheer intensity of the house and the grind-fest was enough to scare anyone, and added onto that was the alcohol. The tolerance of the party was now slumping to a zero. The music was so incredibly loud, loud enough to make a person go deaf in fact. The back of Alex's neck dripped with sweat as Lena was faced opposite him grinding her hips into Alex as he felt her body all over while her hand was placed on the back of his neck. He could barely think straight with everything that was going on.

"Want a drink?" she asked looking up at him as they continued to dance. He shook his head up and down, and Lena quickly ran off into the other room to get some drinks. A moment later she returned with two plastic cups, and a clear substance filled them.

"What is it? he asked.

"Not sure...something my dad keeps hidden, he doesn't hide things very well." she giggled. Alex smelled the substance and watched as Lena began to sip it down, she obviously had been in the whole 'party scene' before, but he hadn't. "Common' Alex it's not going to hurt you..." she continued to giggle.

"No I know that." he laughed taking a sip of the drink she had given to him.

"So?" she said leaning in forward to him.

"Not bad!" he said taking another drink. Another forty minutes later, more and more people had shown up, and surrounded around Alex was a swarm of people wall to wall and on the floor were empty glasses and broken bottles.

"Why don't we.. we, take this to a more exclusive room?" stuttered Lena. Alex nodded and wobbled off behind her. As they made their way through the crowd Alex spotted Jack in the midst of everyone. Alex held his thumbs up, and Jack saw and held his thumbs down.

"Hang on..." he said to Lena making his way to Jack. "What?" he breathed out as he approached Jack.

"Cay is here with that guy..." he sighed. "Are...are you drunk Alex?" he asked noticing could hardly stand up straight.

"I...I'm not sure...but I think so." he slurred and walked off to the other room to find Lena.

"You know what we need to play?" she asked. Alex shook his head left to right. Never have I ever. Have you played that?" she asked. Once again he shook his head. "Lets gather your friends and have them play!" she said excitedly, obviously managing her alcohol better than he was.

Jack, Rian, Zack, Samantha, Amanda, Amy, Jenna, even Cayden and her boyfriend all came out to the backyard as asked to by Alex and Lena.

"So how is this game played?" they all asked.

"Well, different ways, but how I play is someone starts out with 'Never have I ever' and they say something that they've done, and if someone else has done it they will take a drink, she said placing down eleven cups and laying down a few bottles of alcohol. So, if you've done this, you will take a drink...and if you're the only one who has done this, you have to give a little story about it. Simple enough?" she asked after explaining the rules. They all nodded.

"What if I don't want to drink though?" asked Amanda.

"Well, then I suppose I can give you a bottle of water instead..." suggested Lena.

So, the eleven of them all sat down in a circle. And Lena started the game out.
"Never have I ever...made-out with someone in this circle." she laughed and took a sip, following her was Alex, and a few seconds later Cayden and her boyfriend. And unexpectedly Jenna...then slowly Zack took a drink. Everyone glanced over to them Samantha placed on a questioning grin on her face, but decided to ignore what had just happened. Next was Alex's turn.

"Never have I ever...stuck someone's hand in water to see if they would pee." he said thinking about the time he'd done that, then took his drink. Jack, Rian both took a drink as well. Next was Cayden who was sitting next to Alex.

"Um, never have I ever snuck out of my house to see someone." she hesitated. Then she took her drink, along with Lena and Alex, and Jenna. Everyone had to admit the game was fun, and a good way to get to know things that people had done, and coming up was Cayden's boyfriend Tyler whom no one knew.

"Never have I ever...lied to my parents." he finally said. Every single one in the circle took a drink. "Well, aren't we a bad group of people?" he laughed, everyone else chimed in.

"Amy, you're up!" said everyone.

"Well, lets see...Never have I ever watched a naughty movie" she said blushing, everyone laughed. Everyone except Amanda and Zack took a drink. "What, common' you two, you've had to have like flipped something on tv and been a little curious." laughed Amy.

"Nope...I haven't." said Amanda feeling her face turning red as everyone faced her. "Neither has he!" she pointed to Zack.

"He's lying...Zack, I saw you flip through and stop for a minute when Girls Gone Wild came on...take a drink!" shouted Jenna. Once again everyone burst out laughing at him and cheered him on to take his drink, until he finally did. Now it was Samantha's turn to ask the question.

"Never...never have I ever...had a crush on someone in this circle." she said taking her drink...for a moment no one else did. Then Alex and Lena took their drinks. The secrets had been going on for a long time... It was about time someone confessed.
Then Amanda took a sip of her water, everyone stared at her wondering who it was, although a few already knew, then Rian took a sip of his drink. Everyone stared at them both.

"I KNEW IT!" everyone shouted. Rian looked over to her, and she looked and him, then stood up and ran back into the house. Jack's too took a sip, but no one took note of that, except maybe Cayden...who couldn't help but feel bad.

"What did I do?" asked Rian staring at the spot where she had just sat. "Maybe she's embarrassed." said Cayden. Just then a voice came out of nowhere...

"Never have I ever been cheated on or cheated on someone or been involved in any cheated situation." said the females voice. Everyone turned around to the doorway. Then instantly all jaws dropped, but no ones dropped quite as far as Alex's did.

"ATHENA WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" he shouted.

"Go ahead Alex...take that drink...you too Lena..." snapped Athena sitting down where Amanda had previously sat, so she was right across from Alex.

"Answer me...what the hell are you doing here?" he stuttered.

"I invited her Alex!" shouted Amanda coming back outside. "Alex, you're not changing...Athena needs to know what's been going on. You're not trying to win her back at all by being drunk here at this party. This was a bad idea." she said furiously.

"Amanda!! You invited her? Why!" shouted Alex.

"Why! Because Alex, anyway Rian agreed she should be here to see what exactly what would happen." she said with an attitude.

"That's why you two were acting all strange earlier?" he questioned. "Well, just for that...Rian..." he began.

"Alex, DON'T!" shouted Amanda running over to him trying to cover up his mouth, but she was too late.

"Amanda's had a crush on you since who knows how long." he finished just as Amanda tackled him to the ground. "Ow, get off me!" he shouted, and half laughing, most likely not knowing what was going on.

"Alexander William Gaskarth!" she said sitting on top of him. "I..ugh!" she said punching him in the chest playfully but effective enough to get her point across.

"Jack thinks this game is getting out of hand, and is over." he said standing up, everyone else agreed. No one else wanted any more secrets to be spilled next, although they all couldn't help but wonder who would be next, everyone was hiding a secret.

Everyone slowly made their way back into the house, by now just about everyone was passed out...everywhere. The music was still playing, the song Why Can't I by Liz Phair was playing.

"Zack..." said Samantha walking up to him.

"Hmm?" he sounded looking down at her.

"Why didn't you take your drink when I asked my question?" she asked.

"Want to dance?" he asked diverting the question.

"I suppose...?" she said confused. He took her by the hips and moved in closer to her, she placed her head on his chest as they swayed back and forth.
Why can't I breathe whenever I think about you. Why can't I speak whenever I talk about you.

"Zack..." she said again. He looked down at her, but didn't answer, instead he did something she wasn't expecting. He kissed her, in the center of the room, where everyone was watching, well the group of people that weren't passed out, which included all their friends.
It's inevitable, it's a fact that we're gonna get down to it. So tell me, why can't I breathe whenever I think about you. Maybe it was the alcohol, or maybe not. Samantha didn't know. The only thing that she did know was that she was on top of the earth at this moment. "Zack!" she said breaking apart from him. He shook his head and put his finger on her lip indicating for her not to talk, and he leaned down and kissed her once more.

On the opposite side of the room was Alex he could feel the room spinning around him, and it wasn't a good feeling. Athena was in the seat across from him pestering him with questions.

"Why did you even come to this?" she asked.

"Because I can." he responded.

"Why can't you give her up!" she spat.

"It's... I. This, it's hard." he tripped over his words.

"He's drunk...stop asking him questions!" shouted Lena.

"Why don't you just stay out of this, you're the reason for all of this." said Athena standing up making her way over to Lena.

"Hey. Don't...just stop." said Alex who had just fallen off the edge of the couch hitting his head on the hard wood floor.

"I'm out of here." busted Athena exiting the house slamming the door. Everyone who was passed out made an obnoxious groan.

So what exactly have we learned tonight. Alex was wasted. Athena caught him in the act of cheating, regardless of if she and he were on a break. Amanda and Rian both liked each other, and now both knew it. Zack obviously wasn't over Samantha. And Jenna, sometime in the past year had made-out with Zack. And Ali...she went missing. It turns out, she got so hammered she hooked up with some other guy. It wasn't until 3 AM when everyone was cleared out of Lena's house, everyone except Alex.

"Hey..." she said shaking him, no longer buzzed with alcohol.

"Hmmm?" he mumbled.

"You can't go home like this, why don't you just stay here with me." she suggested.

"Mhmm." he continued.

"Come on." she said managing to pull him up, he followed her to where she led him, which appeared to be her bedroom.

"Lena..." he slurred.

"Yeah?" she questioned as they both laid down on her bed. He didn't say anything, but leaned in to kiss her as he had done many times that night, only this time he was drunk, and there was no supervision. Let's just hope our young Alex Gaskarth doesn't make a mistake that he'll regret in the morning.