chapter three

"C'mon man, we're going to be late!" Jae hollers, leaning out of his car window so that he can flag Alex down at the end of his drive.

Alex ducks his head, trying to make himself as small as possible, embarrassed by his best friend, "Isn't it like... I don't know... good... to get there late?"

Jae laughs as he leans over to open the door to Alex's side, "Usually yes, but Junnie just text me saying that he's there already and I have a feeling that if we leave him there alone much longer we possibly won't live to see tomorrow"

Alex hums, quickly sliding into the car and putting his seat belt on as the thought of Lijun's wrath begins to form his head.

Him and Jae had met Lijun when the latter had just moved to Canada from China. They were out playing when a new family had pulled up to a house along Alex's street, a shy, young boy clutching to his mother's leg as they got out of the car and stood in front of the house.

The two boys, intrigued, made their way over to the new family once the mother had set her son down on the grass by the front door, ready to help move some boxes in.

They approached with shy smiles and introduced themselves as they waited patiently for the young boy to stutter through a few English syllables, unfamiliar with the new language to which Alex and Jae promised enthusiastically to help.

From that day, the three stuck together, they'd grown closer and they'd become friends, long into their high school years- despite joining different clubs and pursuing different interests.

Truth be told, although invited, Alex can't even believe that Lijun is even showing up to tonight's party, especially after he'd sworn off the team's house parties after one pretty memorable one (or for Alex a completely blurry one) a couple of weeks ago whereby he drunkenly danced on top of Logan's dining room table only to hit his head on her low swinging chandelier and fall into Jae's arms- knocked out cold.

Alex bit his lip to try and stop himself from smiling but given the look Jae throws him it seems like he's already been caught.

"Right well…" Jae starts the car before putting it in gear, "Let's go party...!"

~~~

Alex hadn't even been in Logan's house for more than five minutes before he'd already downed one drink and had been accosted by Lijun who was still whining to both him and Jae about how long they took to arrive.

"I'm sorry, but Alex took forever getting ready" Jae defended only to have Alex jab him in the ribs

"You came late to my house" He accused, but Lijun just rolled his eyes at their playful quarrelling.

Sighing Lijun grabbed his drink and took a swing, "I think there's games going on upstairs- you know like seven minutes, truth or dare... all that"

Alex furrows his eyebrows as he looks at Lijun quizzically, "I didn't think that was necessarily our scene"

The shorter shrugs, placing his drink down, "Well it beats whatever beer pong game and awkward dancing is going on down here... plus I think I saw Charlotte upstairs"

Lijun winks in Alex's general direction, before turning his attention to Jae who had already been stolen from them by his girlfriend, Sierra, and they were now heading to the kitchen, probably for some alcohol- as you can never endure a house party sober, especially Logan's.

Alexander opts just to skirt around the edge of Logan's front room, offering the odd smile or wave to those who spot him- being the captain of the basketball team and a straight A student, Jae calls Alex's social presence 'legendary'- everyone knows him, and being the friendly Canadian he is, Alex can't help but offer a smile or engage in conversation.

He supposes that's how him and Charlotte got so close. They were childhood friends and spent a lot of time with each other since their parents worked together. It was clear that his parents liked Charlotte for him, they saw them as a good match, and as Alex is generally easy going and unconfrontational, he concludes that that's why one day they were just playmates and the next he was sat in a café across from her, picking at the whipped cream on the top of his drink and making polite conversation as if they were something more than just friends. She is a lovely girl- a cheerleader who also has an impressive academic record that could rival his- but she was just a friend. Not that anyone really believed him when he told them that though.

Alex spots a member the student council from across the room who gives him a little nod before gesturing upstairs, and Alex gives him a thumbs up. He didn't necessarily want to play truth or dare and he really didn't want to partake in seven minutes of heaven- but since he's here he might as well go upstairs and mingle with some of his more sober friends.

After he climbs the stairs, turning into the second door on the left which was wide open, he sees a good portion of his basketball team sprawled across the room, either nursing a drink in their hand or some pot. As their captain he should give them grief, as their friend he almost asks them to share, but he stops himself as he spots Jae and Sierra sat off to the side next to Lijun and some of his friends from his art class and Alexander's from his music production class.

Alex scans the room slowly, there's his team, students from all different school departments and Charlotte also brought along some of the cheerleaders, there's a good mix of people present.

Sierra is the one who spots Alex, opting to give him a warm smile before gesturing him over, and so he complies, sitting crossed legged as Logan throws his head back, downing whatever liquid was left in his bottle, only to place it dramatically in the middle of the room, "Who's ready?"

There's a chorus of responses before Logan is spinning the bottle himself and the room grows quieter.

Alex feels like he's fourteen, waiting for the bottle to stop seems to take forever, and even though it's not his turn he feels his hands grow clammy from anticipation.

The bottle slows to point at a short girl with mousy brown hair who blushes slightly. What seems like the entirety of the basketball team begin to shout, some slapping Logan's back and arms in excitement.

He swiftly gets into his feet, walking a couple of steps only to drop down onto his knees and deliver (what seemed like to Alex) an awfully long and enthusiastic kiss.

Alex felt his toes scrunch up as he watched them and cheered with the rest of his friends when it was finally over.

A couple of spins later and everyone's in a more relaxed state- things still get loud whenever the bottle stops spinning but as the time draws closer to midnight and more and more alcohol is consumed, Alex feels more free- he's not holding his breath like he was when he first started playing.

"Alex, Alex!" Someone yells over the noise and suddenly he's being pushed forwards, "Captain's turn!"

He lets out a laugh as he flicks the bottle, sending it spinning. He's not really worried about who it lands on, it's just a game, yet when someone reaches out and stops the bottle firmly, the neck pointing at Charlotte, Alex's brain short-circuits and suddenly he's not as drunk as he thought he was.

The room is in uproar once again, and before Alex knows it, "kiss her! kiss her!" is being chanted and suddenly he begins to panic.

Apologising silently beforehand Alex shuffles over to her, leaning in slowly, only to place a quick kiss on her cheek, which leaves Charlotte completely stunned.

"Aww man! What was that?" One of the boys gathered laughs and Alex could see Charlotte attempt to laugh along too

"You guys are animals- Alex is just being a gentleman" A girl to his left chimes in, earning a couple of other girls to voice their agreement with her, something along the lines of 'as expected from the golden boy'- and it's meant as a compliment, the swooning over his 'considerate' actions, but Alexander still feels a little bad, especially for Charlotte, "of course he isn't just going to kiss her in front of us all"

Alex, with his cheeks painted red, backs into his previous spot- watching as the commotion begins to die down and someone else spins the bottle- and it's not long before the noise levels peak again, this time for Jae and Lijun.

There is a few shrieks from a couple of the cheerleaders and Alex watches on apprehensively as Lijun turns to face Jae.

He feels as though his heart is about to jump out of his chest as Lijun leans in, placing his lips on Jae's. Their kiss is soft, gentle even as Jae brings his hand up to cup Lijun's jaw as he deepens the kiss.

Without meaning to Alex notices that he's holding his breath- his gaze solely concentrated on his two friends as they pull away slowly, eyes hooded.

It's almost as if time has stopped, as if everyone in the room was frozen. Everything was peaceful, until a deep voice shattered it all.

"Man, that's so gay"

There was another moment of silence before Jae laughed, throwing his arm around Lijun- his infamous eye- smile causing all the tension in the room to just melt away

"Just bros being bros" he jokes, and Alex elects to ignore the flash of hurt that falls over Lijun's face- he'll address that later, maybe.

The game picks up again and Jae retracts his arm from Lijun's shoulder to wrap his other around Sierra's waist, planting a kiss to her temple.

Alex almost cries in relief when someone shouts out to request, they change the game, now opting for truth or dare, which to be honest Alex doesn't think will be any better, but he welcomes the change nonetheless.

The requests are pretty basic, mostly to do with French kissing or shots, Lijun stays in the shadows for most of it which only makes Alex want the night to end faster.

He ends up choosing dare when it's his turn, all the truths seem to revolve around girls and he really doesn't want to upset Charlotte by answering something in the wrong way, so he deems 'dare' the lesser of two evils.

His dare has something to do with his phone, someone can sift through his contacts, camera roll, twitter, and to be honest he doesn't mind- it's not like he's hiding anything so he allows them to raid his phone- as long as they don't touch his music apps he can't really see the harm in it, already borderline tipsy to care.

"Yo DM someone!" One of the guys suggests, all shouting out random names of girls in their year, before someone else suggests he DM some lesser known celebrities to see if they respond, Alex laughs at that.

Jae takes his phone and tells everyone that he's messaged this Instagram star or something, saying something along the lines of how Alex had a thing for her eyes, which is an absolute lie but he lets him be, after all it's not like she'd ever open his message.

As morning approaches, the party begins to fizzle out, especially with classes early, and Alex suddenly finds himself in Jae's passenger seat, head resting against the window as he yawns into his sleeve.

Jae has always been their designated driver ever since he got his licence and even though Jae had been drinking, compared to Alexander he was relatively sober.

In the car was also Lijun who would usually get the bus back but since buses don't run at this time and Jae reasoned that he shouldn't get a stranger to drop him off- even if the stranger was said classmate and friend of Lijun's- the later found himself in the backseat, fiddling with his hands.

They arrived at Lijun's house pretty soon and Alex doesn't even realise that a couple of minutes later they're at his, until Jae nudges him gently, waking him up.

"Dude, we're here"

Alex hums as he sits himself up, blinking slowly as he tries to regain enough strength to get out of the car.

"Hey, quickly before you go... " Jae pulls Alex's phone out of his pocket and hands it over, but before he can thank him, Jae smiles sheepishly, scratching his neck

"So, you know how I had to message someone on your phone?" He asks and Alex nods sleepily

"Yeah, the Instagram girl or something-"

"Well here's the thing" Jae interjects, and Alex gets a sinking feeling in his gut, "I didn't message some girl... actually I messaged that boy, the model that you've been obsessed with for some reason"

And suddenly Alex is awake, eyes blown wide in shock. He scrambles to unlock his phone, failing several times and cursing silently to himself.

"I didn't say anything too embarrassing, just that you thought he was beautiful-"

"Jae!" Alex's face heats up, but Jae carries on oblivious

"What? It's not like you have a crush on him, or even swing that way... " Jae trails off, giving Alex a guilty smile "Look if it bothers you that much just message him the truth, your friend took your phone to mess with you but it doesn't mean anything and you've got a girlfriend"

"I don't have a..." Alex trails off, unable to finish his sentence.

He didn't have a girlfriend. He didn't have a crush on Jinhyuk. And he didn't need to clear anything up.

Jinhyuk wouldn't even check his messages so really... no harm was done, right?

Alex sighs, apologising to Jae for being a sleepy drunk to which the other brushes off with a 'don't worry', before stumbling out of the car and up his drive.

As luck would have it, he makes it upstairs and into his room without waking a soul, which he's pretty proud of.

Alex doesn't even get changed- or check his phone- before he falls onto his bed, eyes closing immediately and shortly after falling into a deep slumber.