The Aftermath

Heather thought this was a decent turnout. She didn’t recognize hardly any of the crowd now invading her house. It wasn’t so different from her other parties. Oddly, she didn’t really look forward to her parties, it just passed time. Heather looked for Ashley, who was one of the few people she could tolerate being around. After not finding her, she realized that she hadn’t seen Zack for a while either. The temptress smiled, hoping that meant the two were together. The two being together would at least justify this party in her mind. As much as she disguised her motive for getting to know Zack… she was also doing it for Ashley. It seemed obvious if not obnoxious how much Ashley mentioned him or went out of her way to see him. Her best friend also didn’t seem to have the best taste in guys so she’s hoping to see her with a good one for a change. She could hardly bare seeing Ashley’s stint with Brandon. She hated to watch but knew she had to let Ashley figure it out for herself. From what little she knew about Zack, he seemed to be kind and very caring of Ashley. In her mind it would be a win-win if the two could finally be together. Heather can appear bored by most but is deeply caring about the few that she feels attached to.

___

As Chloe and Kevin were setting out to find Zack, Chloe was nearly tackled by an **** Paul Martinez. Paul is a backup on the basketball team and has little self-control with both women and partying. After he obnoxiously bumped into Chloe, he somehow saw this as a fitting time to make a move. “I figured we’d both be wearing less clothing the first time you jumped me, Red.”

Chloe was internally fighting between anger and discomfort. Surprised by Paul’s slimy and distasteful flirting, she simply stepped back and leaned into Kevin, even gripping his shirt. Kevin was caught off guard himself momentarily before seeing how uncomfortable the sweet girl was. He decided to play along and wrapped his arms tightly around the gorgeous redhead hoping that it would help send a message. Chloe blushed slightly but made no effort to pull away. She surprisingly leaned into the basketball star a little closer.

The sloppy Paul hiccupped before turning to Kevin and laughing. “I should have figured you’d be just as selfish with the hotties as you are on the court.” He patted Kevin on the shoulder before bulldozered his way towards the kitchen to find his next target.

Kevin watched for a minute to make sure that Paul wasn’t coming back. He seemingly forgot how close he still was to Chloe. Finally noticing, he blushed and fake chuckled. “Sorry McRose… I was just trying to help keep away your Fanclub.”

Chloe blushed hard and teasingly pushed him away. “Is that what you have to tell yourself to cop a feel?” Before a flustered Kevin could answer she smiled and bumped into him, showing that she was only teasing. Kevin smiled at seeing this more forward side of her and found himself suddenly wanting to know more.

“I’m sure there’s more drunk creeps around here waiting to hit on you, if you want to cuddle again?” Kevin smirked and saw a smile with an eye roll in return from Chloe. The fiery girl gave him a teasing poke in the ribs followed by a warning point in his face and glaring eyes for the teasing. She wasn’t able to keep up the facade long as a small smile made its way onto her face. Kevin never would have guessed that he’d be the more nervous one in the banter between himself and the normally quiet girl. The pair locked eyes for many seconds before they both tried to collect themselves. At this point they have both forgotten about their task.

An amused spectator watched Chloe and Kevin. She was admittedly surprised by the pair. Scarlett now wondered where Chloe’s usual partner in crime, Zack, was. She does find some entertainment in toying with the tongue-tied guy. She admits to herself that he is cute and could lead to some entertainment in the future.

Kevin and Chloe weren’t the only ones to forget the task at hand. Amber was mid shot flirting with several of the boys in the kitchen. She hasn’t seen her target and gets sidetracked pretty easily. The attractive girl was being hit on by many guys and was definitely eating up the attention.

In a blink of an eye, Amber was now finding herself waking up on the couch with her head and stomach killing her. She didn’t know what time it was but could tell it was still dark outside and everyone who stayed was passed out. Not sure who was half wrapped around her, she pushed them off to make her way to the bathroom. On her way there, she saw an out of sorts Ashley doing her best to sneak out unnoticed. The normally confident cheerleader looked very mixed as she did her best to make it out of the house unnoticed. As Amber saw this, she finally remembered why she was there in the first place and that she recalled Ashley being with Zack earlier in the night. After watching Ashley scurry away, Amber made her way down the hallway peering into the rooms to see if she could find the unexpecting guy.

Zack was starting to come to his senses and tried to figure out if last night actually happened or was a fantasy. A large smile broke across his face as he recalled the night he shared with Ashley. After being lost in thought, he turned to his side to embrace the girl. Zack was disappointed to realize that she wasn’t there. In that moment he felt a sensation under the blanket and saw a bobbing movement. He threw his head back and enjoyed this new sensation before peeking under the blanket to see a head of blonde hair bobbing on his dick. He was instantly in heaven and through the blanket off to equally reward the girl. Much to his surprise it was brown eyes that met his gaze instead of blue. Zack jumped and looked around in a panic trying to figure out if he was still dreaming or not. The ‘Not Ashley’ tried to calm his panic and leaned up closer to him.

“Amber?!?” “What are you doing!?” A still panicking Zack nearly pushed her off the bed.

Amber was clearly only doing this to satisfy her friends but couldn’t help but feel hurt by his freaked-out reaction. Deep down she just wanted to feel wanted. She looked away starting to panic herself as her eyes teared up. She was at a loss of words and on the brink of bolting out of the room.

Zack started to slightly come back to as he noticed her alarming expression. He quickly conducted that something was off and didn’t want to escalate things further for the distraught girl. He gently grabbed her right hand and lightly lifted her chin with his other. “Amber… What’s going on?”

The distraught blonde nearly broke down, barely saying coherent sentences between the sobs. Zack wasn’t able to catch everything but through her breakdown, caught something about Harrison, and she’s sorry, and ‘they’ made her do it. She suddenly felt too guilty to even look at the boy as she stared in the corner of the room. His next action caught her even more off guard, as Zack gently pulled her into a tight hug. He laid her head on his chest and she was unsure at first but quickly accepted it in her current freak-out.

“To be honest I still don’t know what’s going on but if your friends pushed you to do something you didn’t want to do, you deserve better than that.” Amber was nearly entranced by his honesty and kindness as she looked up into his eyes. “I mean we don’t really know each other, but I could introduce you to other people that won’t use you for their own benefit.” Zack continued.

Amber was a complete mix of emotions and became overwhelmed by this stranger’s surprise kindness. She didn’t know how to react and suddenly started crying harder. Zack started to freak out hoping he didn’t do something to upset her and continued to hug her tightly. As he embraced the girl, she pulled her phone out behind him and deleted the ‘evidence’ pictures that she had taken while he was asleep. Amber then through her phone across the bed before basically jumping the guy and kissing him passionately. Zack has had more surprises than he’s built to deal with before 7 A.M. He gently pulled away from the aggressive girl much to her disappointment. Once again, she looked hurt and he quickly explained that he was flattered but in a complicated situation.

Amber was torn from being once again disappointed but also very attracted to his honesty and kindness. This was much different than the treatment she received from other guys. The now determined girl wiped her tears and looked deeply into his eyes. “Well, if things come uncomplicated, find me. I won’t wait forever but if it doesn’t work out, we could be good together.” She gave a final wipe of her errant tears and gives him a parting kiss. As she made her way to the door, she turned with a slight smile for the first time. “Thanks.” With that she blushed and made her way out of the room.

Zack’s mind was all over the place at this point as he tried to make sense of the night.