26 - Party From Hell

Aria’s POV

The car ride to the party venue was painfully quiet and Kyle had his jaw fixed the whole time and his eyes set on the road as he drove. I fiddled with my fingernails, my brain racking for something – anything at all to say to ease the tension that was already brewing within us and from my point of view, Kyle wasn’t making any effort at all.

“Are you going to say something?” I managed to voice out but I was only met with silence, until some moments later and he said.

“Not right now Aria.”

“Fine.” I agreed and soon enough we arrived at the location for his party which was already jam packed with people. There were people jumping in and out of the pool, staggering in and out of the house drunk and confused. I could already spot some couples way too freaky to be in public.

The moment Kyle and I got down from the car, he had the largest smile plastered on his face like he wasn’t just upset and brooding. Immediately, everyone rallied around us wishing him happy birthday with friendly taps on his back and hugs and Kyle was responsive to all. I felt a particular stab on my chest on how he could ignore me but he could smile with everyone else like I didn’t exist, or like I didn’t matter to him at all. I turned away and Sam caught up with me almost immediately and the moment she saw the pout on my face, she knew something was wrong and her eyebrows arched in concern.

“What’s wrong? How did the dinner go?” she asked and luckily for me she had a bottle of booze which she thrust into my hands and I accepted gratefully.

“It was a disaster.” I took a swig, grimacing at the burn in my throat but welcoming it regardless.

“What the hell happened Aria, you look really - sad.”

I sighed in response, taking another large sip because I wanted to feel the effects immediately, “Kyle’s family is so messed up – I mean his dad is a cheat and his mom is a raging feminist who hates every creature with a dick including her son.”

“What?! I mean why?”

“She literally spent the whole dinner talking about how much she hates men and how she wished she had a girl child instead – ”

“In front of Kyle?”

I nodded, “Apparently, his father cheated and Kyle happened to know about but he never told her so she’s been upset since and wouldn’t let go. It was painful to watch and I just sat there, peeling through my orange chicken, losing my appetite and being drawn between defending Kyle or just letting the whole scene play out.”

“That’s so messed up.” Sam said and then we both looked over at Kyle who was surrounded by his boys while they chanted as he tried to down a full bottle of wine, “What’s the deal with him, he seems fine?”

“Now he seems fine, he didn’t say a word to me on the ride here like I was the one saying those mean things to him.”

“He’s probably embarrassed that you had to see all those things about his family.”

“I know.” I groaned in frustration, looking at him again and wishing to be in his arms and everything was back to normal, “I just wish he’d talk to me, you know instead of just shutting me out.”

“Just give him some space, I’m sure he’d come around.” Sam said to me while she patted my shoulder. Then suddenly, her eyes went wild the way it did when she thought about a stupid idea or in her defense, a great idea.

“Come on, let’s go paint our faces. I saw some face paint in the corner and we should totally do it.”

I shot her an unbelievable look, “What are you – five?”

Sam laughed, taking the bottle from me to take a gulp, “What other opportunity would you have to paint your face Aria.”

“I don’t know, probably a carnival.”

“Or right now.” she pulled me with her laughing hysterically and one thing about Sam is that her laugh was always contagious, and it was infecting me already because soon enough the whole drama with Kyle was slowly slipping out and pushing back to the back of mind while I skipped into the party with her to paint our faces.

I spent the rest of the party painting faces, drinking, dancing and screaming loudly with Sam. I had a whole lion painted on my face by Sam while I managed a weak crocodile on hers in the most realistic way my drunk brain could conjure but there wasn’t a moment that I saw Kyle lurking around, and it hurt me that not for once he bothered to even look for me.

I was getting maxed out and I knew I had to find him, I missed him and I wanted my boyfriend. I turned to Sam who’s attention had already been occupied by a frat boy with blonde hair and ocean blue eyes that also kept licking his lips at every opportunity that he got.

“I gotta go find Kyle.” I whispered to Sam while she nodded at me and I pulled away from the crowd to find him. I searched through the building, staggering upstairs and back downstairs through drunken and raving cloud but there wasn’t a Kyle in sight or his deep laughter ringing above the crowd. Soon, I spotted Anthony, a freakishly tall dude that I’d seen rallying around Kyle earlier and was also in my literature class.
I quickly grabbed him by his arm to get his attention and he shot me a surprised look at first, “Hey, Anthony.” I smiled at him and he even got more confused, I have never really spoken to him before or maybe he had a crush on me in our freshman year, but he was a geek and I wasn’t doing geeks then – or even now.

“Have you seen Kyle?” I asked but his drunken eyes remained confused and I rolled my eyes in frustration.

“You know, tall, blue eyes – the celebrant of the birthday party you’re attending now.” I rang clearer and the look of recognition showed in his eyes.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, “I saw him out back a while ago, I don’t know about now.”

I didn’t wait for him to complete his statement before I pulled away and heading to back to see if Kyle was there.

“Kyle?” I called still battling my way through the throng of people that were at the back.

But then, it wasn’t long until I found him and when I did – my heart shattered into a tiny little pieces and I froze in shock.

There was Kyle in a lip lock with a strange blonde girl I had never seen before, and he was so engrossed in it that he didn’t even register that I was standing there with pieces of my broken heart in my hand.

“Kyle?” I managed, my voice faltering and tears gathering at the corner of my eyes even though I was determined not to let them fall.

“Oh shit!” I heard him mutter pulling away from her, while she sauntered away but Kyle remained – looking at me with wide eyes that bore no remorse in them and that was when I realized, it wasn’t a mistake – he knew exactly what he was doing.