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[color=wheat]If there had ever been a moment in Nathan Blake’s life where his entire mood was hindering on one moment, it was the impending sense of dread growing in the pit of his stomach as he waited for Jasper’s response. 

He didn’t do much. He gave her a simple greeting, acknowledged Ramona Martin,  and waited for whatever response was on its way. If he was being honest, he prepared himself for the inevitable rejection. Would he prefer to get down on the dancefloor? Of course, but Nate always prepared himself for the worst-case scenario. At least then he might be able to pick up the pieces of himself that remained after the fact and find someone else. At the same time, however, nobody likes getting rejected and Nate was one of them.

So Nate waited in agonizing silene and smiled to keep his spirits away and appear ‘normal’. Jasper spoke to Mona and he lingered about awkwardly until her soul-piercing eyes landed on him. He had been through this particular rodeo to know when someone was trying to decide on rejection or giving him a chance. The way her eyes reduced all of his barriers to rubble was proof of this, so he did his best to not seem afraid for his life, but Jasper was an assertive girl and he couldn’t help but feel venerable near her. That and she was just so gosh-darn sexy that Nate couldn’t peel his gaze from hers.

[color=50c878]“I can hold my liquor, no problem!”[/color] Nate grinned, knowing if he didn’t at least say that he could, all hopes were lost. Truth was, he never was a big fan of alcohol but whatever it took, right? [color=50c878]“So, who’s going first?”[/color] Nate asked, exchanging a glance with Mona and Jasper.

Dead silence.

[color=50c878][i]Hello silence, my old friend.[/i][/color]

Paranoia and the voices in his head that told him the worst happened began to set in as Nate wondered if he said the wrong thing. He did this a lot and tried his best not to, but his mouth had a will of its own... sometimes. It was only a few seconds later that Nate realized what the cause of silence was and it wasn’t his mouth or overall presence that made Jasper suddenly look as though she wanted to punch someone.

[color=50c878]“Uh, maybe I should--”[/color]

[color=BC8DBF]"Well come on you two. Try and keep up,"[/color]

[color=50c878]"Coming!"[/color]

Nate’s feet moved before common sense could advise him to think about his next action quickly. Whatever was going to happen with Jasper, her brother, and the redhead making moves on Ty, Nate knew it wasn’t going to be good. Still, like the curious, lovable dog that he was, Nate followed with gusto.[/color]
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[color=lightcyan]As familiar surroundings took Theodore down a path straight to the beverages table, the ginger teen couldn’t stop himself from smiling at how the party itself was starting to come together as faces he knew showed up at one point or the other. Between the gathering crowd at the beverages table that had some people that Theo preferred not to get involved with (save for Nate and Mona) and, of course, the disaster-in-the-making with Baby MacMillan and Dark and Edgy, Ty Delamar, he was keeping his distance. This was due to how he knew a storm was about to rage about and he didn’t want to be anywhere near the rising tides that was Ty’s sister, Jasper.

[color=royalblue]“Poor Nate, being forced to tag along because he has the hots for that hot mess,”[/color] Theo noted, shaking his head as he and Mona followed her. 

Theo preferred it like this. Now he could get the drinks he wanted and didn’t have to bother with enduring Nate The Great's obnoxious one-liners.

He stopped in front of the table, scanning it for something specific. In less than twenty seconds after he had dragged his green eyes across the table and back multiple times, Theo cursed not so silently as he realized that not only was the whiskey bottle missing but so was the tequila bottle, leaving without his top two hard liquors. [color=royalblue]“I guess we’re going Russian.”[/color] Theo couldn’t stop himself from laughing. He knew Bas could take his liquor but if it wasn’t fruity, Maddie wasn’t going to have it.

Theo contemplated and searched for alternatives. As he did that, he turned around and spotted a few people of interest. Near Charlotte Diedrikson and the behemoth of a man, Kieran O’Connor, was the alluring beaut, Mackenna Diedrikson. Theo would be remiss if he didn’t say his crush on that Chinese bombshell was more than just a crush but all attempts to get past a certain point have been null and void. 

While Theo didn’t stress easy, being Maddie’s brother and often having to console her when she didn’t get her way, he could handle uncomfortable and unfortunate circumstances. He’s dealt with disappointment for years thanks in all part to his parents and, of course, he had to endure Bastian’s often ass-kissing ways when it came to being the “good child” in their mother’s eyes. All of this was proof of Theo’s ability to tackle problems that he knew would come from doing something that wasn’t easy.

Such as working up the nerve to walk up to Mac, knowing full well that the possibility of saying the wrong thing was high. Granted, he wasn’t Nathan Blake, so it wasn’t [i]that[/i] high. Theo just got nervous around Mac for obvious reasons and it made him say the wrong thing every time. Unknowingly, he took a swig of the Vodka bottle in his hand and took it with him, following the suit of Baby and Jasper by robbing potential party goers of a specific choice of alcohol.

Five, maybe ten feet closer than he was, Theo took another hefty gulp of the burning, fermented potato water and felt himself nearly chickening out. In what took minutes to decide, a single moment flushed it down the drain as Theo made a beeline for the opposite direction and directly into the Hawk’s Nest/cabin by the lake, which had him taking the road less traveled by young men with his looks. He spotted Connor not long and sighed. [color=royalblue]“Shit man,”[/color] Theo spoke as he put the bottle of Vodka on the beer pong table. [color=royalblue]“You saw how close I was to talking to her, right?”[/color] He then looked at his blonde bro. [color=royalblue]“[i]This[/i] close, Connor!”[/color] His right thumb and index finger were raised and within an inch of touching. [color=royalblue]“I don’t know why I’m so pathetic, bro. This isn’t like me.”[/color][/color]
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[color=lavender]After she had lingered about outside for close to five minutes, Joey had mostly avoided anyone she could. For whatever reason that penetrated and had made itself comfortable in her mind, Joey’s thoughts were going to the dark side. It started when Lottie had left her be while she made herself comfortable in Kieran’s lap. For the moments that followed, Joey was happy. It was a few months since she last set her eyes on Kiki, so she didn’t want to say she was angry about that. No, it was something else.

As the thought stewed, Joey wandered inside the cabin and found a couch she could rest on. She really just needed a quiet place to think and process exactly what it was she was feeling. As she did that, the thought of Kiki and Lottie made her blood boil for some reason -- wait, no it wasn’t just for some reason. Joey could lie to herself but it was jealousy. As old as time itself, seeing her...Lottie on Kiki’s lap made her jealous. But what for? Why was she jealous?

Her line of thought continued to dig Joey a hole in which she wallowed in for several minutes, continuously sabotaging her sanity by entertaining such negative vibes of uncertain jealously, loneliness, and feeling abandoned. 

[color=BE9CDC]“That's enough of Debbie Downer!”[/color] Joey’s sudden change in mood bounced up just as she did from the couch. 

She was on her feet and ran out of the cabin, stopping by one of the unoccupieed beverages tables and poured a line of three vodka shots, downing them in a simultaneous action. Joey let out a short, yet loud, scream as if celebrating victory over something. 

The moment she did that and turned around, she had bumped into someone, their heads bumping. [color=BE9CDC]“Ouch!”[/color] She whined out loud, rubbing her now slightly red forehead as she looked up. Familiar brown skin sent a lightbulb off over her head. [color=BE9CDC]“[b][i]JADE[/i][/b]”[/color] Joey’s voice screeched as she grasped onto her sorority sister for dear life.[/color]
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