“That’s twice he’s saved you!” Cindy announced excitedly as she threw down various skirt and top combinations on Forest’s bed for him to help decide. “There has to be a reason – he must want to be friends with you!”

“That…that doesn’t seem likely,” Forest replied. He was sat cross legged and leant against the bed’s headboard. In the end, he had settled on black jeans and a dark green sweater. He just wasn’t thick faced enough to turn up to his first house party wearing a hoodie with the basketball team captain / host’s name on it. Forest was worried enough about people staring at him as it was. Instead, the hoodie had been washed and neatly folded and was now waiting in a bag by the front door.

“To be fair,” Cindy hummed, “I’ve never heard of any incidents where Tide’s acted like a jerk. People have only ever got nice things to say about him. Maybe that’s why he’s so popular?”

“He makes me feel nervous,” Forest admitted, fiddling with his hair again. It had taken him about seven tries with some styling gel to get it to sit right.

“All humans make you feel nervous Forest,” Cindy snorted before holding up a pink denim skirt and a white top.

“Yeah,” Forest smiled and nodded, “that combination looks good, matches your braces.”

“Great,” Cindy deadpanned, “that’s totally what I was going for.”

Forest let his mom know where they were going before the two of them headed out. They could already hear the music and shouting from the end of the street Tide’s house was on.

“Holy shit, I knew the guy was rich but these are mansions!” Cindy exclaimed as they peered in through the wrought iron gates of the neighbourhood residences.

“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Forest murmured as they reached number 38 and saw a sports car screech into the drive before a load of guys toppled out, cheering and lugging a large keg. Forest recognised one of them from school as Vincent.

“Don’t you chicken out on me now Zhao,” Cindy muttered, grabbing Forest’s sweaty hand and tugging him forwards. They walked into the house and Forest was immediately hit by a bombardment of noise and smells. There were people everywhere, in every corner and lounging on every surface, shiny red plastic cups in their hands.

The house itself was stunning, it was all open plan inside with white marble and oak counter tops. Cindy’s eyes had gone like saucers as they picked their way through the kitchen and past a lounge area where a group of people were passing around what Forest assumed was a joint. It smelled thick and strong and made his nostrils itch.

“Oh god there’s the pool!” Cindy stage whispered as they exited out through some fancy glass doors. The garden was lit up by cobwebs of fairy lights and the pool itself had built in spotlights and an artificial waterfall that was glowing with a different colour every minute.

“It’s like the Playboy mansion,” Cindy hissed, buzzing with excitement and craning her neck to see across the crowd of people.

A girl in a red mini dress ran past them, squealing with laughter and hotly followed by one of the boys Forest rememebered from the locker room earlier that day. He thought his name might be Hunter.

Hunter, unfortunately, didn’t notice Forest and barrelled past him, causing the other boy to fall backwards towards the pool. Forest scrunched his eyes shut, bracing himself for impact with the water, when strong hands wrapped around his arms and pulled him back up.

Forest blinked up at Tide. The other boy looked incredible, his light brown hair was gelled back from his face and he was wearing ripped jeans and a white T-shirt with a deep V neck that highlighted his tanned and muscular chest.

“Forest!” Tide’s smile was blinding and his cheeks were pink. Forest guessed the other boy must have already had a few drinks. “You actually came?”

“W-was I not meant to?” Forest began to panic. Perhaps it hadn’t been a trick but rather Tide feeling sorry for him. Perhaps he had never figured Forest would be dumb enough to actually turn up?

“No of course you were meant to!” Tide garbled quickly, looking worried, like a puppy someone had trodden on. “It’s nice to see you again Cindy,” Tide nodded as he brought Forest safely back to his feet and steered him away from the pool.

“Oh wow, you remember my name,” Cindy beamed.

“You look nice,” Tide cleared his throat.

“Thank you,” both Cindy and Forest replied at the same time. Forest felt his cheeks light on fire, he wanted to throw himself into the nearest bush.

“You look nice too, Cindy,” Tide smiled, causing Forest’s chest to catch and stutter. “Um, can I get you both a drink? What would you like?”

“We would like alcohol,” Cindy replied with an exaggerated wink.

Tide stared blankly at them for a moment before bursting into laughter and shaking his head. “Well I’m sure I can arrange that if you’d like to come with me?"

Tide led them back into the house and wove his way through to another kitchen area where there was a huge selection of drinks. He cracked the tops off of two bottles before handing them over to Cindy and Forest.

“Oh!” Cindy exclaimed, after tipping hers back and taking a hearty gulp. “It’s super sweet.”

“Yeah,” Tide smirked, “figured we wouldn’t go in with hard liquor straight away.”

“It tastes like apples,” Forest murmured, after a small sip of his own.

“Yup,” Tide nodded enthusiastically, “you always get the apple juice in the canteen so I guessed you like this flavour?”

Forest choked on his next sip, coughing heartily as Cindy thumped him on the back.

“Tide!” Ryan came barrelling into the room. “Oh!” he stopped upon noticing Forest and his face lit up ecstatically. Forest wasn’t sure exactly why Ryan would be happy to see him, they hadn’t even talked before.

“We’re about to start playing games, you in?” Ryan asked, rocking back and forth on his toes like a child at a theme park.

“Ah,” Tide cleared his throat awkwardly, his eyes sliding to Forest. “Would you two like to play with us?”

“Yes!” Cindy half shouted. “Forest and I are amazing at Scrabble!”

Ryan let out a peal of delighted laughter before wrapping his arm around Cindy, “Oh man you are hilarious. Come on – I’ll introduce you to the others!”

“I know he seems a lot,” Tide said quietly to Forest, “but he’s a really good person.”

Forest nodded with a smile, looking up at Tide through his lashes. “You didn’t mean games like Scrabble did you?”

“No,” Tide shook his head and looked like he was trying to suppress a laugh. “It’s more drinking games, are you okay with that?”

“I –I don’t know the rules,” Forest shrugged bashfully.

“I’ll teach you,” Tide grinned, motioning for Forest to follow him over to where a group of people had gathered around in a circle on a thick Persian rug.

“Ring of Fire!” Connor announced loudly, throwing down a pack of cards and producing a large bottle of vodka.

The game was as horribly confusing as Forest anticipated it might be, but halfway through it became apparent that no one actually cared about winning or losing and were just there to drink.

Forest realised his head was spinning when he stood up to go find the bathroom. He hiccoughed as he glanced round to look for the door with a ‘gents’ sign on before remembering he was in someone’s house and the bathroom wouldn’t look like that. He began to giggle when he felt a hand on his shoulder.