Later that day, at the party, Hoku walked through the house after hours of drinking and chilling with more than a couple of acquaintances. He felt in his element. But he couldn't help be think back to Relia and what she said. He wondered if things would always be that way.
"Yo, Hoku, long time no see, bro."
"Oh, hey, how you been?" Hoku asked.
'Who's this guy again?' he thought.
"Oh yeah, I've been real good, I gotta say."
"Real good," his voice cracks as he starts tearing up.
"Hey, you ok?" Hoku asked as he quickly moved to console him with his arm.
The guy looks up at Hoku with snot coming down his nose.
"My girl's pregnant."
"I'm gonna be a dad," he cries.
"Whoa, you serious? Congrats," Hoku said.
The guy's eyes overflow with tears as he continues to mumble incoherently. All Hoku can do is pat him on the back.
Eventually, his friend comes to the rescue. Hoku leaves the two of them alone and walks further into the house. He sighed.
Further into the house, there were a group of four teenagers in the lounge area.
A ball flies across a net, hitting a table, oscillating between sides. They are playing ping pong.
It's the same group who were calling out to Hoku in the classroom. He considered them to be his main group of friends, excluding Relia.
There were two whom he mainly spoke to:
Anderson, he's a pretty boy, likes to flirt, nothing wrong with that, I guess. But it's always funny to see him get shot down spectacularly. Dudes got perseverance, I'll give him that.
Secondly, there's Milly(The girl who called out and dragged Hoku by the arm). She's peppy and popular, likes to follow trends. She's nice to whoever she knows but can be mean to anyone else.'
Hoku wasn't as friendly with the other two. They were mutual friends.
Anderson was stooping on the left with a small ping pong racket in hand, playing against one of the others, a pretty girl with long brown hair and a mole below her lip. She was determined to beat him, though the ball seemed to enjoy passing by her.
Milly sat next to Anderson. Not on the couch behind, but on the floor next to him. She was keeping guard of the ping pong balls, which were in a pile at her side. She seemingly had no interest in playing the game as her racket was replaced by her phone in her hand.
Hoku cleared his throat as he approached.
As soon as he was in view, Milly nudged Anderson's shin. "Hoku's here," She informed.
"Hey, don't mess up my serve!" Anderson groaned.
"I was just saying," Milly sulked, returning to her TikTok feed.
"No, you're doing well, keep distracting him," the girl playing against him said. Funnily enough, the moment she said that, the ball came onto her side and bounced passed by her. She buried her head in defeat and let out obscenities as she went to retrieve the ball.
Anderson turned his head to the right. "Hoku, you're late, party's almost over."
Hoku sighed. "I've been here. Where were you guys?"
"We've been here too. It's a pretty big house, though", the fourth guy in the group said nonchalantly. He was sitting on the left couch, a little further back.
Hoku sits down next to Milly, who scoots a little to her left.
"Hey, not so close, you're gonna throw me off," Anderson said, shooing them away.
"You're already winning, quit being a jerk," Milly said.
Then she turned to Hoku on her right, "I don't mind you being close," she giggled in a high-pitched voice
"Hoku, you want in on this?" the guy sitting on the couch said, pointing to the table.
"What's the score?"
"Best to 4. Whoever loses drinks."
"Oh, I'll just watch then, I already had enough to drink," Hoku said.
"You can still play if you want," the guy offered.
"No, no, we're not changing the rules cause this guy came late," Anderson interrupted.
"Well, there you have it," Hoku shrugged.
Anderson finished the game with one last swing. His opponent takes a depressed drink from her cup. He passes the racket to the guy on the couch.
Then he goes to sit on the furthest couch to the right, just behind the girl who lost. He pats her on the back and mockingly wishes her good luck.
She seems determined to win this time.
He turns his attention back to the two on the floor in front of him.
"So..." He starts making the pair look at him. "Hoku, how's your girlfriend?"
"She's not..." Hoku responds, looking to the floor with an annoyed look.
"HAH?!" Milly gasps, making Hoku look at her with disinterested eyes. She turns to Hoku, grabs his shoulders and starts shaking him back and forth. "Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?" She was beginning to sound like an owl.
"It's not even like that, we're just friends," Hoku elucidates.
Milly continues to shake Hoku but stops to look at Anderson when he keeps talking.
"You barely talk about this chick. How'm I supposed to know how far along you two are?" He snided.
Milly changes her target to Anderson, "WHO?"
The two playing ping pong also seem to be interested in the conversation as their game slows down a bit.
He leans in and says, "You know that weird chick who sits in the corner after class."
"Oh." She said, her expression flattening as she turned to face Hoku once again, "Her?"
"Like I said, we just hang out," Hoku shrugged.
"I see."
Milly pauses, unsure if she should make her thoughts public.
"So like, what's her deal anyway? She barely talks in class."
"Yeah, doesn't she-" The girl playing ping pong joins in, but has to pause to return a serve ", doesn't she just sit by herself in the classroom after school. Strange."
"No, not by herself," he Anderson adds, pulling eyes towards him.
"You always wonder why Hoku comes late to parties."
Hoku takes a ping pong ball that's lying in a pile and launches it at him
"Maybe she can't go home for some reason?" Milly theorises with a finger on her lip and an innocent tone.
"Why you asking me? Ask the damn expert,"
"Cuz I really don't know jack shit about her. All she does is play fucking games in class," Anderson scoffed.
Hoku's eye twitches.
"Hey, your grades suck too, man, so can you cool it with that shit?"
"Oh, it's that serious, huh?" Anderson sneers.
He tried to make a corny reference joke, but forgot who he was thinking about. He turns to Milly and asks, "Who's that guy on TV who does couple intervention shit?"
The guy who was at the ping pong table answers.
Hoku scoffs.
"So what do you do? Play together or someshit?" Anderson asked.
"Like co op?" The guy at the table added.
"Sometimes, I guess," Hoku answered tiredly.
"Ooooooh," they all jeered, aside from Milly, who returned to her phone.
"Shut up," he sighed.
"What do you play?" The guy at the table asked.
"Like beast battle and stuff like that," Hoku answers reluctantly.
"You know that's pretty goddamn beautiful, man," Anderson jeers. "Really brings a tear to my eye."
"What's that?" Milly asks with a slightly scornful tone.
"Beast Battle?" Hoku asked for clarity.
"C'mon, Milly, even I've heard of Beast Battle," Anderson continues.
"They have these uh..."
"Monsters." Hoku finishes.
"Yeah, like little creatures that fight each other, right?"
Hoku nods his head.
The group continues without conversation for a bit. Hoku looked around at the rest of the partygoers. He daydreams about his time playing with Relia.
The girl playing at the table finally scored her first point since Hoku arrived. She cheers. H
"You know I was gonna invite her," Hoku said
"Yeah?"
"Seriously?" Milly complains, letting her mask slip a little. When Hoku shoots her a sharp glare, she pretends to adjust her hair.
"Why didn't you? We could've all been playing... beast battle together," Anderson said with humour leaking from his voice.
"Whatever."
'Maybe it was for the best I didn't,' he thought. Then he remembered something.
"No, I did invite her; she just didn't want to come."
Anderson looked at him.
"No kidding."
He cackled preemptively.
"So what, you think she's still sitting in that classroom now?"
"Ah, no, I can't go home. Jus-Just one more... level!"
The others laugh.
Hoku couldn't help but chuckle a little, too.
"What's her name anyway?"
"Relia."
There was a moment of silence again, which was suddenly broken by Milly lifting her face up from her phone.
"Oh. I found her Instagram," she mumbled as though she had just stumbled into it.
Hoku felt his heart drop. He was unsure how he should feel about Milly doing something like that, and he feared what might follow, but the biggest part of him was more curious than anything. He barely spent any time on social media, so he hadn't even thought to ask Relia if she was on anything other than the app they used to speak while playing.
Milly was sitting right next to him, yet he felt like she was a light year away. A black void grew in his gut. Despite that, he felt drawn to what Milly was seeing. It was probably mundane, right? Everyday. Nothing special, and yet he felt like the most evil villain for feeding into this. Not objecting to anything.
He stood up and walked away with crossed arms, like he was making a statement or something. Meanwhile, Anderson took more of an interest. He slid off the couch like a snake and moved to Milly's right side.
"Let's see?" He said, holding the side of her phone.
"Ohhh."
"Ohoo hoo."
He was making a bunch of random noises.
"Hoku, don't you wanna see what your girlfriend's up to?"
"Nah, I can't."
"Whatd'you mean?"
"It's not right."
"Wait, so you haven't seen it yet?" Anderson scoffs. "So she hasn't even given you her socials? I gotta give you some lessons, man."
"The last thing we need is Hoku turning out like you," the girl at the table muttered.
"Alright." Anderson scanned the phone. "Oh, what'dou know, she's got a boyfriend," he announced.
"Don't care."
Hoku looks over and focuses on the wrinkles of a crooked smirk forming at the crevices of Anderson's face.
"You're lying, you asshole."
Anderson's face straightens as he shifts his head back to the phone. Hoku tries to get a read on Milly's expression, but she's pretty much expressionless. He sighs and moves back towards them.
He sits down at Milly's left side and takes a peek at the phone screen.
They're looking at a picture of Relia; she's in some kind of large, open, crowded room. She's posing with some people who look to be a little older, a couple who don't look like her, so they don't seem to be relatives of hers. Maybe strangers.
What really caught is attention was what she was wearing.
No glasses, murky grey shorts, ripped tights, a black jacket with a red shirt, a rebellious white wig and most notably, brown curved goat horns atop her head.
Hoku's face lights up, 'She's a cosplayer.'
"What'd you think, Hoku. This is what she's getting up to?"
"What is there to think? It's cool, I guess."
"So like..."
"What's the point of this stuff anyway?" Milly asked at Hoku.
"I don't know, she probably just enjoys it," Hoku sighed, trying his best not to match the tone of the passive-aggressive question.
A smile formed on Anderson's face.
"So Hoku, you gonna take note of the account so you can... You know"
"Save it for later?"
"Gross!" Molly's outburst.
"You wouldn't actually do that? That's soooo creepy."
Hoku profusely shook his head to say:
"No! We should even be doing this to begin with."
"Why? You scared she's gonna find out?"
Hoku's eye twitched.
"Oh, you are, you totally are."
While Anderson was busy teasing Hoku, Milly kept scrolling through Relia's profile.
She lands on a photo that's a little more risque than the others.
"Oh my god, how can she wear that in public?"
Hoku looks over at the photo.
Relia's wearing what basically amounts to bikini armour.
He feels shocked that she had this whole side to her that he didn't know about.
He didn't want to admit it, but somehow a small but present part of that emotion had transformed into betrayal. But why would he feel that way? They weren't dating, so why would he care about what she did without him, who she was showing her body to? It was his ego. His sense of superiority from being the cool kid who swooped in to save the lonely girl. He struggled to come to terms with that.
"Let's see," Anderson whistles.
He stops to examine the image. Then he glances at Hoku and looks back.
"Yeah, I mean, if you got it, you can show it."
"But shit. I don't know," he mumbles.
"Maybe instead of spending time playing games all day, it wouldn't hurt to spend a few minutes on a treadm-"Anderson comments, but is cut off by Milly elbowing him in the gut.
"A-"She starts a sentence, then stops and says in a softer tone. "Welp. You're not wrong."
Milly turns to Hoku, expecting anger. She reads his state of confliction as a green light to fortify her case.
"You can do so much better than her," She said with an oddly consoling tone of voice.
"I mean it."
Hoku's eyes stared blankly, unsure of what to say.
"Like I said, she's not my girlfriend," he affirmed with dark eyes.
Milly fixed her gaze for a moment.
"Keep going then," Anderson whispered to her. She waited for approval.
Hoku's head contorted into a nod.
Milly stared at Hoku, then slowly returned to her phone.
Hoku leaned in too as she continued scrolling through.
They pause on a photo of Relia making a kissy face towards her right with a 2D image overlayed of one of the characters from The Chronicles of the Bloodless Prince, with a quote from a romance movie.
Anderson cackles like a hyena. "Pfff, what the hell is that?"
"Nooo, why did she post this?" Milly comments, hiding her smile with her hand.
"Omg, she's so weird."
Hoku laughed.
"Yeah, that is pretty cringey, I guess." He concedes.
At some point, the two at the ping pong table had finished their game and left. They said goodbye, but the three on the floor were too entertained to pay much attention.
Milly kept scrolling through the profile until:
"Wait," Hoku said.
The two looked at him.
Hoku walked over to the table and took a sip from one of the cups.
"Thirsty."
"That was mine, man"
"Indirect kiss?"
Anderson punches Hoku lightly.
Hoku turns back to Milly.
"What are you waiting for?"
, and then they continue.
Time continued to tick by
5:00 to 5:15
5:15 to 5:30
5:30 to 6:00
6:00 to 6:45
They changed positions numerous times. Sitting on the floor. Sitting on the lounge. Standing. Sitting on the ping pong table
The three of them took varying sips of alcohol, too.
By 6:50, Anderson stood to the left side of the ping pong table, trying to balance the ball on his paddle. Milly is on the other side of the table, leaning on her paddle. While Hoku was lying flat on the floor, scrolling through her phone.
Their cups were now empty, squashed and scattered on the floor.
Anderson flips his paddle and starts bouncing the ball onto the table.
"So..."
"How long could you survive in a jungle?"
"Like right now, no preparation"
Milly hums.
"You'd die for sure," she said.
"Oh, I'd die, huh?"
"I'd die!" he shouted, slamming the ball into an aggressive serve.
Milly casually leans on the table, staring at her nails "What about Hoku?" She asks while flicking her racket, knocking the ball back to Anderson.
Anderson jumps to his side, clipping the ball with his racket and rocketing it back.
"Hoku?"
*Tap*
"Oh, right, I forgot he's still here," Anderson said as the ball came back to him.
"Ask him," he suggested. He then used a fake-out technique, crouched and slammed the ball into the table.
Milly tapped the ball back.
She then turned her head and asked, "Hoku, w-"
"I'd live."
"I'd live."
The two look at him blankly, letting the ball fall off Anderson's side. After some time, they get ready to leave and start walking away.
Anderson steps past Hoku and looks back at Milly.
"You didn't leave any paddles or balls behind?"
"Nooo," she groaned.
Looking down at Hoku, she kneeled to his level. He seemed barely responsive, like a zombie scrolling through the phone. She slowly retrieved her device. Then patted him on the head.
"Let's go."
They kept walking away until some random guy with an Irish accent approached them.
"Me parents are almost here. Ya gonna help clean up or what?"
"Sorry, man, we gotta catch a bus," Anderson said, backing away from him.
"Ah! But what about this mess!"
The two ignored him and continued to back away before leaving the room, leaving sight completely.
The guy walks through and almost trips on Hoku, who's like a rag on the floor.
"What about yus?" He asked.
Hoku pulls himself up and just about manages one last shrug before stumbling past him. He too leaves the room. Then, leaving the house. Finally, leaving the guy all by himself with the mess.
"Wankas the lot of yu."