sixteen

                                    

                                          
warning: underage drinking / partying
• Sienna •
Sienna found herself at their groups table with Claire and Sienna while she waited for Josh to come back from the bathroom. She was doing her best to avoid Matt again, not wanting him to think that what she said meant anything was going to happen. She was pulled out of the conversation when she felt a pair of arms wrap around her shoulders. 
"Hey Josh!" She looked up at him smiling. She did genuinely like the boy, just not as much as she apparently liked Matt. 
"Hey, can we go talk for a minute?" Sienna nodded, getting up from her seat and following him into the hall. "Do you and Matt have something going on? Or did you?"
Sienna's jaw dropped, she hadn't expected to hear that come from his mouth. "No, of course not. I mean, he likes me, but I'm not exactly talking to him at the moment."
"I may have overheard him and his brothers in the bathroom, and they want you to break up with me. It seems like they think that you like him back." She could see the pain in his eyes, she didn't want to lie to him, but the truth would only make him hurt worse. 
"Josh, I swear. Nothing is happening between Matt and I. I'm with you, I really like you. I'm not going to let him get between us." Her hand stoked his cheek as she spoke, it wasn't exactly a lie. She did really like him, and nothing was going on between her and Matt. Well except that she had accidentally told him that she liked him back, but she knew better than to ever act on it. 
"Sienna. If you want to be with him, I don't want to hold you back. I understand."
"I don't want to be with him, I want to be with you." She was really trying to reassure the boy in front of her. She understood his doubts, and she wanted him to understand that she didn't want to be with Matt. Not in a realistic way anyway. Besides, she was still pissed at him for the disappearing act that he had pulled.
Reluctantly, Josh pulled her in for a hug, which she reciprocated genuinely. Her newly realized feelings for Matt didn't have to affect her relationship, because she would get over them soon enough. She never had crushes for long, so this would blow over soon enough. 
They walked back into the gym, avoiding the table completely and making their way onto the dance floor. I mean, who could resist Party in the USA? She could see Matt across the room at the table still, now only sitting with Claire. His smile from earlier had faded into a frown as he and Claire spoke.
Sienna did her best to tune him out, she didn't want to think about him. What kind of person tries to sabotage their 'best friends' relationship? Sure, things could have been different, but it was way too late for that now.
"Do you want to go to the after party at Alex's? I think everyone else is going?" Josh spoke in her ear, but she could barely hear him over the loud music in the room. She nodded to him, not thinking that he would hear her if she spoke. 
That's how the group showed up at a house party an hour later. It was the exact kind of party that would get the cops called, but what's senior year without a little adventure? Sidney had been given the loving title of designated driver, giving everyone a chance to do whatever they wanted, with some restrictions of course. 
The music was loud. Louder than it had been at the dance, but with so much more room it was easier to find a quiet corner. Josh and Sienna found one as soon as they got in, hoping to avoid most of the people there. 
"Sienna! Come be my partner for pong!" She heard a shout from the across the room, the voice was unmistakably Chris. The two had been beer pong champs multiple times in the past few years, so she expected to be called up. 
"Do you mind? I know you're kind of mad at them right now?" Josh meant more to her than her reputation as god at pong, even if she really wanted to play. 
"Sienna. I'm never going to tell you that you can't hang out with your friends. Go have fun." Josh pushed her through the crowd to where Chris was standing with some other guys from the lacrosse team. "I'll be cheering you on."
Sienna's heart warmed, she wasn't expecting Josh to be so understanding of the situation. It only made her feel more guilty that she hadn't told him about what happened in the car. 
"Hand me the ball, Christopher." She stuck her hand out, way too confident in her skills after not having played in about two months. 
She sunk her first ball. Chris missed his. It went back and forth between them and their opponents, Emma and Jake, for a while. Sienna quickly learned that her first ball was dumb luck because she missed her next few.
"You got this, Sienna." Josh called from the side of the table as she prepared to throw another ball. Both teams had four cups left, so it wouldn't be the end of the world if she missed, but Sienna was intent on keeping her title. 
The ball landed in the back cup, but before the other team could take the cup, Chris threw his, landing it in the same cup. Emma huffed as she grabbed two more cups from their end to drink before Sienna could throw again. Both of their shots missed on the last cup and Sienna could tell Chris was getting anxious as Emma sunk a ball. 
"Sienna, you are a God. You got this." Chris whispered in her ear, his hands rubbing her shoulders. 
She threw the ball, bouncing it off the table, and before Emma or Jake could think to swat it away, it landed in the cup. Before she knew it, both Chris and Josh were hugging her and congratulating her. 
"En, you killed it!" Josh yelled as he enveloped her in another hug. The nickname caught her off guard, it wasn't Enna, it wasn't Matt's nickname for her. While it was a shorter version of it, no one had ever called her it before. 
The pair set up the cups again for the next game, this time it was against Nick and Sidney. "Nick, have you ever even played pong?" Sienna had never seen the boy even stand near the table, so when he stepped up it was a shock. 
"Nope. Sidney has though." Sidney shrugged, not saying much. She'd learned through the night that he wasn't much of a talker, but she did enjoy talking to him when he did speak up. 
When Sidney through his first ball, it went straight into the back corner cup. Though they didn't have much hope for another round when Nick had never played before. 
Chris and Sienna won three more games before they decided to take a break, with Josh leaving to go get some water for the two of them as they had been almost exclusively drinking beer for the past two hours. 
"Chris, we need to talk about Matt..."