For the first time in my life, I was unsure of what I was doing. Was this going to work?

What was even a party, anyway?

I walked around the room, unable to calm down. I had no answers.

Merin sighed. "You really are hopeless. It'll just be a get-together of sorts. We'll drink some milk, listen to some music, chit-chat, and be done with it. That's all, so calm down."

"Easy for you to say!"

I'd never partied before. Of course, I'd been to celebrations but all of those were large scale and had loads of different food and stuff, but what did I have?

I didn't even have the usual things parties had, like balloons and stuff.

Needless to say, I was freaking out.

"Keep it up and you'll end up with high BP for the rest of your life." Merin mumbled. "And you'll drag me down with you."

'I heard that you know!'

With a sigh, I sat down on the bed and tried to calm down. But it sure wasn't working.

The party was going to start around seven and we still had half an hour.

I'd already called Mike and Robert. Robert said he'll come but Mike declined.

"Hey, I can just run to the mart and get some party spray and balloons, right?"

"Unfortunately, you're not a two-year-old. Now shut up and stay put!" Merin started typing something on his Holo.

That kind of shut me up.

***

"Hey, so this is your room?"

Angelmen was the first to arrive. As usual, black leather jacket. He was in a good mood. He still hadn't entered though.

"Yup, and I take it, everything worked out?"

He was about ten minutes early.

"Oh yeah." He averted eye contact and chuckled.

It didn't work out.

"I'll go pick up the pizza." Merin went out.

'You ordered pizza?'

Wait, since when did this place even have pizza?

I was so focused on chocolate milk that I'd forgotten about pizza all this time!

I almost felt stupid, okay, maybe I was stupid.

I gave Clyde a dull look. "What happened? Did it work or not?" I had to distract my mind somehow, right?

"Well, it worked." Again, he averted eye contact and chuckled. "But-"

But why was this guy looking like that?

"But what?"

"But now I can't actually make it rise up anymore." He stared at the floor almost in tears. "Well, at least I'm not eternally impotent anymore." He sniffed. "The medicine is strong, so hopefully it'll get better with time."

One problem gone, but another just took its place without a doubt.

"There, there." I gave him a pat. "I have chocolate milk, let's go drink together."

He sniffed again and finally came inside.

I really did feel bad for him this time.

***

Merin came back about five minutes later and he brought Monty and Johnathan with him.

"Hey, thanks for having me here, I thought you were holding a grudge against me or something." Monty was being frank. But if anything, wasn't it supposed to be him who should have held a grudge? After all, I broke his saber.

"Yeah, no problem." But it sure didn't stop me from pretending to be kind which I was not.

Johnathan had a grin. "I wanted to invite her over too, but girls aren't allowed at this time, so just I came alone." Did he forget this was my party, not his?

"I take it, you two are doing good?" I actually hadn't heard from him after what happened yesterday.

"Oh yeah, totally."

"And you still haven't told your parents?"

His grin left for the NetherRealm and he started chugging down broccoli juice like crazy.

I couldn't help but chuckle.

But our last guest was yet to arrive.

We still started eating though.

The bread and milk were great. And the pizza wasn't half bad either. Merin did have good taste.

Clyde was hogging all the dark chocolate while Monty was chugging down the pasteurized milk. Meanwhile, Johnathan was eating raw Nutella.

I guess I wasn't the only one with weird tastes. But even so, all of this kind of felt good.

And not to mention we talked. We talked about the academy, we talked about who was stronger among the world leaders, and we talked about pretty girls: I avoided Marg's topic altogether. And we even talked about who'd win in a fight. Needless to say, I won with the most votes. Even Clyde voted me for some reason.

"But seriously, this guy has some weird luck with girls. Like I think he has more girlfriends than actual friends." Merin was whispering some rather hazardous things to my so-called friends.

Johnathan and Monty were giggling amongst themselves but the same couldn't be said about Clyde. His face was a bit darker than usual and he now had a glare. He walked close to me, stood just in front of me.

His face came very close to mine. "I don't believe this. Tell me, they're lying!"

"Of course they are. I don't have one girlfriend let alone-"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Clyde was backing down. The guy actually believed me rather easily.

"Well, it's true he doesn't have a girlfriend but that doesn't mean the girls he's friends with don't play with him either." And Merin was opening his big mouth again.

"You know- I'll definitely make you-" I was kind of pissed now. Would it really have been that bad if I made punched him now?

Clyde stood in the way. "Does that mean you got laid?"

I couldn't look at those sincere eyes of his. Poor guy couldn't even raise it, and here I was, already a one-timer. But then again, I'd only done it once anyway.

Clyde shook me back and forth. "I'm so glad for you." He didn't look glad, not one bit.

And within that back and forth, I kind of fell on the bed by mistake. Clyde fell on top of me.

The door slammed open. It wasn't locked.

"Sorry, I'm late. I was out buying cake-" Robert's voice stopped abruptly.

All eyes were on him, but his eyes were on me. Sweats formed on his face.

I could hear Merin try to hide his chuckles, but I heard them. And I wasn't going to let him off the hook this time.

"This isn't what it looks like, okay?" My voice was quiet and I was speaking very calmly.

"Ah-huh." He slowly placed the cake inside, shut the door, and from what I could assume, ran.

"Oh no, you don't!" I shoved Clyde off of me and ran after him.

If I let him go now, my whole life would have been ruined!

Was I being too dramatic!?

Yes!

***

I did eventually catch up to Robert and dragged him back to my room.

The onlookers had some looks but I didn't care.

Now Robert had this awkward look on his face as he chewed on the pizza slice we saved for him.

Monty and Merin were giggling from the sides. Johnathan was too busy with the Nutella while Clyde was busy pouting.

This just got a lot more awkward than I thought it would.

"It was just a misunderstanding, okay? I'm straight and Clyde is too. Right?" I gave Clyde a look.

"That goes without a saying." He sighed in pain. "If I were to swing the other way, I'd have to be the bottom. But I want to be the top. So I chose to be straight. " He sighed again.

Meaning, all he wanted was to do it. He didn't care with whom.

I didn't know why but that kind of made me shiver for a second.

'This guy is bad news.' Men weren't safe from him either. "T-the cake will go cold."

But it was already cold, to begin with though.

Clyde burst into laughter. "I'm just kidding though."

Yeah, I had my doubts.

"Anyway," I stood up. "Let's just enjoy ourselves and forget about the worries for today." I held a bottle of chocolate milk towards everyone. Everyone grabbed a bottle too.

It sufficed to say, me buying too much groceries might not have been a bad thing after all.

Though I had countless chances to have a drink, I never drank anything with alcohol. At certain times, I almost wanted to, but someone always stopped me. I guess it must have been fate. But I did know what people did before they drink.

So, with a smile, we bumped our bottles with one another, kind of like making cheers.

It didn't make much of a sound since the bottles were just plastic. But it didn't stop us from laughing though.

We laughed, we talked and we laughed some more.

Merin brought out his guitar and started playing. His skills were decent, but his singing was terrible. It was good for a laugh though.

The cake was actually pretty good. And turns out, Robert got qualified for the qualifications today. It was weird how we were fighting just to prove that we had enough to actually participate in the qualifications in the first place.

But eventually, it was nine-thirty and the party ended.

Time must have moved fast because I still wasn't satisfied and it felt like it hadn't even been an hour.

But I still had to say goodbye though.

"It was good." Robert went out first.

"I had fun. I'll invite you if I throw something too." Monty went out too.

"Though it vexes me that you got laid, as your friend I shall pray for your continuous wellbeing and potency. Till next time." And Clyde was being weird as usual. I was glad though.

"Later-" Johnathan tried to get out but I grabbed his shoulder.

"How did you know?"

"Know what?" He was pale.

"My thoughts." I glared. The guy was a natural stalker but that wasn't all. Did he possess some weird power to read thoughts too?

"I-I don't know what you're talking about." He chuckled, broke free, and ran hard. I wasn't holding him with that much force.

With a sigh I closed the door.

"That actually wasn't bad." Merin smiled. "We should do this sometimes."

"Yeah." It kind of got a bit awkward at times but I had fun. "Oh and that reminds me, you sold me out back then."

Droplets of sweat appeared on his face. He looked away. "Of course not. I was just livening up the party!" He chuckled.

"Uh-huh." I smiled and popped my knuckles.

My evil laughter echoed throughout the room as Merin's face went paler and paler.

***

"My lady, we have already secured three hundred men. But that was all we could manage." A boy bowed on the floor.

A girl was seated on the edge of her bed, legs crossed. She was wearing long socks and beneath her feet was a man, breathing like a dog, tongue out in the open.

"That so? Don't worry. Father said he'll send five hundred men and we can just take a hundred and fifty from the students. As for the last fifty, I'll hire professional killers." The girl smiled sweetly as she toyed with the man's face with her feet. "I'll definitely make him my slave."

The man's face only had bliss written all over. He lived to be her feet's plaything.

"Alright." The boy stood up with a smile.

The girl stood up too, her feet still on the man. The man was large so it wasn't a big deal. "Are you going to take part?"

"But of course." The boy looked back with a smile. "Someone has to crush him."

"And you're sure you can do that?"

The boy simply grinned madly as a response.