To Party or Not to Party

Who: Cassandra and Nate (with cameo by npc Gramma O'Hare)
When: around noon
Where: phoneland

Cassandra stared at the text message Nate had sent her and read it again to make sure she understood what it said. She felt like she wasn't fully comprehending it. There was something missing. Or it was a weird joke. Nate had a weird sense of humor so there was no telling. Right? Right. She set her phone aside and went back to eating her brunch of french toast. For now she was avoiding the news, her Gramma having filled her in on the worst. Or, really, Nate had filled her in on some of the worst. Someone had been bitten. Someone he knew. Someone that went to their school. It was enough to fill her head and shove out thoughts of what she'd just read on the screen of her phone.

Five minutes later she looked at the text message again. There was just no way in hell he'd just texted what she thought he'd just texted. And if it was what she thought? She had no idea what to reply back with. She shoved the phone aside again and took a sip of orange juice.

"Who're you texting, dear?" Gramma said on her way through the dining room and into the kitchen. She smiled calmly over at her granddaughter.

"Someone from school," Cassandra said quickly, looking up like a deer caught in the headlights. Shit shit shit! This was what she'd been worried about. The conversation she'd been dreading. Ugh! And no way was she going to say she'd been texting a boy. Two boys, at that. No way!

"Are they all right this morning?" Gramma asked while she refilled her glass.

"Yes," Cassandra said. And she was surprised and relieved when her Gramma simply said that was "good" and headed back into the living room. No other questions asked. She glanced at her phone again, then ignored it in favor of finishing her brunch.

Twenty minutes later, after she'd cleaned up after herself and had retreated back up to her room to start in on her homework, Cassandra was staring at Nate's text message again and trying to figure out how to reply. She called him instead and just stood in the middle of her room hugging her arms to herself while she listened to the line ringing.

When Cassandra hadn't replied for a while and Kavin had pretty much told him to sleep, Nate had done just that. He hadn't bothered smoking more pot and he hadn't bothered with the leftovers of the Vodka either, just lay there and focused as best as he could on sleeping and not dreamwalking. He didn't have a chance to find out if it worked since he'd barely drifted off when his phone started vibrating against his hand.

He started awake, blinking a few times at his very blurry surroundings and then accepted the call with a mumbled, "Hello?" All he knew was that he had to be quiet because Dylan was snoring quietly by his side. He could barely read the name on the screen, his eyes unfocused and very much not awake. For that matter, most of him was very much not awake and it clearly sounded in his voice.

"Nate? Were you asleep?" Cassandra said, suddenly feeling bad. But that was kind of stupid since how was she supposed to know he was sleeping in the middle of the day? She rolled her eyes at herself and started pacing around her room a little bit. She couldn't even remember the last time she'd talked on the phone to someone who wasn't her Gramma. Or, she could, but those kinds of memories just made her want things she could no longer have. And it was no use getting upset over those things when there were more bitten people around town. And dead people. Murdered people. She paused and closed her eyes.

"No," Nate replied in that stupid I just woke up and won't admit I was sleeping reaction most people seemed to have. It had never made sense to him because there was nothing shameful about sleeping, so why did people automatically deny it like it was. None of this occurred to him at the moment though as he was still half asleep and groggy as hell. "No, I'm up. What's up? You okay?" He murmured, his voice raspy and laden with the sleep he was barely getting.

"I'm fine. I'm..." Cassandra paused and ran a hand through her hair. It was a mess of tangles and she needed to brush it out before it got much later in the day. She sighed. There were more pressing things than tangles. "Did you invite me to a party?"

"I...what?" Nate mumbled, because it really was an odd question. "Uhm. Yeah? Kavin's, right?" Was he missing something? "You don't have to come if you don't want to, I get that... it's been a fucked up night and all. But thought you might like to." He trailed off with a yawn, shaking hair from his eyes as he sat up and reached for the coke he'd brought up. It was still cold. That... was just a little disturbing. Yet he couldn't just turn off his phone, not after a night like that.

"Oh," she said. Her hand went reflexively to where her rabbit's foot should have been hanging from her belt loop, but she was still in her pajamas and she hadn't yet put her charm bracelet back on either. She chewed on one of her fingernails instead and plopped down on the edge of her bed. He thought she'd like to go to a party? Was he smoking crack? But now she wasn't sure. Did she want to go to a party? The only parties she'd ever been to had been birthday parties.

"It'll probably be low key," Nate told her, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Doubt anyone's in a party mood today. But you never know, sometimes people go mental after bad shit happens. Hell, maybe that's what we need. Though I don't know who'll be there, with... Well.. Someone died last night, from school." He frowned, unsure how to handle that, especially when it was a girl he didn't like.

"Oh," Cassandra repeated, this time much more quietly. It was easier to hear someone nameless and faceless had died than someone she knew, someone she loved. But it was still odd and still made her frown and wonder how the teen's parents and family were dealing. If they were dealing. It made her think of the insanity that was the night Melinda was killed. In retrospect they'd been damn lucky Ripper hadn't stuck around and killed them all that night. She crossed over to her dresser, grabbed her charm bracelet and clasped it around her wrist. Finally, she realized she hadn't said anything at all for quite a while and Nate probably thought she'd hung up. Or maybe he'd fall back asleep if she didn't keep talking. "Um, I've never been to a party," she added, her voice still quiet. How could she be thinking about stupid parties at a time like this? But... would it ever not be "a time like this" again? She had to wonder.

"Really? Never?" Nate asked and he'd been close to drifting off, just listening to the faint sounds in the phone that told him she hadn't hung up on him. "Well, then you have to come. It'll probably be a shit party - not the real thing. More like, I don't know, a wake or something. But you might still like it. It's basically just a lot of people in one spot, drinking, chatting and listening to music. Not like there's some mystical awesomeness taking place. Well sometimes, like a magic moment or some shit, but usually it's just... what you make it." He was rambling, talking low and quiet, eyes closed until he realized he might start talking bullshit if he started drifting off. "You gonna come?"

"Wait. People do magic at parties here? And drink... what, alcohol? ...I don't know," Cassandra said, her face screwing up in confusion. Why would he invite her somewhere like that? And people standing around talking... people did that at school anyway. People that weren't her. They wouldn't be playing music she liked anyway. It all just felt like one big bad idea.

"What?" Nate asked, puzzled. "No, I'm just... it's a manner of speaking. Sometimes you're at a party and there's just something going down, special connection with a random stranger or you make new friends, drink a little and find out something about yourself, toke and find out something about the universe." God he needed sleep, he was rambling by now. "Sometimes you're just bored the whole evening and still remember it like... fondly or whatever."

"I don't really think I should go. I don't... I don't make friends or drink or toke. I don't even know what toking is but it sounds like it's illegal. And I just... no. I don't need a bad crowd. I should go," Cassandra said and held her phone out in front of her to look at it with a frown. The only guy she could talk to about all of this big shit in her life, in the world, and he was just some bad boy. She was panicking. No, she could not turn into her sister. She was a good girl and just needed to worry about school and her homework and not killing people. That was more than enough to worry about. It didn't matter that she'd already been bitten. There were worse things in the world and falling in with a bad crowd would only bring her closer to that bad shit.

"You don't have to drink or toke or make friends, you know," Nate murmured. "You can just... show up, chat with me and whoever else you know. Or you know, not. That's fine too, I'll come to your house tomorrow then." He listened for a moment, trying to gauge her reaction. "Cassandra, you okay?"

Cassandra heard everything he said even with the phone away from her ear, even if his voice sounded a little tinnier. Did he not notice that she wasn't exactly a social butterfly? But then, it sounded like he was, so of course he wouldn't. Why would he notice anything about her except her inability to enter class because of his ward or the fact that she usually sat next to him in their computer class? Then she had to ask herself: did she want him to notice her? Cassandra didn't know what she was thinking anymore, but she put the phone back to her ear anyway. "I don't know anyone else. Except Ransom. And it sounds like you know a lot of people and you don't need the weird girl who walks too fast following you around."

"I'm fine with you following me around," Nate chuckled. "But I'm not going to force you to come to the party if you don't want to come." Damn it sounded wrong to call it a party, he doubted anyone would be having fun there, probably just getting drunk and crying or some shit. Might be more of a people coming together for community spirit or something, only with alcohol, music and teenagers instead of city hall or some such. "Just wanted you to know you're welcome if you want to come."

"Okay," Cassandra said. She didn't know what else to say. She also didn't particularly want to go to this party, especially after what had happened the night before, but she kind of wanted to hang out with Nate. Even if he might not be on the straight and narrow. And even if he was going to come over the next day. There was also no rule saying she couldn't just leave if she hated it. There was some curiosity involved in all this as well. "Maybe?"

"I'll text you the address if you want to just show up, or you can call me," Nate suggested and it occurred to him that this might get him into trouble eventually. Inviting girls he liked, noting the plural, to a party at a guy's he liked... Real slick. "Okay listen, I'm about to pass out right where I'm sitting. Can I talk to you tonight?" He crawled back to the mattress, barely smothering a yawn.

"Yeah. Sorry. I forget not everyone got a decent amount of sleep last night. ...Or I guess I did. I don't feel tired anyway," she said, trailing off. Hopefully he was too tired to notice how awkward that was. Not that she thought he was very good at noticing anything at the moment. "Get some rest."

"Yeah I will," he promised, hoping he could just sleep and not go walking. He was too damn tired to deal with someone's freaky dream - he needed sleep, damn it. "I'll talk to you tonight," he promised. "Take care."