we can be beautiful

Bright lights and loud music really made Lachlan feel at home. When mixed with alcohol, it was so easy to detach from it all. The more disorienting, the better. It was the first party after the  weather had taken the turn for fall. The message that got passed around camp through the typical whisper campaign was that this was destined to be the best party of 2017.  Lachlan was skeptical, seeing as it was being thrown by some kids from the fourth, but a party was a party and he wasn't about to miss that.

So, as the sun went down, Lachlan was walking from his house to the Field of Mars with the group of guys he'd been pregaming with: Oliver, Greg, Steve, Leighton, and Chad. People were streaming in from different directions. The weather was dropping to about 50°F that night which would be nice. Nothing was worse than when they had these huge parties in peak July heat. Everyone was sweaty enough from dancing in a mob. It didn't need to be 85°F while they were doing it.

When they got to the party, Lachlan and Oliver poked and weaved through the party, saying hi to acquaintances and admirers along the way, until they got to the keg. Oliver poured drinks for both of them and they sipped from them as they looked over the party.

"Where is Caroline tonight?" Oliver asked. He had a way of getting right to the point with Lachlan. He knew what Lachlan was doing. He was scanning the party to make sure that Caroline was actually not going to be there and for a potential replacement all in one go.

"She said she doesn't want to be within a square mile of me. Something about me being a worthless sack of pig shit? Honestly it all seemed a bit more dramatic than I deserved." It wasn't uncommon for him and Caroline to get into arguments but parties were where they usually got over them. She seemed pretty serious about the fact that she wouldn't be here tonight.

"Maybe this is actually the Big Fight." Oliver said. Lachlan believed that Oliver did like Caroline enough, but was always just a little sick of their bullshit. "Doubtful." And with that, Oliver was being pulled towards the dance floor by some guy that Lachlan thought was named Keegan. Or maybe it was Keith, who knows? Lachlan was left standing alone by the keg. So, he refilled his cup and did the only thing there was to do: pushed himself into the mass of people to find someone to dance with.

Once Lachlan gets into the middle of the dance floor, it's super easy for him to get into the party. The music is so loud that he has to really focus on someone to talk to them. With the lights flashing, that wasn't really worth it. So instead, he just let himself get into the music. He was dancing for a while, stopping just long enough to get a few drink refills. When his cup empties for the fifth time and he is definitely feeling it, he is dancing with a girl who looks vaguely familiar to him. Her dark hair reflected the lights. Maybe she was like particularly popular or something. Lachlan didn't particularly care. She was hot.

Lachlan pat her lightly on the waist, shouting over the music that he'd catch her in a minute. He didn't actually commit to coming back, but maybe he would. His eyes scanned over the party. Maybe a small part of him was trying to catch that familiar blonde hair, but mostly he was just taking it all in. He clocked Oliver across the room dancing close with Kee-whatever. He wasn't stressed about knowing his name. Lachlan didn't see him lasting long. Not Oliver's type. He was into skinny guys and adorable girls.

Lachlan felt an arm wrap around his neck. Leighton was leaning into him and laughing loudly. He clapped his empty cup against Lachlan's.

"Dude, no empties tonight. We're getting more." He felt Leighton pull him towards the keg. Lachlan turned to move with him, when someone was standing in his path. He looked down and saw Skye Maddox. Leighton's arm slipped away and he called back that he was going to bring Lachlan back a drink and Lachlan nodded, waving him off.

It wasn't surprising that Skye was there. Of their childhood friend group, him, Kirsten, and Skye were the ones who really entered this world young. He would be very surprised to see Delilah Lockwood. Lachlan looked Skye up and down. Was she always this hot? His eyes caught her smile and he smiled back at her with a suave look.

Quickly it came to his head that this was the same Skye who Caroline hated so much. He had heard so much shit, true or not, about her. What would she think if she was here. Caroline would hate this. Lachlan could be in the mood for a little chaos.

"Skye Maddox."

Lachlan could tell that this wasn't the same Skye who spent time in his clubhouse. Maybe it was the party atmosphere or the uppers that were being passed around, or maybe she had just grown up. All he knows for sure is that that isn't the same smile he was used to seeing, even he just caught a glance of her going into her house.

Lachlan laughed quickly and sharply when Skye teased him. "I definitely do not have a girlfriend," It wasn't that he couldn't see Caroline like that, He definitely could. It just didn't seem like what she wanted. When she said that, he didn't disagree with her. It was just easier this way. But there wasn't time to unpack that. "And I don't have a ball and chain." Lachlan continued.

"Caroline, though, is very mad at me for, frankly, something that isn't that big of a deal. She's being a downright bitch and I am over it. If she wants to pout and miss a party, I don't care." Leighton returned with a drink for Lachlan. He cheersed him and Lachlan looked at Skye and chugged the whole beer and stacked in under Leighton's cup before sending him on his way to find Chad.

"Impressive, I know. No need to say something." Lachlan joked and offered a hand out to Skye. "Dance with me? I wanna see if your dancing has improved since you and Delilah would make us watch you dance to the Jonas Brothers. Or at least matured at all." Lachlan snickered.

Lachlan rolled his eyes at the comment about his beer chugging, but then he felt Skye's hand in his and it wasn't worth bickering about. He could have said something about how beer was the best gift the gods had given Earth, but he didn't. Them going into it over something dumb would only make things worse and he couldn't afford that right now.

"I'm glad you can admit it was bad. You would have kicked our asses if we said that back in the day." Lachlan pulled Skye to the middle of the dance floor. They passed Oliver along the way. He had never met Skye, but probably recognized her from pictures. His eyes followed them as they made their way into the middle of the crowd. Loud music played with a pounding bass, the kind of song you only heard at a house party and never in the real world. It was the kind of thing that only made parties like this more surreal and made them foggier the next morning.

Lachlan found a nice pocket in the middle of the group and stopped there. He honestly wasn't sure what Skye had in her, so he let her take the lead. He looked her over and honestly it wasn't fair. How had that bossy little girl turned into this? Was he into Skye? Even if it was just the party version of being into someone, that was a big shocker. She was hot though, and she was just the right person to shake things up.

As Lachlan looked around the party he could feel everything around them, but at the same time he could only feel Skye dancing against him. Maybe it was the alcohol, maybe this is just how life was, Lachlan didn't care. This was how life was right now and that was all the really mattered to him. There were bright lights, lots of people, and Skye Maddox.

Lachlan's hands were on her waist as they danced when she suggested that they get out of there. Suddenly, Lachlan's mind was running a mile a minute. Or, at least, his drunk brain was trying to. He was trying to read her facial expressions to judge what she meant by that. Then he thought- did it matter? Was there anything that that could mean that he wasn't at least okay with right now? A cheeky smile crossed Lachlan's face.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Lachlan started to weave in and out of the crowd, a skill he had mastered. His hand was around Skye as he caught the eye of that girl that he had been dancing with before. Her dark eyebrows were looking at him, unamused as hell. He put his head down and hurried to pass Oliver. Lachlan gave Oliver a little wave and Oliver's eyebrows turned in. He could almost hear the son of Letus' voice in his head. What is Caroline going to think about this? Lachlan ignored it though and made his way outside with Skye.

Lachlan watched as Skye made eye contact with her friend. He didn't know her name, but he knew it was something that hated. Maybe it was Nevaeh? He really hated that name, or anything with an x in it. He had been around these parties enough to know that her and Skye often came to them together, and a lot of times they had the good shit on them. Lachlan looked down at Skye as she moved and had to wonder what they had brought with them tonight, and if she had any of it left.

When they were outside of the crowd, Lachlan pulled his arm back from Skye. They broke out of the place finally and he felt the cooler air wash over them. He took a deep breath of the air that didn't smell like sweaty teens. He looked down at Skye as she looked up at him and started laughing. A smile broke on his face and he started laughing along with her.

"What, am I that funny liking?" He could probably guess what it was about though. This was kind of a ridiculous situation, them being here together right now. Lachlan couldn't think of the last time that they were alone together for more than minute. Now they were walking away from this party to, well, who knows where? That and whatever she was on, anyway.

Lachlan followed Skye's gaze up to the sky. "Yeah, I guess it is." Lachlan hadn't given it much thought, but it really was nice to look up at the sky.

Lachlan would be lying if he said that it hadn't gotten to him that a lot girls were into him. For the most part, though, it was people that didn't actually know him all that well. He heard several times why people thought he was good looking, from his arms to "the way that his face be." He'd done his best to ignore that though, but he hadn't realized how much it had actually gone to his head. Even now, he didn't really get how much he fed off of it.

Lachlan bumped Skye lightly with his hip. "Yeah? And what do you think?" Lachlan said, bracing himself to be shoved. He knew that Skye had never once given him a thought like that, partially because she knew him when he was 6 and still sucked his thumb, and partially because it really seemed like she hated him. Even now, he was a bit surprised they'd made it this far without any snarky or downright bitchy comments.

He had never thought about Skye like that, anyway. I mean, tonight he had become at least a bit aware of how hot she looked dancing at the party that night. And now under the moon light, Skye was practically glowing. He got why Mark had been into her for so long. Whenever they were hanging out at the clubhouse he'd always try and get Lachlan to invite Skye over.

Lachlan rolled his eyes dramatically at Skye's comment, but he was still smiling. "Hey, it's not egotistical if it's true. And hey no one would blame you if you've been thinking about a face like this." Lachlan put a hand under his chin. At first, Lachlan had thought that they were just kind of randomly roaming, but they had started to move back towards their sub-division, maybe if only subconsciously or maybe even by accident. A voice in the back of his head was nagging him to figure out where they were actually traveling to, but he ignored it. That voice was his sober self and Sober Lachlan was a buzzkill, and tonight was Drunk Lachlan's night.

"So, seriously. What have you been up to lately? I have a feeling that the data that I've been receiving is at least a little bit... skewed." Lachlan said trailing off a little bit towards the end. It hadn't taken Lachlan long to realize that most of the things Caroline said about Skye were warped by her own perspective of her. He knew Skye and he was able to tell when something was extremely out of character for her. Lachlan also knew that Skye would get what he meant. Him and Caroline weren't a private thing. If anything, the public thought that they were more than they were. He knew that Caroline was just his friend or like more than friend but by no mean was his girlfriend. Actually, what he knew was that it wasn't worth trying to label him and Caroline. It always fell apart quickly. Anyway, at this moment Caroline was his nothing.

Lachlan sighed lightly to himself. Skye hadn't really set him up for much success conversationally. He had expected her to say something that he could latch on to and continue the conversation with. Instead, he was left responding with a simple, "Oh, yeah. That's cool. Yeah, I've been doing that party stuff." Sober Lachlan was kicking Drunk Lachlan. Obviously he had been. What an absolutely stupid thing to say.

As they entered the residential districts, it seemed pretty clear that they were heading back to there places. That got the gears thinking in Lachlan's head. What would they do when they got there? Lachlan definitely didn't want to just go inside alone. He would have stayed at the party if he knew that that was what was going to happen when he left with Skye. If he was being honest, he knew what he was expecting when Skye asked if they should get out of there. Now, it was just a matter of figuring out if Skye was on the same page. Skye was a partying girl, just like most of the girls he knew well these days. So, he extrapolated that data on to Skye. There was no way she didn't know how what she asked would be taken.

By the time that they reached their places, Lachlan had settled on one of two meanings. Getting out of there either meant having their own drinking party away from the crowds of people, maybe even trying to pull out their other childhood friends to the event, or it meant the obvious option. Either way, Lachlan knew what he was going to ask.

"Wanna come over?" It was casual and to the point.

The laugh that came out of Lachlan was a mix of amusement and shock at what Skye had said. For starters, Caroline wasn't his anything and she wouldn't let him forget that. She was her own autonomous person and whatever was happening between them did not let him claim ownership over her. And by no means was he ever her anything either. Secondly, Caroline being a ball and chain would imply that there was anything long-term about them. They were just teenagers having fun. Well, until this whole fight they were

"I'm going to ignore what you just said because I don't have time to get into everything that was wrong with it and just answer about what Caroline would think. While Caroline never has a say over my life, she especially has no say right now. She basically told me that she never wants to speak to me again, so." Lachlan didn't care, or at least that was what he was telling himself. Skye bringing it up right now did make him have second thoughts about all this. Was it worth deepening the rift between him and Caroline? Lachlan ignored that, though. Caroline didn't control him and spending time with Skye right now was what he wanted.

Everytime that Skye brought up Caroline, it sent a little shock down his spine. Maybe he should think a little bit more about why that was but that was for Sober Lachlan. Anyway, Lachlan watched as the smile on Skye's face clearly changed. He knew that smile very well, and he matched it on his face. In that moment he understood what was going to happen between them when they went inside. Skye proposed them going inside, if the offer was still there.

"Oh, the offer is definitely still there. Under one condition, anyway. No more talking about Caroline." Maybe one of them should have read into that a little bit, but he was sure neither of them would, especially when Lachlan immediately turned on his heels and headed up to his clubhouse. He slid his key into the lock and opened the mostly glass door. When he got inside he tossed his key on the counter and slid the light dimmer up to the middle, so the room lit up a bit but not too much.

Lachlan looked around the place. Him and his friends had left it a bit of a mess. There were bottles and cans on the coffee table and counter. He looked at Skye. "Sorry about it being a bit messy." Lachlan moved into the living room and sat on the love seat.

Lachlan leaned back into the corner of the love seat, his feat kicking up on the coffee table. He put one arm on the arm of the love seat and one on the back of the couch. He watched Skye as she looked around the clubhouse. He thought a little bit about the fact that this must be a little weird for her. They used to spend a lot of time here together, usually with Delilah, Monroe, Tieghlur, and Kirsten. As much as this place looked the same, it was definitely different.

"For the most part, yeah. When my dad is home I sleep up at the big house. He used to at least be home every weekend, but that's becoming less common." Lachlan was really starting to see his dad's true colors. Ever since Lachlan had turned 16, and Augustine had turned 18 shortly after and moved out, it was clear that their family was becoming less and less of a priority for him. Come to think of it, he hadn't actually seen his dad in two weeks.

"I know it's weird that I haven't changed anything. Actually-" Lachlan cut himself off. He almost broke the rule that he had given for tonight. He almost brought up how Caroline had been trying to convince him to remodel for a while. He could just never bring himself to do it.

Lachlan laughed. "Do not confuse my laziness with sentimentality. I am far too lazy to put any actual effort into changing things." While it was true that he was particularly lazy when it came to interior design, it wasn't the full truth. As much as he didn't want to admit it, he missed the good old days sometimes. It was nice, sometimes, that he could remember those times and practically see them in this place. Lachlan loved his life, but he enjoyed being able to harken back to an easier time. He could see the group of the 6 of them sitting around this coffee table and laughing. Lachlan could remember the first party he had after his dad let him take over the clubhouse, and the large group of pre-teens playing spin the bottle when they were 11. He could see the bottle landing on him when Skye spun it. How weird that they were here now.

Then, Skye brought up Tieghlur. That was someone he definitely didn't miss being around all the time. Sure, he still had to see him. He was his dealer, after all, but it was a lot easier to usher him back out the door than back in the day when Karen would call Sam about it and get him in trouble. Of course, Sam hated Tieghlur, too, but he hated listening to Karen's voice more.

"Gosh, don't remind me. I thought my dad was gonna shove that spear up his ass after that. At least he didn't hit Delilah." Which he almost had. The spot on the wall that Skye was looking at was about 2 feet from where Delilah's head had been that night. Lachlan looked at the coffee table and started to kick an empty Bud Heavy bottle with his feet.

"Remember the Clubhouse Warming Party we had in 2012?" Lachlan asked, wondering what Skye thought about that day. The whole Cul De Six had planned that party together, and by that he meant mostly Skye planned it and let Delilah and Kirsten think that they helped.