au:closed: i like you, i love you.
A fresh cigarette hung freely from Len's lips, using one hand to cup around it as the other struck a flame from a lighter. It burned instantly after he stuffed the lighter into his pocket. Judging by the size of the party, he would undoubtedly lose it later that night. No one ever had a lighter, it seemed. Or they're own cigarettes. Music pumped loudly from the structure of the house, a small-ish two-story setting. It was well into the night, maybe a little after eleven. Maybe twelve. The blond couldn't have been too sure at that point. There was enough alcohol in his system to wash away the worries of being out past the curfew Mama set for him, and the cigarette delivered the final blow to content him with his current status. It was only the second cigarette of the night, so it couldn't have been that late.
Len inhaled a gust of warm smoke, resting the back of his head against the face of the house. It was a pleasant sort of night, yet somehow he felt empty. It was the same feeling he always felt when briefly isolating himself. Ugh. As he often did, he covered the sensation with another deep drag. The aroma invited him, enveloped him, and sent him on his way in the opposite direction of those nasty feelings. There was a sudden but faint vibration in the pocket of his jeans, slightly startling him. Len dug out his cell phone, finding the alert with ease. A text message, from the host of the party.
wherer did u go/? need lighter pls
He couldn't help but chuckle to himself, the message only continued to prove his point. It struck him with disbelief that no one had a lighter. Everyone had to bum a light from someone else, not that anyone really minded. Instead of responding, he decided he would simply finish his cigarette and then find his friend. Len exited out of the text message and stared at the home screen of his cellphone. It was 11:57. Below the digital clock presented an old image of him and a childhood friend, Rin. They were still neighbors but high school inevitably pulled them apart. The photo was taken when Len first received the cell phone, a gift from his mom for entering the ninth grade. The teen never had the heart to change it and when he did, he always felt guilty about it.
Putting his cellphone away, he cherried the ember of his cigarette with another drag. The cloudy smoke fell easily from his mouth, eyes closing for a moment. Len took a final breath of smoke before tossing the butt onto the ground, grinding it out with his shoe. He turned on his heel and made a reach for the door when the sound of a closing car door surprised him. Wasn't everyone already inside? Len figured greeting the guest wouldn't do any harm, since he probably knew the person anyways. He always saw the same people at parties, who could have been missing?
"Fashionably late, huh?" Len grinned as he called into the dark driveway, which was only dimly lit by the porch lights.