SOBER UP ; open, drinking party

[roman]

[align=center][div style="max-width: 600px; text-align: justify; font-family: georgia; font-size: 10pt;"][color=black]Bright eyes watch Thomas' approach as if time slowed to a crawl. A voice in the back of her mind tells her to escape in the crowd while she still has time, but she's captivated by the novelty of the situation. Almost all her life has been spent in solitude. She raised herself, from preteen to nearly an adult. Although she's partook in alcoholism before, this is her first real party. The first large event spent with people close to her age. She has only ever read about parties like this in those shitty teen gossip magazines she is so obsessed with. Connie cannot seem to make herself move. She is frozen in place, cursed to watch herself eat a handful of chips in third-person while her cover is about to be blown. Or maybe she just feels like that because she is, in fact, intoxicated. The young girl would rather die before admitting that. At least the constant buzzing in her body has been silenced. It's so frustrating always having to move or talk simply to expel excess energy.

Connie is not sure if she should be upset that one of the hottest guys at the party just mistook her for his sister. Sure, she's still sixteen, but sometimes a girl just wants to feel attractive, okay? Full lips press into a thin line. She hates being so young. Then, she remembers her manners. Remembers that she should be grateful that Thomas isn't kicking her out and instead she has his full attention. "Sorry to disappoint you," replies the young brunette with a faint smile, casually shifting her weight to the left and tucking a single hand in the pocket of her jean jacket. Her heart thunders in her chest--she's trying her best to stay cool but Connie is young and hormonal and Thomas is really cute and she's drunk so everything is against her in this moment. "The name's Connie," she replies, fidgeting with the ends of her hair. "Nice to meet you...?" Of course Connie knows his name, but she is unwilling to end their conversation so soon, so she pretends to be ignorant.

Connie responds with a shrug to Thomas' second question. It appears as a casual, noncommittal reply, but it's really just to disguise her moment of panic. She almost tells the truth, but decides that being vague is the more entertaining route. "You could say that." Yeah, she has a young-looking face because she is young. Not really a lie, even though she knows what he meant.