| 016. Bystanders |

  Neil, Jenna, Jung-hee and Phillip were completely confused. Some random girl had walked up to Phillip and deliberately knocked his drink from his hand. It wasn't an accident. She full on ninja-swatted it like she'd spied a lethal parasite. Then, cool as you like, as the others had jumped back out of the splash zone, and while Phillip was still absorbing everything, including his now drenched shoes, she'd nodded approving.

  “Trust me, you don’t want to drink this,” she'd said, and walked off without a backwards glance. It was completely perplexing.

  “What just happened?” he said. "Did she think she was helping me?" He looked around to check if his interpretation could be right. Neil and Jenna were busy staring after the girl, but Jung-hee laughed, and patted his arm consolingly.

  “You stood there, open-mouthed, and let her do it,” she said. Phillip was genuinely taken aback for the second time. Like he'd not noticed.

  “I think she w-was very pretty,” Jenna said, pointedly. Perhaps she was trying to make an excuse for him, Phillip couldn't tell.

  Neil was nodding in agreement. She’d had the most amazing eyes. A deep forest green, flecked with gold. But what he said was, "I don't recognise her. Does she go here?"

  “Really?” Phillip wasn't convinced. She'd seemed kind of wild to him, but it wasn't like he'd spent long enough in her company to form an opinion other than she was rude and self-righteous.

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  Jenna shook her head. Honestly, just because a girl looked like a tomboy didn’t make them unattractive. Jenna had thought she was very distinctive. Her honey brown hair had been randomly styled - choppy and messy - but in a way that made it obvious it wasn’t a hairdresser’s choice. She wondered whether the girl had done it herself.

  “Maybe she’s n-new?” she suggested.

  “Or we’ve got uninvited guests,” Phillip suggested, cracking his neck.

  “Huh.” Neil noticed Malachai making a bee-line straight past them to the stairwell. He wasn't wearing a jacket. "He must be freezing."

  Jenna nodded, silently, and smiled as Jung-hee wrapped her arms around her for extra warmth. Jenna didn't think that Malachai's sense of urgency was caused by something so simple though. It was the first time she thought she'd ever seen something approaching panic on his face. She hoped everything was alright.

  “Should w-we go after him?” she checked, but Phillip was distracted. Jessica was walking away from the party, alone. Jenna blinked. There was nothing dramatic about it, but Phillip was obviously being indecisive about going after her.

  “I thought you broke up?” Jung-hee said, nudging Phillip in the ribs.

  “What?” He was startled, and blushed a little when he realised he'd been staring. “I don't know. She seemed upset.” Phillip frowned, and lifted his hand like he was going to have another sip of his drink. He blinked and looked about, realising his hand was empty, before remembering that some random girl had made off with it. He grimaced. "I'm going to go look for Andy and Leo again. Message me if you see them."

  He walked off deliberately in the opposite direction.

  "What a fun party this is turning out to be," Neil muttered dryly.