Chapter Text
They arrive at the party about an hour after it was set to start. MJ didn’t want them to be the first people there or be “fashionably late” as people called it.
The house they found themselves in front of was a large family home in the suburbs. Tyler came from family money the way that Flash Thompson did, who oddly enough is why MJ knows about this party.
When Riri glances at the house she sees that the normal lights were turned off and substituted for those obnoxious LED lights. At least it’s not an ugly color. She thought.
There were people inside whose faces were lit up by the soft blue hue of the lights. Riri stops MJ before they walk down the driveway.
“What’s the plan for tonight?”
“You and I are going to get at bare minimum tipsy, at max drunk but not blackout and have fun. Deal?” Riri feels her hand being tugged towards the open garage where some kids are sitting around.
MJ drops the other girl’s hand and jogs towards a boy standing next to a cooler. “Ned!”
He turns just in time to find himself being pulled into a hug by the girl.
“Dude!” Ned says excitedly.
“I didn’t expect you to show up!” She pulls away from the hug with his face showing a large smile.
“Oh yeah! I’ve been back since Wednesday. My midterms finished early and I figured why not” He shrugs “What about you? I thought you weren’t coming back till Winter Break?”
“I missed my Mom a little but also Flash sent me a message and gave me the heads up about this thing. I guess I wanted a fun” She nudges Riri with her shoulder, “This is Riri by the way”
He greets her, “Let me go grab you guys something from the cooler. Any preference?”
Riri replies before MJ does, she wants something strong enough to knock her nerves out fast. Parties normally were not her scene back home or even on campus but she wants to let go tonight. She has nothing to lose.
“Could I get a shot? Doesn’t matter what” MJ looks towards her and raises her eyebrow. She didn’t expect that answer.
“Wasting no time huh? I’m proud”
Ned comes back with three shots and passes them around. MJ counts down from three and they take their shot together.
Riri shakes her head to try and relieve herself of the burning feeling left over by the alcohol.
MJ leads Riri into the house to see who else showed up tonight. It was just as Riri assumed when she peeked through the windows outside.
“I know you have your mind on that one person you were telling me about earlier but like I said. You can’t keep thinking of them when they aren’t giving you anything in return.” MJ tells her gently.
“Who said I was thinking of them” Riri scoffs.
“You had the look on your face, the one where you look pained and constipated”
“You being deadass?” She furrowed her eyebrows.
“I am so serious Riri, I don’t think you realize that you do it sometimes. Let go tonight. For that reason but also because you told me about how much fun you’ve been missing out on lately”
There were different groups of students scattered around the main floor of the house and even a few lounging on the stairs.
The music came from the living room, probably someone's aux. Riri thought. She could feel the vibrations against her skin while walking through the house.
They reach the kitchen after walking through the hall. It was the only room that had soft overhead lights versus being lit by the LEDs. The kitchen island has bowls of chips and snacks spread around it.
Riri looked over to the kids sitting on the counters opposite of the island, they were next to liquor bottles that accumulated as people came in.
The drink from earlier hasn’t sunk in but she thought another one would be good for now.
A boy standing in front of the bottles saw her staring and waved her over. She left MJ’s side and went to talk to him.
“What you in for?” She looks up to make eye contact with the boy talking to her. He holds an empty cup up for her and smirks.
“Ummm” For a second she feels nervous. He’s cute , she thinks, in an intimidating way . The boy has hazel eyes and looks like he just got a fresh haircut that day. And he was taller so it was an automatic plus.
“Mixed drink or a shot?” She giggles. There it is . She started to feel the buzz from the shot earlier. “Jalen, if you were wondering what my name was”
“Could I have both?” She finally replies. None of these people know me , she thinks. Riri realizes there’s no penalty for being herself around all of these strangers.
“I’m Riri”
The turns back around to her and hands over the solo cup and explains that it was a shot of Fireball. He has one to match in his hand.
They toast and throw the shot back together, Riri takes their cups and throws them away in the big trash bag next to the island.
MJ looks at Riri from across the kitchen and gives her a thumbs up while mouthing He’s cute to her.
The boy reaches for the other cup he prepared for her and tells her this one was coke and more whiskey.
“I’ve never seen you around before, are you new to the area?”
“Oh no, I’m just here visiting with MJ”
“Oh, I know her! We used to be on the decathlon team together for a little before I graduated. She was smart”
“When did you graduate?” She asked him.
“2024. I think I finished a year before. We both got blipped but I was in the grade above her” He takes a sip of his drink and Riri nods her head.
“Where are you from?”
“I’m actually from Chicago”
“Okay, Miss Traveler. What made you come to New York?”
“I got dragged down here by MJ for the weekend. I go to MIT with her”
“That’s dope”
“Do you go to school?” She asks while drinking out of her cup.
“I’m actually in a trade school right now for electrical work. I liked school, but not enough to spend all my money on a university or something big like MIT like yall.”
“You know what I get it, it ain’t for everyone”
“Thank you! My parents are taking longer to get other it than I thought. They were all like Jalen, you need the education to get where you need to be in life, but really I’m almost done with my courses and I start my apprenticeship soon.”
“I’m sorry they aren’t reasonable” Riri grabs a few chips from one of the bowls on the island.
“You’re really pretty by the way, Sorry I didn’t tell you that before,” He tells her, a small blush creeping onto her face.
“Thank you” She smiles at him and decides to down her drink.
She decides to take one more shot after her drink before calling it quits for the night.
The music became louder as they seemingly turned the volume up. Riri noticed that the lights in the living room had started to change colors. They weren’t flashing but they would cycle through the colors ever so often.
“Hey, do you want to go dance or something?” She asks him, feeling a little bold. She assumed he was single already because she hadn’t seen anyone hovering around him before she showed up, nor did anyone walk up to them yet.
“Yeah sure,” He takes her hand and guides her to the living room where others were gathered around.
Right as they got onto the floor the song transitioned to Accquainted by the Weeknd. The song was slow and felt sensual.
Riri pressed her body against the taller boy and grinded against him. The alcohol had taken its full effect and she felt fully relaxed. She was having fun.
She felt his hands sneak up to hold onto her hips while he followed her movements. He pulled her closer towards her and she threw her head back into his chest.
She knew she was doing something to him as she swayed against his lap. During the interlude of the song, she pulled back to face him.
She pulled the collar of his shirt so she could speak into his ear, “Do you want to go somewhere quieter?”
He walks them out of the living room and towards the stairs to go to the top level. She spots MJ sitting with a new boy on the stairs.
“Alright, Riri!” She yells over the music, and the boy next to her laughs a little. Riri realizes that the boy is probably the one she was telling her about on the bus earlier, what’s his name? PETER . She remembers.
She winks at MJ in approval of her guest before finishing her ascent up the stairs. Jalen brings them into a room that looks like a guest room, it had plain decorations and was kind of bland in her opinion.
Riri goes to sit down on the edge of the bed as Jalen shut the door behind them and locked it. He walks towards the bed where she is.
At first, he sits next to her, waiting for her to make a move. I’m already here, why not , Riri thinks.
She turns her body towards him and lets out a breath the didn’t realize she was holding in. She is the first person to lean in.
She places her hand around his neck and pulls him into a kiss. He moves his hand onto her knee and deepens their kiss.
Riri finds herself being gently pushed onto the bed and scootches closer to the top of it. She feels his body weight press against her.
His lips find their way to her neck and he latches onto them lightly. She feels her heartbeat thud against him.
She shuts her eyes and lets herself feel everything he’s doing to her. She feels a little more turned on by his actions as he works his way down to her chest.
It feels good , she thinks and tries to focus on him. While she has her eyes closed, she can’t help but have her mind wander to Shuri.
She wishes it was her kissing down her neck, rather than Jalen. Her breath gets heavier and she lets out a little moan as she pictures herself in this situation with Shuri.
She wants to see Shuri pushing her legs apart rather than having him do it.
She wants Shuri to be the one to make her reach her climax versus anyone else.
Although she does feel extremely turned on, Jalen can feel the shift in her body language as she tensed up a little.
He pulls back and looks into her eyes, “Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
Riri opens her eyes quickly and realizes that this isn’t what she wants, at all.
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m ready” She apologized and threw her head into her hands and sighs.
“Hey, it’s all good. No worries. I just felt the energy change and wanted to check in on you” He smiles at her.
“Thank you”
“What’s the trouble if you don’t mind me asking” He sits up against the headboard of the bed and she follows.
“No judgment?”
“No judgment” He sticks his pinky out to her and she locks it with her own.
“My thoughts are just on someone else. You’re a nice person and I feel bad but I can’t let myself”
“I get it,” He replies, “You’re the first girl I’ve tried to get with since my ex broke up with me”
“How recent?” she asks.
“Not gonna lie it was last month”
“Ouch”
“What about you? An ex too?”
“No, just someone I met last month too.”
“Damn they must be pretty special.”
“I can’t explain why but I think they are”
“Why aren’t you with them then?”
“Because she is hundreds of miles away but I think I was ghosted” Riri realizes this is the first time she has acknowledges that her crush is indeed on a girl to someone else.
“I’m sorry Riri”
“It’s okay, MJ told me I needed to get over a person if I’m not receiving anything back from them anyway”
“She’s right but I can’t tell you anything other than to follow what your gut is feeling”
“Can I give you a hug?” She asks as he nods in reply. “Thank you, Jalen”
“Are you going to be alright?” He hugs her back.
“I think so. Do you want to go back downstairs?” They end up leaving the room and heading back to the living room. MJ was long gone from her spot on the steps.
Enough time has passed for a decent amount of the people to clear out of the house. They go to sit on the loveseat in the room. She never thought she would be one of the last people to leave a party but here she was.
She grabs her phone out of her bag to check her notifications. She had a few from Instagram from people swiping up on her stories, but none of them were interesting enough for her to send a personal reply to. She only hit the like button on them.
“Hey what’s your Instagram?” She asks Jalen. He takes her phone and enters a few things for her before handing it back.
She realizes that she now has his phone number in her contacts and she was now following him on Instagram.
“I threw the number in there in case you ever need it,” He tells her before she could ask. MJ finds her way into the living room and sits across from the pair.
“It was nice to meet you Riri” Jalen gets up to leave, he mentions something about having a shift in the morning and says bye to MJ. Before he walks out of the room he looks back at Riri one last time. “Don’t forget what I told you”
“I won’t” She replies before looking back at MJ
“You ready to go?” MJ asks. It was almost 1 am, and although they didn’t spend a long time out, it was enough to feel satisfied with their experience.
Riri gets off of the couch, “I thought you wouldn’t ask sooner girl”
“I can take you guys home if you want” Peter speaks up from next to MJ.
“Would you? Please?” She replies to him and he smiles up at her next to him. Riri notices how sweetly MJ looks at him. Gonna tease her later , she thinks.
The three of them leave the house and start walking to the bus station down the street from Tyler’s house.
The route connects them to the suburbs, closer to the area where MJ lives. As they were walking, Riri realizes that MJ is more sober than her.
She’s glad the two of them were there to guide her because she didn’t know how drunk she actually was.
When the bus arrives MJ helps Riri to her seat before sitting in the row in front of her. Peter sits on the outside seat. She opens her phone to go through her socials again, mostly to pass time.
Her secret account pops up on the screen and sees that there’s a new post about Ironheart, well it wasn’t new. It was just a fan edit of different clips of her flying through the skies. She quickly likes it before shutting her phone again.
She leans her head against the window of the bus, not caring about germs right now, she was in her feelings.
She looks forward to see that MJ was resting her head on Peter's shoulder and he presses a kiss to the top of her head. Riri was glad that she was witnessing MJ be happy with someone who so far seems to treat her nicely.
For a moment she thinks about the distance they’ll have between them once they go back to campus. If they could maybe work it out why couldn’t I? She thinks.
Well for one, she reminded herself that she would be in the US and Shuri would be across an ocean in an entirely different country. On top of that, Shuri is a poltical figure in one of the most advanced nations in the world.
Who said she would have time for me? But also who said she would be into me like that? She sinks further into her seat during the ride. The girl doesn’t feel tears fall from her eyes at all, but she feels the heaviness in her chest and the lump in her throat.
Their bus ride lasted about fifteen minutes total before they reached the stop nearest to MJ’s mom's. Riri is the first of the three that get off the bus and ends up waiting outside for the other two to catch up.
“Go ahead lead the way, I’ll be behind you” Riri lets them walk in front of her, mostly because she doesn’t know where she’s going.
MJ reaches for Peter’s hand and they head down the street, MJ periodically looks back to make sure Riri hasn’t drifted off from their path.
Riri feels sober up enough to gather her thoughts and walk in a straight line. She knows she’s going to feel this tomorrow.
The building was a straight and simple walk from the bus stop. Easy to get there but also easy enough to get lost if you don’t know what building you’re looking for.
As they reach MJ’s building Riri walks towards the front door, “Take your time I’ll be waiting” She winks at MJ.
“Thank you for coming Peter. I’m glad you made it” Riri overhears her talking to Peter.
When she reaches the front, she turns just in time to see Peter kiss MJ goodbye. Riri makes a fake disgusted face at the pair.
MJ notices and waves the boy goodbye as she runs up to the other girl.
“Be safe! Let me know when you get home!” MJ yells back at Peter.
“Don’t worry I’ll be fine! But I will” Peter yells back as he watches them to make sure they got inside.
They walk to the elevator to go up to MJ's floor.
“Seeing you this entire night was disgusting but I support you” Riri jokes to her.
“Don’t act like you weren’t up to anything tonight either” She looks at her across the elevator car. “How was it?”
“I swear nothing happened”
“You’re lying” she accuses her.
“I’m not..” She starts, “I mean it almost did but I couldn’t do it”
The elevator beeped, signaling that they arrived to the floor. They walked back to MJ's door and she unlocked it as quietly as she could.
“Shit I forgot to tell her we were on the way home” MJ whispers.
“She’s not going to be mad is she?” She asks.
“No, she just likes a heads up since she’s definitely going to be asleep”
The two of them kicked their shoes off near the door and crept down to the girl’s room.
“Aw, she got the mattress ready for you” MJ pointed at the twin air mattress on the floor that had a few pillows on it and a comforter.
MJ gathered her pajamas real quick and ran to the bathroom to take her makeup and wash her face before bed.
Riri dug through her bag to find her makeup remover and face care products too, she realized after she got back that she did indeed let her skin touch the random bus window and couldn’t just go to sleep before freshening up.
She takes her turn in the bathroom after MJ returns. She sat down on the toilet first, she didn’t realize how badly she had to pee before they left Tyler’s house.
She uses a cloth and her makeup remover to take her eyeshadow and eyeliner off. Her routine was quick but it kept her skin clear and soft.
The girl changes into her sweatpants and loose t-shirt and goes back to MJ's room. She laying in her bed texting someone, she assumes it’s Peter.
Riri throws her things back in her bag and lays down on her air mattress. MJ turns her lamp off but stays on her phone.
“MJ”
“Yes Riri”
“I need to tell you something,” Riri thought that right now was a better time than ever to confess a few things to MJ, while she was still feeling bold from the leftover alcohol.
MJ immediately turns her phone light on and drops it on the bed to give her some light. She leans over the bed to look down at Riri, assuming something serious is happening.
“Listening”
“I didn’t get a text back” Riri sighs
“And that’s a problem why?”
“That’s why I couldn’t go through with Jalen”
“I’m not understanding” She furrows her eyebrows.
“I couldn’t do it because I keep thinking about someone else.” MJ sees that Riri’s face looked empty like she’s sad.
“Is it the person you were talking about on the bus?”
“Yeah, it’s her” She admits her feelings for a girl to someone else, for the second time tonight.
“Her?”
“Her.” Riri feels her heartbeat quicken a bit, she doesn’t know why she feels nervous saying it out loud to MJ. She’s been with women before back home and even a few on campus but never had anything serious with them.
“Girl for a second you had me thinking you were going to admit something crazy” She turns her phone light off and lays back in her bed. “Is this different than the other girls you’ve told me about before?”
“Those girls were nothing more than a fling or situations”
“Shit, that serious huh?”
“Don’t judge but I haven’t done anything with this girl either...I just spend time with them...Nothing physical at all and I don’t even know if she’s into me”
“I swore it looked like you were really into Jalen. Do you think you’ll see her soon?” MJ asks.
“I think I was just trying to get with him to forget for a little but it didn’t work. I have no clue if I’ll see her and I think that’s why I feel beat up over it”
“I’m sorry Riri.” Oddly enough, it doesn’t bother Riri when she hears MJ's breathing mellow out and a few soft snores come from the bed. She feels relieved about telling someone about her problems.
Riri turns over in the inflated bed and grabs her phone. She quickly turned the brightness down when she saw how bright the screen staring back at her was.
She pulls the blanket up a little and curls it under her chin. She clears all of her notifications and opens her text messages, focusing on the thread with Shuri which she never got a reply.
Her thoughts drift back to what Jalen said back in the room, trust your gut .
Her finger hovers over the name for a second before she opens the messages.
I miss you.
I tried to talk to other people but I can’t stop thinking of you.
They’re not you .
Riri sends the messages back to back before locking her phone and placing it on the floor to charge. She takes a deep breath before accepting the fact that she’s been texting a ghost.
She turns over in bed and closes her eyes, letting sleep come over her.