There was music, not so loud it smashed through conversation but upbeat enough that the group dancing in the corner were losing themselves to come come come come come along now, and there must have been several speakers set up because it sounded like there was a full drum circle over there, and the backdrop they were dancing in front of was strange – images of a desert projected onto a sheet or some kinda canvas – Lyra felt herself pulled that way but also, everything else was catching her eye too, and then she saw Fern and squealed.
Fern’s white dress glowed, some of the lights dangling overhead were blacklights, so it seemed like she patched in and out as she wove through the party, bright then dull, bright again. “Oh my god, your place!” Lyra exclaimed, grabbing Fern by the arms in greeting. “I thought when you said loft it’d be-” she shook her head, letting the gesture end the sentence cuz she wasn’t sure what she was gonna say. Less? More like where she lived, but like, loftier?
“Oh, all it is, is tall ceilings, is all it is,” said Fern, tilting her head up to the lights hanging from the, sure, admittedly tall ceiling. It wasn’t, though. This was prime real estate, but Lyra couldn’t think any more ‘bout that cuz right then another girl brushed past Avery and smashed into the two of them, wrapping her arms round Lyra and Fern’s shoulders and swinging her feet right off the floor, and Fern collapsed because she wasn’t ready and shrieking with laughter, they all went down in a pile of limbs.
From the floor, Lyra grinned up at Avery and pointed at the blonde who was cushioning her. “So this is Fern,” she said, like making introductions from the middle of a puppy pile was normal as anything, then turned her finger to the shorter haired brunette who’d gotten on top of them both and was hugging, tightly. “And Mackenzie, and this is my Avery.”
Mackenzie twisted a little so she could look up at Avery, then grinned and extended her hand to him to draw him down. “Squash us!” she insisted, and Fern, under two people already, gasped out a pleading “oh no!”