{ thirteen }

                                        

                                              
i freeze as i stare at the L.A mansion, which is practically bursting at the seams with party guests. 
i turn and face georgia, matt, nick, and chris. "okay! let's go back home." 
chris laughs and grabs my arm before i can march back to the car. "i'm sorry, i didn't think it'd be this crowded." he turns to the rest of the group. "if this is too much, we can go back." 
i was mostly joking about wanting to leave, but i appreciate that he's willing to go back if we're uncomfortable. "no, it's okay." 
"yeah, we came all this way," georgia agrees. "it'll be fun!" 
chris's hand is still on my arm. as if he only just realizes this, he slowly lets me go. 
"come on," i urge, starting towards the house. the front door is wide open, so of course there's no point in knocking. 
an explosion of noise assaults my eardrums the moment we step through the door. music, shouted conversations, laughter. i shout to the others, "where should we go?" 
chris looks around before indicating a direction for us to follow. he leads us to the kitchen, which is far enough away from the speakers and more crowded areas that we no longer have to shout to be heard. even still, there are at least twenty people standing in the kitchen. chris grabs us some sodas. 
"what do we do now?" i ask. 
"meet famous people?" georgia suggests. 
just then, a few girls come up and start talking to the triplets. they speak excitedly about being big fans and mention things like collaborations and tiktok posts. 
"forgot they were the famous people," georgia whispers. 
when the girls leave, new people take their place to talk to the sturniolos. i realize that this same pattern will probably repeat itself all night. not because they're the most famous people here or anything, but because this is the type of party where people just walk around and introduce themselves to each other, talk about content, and then move on to the next person. maybe georgia and i should leave them alone and meet people ourselves. 
"oh my gosh, i think that's tara yummy," georgia says suddenly. 
"tara who?" 
"you seriously don't know her either?" 
i shake my head. georgia stares eagerly into the distance. 
"go on," i say, shoving her a little. 
"what?" 
"go introduce yourself." 
she looks anxiously towards the crowd, then back at me. "i'm scared!" she says. "and i don't want to leave you here alone." 
"i'll be fine. go meet people. that's what this party is all about." 
"are you sure? what if we can't find each other after?" 
i hold up my phone. "we live in the era of digital communication, my friend." 
georgia laughs. "fine, okay. i'll text you." 
"if you want. but seriously, go on and meet new people." 
georgia quickly squeezes my hand before being swallowed by the crowd. 
i start making my way around the house, too. i guess that being clueless about content creators is my downfall in a place like this. actors and actresses i know. movie directors, producers; all of that stuff. but content creators? not so much. some faces are familiar, but i don't know anyone's name, which makes it seriously awkward to approach them.