Chapter 7 And Then There Were Three #2
I smiled and waved, which she returned. We’d met a couple times during my visits forever ago. She’d always been Ari’s most welcoming friend. The rest were nice enough but somewhat standoffish.
I followed Ari while my eyes roamed the room. There was a lone guy near the stairs who fit my usual type. Somewhat. It was good enough given the choices in this town.
“I found a guy I wanna talk to,” I told Ari. “You’ll be okay with your friends?”
“Yeah, of course. Go have fun. Come find me when you’re done with him.”
We said our temporary goodbyes and I headed toward the attractive stranger, but halfway there an arm snaked around my waist.
“Hey, Vixen.” Dennis smiled, fangs glinting in the dim light.
“What’s up, Emy?” Sean draped an arm across my shoulders from the other side.
“Would it kill you guys to say hi before you start touching me?” I shrugged both off before continuing to the stranger. “Hi.” I leaned against the wall, catching the guy’s attention.
“Hi.”
“I’m Mina.” I pushed my hair over a shoulder and smiled. “Wanna go upstairs? It’s too crowded down here.”
“Oh,” he paused, taken aback by my bluntness. “Seriously?”
“Why not?”
“Lead the way.” He grinned and touched the small of my back.
I turned to do just that, only to smack right into Dennis instead. “What are you doing? Move.” I tried to push past him.
“I’m Mina’s brother.” Dennis’ hazel eyes were on the unnamed man.
“Okay? You look nothing alike.”
“You’re right. I’m her boyfriend.”
“Really?”
“No. I’m actually her master.”
“Okay, this is getting weird. I’m out.” The guy shied away and disappeared into the crowd.
“Now who am I supposed to hook up with?” I complained, turning on Dennis. That was cockblocking at its finest. Now I had to find someone else.
“You always have me.” He smirked as I caught the hand that was moving toward my waist.
“Tempting,” I looked him over, “but no.”
“Your loss.” He took up the man’s abandoned post near the stairs. “Why aren’t you drinking?”
“I’m designated driver.” I tapped Ari’s keys against my side, then glanced at the beer pong table in time to catch her sipping from a can.
Sean was beside her, looking amused as she grimaced at the taste. She’d never been a fan of beer, but at parties anything was fair game. If it was alcohol, she would drink it.
“You’re against drunk driving?” Dennis seemed surprised.
“Aren’t most people? Drunk driving is for assholes.” I scanned the room in search of another target. So far, nothing. “You ruined everything. Now I have nothing to do, except maybe beer pong. But I hate that game. I suck at it. My aim is the worst.”
“Oh, I know.” He laughed shamelessly. “And you can’t catch for shit. I’ve already noticed you drop everything. You might be the clumsiest person I’ve ever met.”
I faked a laugh and rolled my eyes. “Where’s Mateo?” I asked. He’d come up with the plan to come and now he was nowhere to be seen.
“Not here. I’ve never been to a frat party. This is… interesting.” Dennis snickered as someone slipped over a puddle of beer.
“Did you not go to college?”
“I did. I graduated last year but I was busy taking classes, not doing… this.” He made a face as another person stumbled over the mess of beer.
I laughed and took his hand. “Let’s go upstairs. Not to hook up. I’m not doing that with you. But there might be less mess and more entertainment up there.” I climbed the stairs and tugged him along. I was stuck with him, anyway. May as well make the best of it.
When we reached the top, at least one pair of people were having sex in the first bedroom; that much was obvious from the noise. I pulled Dennis along to the next room, which had a small group of people inside. They were deep in a rambunctious conversation.
“Hi,” a girl greeted us enthusiastically. “Okay. Settle a debate for us. Is a hot dog a sandwich?” She giggled uncontrollably as one person groaned and another started chugging two drinks at once, spilling down his shirt.
“Duh,” I said. “What else would it be?”
“See!” She shoved a finger in the face of the guy beside her. “What else would it be? Nothing. Nothing else because it’s clearly a sandwich.”
I tuned out the guy’s response and wandered back into the hall.
“Let’s see what else we have up here,” I said, bringing Dennis along.
My favorite thing to do while sober at a party, aside from hooking up with strangers, was to watch drunk people be absurd.
“How long do you think ’til we find another couple having sex? ”
“Right now.” Dennis nodded toward the cracked door beside me.
It only took a second to realize he was correct. I laughed and dragged him past several more drunk people toward a populated balcony.
“See? This is fun. What do you think they’re doing out here?”
“Probably smoking,” he guessed.
Sure enough, the familiar scents of weed and cigarettes filled the air the moment we stepped outside. I almost gagged as a cloud of smoke blew in my face. Maybe the balcony wasn’t the best idea, after all. I’d never been a fan of smoke.
“Let’s go back inside. The people in the non-sex room seemed fun.” I did a pivot and led him back inside. “If it’s boring we’ll go play drinking games with Ari and Sean.”
“Sure. Maybe if you aim at a wall, you’ll miss so horribly it’ll land in a cup.”
“You know what,” I started, fully prepared to go on a tirade, but froze the moment we reached the doorway.
“Go in.” Dennis nudged me from behind. I numbly stepped inside. My eyes were trained on the small table, where several people were prepping lines of white powder. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.” I forced a smile. “Let’s go downstairs. I wanna play beer pong.”
“Babe! You’re back.” The same girl beamed at us. “Do you guys want any? There’s plenty.” She gestured toward the table as a guy snorted the first line of cocaine.
“No, thanks.” I kept the smile up. “I’m good.”
“Okay, love.” She rolled up a paper before moving in to take the next line. She sniffed and passed it to the next person, who was setting up another.
I could feel it coming—my entire mood had changed. I pushed past Dennis out of the room, back into the hall, past the couples having sex.
“You don’t do drugs?” Dennis sounded even more surprised than he’d been about the lack of drunk driving.
“No.” I angrily pushed past someone else and headed downstairs. “Where’s Ari? I wanna leave.” I made my way to the beer pong table, but she wasn’t there. I maneuvered around the new game that was happening, searching for my cousin.
“Vixen, what’s wrong?”
I slid my way between two more people. The party was already more crowded than before.
I searched room to room for nearly fifteen minutes before eventually spotting her wavy hair from behind.
She was at a table in the garage, still beside Sean and apparently playing a game of King’s Cup.
I tapped her on the shoulder. It was clear she was wasted before she even turned around.
“Who are you?” she asked airily.
“Emy.”
“Who?”
“Emery.”
She squinted for several seconds. “Who?”
“Your cousin, Ari!”
“Vixen, calm down.”
I felt Dennis’ hand on my shoulder and pushed it away. “I know you don’t remember who I am, but we’re going home.” I was trying to hold off the mood swing for as long as possible, but that was never a guarantee.
“Ooh, Emy. My favorite cousin. My best friend,” she cooed.
“I didn’t recognize you. Go home without me.
I can walk. Wait, but I don’t know where I am.
” She giggled and reached for a card. “I lost beer pong. So bad. I lost two games. I’m just losing everything today.
” She flipped the card and yelled in triumph when it was an Ace.
“Waterfall!” She raised a massive glass to chug.
Everyone else in the game cheered and followed suit.
“How much alcohol has she had?”
“A lot,” Sean said. “The girl can drink. I can stay with her, if you want.”
“I’m not leaving without her.”
“Without who?” Ari lowered the cup to peer at me.
“You.”
“Who?”
“I can’t deal with this right now.” I slammed my fist against the table as tears stung at my eyes. “I wanna leave.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Sean offered a second time.
“We barely fucking know you. I don’t trust you. I’m not leaving my drunk off her ass cousin with a stranger who doesn’t know boundaries.”
“She’s with friends, right?” He gestured to the several people who knew her, including the super nice one. It seemed at least two of the other less drunk girls were keeping a close eye on her. “Seriously. She’ll be fine.”
“Let’s go for a walk until you calm down and then we’ll come back,” Dennis said.
I stared at them both, trying to process what they were even saying. They waited for a response that never came. Dennis finally took my shoulders and steered me outside. “I don’t wanna go for a walk,” I mumbled.
“It might help.” He let go as we reached the sidewalk.
“I don’t want help.” I ran a hand through my hair and ended up grabbing a handful, then stopped walking and stared ahead. “I wanna go home.”
“Should I tell Sean to bring Ari so we can leave?”
“No. I wanna go home.” I set off at a brisk pace, partially to escape Dennis’ worried look.
“Like home, home. Back with my mom and dad and that piece of shit we called a house. And that stupid closet I used to play in while my mom shot up, and my dad and his knives.” I stopped talking as my throat constricted.
“Why are you so upset?”
I didn’t answer and walked into the street—Dennis yanked me back as a car flew past, its horn blaring and driver shouting. I stared after it. He dragged me the rest of the way across the street before dropping my arm.
“What’s wrong with you? What happened to the tough Vixen who would’ve cussed that guy out and tried to stab him?”
“I left my knife at home.” I smiled grimly as the first tear fell. “Maybe I should become a drug addict like my mom or go to prison like my dad, or just go back to dancing at clubs because that’s all I’m good at.”