Party thang

IV.

The first people to show up were a group of boys from our high school. They were raising seniors, but they weren’t very attractive. Catherine flirted with them anyway while Alexa sulked on that same couch which we still hadn’t covered because she wouldn’t move.

Then Dan showed up with his older sister Amy, who was taking a year off after getting straight Cs her year of college. She looked around, realized no one was her age, or even really knew her that well, and flopped down on the couch as far away from Alexa as she could get. She stayed there until later when a group of guys and one girl who she apparently knew showed up and she went to dance with them in the space where the massive dining table had been.

By that time there were almost as many people in the house as during one of Catherine’s mother’s holiday gatherings, and we knew almost all of them at least by face.. It wasn’t until way later that people we didn’t know started showing up, which was good, because they brought more alcohol and we were running out.

I’d only been drinking enough to maintain a mild buzz up until then, and I decided to go all out. I could see weird black scum on the walls, and sticky puddles of beer everywhere, and I didn’t want to have to think about cleaning it until later, so I kicked back as many as I thought I could handle without vomiting.

V.

I don’t remember how we ended up in the bathroom together. I don’t remember who started it. I just remember his pretty blue eyes, and his hands all over me, and grabbing onto his neck and pulling him closer, and him pressing me against the sink and the back of my dress getting all wet.

I think he told me he thought I was beautiful, but maybe I misheard his drunken mumblings, and maybe my inebriated mind was just telling me what I wanted to hear. But in any case, my dress was ruined anyway, and so I took it off for him, and he took off his pants, and tile floor was cold because Catherine and I had taken out the rug, and as we rolled around on it someone started pounding on the door saying they had to go, whoever was in there should hurry up, but I knew there were other bathrooms, and I hit my head against the base of the toilet twice but I didn’t care because he was warm and he thought I was sexy and it felt good.

And when we were done he pulled his pants back on and left, and I relocked the door behind him, found a towel and went to sleep naked in the bathtub.

VI.

Catherine woke me up, kicking and screaming at the door.

“If you die, you better not have the balls to do it in my bathroom!”

I groaned and rolled over. Everything hurt. “Cat,” I moaned. “Can I borrow some clothes?”

“What for?” She demanded. She sounded pissed. I wondered what time it was, and what had happened since I’d locked myself in this little room.

“I had a bad night,” I whimpered. She sighed and I heard her footsteps heading away.

I curled up in the bathtub. It was damp, and I was cold, but it was dark and quiet. I thought about turning on the faucet and filling my makeshift bed with warm water, but even the thought of the roar of running water made my head throb. I thought I should get up and dry off and get warm that way, but it seemed my whole body was sore. So I stayed with the towel wrapped around my hips and my face pressed against the chilly tub floor until Catherine came back and knocked softly on the door.

“Are you alright in there?” She asked. She sounded worried now.

“I’m okay,” I called back. “Just… just I have a hangover from hell.”

She giggled. “Well, I brought you some clothes. I’ll leave them out here.”

She left, and I spent ten minutes gathering up the willpower to drag myself out of the tub. I stood unsteadily and tried to look at myself in the mirror, but it was too dark and I wasn’t even sure the square thing on the wall I was looking at was a mirror.

I stumbled over to the door, nearly tripped on the crumpled remains of my dress and opened the door a crack. I winced and the beam of light that shown in from the outside and I squeezed by eyes shut. I squatted and felt around on the floor and the base of the door until I found the pile of clothes Catherine left me.

I dressed in the dark, and then threw myself into the light of the day outside the windowless bathroom. My head exploded in pain, and I staggered around the house until I found Catherine mopping in the kitchen. She took one look at me, dropped her mop and came running over.

“Holy shit!” she yelled. I cringed and rubbed at my temples. “Sorry,” she whispered. “You weren’t kidding when you said you had a bad night.”

I nodded dully. But I hadn’t had a bad night. It had been fun, up until the point where I passed out in the bathtub. It was the aftermath I regretted.

“What time is it?” I muttered.

“’Bout eleven,” Catherine answered. “Would you like some aspirin?” I nodded. She went off and I sat down on an unmopped section of the floor and put my head between my knees. A few minutes later she returned and thrust some pills and a glass of water in the face. I swallowed the pills dry, chugged the water, and then curled up on her kitchen floor and tried to go back to sleep.

It was sticky, and after a while she started vacuuming one of the other rooms. I wanted to cry at the headache it caused me, but instead I crawled up the stairs to her room and climbed into her bed. I must have fallen asleep, because the next time I became aware of my surroundings, it was dark. My dress was folded on Catherine’s night stand, and my wallet, keys and cell phone were on top. I didn’t even remember where I’d left them the night before.

I had seven missed calls and two angry text messages from my mother. I had told her I’d be home by 3:00 at the latest. It was 8:30. I still hurt all over, but my headache and dwindled to a dull throb. I gathered my stuff and stomped down the stairs.

Catherine was watching TV in the living room on the couch Alexa had refused to get off of. There were three bulging trash bags propped against the couch.

“Hey,” I said.

She looked up and smiled. “Feeling better?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Sorry about that.”

She shrugged. “Hey, you helped me get out of that house by the lake with the attic, remember?” I grinned. I knew exactly what she went; she had been unbelievably wasted.

“My mom’s super pissed,” I said. “I should go. I’ll take the trash out on my way, okay?”

“That’s what it’s here for,” she replied and waved at the bags. “Drive safe.”

“I will,” I said and, shifted my possessions around in the arms so I could grab the bags. The dress and my oversized wallet went under my armpit; my keys and cell phone went in the pockets of the pair of Catherine’s jeans I was wearing. I grabbed the trash bags and headed for the door.

“Bring back my clothes tomorrow,” Catherine called after me. “We still have tons of crap to clean up.”

“See you,” I said, not even turning around. Cleaning would be a pain.

But I still didn’t regret anything I’d done that night.

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HAHAHA, YOU SAY THAT NOW, UNNAMED FEMALE CHARACTER, YOU SAY THAT NOW...