“Oh hi, Zach! So good to see you here.” Mrs. Morgan says to me as she opens the door.
“Hey, Mrs. M.”
“The kids are in the basement. I was just heading off to bed. How’s your mom?” Someone knows. Someone knows about my mother.
“Er. She’s well. Yeah. She’s fine.”
“Good. Good. Well, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Mrs. M.”
I walk down to the basement door and knock once. It’s code so we know that it’s not parents. Nobody knocks once. It’s kinda awkward. Anyway, I’m wearing the loose black t-shirt that I wear to parties and pink swim trunks with ducks on them, and black old skool vans with In-N-Out socks.
Jeremy’s the one who opens the door for me.
“Ayo, Zach!”
“Hey! Just thought you’d wanna know: your mom went to bed.”
“Sick. Also, my dad’s on a business trip and my mom is like not giving a crap about anything so we’re chill for the morning. I told her it was a sleepover and that girls and boys would be in different rooms.”
“Nice.” Someone throws a basketball at my chest. I toss it into the general direction of the person which earns a few cheers. I look over and see that the ball went into a plastic hoop that was connected to a closet door.
As I walk over to the drink cooler, a girl comes up to me. She places her hands on my hips as she’s done many times before. “Lexi. We’ve been over for two months now. Please just chill out on me.” I sigh. I look into her eyes and see how drunk she is.
“Hey, Zachary” Lexi slurs.
“Hey, Lex. Please go away.” She starts laughing hysterically, places a fat kiss on my cheek, then walks away. Well, tried to, at least. After a few steps, she starts to fall over. I run over to Lexi and pick her up. Then, I lay her down on the couch. “Umm. Lexi’s um super drunk. I think we should get her help.”
“You should do mouth to mouth, Reynolds!” Someone yells at me.
I sigh. “Does she have a boyfriend or something?”
“Yeah. Lemme help.” Some little sophomore comes over and tries to help Lexi. I leave quickly, grab a beer and take a gulp. Then another. And another. The calm sensation fills me. It washes through my veins. I sigh with relief. I take another two gulps and finish the bottle. Too quickly. Way too quickly. I know that. But I decide to not do anything about it.
I grab another bottle. I’m just about to start drinking it when Evan comes over with the rest of the football team. “Hey, Reynolds.” I nod in response. Evan grabs a beer. Then slaps a twenty down on the table. “Whoever finishes first gets forty.”
“Deal.” I slap down a twenty.
Some stranger girl dressed like a stripper sits down on the table. “Gonzalez versus Reynolds. Three… two… ONE!” I raise the bottle to my lips and start drinking.
The entire party comes over. “Chug, chug, chug, chug.” They chant. I throw my empty bottle down, glass shattering across the table. “Wooooooo!” The party cheers, which makes my head start throbbing.
The stripper girl starts yelling. “Reynolds wins! You get the rest of Evan’s beer and forty bucks.” I grab the two twenties, shove the money in my pocket, and pour the drink down my throat.
“Aye! Good game, Reynolds.” Evan shoves me. I stumble forward. “Zach?” Evan looks at me, thoroughly concerned. “You alright, man?”
“Two and a half beers in less than half an hour isn’t super great,” I say leaning against a sofa for support.
“Dude, go to the bathroom.” Evan looks at me with actual nervousness. “Don’t puke on me.”
“Uh, I’m just gonna get water.”
His eyebrows knit together at my drunken words“What?”
“I’m gonna get water.” I quickly walk over and chug some water, hoping to dilute the alcohol. Then I go to the bathroom and, just like Evan said, I vomit. I look at myself in the mirror. My curly brown hair was falling on my now greenish pale face. I splash water on myself and rinse out my mouth.
“Need a mint?” Now, this is weird.
“Chrissie?”
“Hey, Zach.” She laughs as she leans against the doorway. “I don’t suggest having a drinking contest with Evan. But it’s worse that you beat him.”
I run my fingers through my hair. “Yeah.” I reach my hand out and Chrissie places an Altoid in my hand. I look at it. “You didn’t.”
“Yup, I did. You know I don’t eat them. You wanna” She pauses, and carefully studies my face. The plastic package in my pocket feels suddenly very much out of place as my ex-girlfriend’s ‘you wanna’ fills my brain. Then she finishes her sentence. “talk about it.”
My stomach churns, from nerves this time, not alcohol. “About what?” My voice has gone up about five octaves.
“Umm whatever made you drunk? Oh my god! Is Zari over?” She gasps.
“No. Ari and I are still together.” I cringe at our stupid ship name.
“Then what is making you throw up in the basement of Jeremy Meyers?”
“I, er,” When we were together, it was super easy to tell each other secrets. But now that I’m dating Ari, it’s pretty hard to tell her about my mother. “I’m sorry, Chrissie, but I can’t really tell you.”
“Oh. Oh. Right. Sorry. I should.” She looks at the door.
“Yeah.” We laugh awkwardly and walk out of the bathroom.
I was already on edge tonight since tonight is going to be the night for Ari and me. I invited her to this party two days ago while we were cuddling at my house. My dad and sister Posie weren’t home. That ended with me having a trip to the drugstore buying condoms. The cashier looked at me and was like ‘Please tell me that you don’t have a girlfriend.’ I looked at her and raised my eyebrows as I placed the awkward package on the checkout counter.
Okay. Just so you know. I am not a virgin. Arianna, on the other hand, is waiting for the ‘right guy’ to lose her v-card. I guess I was the ‘right guy’. If I feel a relationship is really serious I might try to make an advance letting the girl know I’m comfortable if she is.
I lost my v-card to Chrissie sophomore year. That is a story for another time. Let’s just say that part of it ended our relationship. I was the one with Lexi when she lost her virginity. That’s when people started making fun of me. They’d say that anyone who is looking to just do it should just date me and they’ll be good. I hated that. But nothing came from the stupid bullying. I was called a player and I wish I could deny it. Ari and started dating after most of the bullying died out.
I was just about to get a beer when a hush fell over the party. Well almost. Anyone who saw who came through the door. She’s wearing a black T-shirt that used to be mine. Now it’s cut so short that any movement of her arms will show some skin. For her bottoms, she’s just wearing normal high-waisted straight cut jeans with so many rips, it leaves little to the imagination. Her shoes are platform black converse. She walks up to me and everyone goes back to the party.
“Hey, Zach.” She sighs.
“Hi, Ari.” I pull her in for a hug. “You look hot tonight.”
“You don’t look too bad yourself.” Then she looks at my face. “I take that back. Were you drinking?”
“Er, I had a couple of drinks, yeah.”
Arianna takes a deep breath out. “Well, as long as you're all right now.”
I nod. “Nice shirt.”
She giggles and stands on her tiptoes so she reaches my face. I kiss her. Then we just stand there for a bit, telling each other without words that tonight is the night.
“You wanna drink?”
“Sure, you know what I like.” I laugh because at high school parties, it’s just what the parents wouldn’t notice is missing. Arianna sits down on a couch next to Lindsay, her best friend.
I bring the beers back to Arianna and Lindsay. Lindsay talks about her maybe new boyfriend. Ari talks about the new clothes she ordered. Then they look at me. My face went red.
“Nothing new.”
“Come on, big head. Star of the football and lacrosse team has nothing new?” Lindsay throws her can at my head.
“Ow! What was that for!”
“Zach almost passed out after he had a drinking race with Evan Gonzalez.” Someone says from behind us.
“What! You told me you were fine.” Arianna exclaims, pointedly.
“Sorry, babe. I am fine.”
“Now,” Evan says over Ari’s shoulder. He blows out a short whistle. “Daaaaaamn, Arianna.”
Ari slaps him straight on the cheek. “You're a disgusting jerk, Evan Gonzalez.” I hold back a laugh as my best friend sulks away. Ari has never been the biggest fan of Evan so that was the one challenge when we started dating. That’s why I’m sitting with Lindsay and not the football guys.
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