A World Alone

Chapter 6: Misery Business

I've been to many parties since I turned thirteen. There were different kinds, and not all of them parties supposed to be for someone my age, but all of them more or less with the same kind of people. The first ones, I used to go with my stepsister, who's about two years older than me. We had a good time, and we usually just stayed with our friends —or her friends, more like it. I started smoking around the same age, same as drinking. I never had any problem with any of those, until one time, some time before Lily moved to London, something happened.

We were at a friend of her house. It was a quiet party, I mean, not too much of a fuzz, just more of a teenage stuff thing. That was good, because we were amongst people we sort of knew. Around eleven, random guys started to arrive, and apparently, the owner of the house —a longtime friend of Lily— had invited them, because they were his friends from the swimming team or something. No big deal, we keep dancing and drinking and stuff... but then something happened that made us leave, and that same thing made me so averse to drinking in other's people parties, that it left a sour taste in my mouth, still around three years later.

Now I'm at a party with Matt. I'm still too young to be here, but he got us in somehow. It's around nine-thirty when I'm outside, chatting to some girls I knew from other party, when I spot a guy putting something inside a cup... and then he's handling it to a girl.

I think every girl knows about these things. I mean, there's no way we don't. We all know a story about other girl who's been through this, if not ourselves, and we've learned to be careful with these things. Of course, you never sort of expect it to come from the closest to you... should that be a mistake? I don't know, but it's a fact, and that I do know.

I run up to the guy as fast as I can, and even if he's not very far away, I get there the second he's handling the cup to a girl. She's smiling and they're talking, and she looks so pleased with him that it makes me sick.

"Hey!" I say, as I approach her, but she's not listening. "Hey, hey, hey!" I scream, louder this time, but I only get the same effect as before —indifference. Yet, since I won't let it happen, I decide to act upon and I slam the girl's red cup so hard it splashes at her feet.

"What the fuck?" the guy screams, and she just stares at me. I don't know if she says anything or not, but I speak.

"Look, he put something in it," I tell her, ignoring the screaming behind me. She frowns, confused, but it only takes her a few seconds to understand. "I'm sorry, I just couldn't let you drink it," I say, as her face turns pale.

"You don't believe this, do you?" the guy tells her, with a big grin on his face, and I'm disgusted. "Alice, you don't even know her!"

"Oh, you fucking idiot! You're a creep!" is all that this Alice says, and despite this guy trying to explain something, she just ignores him, grabs the cup I'm holding, and splashes it all over his face. People behind and around us gasp, and I'm pretty sure someone's filming this creep. Good... "Thank you," she tells me, grabbing my arm hard, "thank you," I smile, and someone who looks like her friend quickly approaches to her and grabs her by the arm and leads her to the exit.

"What the fuck, you moron?" the guy tells me, when I think I was done with all of this. "Are you crazy or just stupid?"

"Fuck you, man, I'm not the crazy one in this situation..." I say, walking away from him as fast as I can. He complains a bit more, and then starts talking to some of his guy friends, but there's nothing I can do now. I know the guy who organized the party, and I know he won't kick him out, and I know he won't call him out either, because you know how boys are... but I want to leave now. I want to leave the party and I want to, strangely, go home. I feel like crying, but why do I? Nothing happened to me, and if anything, it happened to Alice, whoever she is... but it could've happened to me, though. Maybe that's the scary part.