Save the Date

18

I jumped reaching for my clutch. Luca let me go and moved away from me. "Hello?" I answered.  "Where are you?" It was Patrick, sounding accusatory. "What do you mean where am I? Where have you been? I've been looking everywhere for you!" I shouted into the receiver. "McKenzie has lost it! How could you just leave her alone?" He hissed. "She is literally swinging from the chandelier!" "What do you mean?" I rolled my eyes, he could be so dramatic. "Just come to the entrance hall." He dropped the call. "I'm sorry it's my friend she's-" I tried to explain but he looked annoyed and once again he cut me off. It was starting to irritate me. "Never mind, just go." His voice came out cold. I looked at him expecting him to say something else but he just turned away with a look of disgust. What was that all about? One minute he's breathing sexily into my ear and the next it's as if he can't bear to look at me. I brushed past him without so much as a goodbye because he didn't deserve it and picked up my pace to get back to the big entrance hall. At some point, I heard McKenzie before I saw her. "...swiiiiiiiiing from the channnnndlier –" she sang extremely off-key. My body cringed when I saw that she had taken one of the silk curtains and lassoed it to the chandelier. How she had managed to do that was beyond me. It was like watching a bad Circ de Sole rip-off. She rolled herself into the curtain trying to look, at what I assumed to be, sexy but instead she just looked sad. People were only starting to come and see what the commotion was about so I had to get to her before someone took a video and added to her embarrassment. I saw Patrick at the bottom of the staircase trying to placate Legrey and Pete who were fuming. "Okay McKenzie, let's get you out of this thing," I said tugging at the knot she had made by twirling herself over and over in the material. Luckily McKenzie weighed so little from all the stress or that chandelier would have come crashing down on her head. "Oh heeeey! I wanted to fly like David Copperfield." She said as I tried to bend her arm out of a loop. "Come flyyyyyyy with me, letttts flyyyyy awayyyy," She sang again more high pitched than I think she intended because she started giggling when her voice cracked. "I'm a failure," she said quietly with a hiccup as I battled to find an opening trying to figure out how she'd managed to get herself so tangled. She looked so sad. "It's all going to be okay," I tried to placate her, what could I say to someone whose life was going down the tubes?

By this time almost the entire party was at the entrance. Patrick had joined me in trying to get McKenzie out of the mess she had made. Eventually, we managed to detangle her and carried her outside, Patrick had her shoulders and I had her feet, I tried to wave goodbye to Legrey and Pete, "Thank you for a wonderful party!" but they ignored me and tried to salvage what was left of their curtain. I thought I saw a flash of purple but the door closed behind me before I could get a proper look. "What exactly were you doing that you couldn't hear this hot mess?" Patrick asked as I got off the phone with the cab company. I debated telling him about Luca and the weird conversation in the art gallery. I would usually tell Patrick everything. This, however, I felt I needed to keep to myself just a little bit longer.