No More Day Dreaming (DreamNotFound)

Going Out

TW: Alcohol mention and use

I don't like parties.

Even aside from the fiasco that was my 12th grade year, I just didn't care for the loud, drunken environments.

On the other hand, George frequented them; throughout college, he was a bit of a party animal. He invited me every time, and on a few occasions, I came with. I've been to a few New Year's parties with him, as well as some end of the school year ones. But for the most part, I declined.

However, this was a major exception, seeing as how it would be the graduation party. Even though George warned me that it was going to be bigger than anything we'd done before, I didn't want to miss out on it.

So that's how I ended up at a huge building (apparently it was being rented) with George one cloudy evening, mentally preparing myself for the party. And boy, was it one hell of a party.

The food, atmosphere, pretty much everything outclassed anything I'd ever seen before, even the other college ones that all dwarfed the disastrous Halloween party all those years ago. This was on a completely different scale, so much so that even George seemed shocked.

"Holy shit," he breathed. "I'd heard they were going all out, but damn."

There was a large dance floor on one end of the facility, while food was on the other. Drinks were served on either side, coming in many different flavors and intensities (fortunately, there was a place with soda and water). Balloons and other decorations were strung up all around.

My boyfriend turned to me and asked, "Are you gonna be okay if I drink?"

"Go for it," I nodded. That was one of the firmest boundaries in our relationship - alcohol. I didn't drink and that was that; however, George was a bit more keen to it. The major issue was that I really, really don't like it.

Fortunately, George moderates himself at parties (we obviously don't have any drinks at home) and rarely gets dumb drunk, preventing him from accidentally crossing a boundary. He knows to avoid kissing me when he smells like booze, and he's long past the point of coming onto me when he's not sober. And if it's necessary, I have his consent to forcefully take him home if he gets too drunk (though luckily, it's never come to that).

So now, as we reaffirmed each other as we entered, we silently covered those boundaries again. And with that established, George began drifting about with me in tow. My hand slipped into his, as it often does, and we continued on our way to get drinks.

We bounced around the place some more, grabbing some snacks and eyeing the dance floor. Apparently, it wasn't time to dance yet, and we certainly didn't want to be the first to initiate it.

I found myself to be getting a little overwhelmed with all the noise and people, so I relayed that to George and let myself outside. The night had set in by this point, and it was starting to get a little bit chilly. Still, I enjoyed taking a moment to look at the trees growing in patches in the concrete.

On my return, I had trouble locating George - which wasn't exactly bizarre, since he's so small and there's bound to be hundreds of people in this building. Still, I did eventually find him near one of the drink areas by the dance floor. Unfortunately, what I also found was a drunk girl trying to hit on him.

Now, George is rarely ever uncomfortable, at least when he's around me. At first, I was worried that he was too nervous to express anything like that, but when I asked him about it, he told me confidently that I just never gave him any reason to be uncomfortable.

Now, however, he was politely shuffling away from the drunken lass, though she keep taking huge steps toward him every time. George told me that it was more or less known that he was dating someone already (much fewer people knew it was a guy), but that situations like this happened anyway because he was somewhat popular. Eager to help him out, I stepped over.