Southern Constellations (Fuenciado)

Chapter Eight

I hated parties. I honestly didn't know what had possessed me to agree to Alex dragging me to one, especially since it was at Jenna's house. The music was shitty and giving me a headache, and everyone was completely wasted-- except for me. Instead, I sat on a couch in the corner, refusing to touch the drinks being passed around in styrofoam cups. The smell alone was enough to make me gag, bringing up memories of the nauseating stench that lingered on my dad's breath.

The lights were dimmed low, some overplayed pop song was blasting, and a mixture of sweat, weed, and beer permeated the air. It was overwhelming. I'd thought that maybe it would be good for me to get out of the house, to try to have a life outside of textbooks and toilets and hours spent waiting by the phone, but damn was I wrong. All I wanted was to be at home alone in my room with the king-sized chocolate bars I'd stashed under my bed...

"Jaime!"

I looked up to see Alex looming over me, a lopsided grin on his face and a cup in each of his hands.

"Scoot over," he said, nestling himself into the space next to me as the drinks sloshed over the edges.

He held one out to me, which I lightly took and rested on my leg as he wrapped an arm around my shoulders.

He sighed. "Is this perfect or what?"

"Yeah," I agreed uneasily, not particularly liking the way his arm was slung around my neck.

This is what friends do, I tried to convince myself. This is normal. Just enjoy it.

"Cheers," he said, holding out his glass.

I glanced down at the floor, not reciprocating. Alex turned to me, his eyebrows raised in confusion. As if he'd just had an epiphany, a huge smile broke out across his face.

"You've never had a drink before," he teased.

I shook my head, pressing my lips together as I did so in embarrassment. I'd been against drinking ever since I'd caught a whiff of my dad's sickly breath as he yelled at me. But now-- now I felt like something was wrong with me, rather than with him. Drinking was normal, everything he'd done was normal, it was just me that was messed up.

"Have you ever been to party before?"

My cheeks flushed red as I shook my head again.

"This is gonna be great!" Alex said excitedly, waving Jack over from across the room after holding up three fingers.

As Jack began to make his way over to where we were sitting, Alex pulled a plastic bag out of his jacket pocket.

"I've been saving these for a special occasion, and I think this most definitely qualifies."

He dangled the bag in front of my face as I squinted to see what was inside. And when I did, I felt my stomach drop.

Pills.

There had to be at least twenty in there, each of them white and perfectly round. He shook the bag, causing its contents to jump around as he looked at me with a devilish gleam in his eyes.

"Holy shit, dude!" Jack exclaimed from in front of us. "Where'd you get all that?"

"I have my sources," Alex said smugly. "Now, did you bring the stuff?"

"Fuck yeah I did," Jack replied, setting three shot glasses down onto the coffee table in front of us as he took a seat in an armchair.

"Let me just grab that," Jack said, reaching across the table to take the cup that Alex had given me out of my hand while nudging a shot glass closer to me.