Reclusive- s.r

fifteen

"Who is that? I know I've heard this song before."

I shake my head, blinking slowly. The shots we took earlier earlier are starting to kick in now, and I feel unpleasantly warm, so I slide my sweater off my shoulders and slump back dramatically onto the sofa. Celeste is still ranting about whoever is performing on the new year's celebration, but I've drowned out most of that conversation.

"Hold on, let me Shazam it," she insists. Celeste stumbles over to the kitchen where her phone is and comes back, holding her phone up incredibly close to the tv and shushing all of us. She frowns, "It's not working."

I can't help but laugh at how silly we all look, decked out in matching boas, glasses and headpieces. We'd bought them at the grocery store today, and we thought it'd be funny if we went all out this year, but I'm quickly regretting it because the boa is making my neck uncomfortably itchy and it smells funny. I hastily tug it off my neck, pulling off a few feathers along with it and I toss it on the floor, scratching the back of my neck with a distasteful expression.

I look down when a bottle of wine is being passed toward me, and I follow the arm to see Grace's arm extended out toward me. My arm feels slightly heavy when I reach forward to take the bottle and take a sip from it, then my gaze flicks over to the already empty bottle of wine, as well as the empty shot glasses discarded on our coffee table.

"I give up." Celeste frowns and face-plants into the sofa. "And I hate this stupid thing," she growls, ripping the feathers from her neck and it joins my own on the floor.

"Where's the food?"Grace groans, tossing her head back. I shrug my shoulders and watch the ball drop celebration on the tv, watching the colours on the tv start to kind of blur together, and I blink in hopes that it'll go away.

"I don't think drinking on an empty stomach was a good idea," I reply. We hadn't eaten since breakfast this morning, and now I'm starting to see why this was a bad idea.

"I had a lime with my tequila, does that count?" Celeste lifts her head off the pillow with a hopeful expression, and when she notices how serious we both are she frowns again and drops her head once more. My roommates look like they're in no position to get up, so I stand up on shaky legs, taking a moment to adjust to the room spinning and walk into the kitchen.

I rummage through the fridge and cupboards, pulling out anything that's in there. Chips, candy and chocolate covered almonds are balanced in my hands as I walk back into the living room and let everything fall out of my arms and onto the table. I make a grab for the almonds, and cradle the bag like a baby in my lap.

"How long until midnight?" Grace asks through a mouthful of chips.

"Twenty minutes," I respond, squinting at the tv through the cheap plastic lenses. My phone buzzes in my pants, and I pull it from my pocket to see a new text from Spencer and I hold the phone really close to my face so I can read it clearly. It's another riddle, and I shouldn't be surprised, because we've unconsciously started playing games where we ask each other difficult riddles and see if we ca figure them out. He must be replying after he solved the one I sent him this morning.

vee: ask tmrw andi'll answer

I blink to hopefully be able to see the phone clearly, but all it does it hurt my head even more. My fingers dance randomly across the screen and I can only hope that it makes some kind of sense.

Are you inebriated?

vee: onlyy a lil

I try to read the riddle Spencer sent me but all it does it blue together to look like twenty-six letters jumbled up to make funny words. God, liquor makes me stupid. With ten minutes left until midnight, our food still hasn't come, and I can tell that Celeste is on the verge of crying out of frustration. I don't think any of us are in any condition to use the stove, and especially not me since I can barely do it when sober.