Plasma Cat

Ch. 7: Kottabos

Estella pulled the stringed confetti out of her hair and downed her fourteenth agave cola of the night. She felt good. She hadn't felt this good since the last party two weeks ago.

Of course, that party had been at Josh's place. And they had totally trashed it. Like, torn doors out and somehow cracked the marble tiling in the shower. It was a disaster. A total, complete disaster.

Her gaze shifted over the twenty or so drunk teens splashing around in the pool. There was a line to jump off the roof into the deep end. Just about an hour ago some random boy she had never seen before had jumped, freaking everyone out. Now there was a line.

The kegs were empty. Someone had bought more booze. Cases and cases of cider, agave cola, and good old beer just sat there next to the grill. Who the hell had bought all of it? Who the hell could afford to be so generous?

She laughed. Who was the idiot who agreed to host this party? The house was trashed. And it was only midnight.

"Estelllllaaaa...!" a drunken voice called out to her. It was Rachel. Her frilly pink skirt was torn. Oh yeah, this was a costume party, she thought to herself. She looked down at her jeans. Wait... what was the theme? She clearly wasn't in costume.

"Steeelllllaaaa!" Rachel shouted again. "Tell that fucking DJ to switch the music! No one likes Estonian House! It's... like... so over! Tell that fucking dweeb!"

Why would Rachel ask her to talk to the DJ? Oh wait... there was a DJ?

The music throbbed in her ears. It had always been there, but for some reason she had stopped paying attention to it hours ago. Or maybe it was just a few minutes ago. Now that she was paying attention, she quickly understood what Rachel was talking about. The music was terrible.

Some chick had set up her laptop and was blasting music out of the house's surround sound system. Estella made her way over to her.

"HEY!" she shouted.

The DJ didn't hear her.

"HEY!" she tried again. Yelling made her throat hurt. She gave up.

"Hey, you're Estella, right?" some random boy asked her. He was kinda cute. But he had blue eyes, like, really blue eyes. Estella didn't like that. She preferred green. Not like really bright green. Something about vibrant eyes creeped her out. But she didn't like the dull colors either, like brown or grey. Dark green. That was it.

"Um, hey?" the boy repeated. "You OK?"

"What?" Estella finally managed to drunkenly mumble.

"You Estella?"

"Yeah, what?"

"The cops are here."

Estella didn't understand. "Wah?"

"The cops," the boy repeated, his voice deadly serious. "I'm nineteen. So is like, everyone with me. We're bailing, just felt like we should let you know. Great party, by the way!"

The boy suddenly turned around and waved on several other teenagers. They all ran out through the rear sliding door and jumped over the fence at the edge of the backyard.

Estella watched them go. Someone jumped from the roof, landing in the pool with an ear-piercing scream that somehow could be heard over the deafening music.