A Toast and a Drink

Act 1, Pt. 4: The Party must go On

I heard a shattering sound, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the bottle had been shattered. And laying next to the broken glass was a rose. Someone had thrown a rose and it had shattered the bottle. I was surprised, but I was also thankful.

Parfait looked around, glaring at anyone who dared stared at her. Everyone was muttering and chattering with each other. Some of them were glaring at me. I just blinked in disbelief. What had just happened? Who has thrown the rose?

And most importantly, who was the person that saved me?

I used this time to get up and run to a hiding spot. I ran in a random directions and just stuck with it. Because the house was so big, I couldn't tell where anything was. After running for a bit, I stopped to see where I had ran. I was right in front of the bathroom perfect. I opened the door (god, it was so unnecessarily heavy), slammed it shut, and immediately collapsed on the ground from exhaustion. I started breathing heavily. I knew I was out of shape, but not that out of shape. I didn't even run that far! Actually, I don't know how far I ran because I wasn't paying attention to where I was running. That's gonna be a problem.

I got up, went to one of the stalls, and shut it. I went to the bathroom, flushed the toilet, went to wash my hands, and went back into the stall. I made sure it was locked before I pulled out my phone. I opened Instagram to see if anyone had posted anything and as I thought, they did.

As I was scrolling through my feed, I saw tons of posts with videos and pictures of the rose incident, and it hadn't gone unseen. It was getting a lot of traction, people liking it like crazy and commenting things like, I wondered what happened, and, who's the dude in the video? I groaned. God, this is gonna be so annoying when I go back to college on Monday.

I put my phone back into my bag, went out and washed my face (I was really sweaty from what happened), and headed back out to see if I could make my way back to the main party room. As I walked, I traveled through hallways and made twists and turns, and I still seem like I couldn't quite find my way back. I sighed, and caved in to my only other option left.

Herb: uhhh i think im lost can you send me a pic or a map of the mansion

Parfait: hmph, you just left without warning! fine, here you go, but only because i wanna see your face again and dance with you!

Parfait: *One image attached*

Herb: thanks parfait

Parfait: Oh please, called me sweetie

I cringed at that.

I opened the map, and god it was big. I tried to locate where I was, but it was of no use. I sat down in the corner, giving up on my chance to ever get out of this place. But a few seconds later, I heard footsteps coming towards me. I got up and brushed myself off, ready to fight whatever was coming at me. But, it turned out it was Milk and Yam. Milk was carrying Yam on his shoulders, and Yam was sleeping, his eyes puffed making it obvious that he cried. Milk's eyes were a bit puffed too, but they weren't as noticeable with the smile he put on.

"Oh hey Herb! What are you doing in the guest bedrooms hallway?" Milk asked, talking in a whispery voice to make sure he didn't wake Yam. "I got lost while trying to... go to the bathroom," I said, hesitating a bit. Half truth half lie, better than telling a full lie. Milk nodded and then whispered, "Oh, just follow me!" I nodded back and we started off back towards the main room.

While walking, I mentioned the rose incident to him. He looked kind of surprised, but not extremely astonished or anything. "I've never seen anything like that happen during all of the parties I've been to, and I can tell you I've been to a lot!" he said. I nodded, memories flashing in my head of the moment it happened. "Well, it must be a coincidence. I don't think anyone would do that on purpose," he said, sounding a bit uneasy and unsure. "Yeah, I guess... is Yam okay?" I asked, trying to change the subject of the conversation. "Yeah, he was just a little upset about what happened during spin the bottle. He'll be fine though," he replied, glancing at Yam to make sure he hadn't woken up.

For the rest of the way we walked in silence. And right before we reached the main room, Milk woke Yam up. Yam hopped off his back saying, "You didn't have to carry me y'know, you could;ve just woken me up and I would've walked myself." All Milk did was chuckle, and then we walked into the room together. When we got back into the room, music was blasting again and lights were flashing. I guess everyone forgot about the situation, because they were all back to partying and dancing. I waved Yam and Milk goodbye as they disappeared into the crowd, and the moment they left Parfait showed up.

"So Herbie, you wanna dance? I'll choose the song!" she said, not giving me a chance to reply. She pulled me through the crowd with ease, everyone parting for her like she was on a red carpet or something. She got up to the DJ and whispered something into his ear. He nodded, stopped the music and made an announcement. "In request of Parfait, we shall now be playing 'Last Friday Night' by Katy Perry," he said into the microphone. Immediately after he said that, everyone exploded into cheer. I internally rolled my eyes at this.

Parfait dragged me off stages into the middle of the crowd and signaled for the DJ to start playing the song. The moment the song started playing, I wanted to cry. No offense to people who like this song, this is just not my type of music. Parfait started dancing to the beat, and almost everyone was watching her dance in mesmerization. I shook my head. This is so stupid.

Parfait looked at me, then said, "Aren't you gonna dance? Come on, take my hand!" Immediately, all eyes turned to me. I blinked, then looked around to scout for any source of help. Maybe the rose man will come back. But nope, no sign of anything. Before I could do anything, Parfait took my hand and whispered into my ear, "Just follow my lead, it's easy!" Her dances moves were literally trash, so for a while I just stood there not wanting to look stupid by copying her hideous dance moves. But after a while she elbowed me, and I gave in. I was way too tired to not listen, so I just copied her stupid dance moves until the song was over. Just so you know, she was holding my hand for then entire song.

Her hand was awfully sweaty.

When the song was over, everyone cheered and clapped for us. Parfait bowed as everyone crowded around her to compliment her. I took this chance to slip my hand out of her grasp and once again disappear into the crowd. I could tell Parfait knew I slipped away because I saw her desperately trying to escape the crowd and scan around for me, but I ducked away into the rest of the crowd. It's easy hiding in the crowd when you have no features that stand out.

I found myself at the food table, and grabbed myself a few pieces of fruit. I then proceeded to the corner of the room so I could eat my fruit in peace. I nibbled on my food for about 15 minutes until I was done eating, and then I checked my phone. 8:30. I blinked. Usually I would be going to bed right now. Well not going to bed, more like laying in my bed and scrolling through stupid TikTok videos. Damn, I'm really thinking about going to bed while at a party. I'm really not the great of a person to be around.

I threw my food in the trash and decided to explore the house. I opened the door to a room, and the first thing I saw were two men making out. And one of them was Madeline. Okayyy, maybe I shouldn't go in there.

I opened the door to a different room, and I instantly knew it was a bar. I saw a few people sitting down, a super drunk dude, and Milk and Yam just hanging out together. I slid over to where Milk and Yam were seated. I waved at them. Milk noticed and said, "Oh hey! We were just hanging out and waiting the party out, wanna join?" Yam turned around, and surprisingly he smiled. I guess he wasn't all cold-hearted. "Sure," I said casually. I really have warmed up to these dudes, I wasn't expecting to but hey, always expect the unexpected I guess.

"May I help you?" a voice chimed in, interrupting our conversation. Ugh, now I actually have to interact.

I sighed and turned to see who it was, and lemme tell you it was a big surprise.