Super Screwup (ONC 2022)

Chapter 7 - The Party

LATER THAT NIGHT (STILL FIVE YEARS AGO)

A tall, good looking blond guy answered the door when they knocked.

"Hey Craig!" Steve said. "Remember me? It's your bro Steve from juvee!"

"Uh, not ringing a bell, man. But come on in. There's some beer in the cooler and the keg should be arriving in a little bit."

They walked inside to a big empty living room. All the furniture had been pushed to the side to make way for a dance floor and a large stereo in the corner was blasting hip hop music. The three of them stood staring at each other for a moment.

"Are we the first ones here?" Steve asked. "Damn, we're the first ones here, aren't we? So much for making a fashionably late entrance."

"It's okay. Someone has to be the first one to arrive and it may as well be you guys. What did you say your names were again?"

"I'm Steve and this is Marvin."

"Hi, I'm Marvin. I just got injected with the super serum so things are about to get lit, you know what I'm saying?"

"No, I don't have any clue what you're talking about," Craig said.

"That's all right," Marvin said. "Where'd you say those beers were at?"

"There's a cooler in the corner behind you. There's also some chips and dip in the kitchen. I've got to do a couple more things to get ready, but feel free to help yourself."

"Right on, bro," Marvin said as he grabbed a beer out of the cooler and tossed it to Steve and then took two beers out for himself. "It feels like a double fisting kind of night to me." He opened both beers and began to alternate taking sips from each of them.

A few more people gradually started trickling in and Steve disappeared off somewhere with some hippie looking dude. Marvin felt a little grumble in his belly and decided to go inspect the chip and dip situation.

There was an island situated in the middle of the kitchen with a huge bowl of tortilla chips. Surrounding it were several bowls of various dips. There appeared to be ranch, salsa, onion dip, and queso on the side nearest him and a few more bowls on the other side.

"This dude takes his chips and dip seriously," Marvin said aloud to himself. "I appreciate that."

Setting his beers down on the counter, Marvin circled the island to see what other dips might lie over there when suddenly he got an intense nose tickle and ended up sneezing right into a big bowl of guacamole. He froze in his tracks and looked around, but he was alone in the kitchen so nobody had seen what happened. He figured if he just scooped up the top layer and ate it then everything would be all good, so he grabbed a chip and dipped it into the guacamole bowl, whereupon it immediately snapped in half, leaving him holding the undipped half.

"Oops. Better scoop up that broken chip. Don't want to leave that lying around in there."  He tossed the broken half in his hand over his shoulder and grabbed a fresh chip out of the bowl. This one, too, snapped in half as soon as he dipped it. He tried once more with the same result, and finally out of frustration resorted to digging the chips out of the guacamole with his fingers.

"Yeah, the chips and dip are right in here," Craig said as he led a group of new arrivals into the kitchen.

Marvin immediately pulled his hand out of the guacamole bowl and hid it behind his back.

"Hey, I think I know you," a muscular guy with a buzzcut said when he saw Marvin standing there. "Didn't we go to high school together? I'm Jake." He extended his hand.