SOAKED IN BLEACH - K.C.

05

          "This place is huge, man. Is there like marble in here?" Krist asked, smoothing his hand over the counter tops and leaning forward to investigate the mineral makeup.

"I bet there is." Shelli said, running her hands over the stainless steel appliances and the wood of the cabinets. Kurt smirked at Avenelle, remembering his first time coming over.

His first visit started on a high note, through the window, which wasn't necessary but seemed like a lot of fun. He hadn't seen anything but Avenelle's room, which she tried her hardest to make homey. He knew her room was huge and the outside of the house looked huge, but when he opened the door of her bedroom later when they wanted some food, he stood frozen with his hands on the railing that overlooks the foyer, living room, and kitchen with unblinking eyes.

Avenelle was raised in upper middle class homes the entirety of her life, not visiting many classmates' smaller homes or even trailers and certainly not living in one. She had never been to Kurt's house either. While she knew not everyone lived like she did, she didn't understand Kurt's reaction to the state of her home. The perfectly white carpet with obviously brand new furniture and a large TV in the living room right next to the squeaky clean hardwood floors of the foyer and kitchen made his head spin.

Not much thought was put into class struggles throughout Avenelle's childhood, but as she grew up she realized those houses she passed on the way home actually housed some of her friends and classmates.

Being at her house took some getting used to from all of her friends, but after they had gotten comfortable they were sure to make the most of it. They weren't really sure why a person who could afford such a large house filled with such nice things would choose to live in Aberdeen, but they always supposed there were good reasons and left it be. After about ten minutes of inspection, Krist and Shelli had found the pantry up to code. With crumbs clumsily stuck in his facial hair, Krist asked what the plans were for the night. None of them really had any clue. All they had planned out was showing up, and now they kind of had to wing it. Avenelle felt more planning responsibly as the host, but Kurt liked to take the lead on this sort of thing. He grabbed the bottle from Krist's trunk and bravely threw some down his throat, making a nasty face.

"Happy graduation!" Krist shouted, skipping in circles around the living room, throwing his hands around in what he thought was a graceful ballet kind of thing. Kurt, like always, was successful at keeping him going with whatever hijinks he had come up with. He, too, did some prancing but mainly stuck to singing in a high-pitched operatic voice for Krist to skip to.

Avenelle wanted to waste no time and get as tipsy as possible as soon as possible, so she the grabbed bottles filled with drinks she wasn't quite familiar with. She didn't do that much drinking or partying usually, and when she did, she hadn't really spent time reading the labels. She examined the labels on the two bottles and assumed they weren't to be mixed. The one that Krist brought was in her left hand. She couldn't see Krist being much of a fruity mixed drink man, so she poured herself a shot of it straight. The bottle in her left came from her parents' stash, so she couldn't be 100% sure, but she decided to just have a chaser in case and let it be.

With the two shots ready, she poured a third cup with some kind of juice, later discovered to be cranberry-grape, and lined them up. With a breath and an exuberant smile, she threw the first back, then the second, and before she had time to react she drank the juice. Avenelle slapped her hand on the cold countertop, grabbing the attention of Shelli, the only one who hadn't been watching her do that. Krist smiled wildly at her and held two large thumbs up. Kurt had a subtle smile splayed on his lips and if his hair wasn't so inclined to sit in front of his eyes since he got his new haircut, the admiration would have been obvious.