He's Not Harry Potter

So Much Alcohol

CHAPTER FIVE So Much Alcohol

The day couldn’t go by fast enough. It was like the clock was trying to punish him for kissing Lauren by making the arms tick really slowly, and frankly they couldn’t have picked a worse time. When he saw Lauren’s small head bobbing around he didn’t go try to talk to her. That earned him plenty of strange looks from Julia, who always seemed to be at Lauren’s side, prepared to beat up Brian if he came to close. He shook his head as Julia shot a weird look at him, she always underestimated him. Yet it would make sense that she was irrationally mad, her and Darren were two peas in a pod during college and that hadn’t changed much over time. She must be forced to keep this secret by word of Lauren and she was not happy. You could always count on Julia ripping the bandaid off and telling a whole truth, and it was only once in a blue moon when she lied. Brian didn’t know if she had lied yet; but she wasn’t in a good mood.

Brian had been wandering around meeting people fangirling over him, and people that he fangirled over. The latter happened less often though. One girl clad from head to toe in starkid merch asked Brian if he was seeing Meredith, and almost in routine, he laughed and said no, that they were best friends. The problem with Brian Holden was that he was in a perpetual state of sarcasm, and the answer always came out sarcastic. The girl giggled and shot him a look, possibly she was imagining that he had told only her something personal, and it was their little joke and they would live happily ever after and fuck each other senseless. At least that’s always the recurring plot of the fanfiction written about him.

The prying questions stopped for maybe an hour, in which he hung out with the band Ministry Of Magic, which on top of making awesome music, were awesome people. In the spirit of LeakyCon they talked about which houses they were sorted into and didn’t judge when Brian said that he was from Slytherin. Despite the awesomeness of Ministry Of Magic, Brian couldn’t stop thinking about the party tonight. Lauren had to show up, she just had to. He did want to talk to her, he wanted to be with her, and he wanted her to want him.

Brian was lost in his thoughts when Jaime ran up and hugged him from behind. “Hey Buddy!” She squealed and turned him to face her, Joey’s hand interlinked with hers. “Where were you last night? It was a blast!” She said, ending her sentence with a gooey look to Joey that told Brian only too much about what Joey and Jaime were doing after the party.

“I guessed. Joe had the worst hangover.” He said, choosing to ignore Joey’s small blush. “Anyways, I’ll make up for it by coming tonight.” He said a matter of factly, and heard another squeal come from Jaime.

“Jomo is going to the general store to get some drinks now! We still have some beer left over but Lauren is coming tonight and she can’t have that…” Jaime said and Joey flashed a quick look at Brian with the mention of Lauren. Brian didn’t react strangely though, he just nodded and agreed.

“She’s gluten-free.” He stated more as a fact than a question but Jaime still told him she was and kept talking about the night.

 “Hey Brian want to do some pre-gaming? I have some beer in my room.” Joey said, cutting off Jaime but giving her a quick kiss on the lips. Sometimes she talked a lot. Brian didn’t like to pre-game, but it was obvious that Joey wanted to talk to him. So he agreed and they decided to go to his room now, surprisingly, it wasn’t too long until the party. “See ya at the party, babe.” Joey muttered in Jaime’s ear, spinning her around, and then caught up to Brian, who had started walking to avoid the awkward third-wheel-tension.

They went up to Joey’s room and sat on the floor, with a few bottles of beer. Brian and Joey had always been friends, they weren’t as close as they could be, but they were friends. They made idle conversation as Joey poured the drinks and it wasn’t until they were done with them before Joey came to the question Brian assumed was the whole reason he had invited him to pre-game with him. “Did Lauren go to your room yesterday?” He asked, not bothering to dance the game of words and asked the question seriously.