joelle | d.m

10 | numbly sickly

October, 1994.

Joey danced with Imani and Nayun.

On the dance floor the three of them danced together, hand in hand. They twirled and dipped and laughed drunkenly together.

Joey didn't know how long it'd been since her first drink, but she was already unsteady. It felt like she'd been dancing for hours. Sweat glossed over her caramel-coloured skin and her face. She had taken the mask off and let it rest on top of her head.

"I'm gonna get a drink!" she shouted for her mates to hear.

Nayun and Imani both nodded before they started twirling each other and moving with the music.  Joey walked off the dance floor and went to the refreshments table. She stabilized herself by closing her fingers around the edge of the table.

Her head hung low and she shut her eyes for a moment. She was sweating and hot and bothered. She inhaled and poured herself another drink. She wasn't blacked out and the room wasn't spinning yet, so she hadn't had enough yet.

She filled a random cup with some other alcohol since the Firewhiskey bottles were gone. Downing it in one go, she felt sick, but she choked it down.

She poured another, but to the brim this time. She took her cup and her saw, then drunkenly made her rounds around the party. She found a free spot on the couch, so she went towards it. The other people on the couch were either passed out or too busy getting hot and heavy.

Joey dropped onto the free seat and her drink sloshed over the edge, causing it to splash onto her thighs. She rubbed the wet spot with her palm and her saw fell to the floor.

Exhaling, her spine struck the cushion of the couch as she leaned back and started to drink. The thunderous music was making the spot behind her eyeball throb, but she ignored it because she wasn't passed out yet.

She downed the rest of her drink and it spilled down the corner of her mouth. She wiped it away and her vision was focusing before refocusing.

The cup fell to the floor and she shut her eyes, head tipped back. She was hoping maybe she would die of alcohol poisoning.  It was better than whatever those unopened letters held.

Joey's eyelids fluttered open when she felt wet lips touch her neck. A hand on her thigh, higher than she'd preferred. She felt like she couldn't move and the music was still blasting her ears. She wanted to go to sleep and never wake up.

Just lie still and close your eyes. Her mother always told her that beforehand.

Lips touched her ear and found her mouth. Alcohol and weed met her own tongue from another. Hand went higher and rubbed aggressively along her chubby thigh.

She was already lying still. She couldn't move. Close your eyes.

It felt like it always did. A random hand touching her and a random mouth on hers. Hot and moist breaths on her skin. All so familiar and numbly sickly.

Her mother would come save her though. She always did.

Joey closed her eyes.

_____

Draco's hands ran up Astoria's shirt as he pushed her against the wall.

She breathed a sigh into his parted lips and her hands circled around the back of his neck. Quickly, she flipped their positions, so he was against the wall.

He groaned as his hands roamed her body under her top. His eyes fluttered open for a second and he shut them again to get lost in euphoria.

He opened them again, quickly. He stopped kissing Astoria and his head snapped up to the view before him. A red sheen took over his vision.