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Chapter 17: Getting Wasted

"Haha Ricky you're so funny," I giggled spastically as I fell against Ricky's chest. My head felt clouded, and the world was spinning a bit, but other than that I was perfectly okay. How many drinks had I chugged? Six? Seven? It was hard to keep track. Ricky just kept handing them to me, and I just keep drinking. I had lost track of Hailee in the crowd.

Ricky stepped away to fist bump one of his friends that had just arrived, and I instantly stumbled forward, caught off balance.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, steadying me. "Hey, are you alright there? How much did you have to drink?"

I turned to the side to see who the mystery person was. My vision was blurry, and I couldn't make out her face. For no reason, I began to laugh hysterically. "Oh, I don't know. Probably a few more than I should have." My voice sounded funny for some reason. All the words slurred together and it didn't sound like they were coming out of my mouth.

"I'm Scarlett. I'm going to get you a drink of water. Stay right here." As she walked back into the house, I laughed and wobbled my way back over to Ricky's side.

"Rickyyyy," I mumbled as I clung onto his shirt.

"Are you okay, Ken?" He cupped my face and looked at me, his big blue eyes staring directly into my red-rimmed ones.

"Never been better." Some lame dubstep song began blasting through the speakers, and I cheered, throwing my hands up in the air. "I love this song!"

I had only just begun to dance and and sway against Ricky when suddenly the very last two people I would have ever expected to show up made an appearance: Ivory and J.

I called out some sort of greeting to Ivory, but at this point I wasn't fully conscious of my own words. Why was there a nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach? It was as if I was doing something I really didn't want to be caught doing, especially by Ivory. But I was just partying, right? There was nothing wrong with that. Or was there? My head hurt from all the thinking it was doing.

I looked at Ivory. Then back at Ricky. Then Ivory again. My constant head swiveling made my stomach turn. "I--I'm just gonna..." I covered my mouth with my hands and sprinted towards the house.

"Hey, woah there," a voice that seemed to be coming from the clouds stopped me. I felt an arm wrap around my shoulder and guide me through the backdoor of the house and down the hallway towards the washroom.

As soon as I was in the washroom, I ran to the toilet and started barfing my guts up. Once about half of the alcohol I had consumed was safely out of my system, I was able to scoot away from the toilet and lean against the tub.

"Feel better?"

Throughout this whole ordeal, I had almost forgotten that there was another person in the room with me. I looked over to see the same girl that had offered to get me water earlier. She was a couple inches shorter than me, with brown hair and eyes. She handed me a cup of water before sitting down next to me.

"A little better, I guess. My head still hurts though." I winced.

"It'll be even worse tomorrow." She laughed. "I don't know if you heard me when we were outside, but I'm Scarlett."

"I think I heard that." I looked up to the ceiling as I struggled to remember what had happened in the last ten minutes... Or had it been an hour? How long had I been at this party? "My name's K-"

"Kennedy, I know," Scarlett interrupted.

I gave her a weird look. "How do you know my name?"

"Everyone's been talking about you tonight." She shrugged. "You've kind of been making a fool of yourself."

I winced. "How bad has it been?"

"I'm pretty sure you were making out with the wall at one point."

"Oh my god." I rolled my eyes. "It's been a little while since I've been to a party. I guess I forgot that I don't hold my alcohol well."

"People were talking about that too. Why did you show up tonight? Someone was telling me that you weren't even friends with Sacha anymore."

I nodded. "You heard right. We had a falling out, but... I don't know what got into me. I got distracted, I guess, and when Hailee invited me I thought it would be a good idea. I have no idea why." I covered my pounding head with my hands.

"I think there's just that little part of you that wants to be with the popular people, I guess you could say. Like, you feel as if you are missing out on something when you aren't with them," Scarlett analyzed.

"Yeah." I nodded slowly. I yawned and stretched my arms toward the ceiling. "It is kind of like that. You're right."

"I'm always right." She smiled smugly. "Now come on, let's get out of here."

She stood up first, then extended her hand to help me up off the tile floor. I stood up (with Scarlett's assistance) and smoothed my blonde hair. It was then that I realized that my cat ears were gone. Who knows where they ended up. I turned to take in Scarlett's costume. "What are you wearing?"

Scarlett saw that as invitation to pose as though she was a model at a photo shoot. She was wearing green tights, black heels, and the top was... similar to the shape of a pumpkin, but green. A green pumpkin? She topped it all off with a stem hat and white gloves. "I'm an olive," she explained simply.

My alcohol-consumed brain couldn't come with anything better to say than: "Okay."

Scarlett led the way out of the washroom towards the backyard. As we passed through the living room, I spotted Sacha making out with some random guy on the couch and Aubrey chatting up some seniors, but Hailee was still nowhere to be found.

"Hey." A male voice stopped me, and I looked up to see Jack, the football player from my math class. He shoved a red plastic cup into my hand and smirked at me.

I raised the cup to my lips, about to take another drink of the intoxicating substance that clogged my brain, when Scarlett snatched it from my hands. "What are you doing?" She hissed. "The last thing you need is more beer right now."

"Shut up," I slurred, and grabbed the cup back from her. I tilted my head back and threw the beer down my throat. I was beginning to like the way the alcohol numbed my emotions. Through all the fogginess, I remembered what had given me the strength to get through all the trials and tribulations of popularity. The past few weeks I had spent sober were full of emotions and tearful confessions to Ivory. Although that had seemed fine at the time, I now remembered how much easier it was to live life carefree; numb to everything painful.

"Hey Kennedy, want to help me find an empty room?" Jack smirked.

Without even bothering to respond, I grabbed Scarlett's wrist and pushed open the door to the backyard. I made a beeline to Ricky, dragging her along behind me. As I closed in on Ricky, Ivory and J suddenly came into view beside him. Ugh, I had forgotten about them. They complicated things a bit, I guess. They both didn't seem like they wanted to be there.

But I ignored all that. "Hey Ricky!" I shrieked, taking another sip of my drink. "Meet my new bff Scar!"

"Bff?" Ivory looked at me, hurt clear in her eyes. "Kennedy, what happened to you?"

"Happened? I'm fine. I'm better than fine. I'm having the time of my life! Woo!" I threw my hands up in the air, accidentally splashing beer on Ivory's shirt.

"That's it." She fumed. "C'mon J, we are getting out of here." She grabbed J's hand and dragged him out of the yard.

I shrugged and just kept on dancing.