Meeting Mr Wainscott

4: Friday

Ian was at the party.

Susan's party.

Susan's party was the party he was invited to.

Oh God.

"Why is he here?" Friday hissed to Susan, ducking into a corridor.

Music blared and the entire house was filled wall to wall with people. Half of them Friday didn't even know, being random acquaintances and peers of Susan. The air smelled of booze and the lights had dimmed, blurring her vision. The known corridors of her home suddenly became King Minos's Labyrinth, with solid bodies obscuring her vision. Susan's university friends decided this was any old university party and drove it home with the amount of alcohol supplied, doped up and red-eyed, Friday could hardly tell who was sober and who wasn't. The sheer amount of the smell of it made her nose burn. Random people passed by, holding their plastic cups high and toasting to Susan as they passed by, half of the time not even looking at her.

"I didn't realise Drake would bring a friend I haven't met! Ian's one of his best friends, Friday! Drake really wanted me to meet him!" Susan explained, eyes wide.

Suddenly, Wai-Yi crashed into them, slightly tipsy, and a sober Melanie came up behind her.

"The party just started, Wai-Yi," Susan sighed.

Wai-Yi shrugged, tipping back her drink. "I've had a long week."

"Doing what? Tired after chasing models around?"

"Yes, actually," Wai-Yi said, rolling her eyes. "For people who don't eat, they have a lot of energy."

"Hey!" Friday snapped. "Can we get back on topic!? Are there any other unknown people invited I should worry about?!"

Susan frowned. "No... well, I don't know. I might've overdone it when I invited people from my uni days. The thing is, this one girl, Tatiana, made it a whole big deal and suddenly everyone knew and-"

"You're rambling, Susie," Wai-Yi interjected.
"Just talk to Ian, it's not a big deal," Melanie said, looking at Friday. "You're a grown woman for God's sake."

Friday's eye twitched, the frighteningly overstimulating environment doing a number on her senses.

"No way," she snipped and turned and left.

She walked down the corridor to the kitchen, hoping to find Trea there. Along the kitchen island were beverage dispensers that reminded Friday of the university parties she used to attend, most of the time getting an invite either from the people, she'd tutor or the weird 'daddy's money' guys in her criminology class that found the fact that she knew how to tell how long a body had been decomposing for by the chemical make up a wet dream. Memories of blaring loud music, shirtless men, and erotic dancing filled her mind whether she liked it or not. Of course, half of those memories were fogged up by the inconsistencies and blanks in her memory, but there weren't many complicated details to it. The bright colour of red cups stacked to the side burned into her retinas, locking in the punching feeling worming its way through her.

God, that was only seven years ago and now here she was with a whole child and pining after a grown man.

She was pathetic. She shouldn't have come, why did she come? Parties had never been her thing, she'd only go from the social pressure and insane nagging from her older sister berating her for going, big crowds of people have never been her thing. Foul sickness crept its way up her throat and her eyes burned.