Effortless

Twenty-three

Spinning, swaying, and lagging. That was what the building was doing.

At this point in the night I had lost count of how much I had. That happened often so I wasn't very concerned.

Javier and I had been together the entire night at the party. He wasn't around Diane for obvious reasons and Paxton wasn't at the party. I hadn't seen Bella or Kailey; I assumed they left with Ricky. It sucked that all of my friends had disappeared, especially since this was the best party of the year. I wasn't mad, though. I could have fun alone if I needed to. Luckily, I didn't need to because someone else was with me.

So it was just me and Javi. And all of the other people at the party, of course, but they were irrelevant. Javier was seeming to have a lot of fun for a guy who had just gotten broken up with, and it wasn't because he was drinking. He drank so little I wasn't even sure that it was enough to give him a buzz.

At this point in the night, I was ninety percent sure that I had enough to drink. I couldn't walk without swaying so it more than likely was not the best decision to keep going. However, I wasn't one to make the smartest decisions when drunk and I figured a little more couldn't hurt.

Just one or two more shots, maybe?

Yeah, totally.

"I'll be back." I yelled.

"Where are you going? I'll come." Javier replied.

I didn't respond and instead pushed through everyone to get to the kitchen. There was a guy handing out drinks in red solo cups and I believed he was Poppy's older brother. I recognized him from last year. He was there to make sure that the party went smoothly and that no one went overboard with the liquor. It was a party full of teenagers, after all.

I smiled at him and he looked like he recognized me. With a rude tone he asked, "You again?"

I rolled my eyes at him. He said 'again' as if I was the only one out of all of these kids returning for more. I held out my hand, signaling to him that I obviously wanted another drink.

The guy sighed as he reached for one of the red solo cups in front of him. He had plenty of cups already pre-poured so that he could give them out quicker. When he started handing it to me, I went to reach for it but he retracted his hand. He was staring at something behind me.

Javier startled me, I hadn't realized he had followed me. I smiled at Javi before turning back to the guy and reaching for the cup but the guy backed up so I couldn't reach it.

This was somewhat funny at first, but now I was getting pissed off. I looked at the guy with confusion and anger but held his hands up in defense before pointing at Javier.

I looked at Javi with pure confusion but he met my gaze with a look mixed with concern but sternness.

"I think you're done." Javi stated. I could tell that he was trying to be firm without coming across as overbearing.

I scoffed. It was hilarious that he thought that he could tell me what I could and couldn't do. "You... aren't my dad."

I reached across the counter in an attempt to grab one of the pre-poured cups that Poppy's brother was giving out. He tried to stop me from grabbing one but only ended up pushing my arm. That caused my arm to knock over almost every other cup that they already had on the counter.

I raised my arm up as the liquor dripped from it. I was surprised that it hadn't gotten my costume wet. The guy behind the counter was cussing me out but I wasn't really listening because I was trying incredibly hard to focus on not falling over.

I was upset with myself but I was also upset with the alcohol for falling over. Fuck you, cups, for being so unstable that you fall over at the touch of my arm.