Target : Prodigy (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 10 The Flare

Loud electronic music played.

Neon lights flickered.

People dancing eccentrically and freely.

Everyone was almost or was drunk.

Nothing was in control.

That was about what had happened at the party. We had to dance our way in and when we reached the bar, Liv had disappear to the dance floor. Jeanne and I took a seat on the end of the bar so we don't have to be in the middle of the commotion. We ordered sodas and just sat there without having any conversation or whatsoever, she just opened a book and read it. I looked around and saw the packed dance floor. I could see Liv dancing and laughing with her party friends, enjoying themselves to the song on play. I couldn't help myself but smile. I'm not the kind of person to dance in the middle of a party but I don't despise the idea of having fun and just be a little crazy sometimes. I turned my head to my left and directly saw a group of guys at the end of the room with Ed. He was having fun too, almost drunk but still sober enough to notice me. He smiled and raised a hand and I smiled. COME HERE, he mouthed from afar then weirdly swing his arm towards himself as a welcoming gesture. I smiled confusingly and mouthed back a WHY?. Ed gave pleading look then mouthed WHY NOT? I rolled my eyes then gave him a raised eyebrow. Ed gestured a come here again and I finally mouthed OKAY back to him.

"Hey, I'm going to go to Ed's. You want to come?" I said to Jeanne. She took her eyes of her book and shook her head. "Have fun Iris." She gave me a grin.

"Okay, J." I answered back.

Ed could barely stood up straight. He was about to fall when I came and caught him. He wore this weary look on his face but still managed a smile. "Hi Iris." He said as he tried to stand back up.

I didn't smile back this time, I was too worried. "Ed, how much have you been drinking?"

He giggled. "I-I really don't know." He showed me his cup. "I think it's about 5 or 6 of these."

Too much. "Ed, you have got to stop drinking." I said. He didn't respond. "Ed, Eden!" I shouted. He looked at me. "Blurry.. Blurry Iris." He mumbled.

"Okay, that's it." I took his right arm to support him so he wouldn't fall as we made our way to Jeanne.

***

"Jeanne! Jeanne!" I shouted in the midst of the loud music. Jeanne looked around to find the source of the voice and then saw me dragging Ed. She immediately dropped her book and ran to help me carry Ed.

"How much did he drink?!"

"I don't know but we need to bring him out of here." I answered.

Jeanne sighed. "Agreed."

***

We carried out cold to Ed to our faraway dorm room. I wanted to return Ed to his own room but Jeanne said it'd be better if we brought him along to her room because, first, the girl's dormitory is much closer, second, we might not know how to open the door to Ed's room and his roommate would be at the party too, and third, she just really don't want to see the mess inside the boy's dormitory and honestly, I didn't want to either by the looks of Jeanne's face.

"Ugh.. open the door J!" I had to carry Ed alone while Jeanne dug into her pocket to find the key. She quickly opened the door then helped me drop Ed on the floor. It was not a subtle drop.

"Ooh.. ouch." Jeanne and I said at the same time.

Ed was slumped on the floor with an awkward position that would hurt the human body while Jeanne was nagging about Ed being so careless.

"Drink? Drink! We're sophomores! It's against the laws and yet 'Oh who cares, let's just get high and drunk and throw up in the morning!'" She paused to catch her breath. "Throw up? Oh, he better not throws up here!" She nagged as she walked back and forth. I tried interrupting her nagging, I really tried.

"Uh.. Jeanne?"

"Why couldn't we just follow tradition? Is it really that hard not to turn some special occasion into a drunk festive club?!" she continued, stomping now.

"J!" I shouted.

"What?!" she shouted back. She calmed down a bit and apologizes. "Sorry, I'm just worried about Ed." She continued quickly. "He's never drunk."

I nodded. I understood her feeling about needing to take care of the people we love even though sometimes excessively. "We better provide a bucket cause a hangover is for sure."

Jeanne ran to the bathroom and brought back an empty plastic bucket and a few plastic bags. "This'll do." She said as she looked at Ed.

"Uh.. Iris, I think we need to... umm.. straighten Ed so he wouldn't look like he just wrestled a bear and lost." Jeanne said.

"He kind off wrestled us." I said smirking. Jeanne gave me a glare. "Oh, right."