SuperLou {{Larry AU}} (On Hold)

Chapter 5

Fetus Christmas Louis at the top!

Louis

It's the most wonderful time of the year... I bet you sang that line. And yes, it was all sarcasm, for it is the time of the year where I am forced my friends to throw myself a birthday/Christmas party. For some reason, the logic is, the more strangers and friends who have at your party, the more popular there are. The population estimate this year is 150. Last year, 200 crammed into my mate Adam's house. Quite the scene, if I do say so myself. Some people just show up for the free booze, and others are kids who I went to high school with trying to befriend me, as if they didn't completely ignore me seven years ago. Most of them are alcoholics or have babies by now. I, on the other hand, prefer to take the it a little slower. Who cares if those people who are already married are ahead of me in the life game? It doesn't mean I have to be married. Certainly, there are people like me who are still yet to be married with kids. Children scare me, I mean, why are they always crying? You don't see me fùcking screaming when I'm hungry. I am a long way off from marriage. For sure.

   I lay out stacks of plastic cups along a countertop. Like I could host a birthday party in my tiny flat? I always throw it in my mate Andrew's house. Why did I saw house? It's practically a fùcking mansion. Like, media room, indoor and outdoor pools, something like that. After my twenty first birthday, the pools are shut off, since someone had the brilliant idea of pouring fifteen bottles of vodka in the outdoor one and go drunk swimming. Dave had to go to the emergency room for alcohol and chlorine poisoning, and Andrew had to drain the entire pool and re-tile it. Yikes. Besides that, everyone always has a pretty good time. As my first birthday out of uni, I am going to invite a lot more people from my college.
   They say high school is the best years of your life. It definitely wasn't, and neither was college. In fact, I have yet to have a really great year. Every year of uni was the same. Class, exams, credits. Nothing new. Then came graduation day, and I got handed a highly valued piece of paper. I have a diploma. So, now what? Time to get a flat. Change billing address. Boom. Student loan bills roll in. Tens of thousands of pounds. Time to find a job. Flower shop opening. Bingo. And here I am, four months later. I feel like this really is a life game, and so far, I'm just rolling the dice and getting all normal cards. No surprises so far. Even the debt was expected. It's okay, I'm slowly paying it off.
   Anyways, since this year I'm a bit short on cash, the theme is costume and BYOB; bring your own booze. Like only Andrew and I could afford that much, especially if Dave shows up. I was convinced by Andrew to have a costume theme, since "We're all kids at heart!" He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer.
   I pull up to Andrew's house. I see that he is already tying helium filled balloons too the staircase railings out front. A banner above the door says, "Happy Birthday Louis!" in bold letters. Boxes and boxes of what looks like bottles of alcohol rest on the stairs. I climb out of the car. The freezing air hits me like a wall.
"Hey, man. How are you?" I ask, walking up to the house.
"Nothing much man. Oh, happy birthday!" He slaps me on the back and leads me inside, where tinsel in Christmas colors are strung all around every room. "So dude, what do you think?" He asks, and I sigh. It always seems that he is into these parties more so than I am. "It's alright, I guess." I say honestly and shrug. He whines petulantly and tugs on my arm, like a child. "Do you know how hard I worked on this?" He asks. I quickly tell him that I like it and thank him for his work. Andrew is really sensitive, and I do not feel like losing a friend today. I help him hang up wreaths and mistletoe around the house for the next hour, and the large clock in the main hallway chimes seven o'clock. I spread holly on the mantle, hoping a drunk person won't stab themselves with it accidentally.
"I'm gonna go get some boxes. You go head home to change." He tells me, and I nod. I exit the house, and step over the boxes of bottles. I climb back into my car and out they keys into the ignition, just as Andrew is heaving a box onto his shoulder. I back out of the driveway, cringing as I hear the smash off glass behind me. Good luck, Andrew, I think as I pull onto the main road and drive off.

New chapter soon! Vote if you want Chapter 6! All the love- N xx