Road to Evergreen | #Wattys2016

e l e v e n

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*****

As Megan and I arrive to the party, we struggle to find a place to park. So I end up parking it a block away. As I look in the rearview mirror, I notice that my face is drained from life. My skin is pale and my lips are swollen. I wish I had time to fix myself today as I usually do. But atleast I'm wearing a short black dress with high heels.

I stutter. I should go back. This is a mistake, I shouldn't have came. I'm overthinking this.  I keep reminding myself, Harry is sleeping over at his friends house so he will be alright. He was actually thrilled when I told him he is having a sleepover at Ian's. He couldn't wait to get out of the house.

My hands are gripping the wheel so hard and I feel my stomach go hollow.

"Liz, are you alright?" Megan asks.

I nod, not managing to get a word out of my mouth.

"It's going to be fun. You look incredibely sexy today and here," she says as she reaches out and opens her make up bag. She smears some red lipstick, applies mascara, and applies some blush on my cheeks. When she's done, she smiles, pleased with her work.

I take another glance at the rearview mirror, and I reach my hand to pat Megan on the back. Good job.

She giggles, "come on let's go." We get out of the car and follow the music. People all around us are walking with our direction, laughing and stumbling over literally nothing. Drunks.

The fraternity house is big with blue shudders and white balconies. I take what's in front of me: people making out in the bushes, red cups all over the floor and some weird guy is showing his weird tattoo on his ass to strangers walking by. I think it looks like a banana. I turn, disgusted.

As we reach the top of the stairs, Megan turns and smiles at me as to assure me it will fine. I smile back, nervous. This is the first party I've been to after my father passed away last year. I used to be the typical wild girl, going to every party on the block, getting drunk and all. He was never pleased with my actions, "Lesley, this is getting too far," he used to say. "You need to stop and get a grip on your life."

"I'm 20 years old. You can't tell me what to do," I used to argue back.

And the same argument kept repeating over and over and over again.

So now, as a guy hands us two cups each. I take it immediately, because getting tipsy will help put my mind to ease. Megan raises her cup and says, "Cheers to our senior year."

We both giggle and when I'm about to gulp down my drink, someone snatches it away.

"Don't drink anything given to you by anyone you don't know," Adam orders. He actually sounded sincere.

"Screw you, Adam. Now I need to go and get another beer," I state out.

"Here, have mine," he offers his cup to me and I take it because he owes me one.

I turn to see Megan, and she's already on the dance floor with some guy. Way to go, Meg. I leave Adam standing alone as I head to the dance floor.

The music is blasting so loud from the walls, and the ground is shaking. I take a corner and stop, lean my head back, and gulp the drink down, but only to stop to realize that what I'm drinking is water.

Frustrated, I throw the cup on the floor as the guy with the weird tattoo on his ass approaches me.

"Hey, would you like to dance?" He shouts over the music.

"No thanks," I say, amused that he even has the decency to ask. I turn on my heels and walk toward the dance floor. I grab Megan from the arm and snatch her away.

"What's wrong?" She asks obviously annoyed. I don't know why she's mad because looking at her dance partner, I think I just saved her.

"Can we please go? It was a bad idea we even came," I clarify.

"No come on, we just arrived." She pouts.

"Here," she hands me her cup, "drink".

And so I do. When I'm done, she's smiling and I'm smiling. And the next thing I know, we are on the dance floor, laughing and dancing hard. We move our hands to the beats and shake our hips to the drops. I've never had that much fun in years. No worries. Just me and my girlfriend surrendering ourselves to the music.

Fifteen minutes later, my body shivers with sweat and I feel like I'm going to get sick. So I leave Megan to dance with the guy behind her and make my way to the kitchen. I need some water.

As I enter the kitchen, I feel like the air has disappeared from my lungs. I'm froze in place as I take in what's in front of me. Adam is kissing a girl. A blonde with long wavy hair, with a hot body and a beautiful face. He is kissing her with so much passion and I feel ridiculous standing here watching. I take a step back and hit the counter. I squick. As Adam eyes me from the corner, he breaks the kiss.

"Lesley?" He asks, mortified.

I run out of the kitchen and vomit in the bushes. Everything I ate this morning, goes out and then I'm left staring at the sky.

I'm jealous. I'm jealous of the stars. I'm jealous of how beautiful they are in their safe haven. They fill the galaxy with their extraordinary decorations to enchant the eyes of others. Beautiful.

My thoughts are interrupted as Jeremy approaches me. "Why are you sitting outside alone?" He asks.

"The party got the best of me," I mock.

He smiles and takes a seat next to me on the stairs. None of us speak, and

I break the silence, "I'm sorry about what happened last time." I say wholeheartedly.

"No worries, Lesley. Adam can be such a dick sometimes but it's normal," he explains.

"It runs in the family," he smirks at me.

"How so?" I ask as curiosity overwhelms me.

"Well, I don't want to be a snitch but for an example, about a week ago, Adam got in a fight with an officer. Adam hit the officer bad, and just ran away. I can't give the officer no credit because he bruised up Adam pretty badly." Jeremy explains.

I stare at him, waiting for more but that's all I get. I try to put it in pieces. He hit up a cop and came straight to Jackie's. So it must have been near, a distraction for whoever was following him. Make a stop and buy random things in order to let the cops pass by. Smart. But why would he beat up an officer? What has he done? He could go to jail for such a felony. What is going through his damn mind? I'm so furious with his childish actions. So when Jeremy asks me if I want to dance, I say yes.