Blood [#Wattys2016]

Section 3 : Great Parties and Sad Memories

We've been talking for what has to be hours. We've talked about everything and more, but keep finding new things to talk about.

"Well that just brings me back to Reighlee Cowell! In all lines of work, there are people that take things just a little too far." I say after hearing about a man at her work that wanted to make her walk nude down the runway just for the shock factor, claiming it would make her famous.

"Exactly! That would have ruined my career! Speaking of which, how hasn't Reighlee Cowell ruined his career just yet?" she says.

"Well I've pondered this myself, and it's come down to availability." I explain, "His novels aren't the greatest, but he can write and publish so many in such a short amount of time... it's impressive, really. Also, they are kind of entertaining sometimes so since they out-populate most author's books, he dominates the shelves. And they are about everything, so everyone reads them."

"Yeah," she says, "but they're all so filled with violence and graphic nudity that it makes me uncomfortable just reading the books, and to make matters worse, they made a movie out of 'Ties to the Physical Plane' despite the lack of plot and frequent sex scenes!" she pauses briefly, "Not that I had a problem when they showed the strapping male protagonist played by Keele Marcus coming out of a lake almost fully nude, but..."

"Huh." I say, remembering the scene. Thank god for towels.

"Ivanna!" a voice calls through the door as a woman on the other side of the room starts to laugh hysterically. The red headed woman from earlier pokes her head through the door, "Ivy!" Ivanna's friends call her Ivy. "I told you to meet us downstairs at midnight!" she says smiling.

"Oh!" says Ivanna with a jolt, we both look at our watches; 12:13. Is it really already that late? She swears intensely under her breath, "I'm late, aren't I?" she asks the red haired woman.

"Well honey," she answers, "midnight is at twelve, not twelve-thirty."

"Shit... I've got to go Jason, enjoy the party!" The laughing woman passes out and collapses on the floor, "Well, what's left of it." We both smile.

"Bye, Ivanna." I say as she walks away.

"Jason, I told you to call me Ivy! Come on, Persi." she tells the red haired woman. Persi pauses to look at me before leaving the room. Once again that smile of hers spreads across her face. I can't help but think that she knows things about me that she shouldn't.

I finally break eye contact to look about the room to find something else to do now that Ivanna's left. The friends of the girl that passed out have covered her with a jacket and begun to leave. One of her friends is the is rather attractive, though these thoughts are probably just floating through my head because of the extra glass of absinthe I'd fixed myself to seem sophisticated for Ivanna, and the glass of cognac I'd fixed myself because I didn't want her to be the only one of us drinking after I'd finished my second drink, then the one after that. She seemed disappointed when I insisted on drinking the cognac...

"Persi, come on!" I hear Ivanna yell. I look over to see Persi still standing in the doorway, staring at the unconscious woman, her tongue pressed against her upper lip. "Persy, now you're the one making us late!" Ivy complains. Persi notices me watching her, glancing in my direction, tongue still pressed to lip. She looks back at the girl, and then at the floor. Finally she leaves with Ivanna at her side pulling on her arm. Weird. I wonder if she noticed something... no. No, that look was different. More like she was trapped in her own head, fantasizing. Whatever, I'm going to follow Ivy's advice and enjoy the party.

I down the last few drops of cognac left in my glass and pour some whiskey in a tumbler. I walk out of the room, having to step over the unconscious woman to do so. I at first am almost appalled by the fact that no one has stopped to pick her up, but then I realize I'm not going to either and get over it. I notice as I pass that her eyes move behind their lids. Huh, strange dreams I guess. I wander down the stairs to find a significant number of people are gone from the party, probably gone home drunk or not feeling the party any more, but there are still a lot of people here, so the party's still going.