Four Years

Chapter 20

Courtney Avery had a ritual of throwing parties weekly on every Sundays. Her parties were the definition of three things — drunk, disastrous and drunk.

Looking up at Courtney's house which seemed to be vibrating with the courtesy of the loud music playing inside, I gestured Savannah to straighten her shoulders. We needed to present an indifferent façade to the outside world as if we go to these kinds of parties all the time.

"Kate," I whispered slowly. "Have you ever been to wild parties?"

"No." She whispered back.

Savannah patted both of our shoulders. "It's your lucky day then."

Upon entering inside Courtney's house (which was a struggle in itself when you have drunk people fighting in the doorway), we heaved collective sighs of disappointment and deadpanned at each other. You know how they present in the movies and shows that these kinds of parties would have a complete psychedelic atmosphere with drug dealers trying to sell their stuff to innocent teens, people drinking and doing the most epic dares, a group of teenagers playing never have I ever and accidentally summoning a demon with an Ouija board.

Yeah, no such thing to see here.

Even though Courtney's living room was practically a castle in itself, the place seemed like a matchbox. There was no intriguing music being played, instead there were some speakers attached with an aux cord to someone's phone playing very ridiculous songs. Whoever chose the music had absolutely no taste.

I thought I saw someone trying to wear their shirt on their legs? I didn't even know anymore.

"Is this what disappointment tastes like?" I asked to no one in particular.

Kate and Savannah let out identical snorts.

"Let's go and drink something." Savannah suggested.

We maneuvered through the drunk people, stumbling and fumbling, and finally reached the kitchen. The sight in the kitchen made us pause in our stride. Courtney was lying on the counter in what she must have thought was an erotic position. However, that wasn't even shocking; what was shocking was the empty beer can stuck on her head. I was going to assume that she thought this was a scrunchie and tried to make a space bun with it.

But how do you even do that?

"Wow, this just got ten times worse." Kate muttered, staring at Courtney.

"Oh, hey," Courtney slurred. "Take these, guys."

She offered us three beer cans which were thankfully unopened. Then she rolled off the counter and fell with a loud thud on the ground. We gasped and went over to check on her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her.

She smiled drunkenly. "Yes, goodnight." And she went to sleep.

After staring at her sleeping face for three long minutes, I cleared my throat. Savannah and Kate broke off their staring as well.

"Did she really just do that?" Kate mumbled.

I guess she did. Well, in her defense, it was her house so she could sleep wherever she wanted to. Though, I didn't think that this place and position were best suitable for it.

Then something sounded somewhere near us. It sounded like some heavy things had fallen down from a higher place. Turning our heads slowly to the source of the noise, we saw a door leading to another room, a guest room perhaps. We went towards it with uncertainty because none of us were sure if we should invade on Courtney's privacy like this. But then someone could be dying in there.

Here goes nothing, I thought and opened the door.

"Oh, my God," Savannah choked up.

Inside were Shelley and Ivan locked in a fierce, sloppy and definitely drunk makeout session. This was so not what I needed to see. Before we could slam the door back into its place, Shelley's eye caught mine. She pushed Ivan away from her and smirked.

"Oops, I guess I made someone jealous." She crooned mockingly.

Huh?

She stalked out of the room, rudely brushing her shoulder against mine and called over her shoulder. "It's the three bitches here." Ivan followed after her like a faithful puppy.

I went over to the kitchen counter and sat down on one of the stools there. Kate and Savannah did the same. We popped open our cans and sipped from it in an almost choreographed move. We were cool like that sometimes.

"Hey, isn't it weird that her words don't mean anything to me?" I wondered.

Savannah put down her can. "Me, too. I don't feel hurt at all as well."

"Could it be because we never really expected much from her?"

Kate responded with a theory. "It could be that you subconsciously were always wary of her and expected something like that to happen sooner or later."

"Wow, you are so intelligent." Savannah whispered in awe.

Kate blushed. "Whatever."

Two hours later, our conversation had shifted from friendships and the subconscious towards storytelling. Somehow, we had converted this party to a communication support group where the three of us talked about life.

Yes, we were intellectual now.

"...and Karen happily started her own internet business." I finished my story.

Kate leaned her cheek on her hand. "So, she installed a couple of routers in her home?"

"No," I said, shaking my finger at her, "she would tell you the wifi password of your neighbor in exchange for money and sometimes, fried chicken."

"I aspire to be like Karen." Savannah raised her hand to her heart with a deep sense of respect. I nodded.

I think we all do.

I also think I was drunk.

"Do I look drunk?" I asked my friends.

They leaned forward to examine my face.

"If you turn your head to the left slightly, no one could ever tell you even touched a drink." Savannah suggested.

Kate agreed. "Yes, besides, who gets drunk anyway."

We laughed obnoxiously for a whole minute before I came to a grave realization: I was indeed drunk.

"Hey, hey," I shook Savannah's arm, "call your little brother or sister to come drive us."

She gave me a blank stare. "Yeah, I'll just call my ten year old siblings and let them handle the reigns of my life. Good suggestion, Alyssa."

"Okay, oops." I pouted. "I can't call Aimee."

"Hey, call your boyfriend." Savannah suggested me back.

I rubbed my eyes. "Sure, which one?"

"Which one?!" Kate shrieked.

I winced. "Uh, I meant who is my boyfriend again?"

"Jace Crewe, who else?"

Brave of her to insinuate something like that. I glared at her and crossed my arms over my chest. Was I a joke to her? Agreed that most of the times I looked like one, but that didn't automatically mean I was one.

"Oh, for godssake!" She snatched my phone from my hand and called Jace before I could even blink. Then she thrust the phone back to me with a familiar voice responding back.

"Jace? Oh, hiiii!"