Held For Ransom

o n e

I feel tipsy. Light. I bounce and sway back and forth to the booming music; illuminated by the flashes of the erratic, multicolored lights. This crowd I'm lost in is one of the largest I've been a part of so far.

Well for a house party at least. The host of this place must be loaded. Just by looking at his place you can tell; with a small bar, an amazing sound system and a living room the size of a small gymnasium. Even with everyone spread throughtout the facilities, the room's packed full.

We all dance together to the rhythm; a mass of sweaty, drunk people. From where I stand all I can see is a wall of half-naked, stumbling, bozos on every side.

I cling to my friend Jessica's hand, our heads bobbing in time to the music, our bodies swaying to the rhythms. Jessica makes eyes at an appealing stranger from afar and I watch as they make their way towards us.

I laugh and shake my head as she tilts her head in his direction and wiggles her eyebrows suggestively.

"Dibs!" She shouts in my ear as he comes closer. In the dim lighting he seems decent, but the mop of orange on his head ruins my first impression.

"Not my type anyways," I joke.

A brunette with heels higher than her alcohol tolerance stumbles through us, breaking our hands apart. Jessica's pushed off to the side and I catch one glimpse of her before my attention is turned back to the brunette.

She trips forwards, drops her clutch and it bursts open. Its contents scatter everywhere. I hear her curse and stoop to help her retrieve her things.

"So sorry!" She slurs, her voice barely audible over the music as she struggles to pick up a tube of lip gloss. I just smile in return, handing her back the small purse with its items returned.

"Thank you so much!" She shouts. Even a foot away it's hard to make out the words, my ears feeling as though they're stuffed with cotton.

"No problem, been there done that." I chuckle, waving her off. With her clutch held tightly against her she continues through the swarm.

Faces blend together in a blur; all around me is a chaos of long limbs and bobbing heads. My eyes scan the crowd for Jessica, my heart pounding and my head dizzy.

"Jessica?" I yell over the pounding music. In the flashing lights it's hard to tell who's who.

Jessica isn't within arms range, which is never good. I stand as tall as I can in my wedges in a desperate attempt to see over the sea of strangers.

How did I lose her? She was right here!

A group of guys I danced with all linger near the back, waiting- no, searching for their next victim.

My beautiful, blonde, best friend Jessica is no where in sight.

A taller girl wearing a tight, black dress that's shorter than Jessica's attention span stumbles to my left.
She couldn't be older than 17. A pair of black pumps in one hand and a bottle in the other, she struggles to maintain her hold on her drink and probably reality. She bumbles around, bumping into me and everyone around us. From behind she looks exactly like Jessica, but to my dismay, the front is a different story.

Too bad...

At this point if she was a close enough match I might've taken her home in place of Jessica.

I crane my head, wondering how she could've strayed so far in such a short time.

Who am I kidding?

When Jessica drinks she becomes harder to find than Nemo. This happens every party we go to together. One of us always looking for the other like a life-sized game of Where's Waldo. But we can both admit Jessica is always hands down the worst of us two to find.