Nostalgic Nights

Never Have I Ever

Abby gave a tight smile to her friends as they ignored her. She stood up a little woozy on her feet, given the number of shots downed in the past few hours, but she was able to grab a few glasses, and head for the kitchen. Abby silently cursed her roommate, Emily Casterleigh, for demanding that she borrow a skirt tonight, insisting that, "you will want to show off your amazing legs and YES YOU ARE GORGEOUS!" in a text from the hospital. But no matter. It was long enough to not be too concerned anything was revealing, and she was bordering on too drunk that she didn't care what she wore or what she was wearing when she tripped.

Frustrated, Abby shook her head. The night had started out innocently enough! One of her oldest friends Anita Das had called a few nights ago, asking if Abby and Emily had wanted to join a bunch of people from their old private school group in going out, catching up. Anita had given birth to a beautiful baby boy a few months ago and was in need of getting out of the house.

Emily had expectantly and respectfully declined, but Abby was thrilled at the offer. Working long hours as a paralegal kept her pretty preoccupied, and she missed her friends and personal life. Anita rattled off a list of people coming, a list that seemed to be filled with former friends Abby would be happy to see. Anita surprised the group by renting out a restaurant popular in their high school days, a family owned Korean BBQ place that would close down early for students just so they could study and eat. To the stress filled, sleep deprived students, this restaurant had been an all night studying shrine or mecca, and most students had continued the tradition of alumni funding the place to help current students find sanctuary. In a word, it was a perfect home base.

Word had spread of the impromptu school reunion, and dinner had actually turned out to be a large collection of people — not all of them had Abby hung out with during school. Granted, Anita had been a few years older than she, and their friends had not always overlapped. But as beer and spirits had been provided, any potential tensions were dissolved long before drama could happen. The group reminisced the good times, laughed over old drama long past, and debated ridiculous professors. But what had Abby most excited and nervous was that her oldest friend and longest crush Theo Bartlett had decided at the last minute to show up as well.

Already slightly silly from dinner and high on nostalgia, Abby invited everyone within earshot back to her flat for drinks and dessert. Emily was due to be at the hospital the entire night on rotation, but she shot her a text just in case.

"Only if Theo is one of the people, and you're finally going to tell him how you feel!" she texted back, more as a joke than in seriousness. Emily was aware that Abby had been in love with him since she was fourteen, and ten years later she still hadn't gotten the nerve to tell him how she felt.

And what had once felt like a good idea — tonight of all nights — now it all seemed like the worst plan. Drinking with high school friends had led to silly high school games like "Truth or Dare" and "Never Have I Ever." She rolled her eyes at the ridiculousness of the whole night as she gathered plates and glasses in various places on her way to the kitchen. She briefly pondered who would be to blame for tomorrow's hangover and her overwhelming shame, after the last round of childish games had left her with a bad taste in her mouth.

Abby walked into the kitchen, placing all the dishes in the sink and running some water. She put on an apron (which took numerous tries) while the water warmed up. She heard the footsteps behind her but didn't turn around. They were shuffling a bit more than normal, but were still not clumsy footsteps. Abby closed her eyes and took a deep breath, marveling for a moment at the ability to know whose footsteps were behind her without having to turn and look at the person.