His Favorite Slave

Chapter 2 - The Party

                Terri’s Honda Civic comes to a slow stop across the street from Joshua’s house. The music is loud and blaring as I step out onto the curb. My knees begin to buckle, making it nearly impossible to stand, let alone walk. ‘There are way too many people here’ I think to myself. I knew that this was a bad idea from the start, but it’s too late to turn back now.

                “Corey!”

                I snap out of my daze and look over at Terri. “What?”

                She motions towards the crowded house. “We didn’t come here to just stand and look around. Come on.”

                “I don’t know about this, Terri. I didn’t expect for there to be so many people here.” I have a bit of a social anxiety. It’s hard for me to be around a lot of people at one time. Making new friends is even more of a challenge.

                “Corey, c’mon,” Terri whines. “You need to let loose a little and learn to have some fun. Don’t back down now.”

                “But Terri-“

                “I don’t wanna hear it. You’re going in. That’s final.” She grabs my arm and drags me across the street to Joshua’s house.

                The front yard is filled with drunken teens stumbling all over the place. One is passed out on the side walk. Another vomits in some nearby bushes. Red plastic cups are scattered all over the place. I look at my surroundings in disgust and wonder why people come to these sort of functions. This is the first party that I’ve ever been to, so I’m not sure as to what is normal and what is not.

                Terri drags me inside, pushing past a sea of people dancing around and some making out.  The hip hop music fills my ears, making it almost impossible to hear. “We need to find Joshua,” Terri says, screaming over the blaring music.

                I suddenly stop, making Terri yank my arm hard in her haste.

                “Why’re you stopping?”

                “Why do we need to find him?”

                “Ummm hello. So you guys can talk and dance and stuff.”

                I roughly shake my head, but Terri ignores me.

                We walk around for about five minutes until finally spotting Joshua in the kitchen. “Hey Joshua,” Terri says as we walk up to him.

                He smiles at Terri then looks over at me and smiles even brighter. “You came,” he said.

                “Yeah,” I say with a shy smile.

                “Well,” Terri announces, “I’m gonna leave you two love birds to talk.” She winks at me and I glare at her for saying ‘love birds’.

                “You look amazing Corey,” Joshua says.

                I smile even harder and say ‘thank you’.

                “You thirsty?” I nod as he hands me a red cup filled with a suspicious smelling red liquid. I already know that there’s alcohol in this, but I drink it anyway. Like Terri said, I need to let loose and have some fun.

                “So how’ve you been Corey? Last we ever really talked was freshman year.”

                He’s right. The only time we ever really had a conversation was freshman year, being that we were lab partners and all. That was two years ago. We’re juniors now and are speaking for the very first time since then.