As A Friend

21: Tailgating

It has been four days since the party, which means that it's been four days since I've talked to Dominic. He's texted me every night telling me that he hopes I had a good day and that he hopes the next day is just as good. He ends it by telling me he loves me and he really hopes I'm not mad at him. I simply send back a blue heart to show him that I'm not mad. I think he gets the point.

"Why haven't you hung out with Dominic?" my mom asks as she sits beside me on the couch. She's all dressed up and ready for her overnight getaway with my dad. She's just waiting for him to finish getting ready.

"I wanted to spend time with you guys." Whereas it's true that I miss my family, I've already had enough of them.

"Why don't you guys hang out tonight? You can invite him over to spend the New Years with you and your sister," my mother permits but I offer up shrug.

"I think he's doing something with the guys." I keep my eyes glued to the screen. I actually don't know what he's doing tonight because I haven't talked to him about it.

My father comes downstairs with their joint suitcase. He calls my sister to the living room and they brief us on the 'rules' of the night. "No leaving the house; no having any wild parties; no boys; no drinking; no drugs."

"Dad, we're going to be fine." As long as my little sister stays home, everything will be fine.

"Call me if anything happens," my mom insists. "And I mean anything."

"We're old enough to handle things, mom." I wave off their dramatics.

"Yeah, go have fun." My sister matches me in encouraging them to leave.

"Maritza, your sister is in charge," my father finally tells her. She gives him a flat look before redirecting her gaze to her phone.

"We'll call you when we get there. It should be around 7:30 so keep your phones on." My mom kisses both of our foreheads and our father follows suit. They finally leave after telling us to call if anything happens and reminding us of the hotel's address over and over. As soon as their car pulls out of the driveway, my sister looks at me. 

"So there's a party tonight at Rayna's..."

"Nope." I don't even spare her a glance. Rayna is...wait for it...Raven's younger sister. She is also very confident and slightly bitchy and I have no idea why my sister associates with her. Rayna took after Raven in throwing wild parties whenever her parents leave, which apparently is pretty often.

"Come on! You can invite Dominic over and you guys can make all the noise you want." I ignore the latter part of her comment. I did not tell her about what happened at the party the other night so she doesn't know. I simply shake my head in response. "You're supposed to be cool now!"

"I'm not going to have mom and dad come back tomorrow to their 16 year old daughter hungover. You can either sit here with me and the dogs and watch the ball drop or you can go to bed."

"Whatever." She huffs, gets up, and goes upstairs. An hour and a half passes and I get up to talk to Mari. Maybe I can convince her to come back to the living room so I'm not so alone. All I've been doing is drowning myself in thoughts of Dominic and how bad I messed up. I jog upstairs, singing her name as I go.

"Maritza," I say when I reach her door. I knock twice but receive no response. I knock a little louder, wait a minute, and then enter. I look around and see a tornado of clothes on the floor and her bed. Her window is open and the curtains are whipping around in the wind. I sigh loudly as I stare into the backyard. If only we didn't live on a hill, then maybe she wouldn't be able to sneak out so easily.