UNKEPT

Chapter 4: The party

The sun starts going down, I've been greeting people all day long, our dining room is full of people, everything is just too overwhelming, I wish I could just delete this day.

I'm locked in my bedroom, sitting on my bed holding Harry's bandana. What even happened to him? Why was his bandana on the floor? I can't help but feeling worried, I really hope he's okay. It's all dark and the street lights light up the room. I can hear kids singing Christmas carols outside. I've never been able to celebrate Christmas eve like a normal kid. I was born in a rich and respectable family, a family with the best reputation, the elite of the city. I had to celebrate it in a very formal way, with classical music, gourmet food and a whole lot of old people getting slightly drunk and telling horrendous jokes. I try to smile but the sound of the guests talking and laughing really gets on my nerves.

I open a drawer and put the bandana there before going downstairs to find my aunt Elisabeth, she's hysterically laughing at something my dad is saying. I bet it's a lame joke, or maybe he's just making fun of mid-class people, you never know.

I walk through the crowd fastly, trying not to get noticed by the people, I go to the dining room. There's a round table in the corner with almost thirty different plates with a different kind of food in each one. In the middle of the dining room there's a large and long oak table, all decorated for the ocasion, with candles from side to side and wineglasses filled with the most expensive champagne my father could find.

I walk through the ball room entrance, almost everyone is here, there's just so many people, so many voices, so many faces, but no one I need to know. I try to smile at everyone and look like I'm having a good time. I notice the mountain of birthday presents at the other side of the room, right next to the window, everything is so shiny and luxurious. I'm not even surprised, I'm used to it, every year's the same.

******

There's a really fat man sitting next to me who's telling my mum how much he likes the food "What a delicious turkey, Mrs. Tomlinson!" He yells. It's so hot in here, I can feel the sweat drops running down my back. "Louis you need to stay calm." I tell myself, but I just can't, I'm getting dizzy, I think I'm gonna faint.

I try to keep myself distracted when I realise Eleanor is sitting right in front of me. She's looking at my mum, she's talking about the time she turned twenty. I'm not even paying attention to her, I'm so suffocated.

All of a sudden, Eleanor turns her head and looks at me. She smiles really big and I smile back, only not to seem rude. Her dad looks at me too, "I'm not in the mood to smile please, stop looking at me." I think, but he smiles at me and I have to smile back. He bends to his daughter and whispers something in her ear, she smiles even bigger and sneaks a look at me.

My dad stands up and pokes a wineglass carefully with a fork. I'm feeling terribly sick and my sight is getting blurry.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have two great news for all of you!" My father starts his speech. "The first one is my older son, Louis, is turning twenty today so we can say he's officially a grown up man! Happy birthday, son."

Everyone starts clapping and whistling, I can't stand this anymore, I'm sweating, I'm dizzy, my hands are shaking and I can feel my brain losing control over my body and my lungs are collapsing. They start singing happy birthday to me but I'm done, that's it, this is unbearable and overwhelming.

I stand up in one move and start running as fast as I can, I haven't seen their faces but they're all probably astonished. I don't really care. I run through the door and cross the garden. The fence is locked so I climb and jump out. I'm feeling better now but I don't want to be anywhere near that house right now so I start walking fast, not even paying attention to where I'm going.

I finally get to a park, it's all dark and I can barely see anything. I'm completely exhausted so I sit on a bench and take some deep breaths. I look up once I'm completely recovered and I see a silhouette a few meters away, staring at me. I get scared at first but then I look again.

I can feel my heart beating faster and my hands start sweating. I stand up.

"It's him." I whisper. "It's Harry!"