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- 08 | LIVE FAST

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It wasn't too crowded considering the fact that it was a huge drive-in parking lot, but considering the fact that it was a party on a Thursday night, it was jam packed. Alcohol and cigarettes were being passed around left and right, and Eddie was lucky enough to snag a joint in one hand and a cup of liquor in the other. Ben and Bill had refused to show up, which made Eddie reluctant, but he had decided to go anyway since his mother was locked up in her room without paying much attention anyway.

He was tempted to look for Bev, just to find a familiar face and stick to it, but he had yet to see her and he had a feeling she was busy enough with her own friends since it was her party. A bonfire had been started in the middle of the lot, and someone had brought a radio that they turned up loud and put a cone in front of to project the sound. It muffled the voices to the point where the words were hard to understand, but the music was nice as it was.

Eddie held his drink close and his cigarette between his lips as he scanned the crowd, most faces too dark to see, and some almost distorted by the firelight. He finally had eyes on Bev, but it was only because she got right in his face, grabbing the wrist of the hand that was holding his cup and pouring more alcohol into it, as if he didn't have enough already. Eddie laughed, taking the cigarette from between his lips and offering it to her. She took it while he downed the whole cup, much to the crowd's delight. Cheers echoed in the back of Eddie's hazy mind as a few hands clapped him on the shoulder or back and he grinned, lifting his cup towards Bev so she could fill it more.

"Here, just take one!" She shouted over the chatter, tossing him the bottle. Her crazy grin was reflected on his own face as she flashed him a thumbs up, slipping a full pack of cigarettes into his back pocket as she brushed past him. "You earned it!" She told him, and then she was gone again. Eddie looked down at the half-full bottle in his hands and shrugged, pouring himself another small cup. He didn't want to get hammered like Bev already was, but he enjoyed the dull buzz in the back of his mind as everything just seemed to lighten a little bit.

Someone had snuck up into the projector booth and turned it on. The Breakfast Club flickered onto the huge screen, and a group of people burst into cheers, raising their drinks into the air. Eddie snagged a lighter off of some guy who was passed out on the ground and used it to light a fresh cigarette, pocketing the small contraption and making his way around the outskirts of the party. His sole focus was on the movie, however, and eventually he broke away to sit down where he wouldn't get trampled.

Somewhere along the way, he forgot the promise that he had made to himself that he wouldn't get shitfaced, and he was suddenly sitting with a more or less empty bottle and a cigarette stub on the ground inches from his face. The movie was still going, and there was still quite the crowd, but the amount of people seemed smaller. Eddie forced himself to sit up straighter, taking the last few sips of his bottle and tossing it aside. He got up onto his feet after a few stumbles, and his knees wobbled beneath him.

"Whoa!" Bev shouted once she spotted him. She made her way over, and it was obvious that she could hold her alcohol better. Either that, or she just wasn't as drunk as Eddie had previously thought her to be, because she was much more steady than him and she didn't lose her balance when Eddie slumped forwards and she had to throw her arms out to keep him from falling.

"Jesus, New Kid, you sure know how to kill it on a Thursday!" Bev laughed, glancing around herself. "Hey, has anyone seen my idiot of a best friend? Someone has to take the new guy home or else he's gonna get alcohol poisoning or something."