My life got progressively worse after this incident. And by worse, I mean busier, which, by my standards, is definitely worse. Wednesday I had to give a presentation, Thursday I had that project due, Friday I was supposed to help Levi with his music theory homework and Friday night was Serena's brother's birthday and she begged me to stay with her that night so that she didn't have to bear it alone.
I cursed my busy schedule. I just wanted some free time. I passed the presentation with a C+, the project I manged to scrape a B- out of, and Levi's music theory homework was most likely all wrong. Which left only Holden's birthday to deal with. I didn't really know if I was expected to get him anything and when I asked Serena, she dismissed it, saying that he didn't exactly invite me, she did. So I didn't.
Serena was helping me with my calculus homework when Holden came into the house, carting an obscene amount of alcohol behind him. He was only 19, so I wondered whether he acquired it with a fake ID or through a friend. Holden squinted his eyes at me, as if trying to decide why I was there.
“I didn't invite you, did I?” he asked.
“No, I did,” Serena claimed, standing and smoothing out her skirt. “I didn't want to deal with your friends hitting on me all night long alone like last time.”
Holden smiled, like he was remembering the good old days. “That was a great party,” he said dreamily. Then he shook himself from the vision of the past. “This one'll top it.”
“Oh, great,” Serena said sarcastically, rolling her eyes. “Just make sure it is known that my room is OFF LIMITS. I do not want to be cleaning up spilled beer off my carpet again.” With that she turned and walked briskly to her room, leaving me to shut the door behind us.
I gently took a seat on the edge of the bed. “Where are your parents when he throws parties like this?”
“Oh, they're out of town pretty much all the time. Plus, Holden paid for a hotel in Paris this weekend, so they won't be back for at least a few more days. They travel a lot. The fame might not have gone to Holden's head, but it sure did go to my mom's,” she informed me. It seemed weird, having both of my two best friends practically parent-less. I seemed so... normal compared to them. Especially compared to Serena, what with her famous brother and all.
“Oh, yeah, and just a heads up: about halfway through the night, when everyone gets drunk enough not to notice, he'll play his songs exclusively on repeat. For about two hours. He's pretty vain like that. So prepare yourself for that.”
“Are we planning on staying in here for the entire night?” I asked. It sounded incredibly boring to me.
“Oh god, no,” she exclaimed. “No way. I always go down and party and flirt with his friends and eat and dance. I never stay up here alone. I just get kind of afraid when everyone starts getting drunk and nobody's really conscious of their actions, you know? I don't really drink, save for maybe a few beers, but I don't like it when the guys start to get aggressive.” She shuddered at the thought.
A few hours later, the party was in full swing. Serena and I waited until the music had started and people had already began dancing before we emerged from her room and made an appearance. I wasn't quite sure how to act. I mean, I had been to parties, but that when I knew more than one person.
I started getting the feel of it, though, when someone handed me an unopened beer bottle and I let the alcohol get into my system. That was probably the time that I started dancing. I mean, I never was a great dancer, but it doesn't take a dancer to get in a mass of people and shake your head a lot. That's pretty much all there was to it and as the night went on, I found myself growing more and more comfortable with the feeling of a bottle in my hand.
