I've Found You

Chapter 9

10:30pm

“It was lovely meeting you, Val. I’ve heard a lot!” said a boy named Tyla as he walked away from us, raising his now empty bottle of beer in a drunken salute.

At least, I think his name was Tyla. The boys had been introducing me to a steady stream of people since we’d arrived and at this point I was having a difficult time putting names to faces. Although, that might have had something to do with the alcohol. It was only half past ten and everyone in attendance was well on their way to being absolutely shitfaced. I, myself, was beginning to notice a slight blur around the edges of my vision, and Jai was overcome by a fit of giggles approximately every five minutes.

“Hey man,” began Luke, addressing his twin brother. “I haven’t seen Skip since we got here. We should probably go find him, make sure he’s not dead or naked or anything.”

Nodding in agreement and grabbing my hand as an indicator that I should join them in their search, Jai set off after his brother in pursuit of the drunken and missing Skip. We looked through the house first, moving through the basement, main floor, and eventually the upstairs portion without any luck. The sound of a motor of some sort starting in the backyard quite suddenly grabbed our attention. We each shared a look of confusion before bolting out the back door.

What we found had us doubled over in laughter. There was Skip, in nothing but his boxers, pushing a lawn mower around the already trimmed grass and rapping along to a YMCMB song that was playing over the stereo in the backyard. A small crowd had gathered around him, each taking pictures and videos on their cellphones. Luke went over and joined them.

“Fucking idiot,” I head Jai whisper under his breath to the right of me.

“I see what you mean about him now!” I said, still laughing, as I turned to face Jai.

“Yeah, but honestly it could be a whole lot worse.”

Right on cue as if he had overheard what Jai and I had said to each other, Daniel came running over with an excited look on his now sweaty face. I noticed he abandoned the lawnmower (which was still running) in the middle of the grass.

“Oi, Jai! I just had the most brilliant idea!”

“Oh god, what is it man?”

“Have you ever heard of mattress surfing…..?”

2 hours later

I laid at the foot of the stairs in a heap of laughter, Skip beside me. This was about the tenth round of mattress surfing we’d done and if I was being honest, the thrill of it still hadn’t worn off. Somewhere to my left, I knew Jai sat with his friends, looking on at our antics in amusement. He and Luke had opted out of mattress surfing for the time being, instead choosing to play a few rounds of beer pong with their friends. Heaving himself up off the floor, Skip approached the now seated group of boys and proceeded to practically pick Jai up off of the couch, insisting that he participate in a few rounds of surfing.

I decided that now would be a great time for me to go mingle with some of the people I had been introduced to earlier. Standing up from where I was still seated on the floor, I made my way down into the basement and spotted one of the boys’ friends, James, singing cheesy karaoke songs to a girl whose name I thought was Bridgette. I took a seat beside the giggling girl who immediately pulled me into a drunken embrace.

“Valerie!” she squealed. “I haven’t seen you in hours, why don’t you come play a drinking game with me and Jamesy!”

I was about to comment that she didn’t look like she needed anything more to drink, however in the spirit of the party I stopped myself and agreed to play. James produced a pack of playing cards from God knows where, and the three of us sat down and set up a round of Kings.