random stories

party

Why?
Why the hell did I turn up here?
Parties are seriously not my scene. The people, the music, the weird way all the lights are off, the booze, the noise.
Ugh, the noise.
The awful, awful music plus the loud chatter and the drunk singing.
Drunk high schoolers. My least favorite people.
I sink towards a corner behind a couch, occupied by a couple making out.
I curl up my legs to make myself as small as possible, and so that people don't trip over my legs. They're long, lanky and thin, and I kinda regret wearing shorts.
My phone brightness is blinding against the darkness of the room, so I crank it down to where I can just barely read it.
I scroll through Tumblr for a bit, but there's not much new, so I turn my phone off and close my eyes.
I'm alone, but the sounds are so loud. There's a slight high pitched ringing in my ears, and it's getting really annoying.
Like, really annoying.
It's giving me a headache and I seriously need to leave. The air is hot and sticky and I'm really uncomfortable. I'm fidgeting and twitching everywhere.
I want to get up, but there's a hand on my shoulder.
I open my eyes and there's someone sitting next to me.
Calvin Roberts?
Why's he here?
I blink, making sure he's really there, but now I realize how stupid I look.
The messy blonde-orange hair, the track jacket, the emerald green eyes, and the freckles.
Fuck, those freckles.
He stretches out one leg and pushes his hair aside.
"Can I sit here?" He smirks and brushes through his hair some more. "Simon, right? In my calc?"
He noticed that I was in his class? I guess there weren't too many track kids in that class. Now that I think about it, he never really hangs out with any of the track kids. And I should probably answer him.
"I-It's okay. Everyone else is over there."
Seriously, why is he here?
"Yeah, I know. But I want to sit next to you."
What? Did he really just say that? God, my face is really warm and I'm definitely blushing. But why? Why is he doing this? There's no way that sitting with me is anyway better than being out there.
"Can't imagine why.." I fidget and tried to not be so close to him, but seemed to try and get closer to me.
"I mean, you're over here for a reason, aren't you? You know how stupid these parties are."
"Y-Yeah. Wait, why'd you come then?"
He genuinely seemed like he was having a bad time, but he was here. But so was I.
"Eh, some dude on my track team invited me. He's kinda a jackass. He shrugged his shoulders and laughed. He seemed really chill, but his face said otherwise.
"But what are you doing over here?"
I shift my weight around and look down.
"I don't know, someone on stage crew invited me, but I really shouldn't be here anyway."
He cocked his head and smiled at me.
"Why's that?"
These questions, dammit. He gets me with these questions.
"Parties like this-" I gesture to the crowd. "I just don't really like them. I only came because beats sitting at home scrolling through Tumblr all night." I laugh awkwardly.
Why did I say that?
"Yeah, I get what you mean." And he laughs. Like genuinely laughs. At my stupid joke. At me. "Hey, I've got an idea." He looks toward a huddle of people around a kitchen island.
He shoots up and stands in front of me, reaching his hand out.
Reaching his hand out.
For me?
For me to grab his hand?
I reach out and squeeze his hand, and he pulls me up.
He doesn't let go of my hand, but I'm not complaining. His hands are bigger than mine and his fingers are wrapped tight against my hand. He drags us over to that group of people and lets go of my hand.
There's a tall girl with dark skin and a high ponytail leaning on the island talking to another girl, shorter with light skin and short brownish-red hair. She's wearing a pink Floyd t-shirt and grey ripped jeans, and she looks pretty familiar for some reason.
There's a guy sitting on a chair behind her, a little shorter than the dark-skinned girl, with wavy blonde hair and red-dyed tips. I recognize him. Adam Lewis, he's in my art. Adam's also on stage crew and one of the few openly gay guys on the crew. He's talking to this other guy with skin a bit lighter than the first girls, he's got glasses and long hair pulled into a bun.
The first girl notices us first.
"Cal! What's up?" She gives him a hug and stares me down.
Then him.
Then me again.
I get nervous and fidgety, but her smile puts me at ease.
"Cal! How'd you score such a cutie?" She wraps her arm around my shoulder but has to lean down a little. Damn, she's tall.
And also, cute? Me?
Calvin sighs and laughs. "Trish, this is Simon. Simon, Trish. She's one of the only non-jackass-y people on the team." He looks at her for a second. "Well, sometimes."
Trish releases me and punches Calvin on the shoulder. "Hey!"
She's got a lot of energy.
The girl who was talking to Trish steps over to us and fist bumps Calvin. "' Sup." She looks at me for a second and her eyes widen for a moment. "You're Simon, right? Andrews?"
I realize that I'm kinda zoning out, too many sounds at the same time do that.
"Y-Yeah." I suddenly remember why she looks so familiar. "Wait, you were on stage crew, weren't you? Katie?"
I'm praying that I'm thinking of the right person.
Her eyes light up.
"Yeah! I couldn't help out this year, cause of track, but last year was hella fun!"
My entire body loosens.
"Yeah, I never thought Shakespeare could be so entertaining! You're the one who helped with that huge set prop, right?"
Katie leans back dramatically. "Yes." She groans. "My arms are still tired from painting."
I laugh, and I notice Calvin smiling at me.
I can feel myself blushing, but for once I don't mind.
"Tech week last year. Literal hell." I open my eyes wide and chuckle.
Katie groans and makes a gun shape with her hand. "I'm still exhausted." She makes her way back to the island with Trish, and I move closer to Calvin.
"You and Katie seem to have hit it off." He smiles at me, and I can't stop staring at his freckles. "She may seem chill at first, but you get her on about the right things, and she's a little firecracker." He laughs and closes his eyes.
Adam comes and leans between Calvin and me, an arm around either of us. Calvin messes up his hair a little, and Adam bounces around.
"You two want anything to drink?"
Shit.
The booze at parties.
Even if I wanted something, I wouldn't know where to start.
"Surprise me."
Adam laughs and smiles a kind of devilish smile.
"What for you, Andrews?"
It's funny to me that jocks always seem to know last names.
"I'm fine."
What am I supposed to say?
I rarely get invited to parties and have only had one beer in my life.
"C'mon! Don't be so uptight!" Adam ran his fingers through his hair and bounced on his feet.
"Fine, then. A-A beer, I guess."
Adam beamed.
"Gotcha! A beer for Andrews, a surprise for Roberts!" Adam laughed to himself and went off.
Calvin shook his head. "God, he's such a dork."
The last of the group, the one with long hair comes over after Adam's out of sight.
"Big dork. Why did I let him have beer? Bad, bad decision." He shook his head but stuck out his hand. "Jay."
I shake it, getting stupid self-conscious about my hands.
"Hi. Simon. Y-You probably already know that by now."
This introduction thing is getting old.
"I do." Jay fiddled with the strings of his hoodie. He's wearing a red and black flannel over a grey hoodie, and denim jeans.
There's a sudden awkward silence, and before I can start panicking, Adam's back with our drinks.
I almost laugh, cause it turns out, the red solo cup cliché isn't just a thing in movies.
Adam hands us the drinks, and I take a look at mine, then Calvin's.
Inside his cup, there's a concoction of drinks that resulted in a red-ish purple color filling the cup. It smells like fruit and chocolate, and I'm suddenly glad all I have is a beer.
"Ugh, Lewey, what's in this? It smells like death." Calvin's making an exaggerated motion of holding his nose and pretending to be sick.
I have to laugh because he's right. I'm just glad I'm not the one drinking it.
I take a sip and squint my eyes.
This is what people get crazy over?
It's really not great and makes my whole body tingle a little.
"C'mon Roberts, just try it!" Adam's basically pleading at this point, and it's impossible to say no to him. And I actually have to admit, he's kinda cute. He starts to get close to Calvin, and I scooch over.
"Fine, Fine." Calvin pushes him away and closes his eyes tight, holding his nose. "Bottoms up." He takes a swig and swallows it, his face contorting.
I laugh, taking another sip of my beer, bigger than the last.
Everyone from Calvin's group is there, and some other people I don't recognize are forming a crowd around Calvin, laughing and recording videos.
I'm trying to get out of the way so I'm not in any pictures, but there are people on either side of me, and Calvin shoots me this look that's telling me to stay.
Dammit.
I force another gulp down my throat and try to stay out of the camera's way, but I'm suddenly apart of the crowd. Calvin's swirling around his drink and people are yelling for him to drink it.
I take another gulp and now everyone's yelling "Chug!" And I guess I am too.
He looks kinda reluctant, but then he sees me in the crowd.
He smiles and winks.
Winks?
At me?
I know I've only had one beer, but I must be imagining things.
He looks away from me and chugs the rest. Everyone laughs? Cheers? I can't really tell, there's this buzzing in my head, and everything's kinda hazy.
Calvin puts down his cup and shakes his head, coughing. He makes him over to me, and I feel his arm around my shoulder.
I look into his eyes and he does that stupid smirk thing that makes me forget my own name.
He grabs my hand and swerves us through the crowd, he leads us to the living room, towards the front door, and out of the house.
I guess I just got used to the noise because it's so quiet out here.
It's also pretty dark, which is weird because I got here when it was light out.
The stars are big and bright, almost more than usual.
Calvin sits criss-cross, still holding my hand, and I follow.
He leans back on his hands and stares up the sky. I've seen him do this before.
He'll get transfixed on something and seemingly ignore everything else.
I can't help but stare. He just looks so absolutely star struck. He's distracted, so I get a good look at his face. Well, as much as I can from the dark.
He's got freckles dotting his face from his ears to his nose. His curly hair goes a little below his ears but isn't too long.
I have a sudden urge to run my fingers through it.
He leans onto his back and looks over at me.
"Thanks, Simon."
Just the fact he said my name makes me shiver a little.
I lean back to parallel him.
"For what?"
"For making tonight less awful."
"Huh? You have friends here. I-I didn't do much."
I stare at the sky, and I can see how people get lost staring up there.
"Sure, but you made tonight special. It would just be any other day if it weren't for you."
Right, because Calvin Roberts goes to parties.
And I'm just his loser friend who doesn't go to parties and doesn't drink.
Except I'm not.
I'm more than that.
I'm more than his friend who just tagged along.
He wanted me here.
He wants me here.
"Really?"
"Yeah."
He's getting closer to me, and his hand holds mine.
What is this?
Am I dreaming?
We're holding hands, on some kids lawn and this is real.
And I've fallen in love.