Cast The Die

Chapter Six

I've been sitting on my bed in nothing but a towel for 45 minutes. I had a long, hot shower to think about the information my parents had just delightfully shared with me. I have my music playing through my speaker at the loudest volume setting. It's now 5.45pm and the party starts at 7. I text Jen a photo of my dress and she replied with three love hearts. The red dress has been in my wardrobe for months, I've never had an opportunity to wear it until now. It sits just above the knee, not too short and not too long. The thin straps sit on my shoulders nicely and the chest area is lace. I've never worn anything like this in my life, my Mum doesn't even know I own it.

I dried my hair and curled the ends; my blonde hair falls to the middle of my back. I put on my usual make up but with a little more eyeliner and blush. I put on a clear lip-gloss because I like the colour of my lips already. I pulled the dress over my head and admired it in the mirror for a moment. I put my black leather jacket on over the top and zipped it up to my neck. My black boots were downstairs, so I picked up my small black bag and headed out. It was now 6.30pm and Jen was waiting outside with her Mum.

"I'm going out. Won't be out late." I shouted to my parents.

"Wait, Macey, are you sure you're okay?" Mum said holding back tears.

"Yes. I'm going out. Alison is taking us to the party, and we'll get a lift back too." I said. It was true, Jen's Mum was taking us to the party, but she wasn't picking us up. We'd have to find someone else to do that, or we could walk. "Bye." I turned and walked out the door.

I kept conversation to the minimum in the car with Jen and her mum. I have no doubt that Alison already knew what was going on before I did. Maybe Jen too? No. She would tell me if she knew something was going on. We pulled up outside Matt's house and it was already full of people. Matt is one of Jacob's friends on the football team. He's sweet to us but puts on a front to the boys. His girlfriend is Elizabeth Watson, but she gets Beth for short. They've been together for five years. I've never had the pleasure of knowing her, but I've heard some delightful things. I've heard she talks to a lot of boys at the same time and she talks about her "friends" behind their backs. I've stayed out of her way.

The music at the party is loud and people are dancing. We made our way into the kitchen where there was a lot of alcoholic drinks on the table. At the back there was bottles of fizzy drinks to mix with the vodka. I reached for a red plastic cup and filled it to the top with lemonade. Jen filled her cup half-way with vodka and the rest with an orange drink. She took a big gulp and made a funny face which indicated that it didn't taste good. I glanced at the vodka on the table.

"Just put one tiny little drop in." Jen said. "You won't even taste it." I picked up the vodka bottle and poured some into my lemonade. Jen handed me a straw and I mixed it together and took a sip.

"You're right, it just tastes like lemonade, just a bit stronger." I said.

"See. Let's go dance." She grabbed my hand and pulled me through into the space where people were dancing. To my right there was a girl in denim shorts and a pink crop top. I admired the amount of skin she was showing, I unzipped my jacket and hung it over the chair behind me. I danced like I was in a club, jumping to the beat of the song, laughing at Jen's terrible attempt at 'the robot'. I took another sip of my drink and realised it was empty. I pointed to my cup and Jen nodded. We walked back to the drink table and filled our cups, with more vodka than mixer.

"Hey, you two," a voice came from behind me. "You just got here?" I turned around to see Auden, only there were two of him.

"Hi Auden, we haven't been here long, how are you? How's the knee?" Jen said. I tried to smile but I burped instead. I felt my cheeks burning and I hoped he hadn't noticed.