Just One Night

One.

Ending up at a party where I barely know a single soul has become a regular occurrence for me this summer. Graduating high school unlike my mother and some of my friends has been an accomplishment of sorts for me. You don't really come from where I've come from and exactly have it in you to succeed.
For now, I guess you could say that I'm living my best life. I mean I did just break up with my high school boyfriend who was such bad news which I should have taken notice to as soon as my parents loved him instead of hating him tattoos and all. But that's a whole other story, maybe I'll tell you about that one another time likely a few tequila shots in.

As I walk through the parking lot of my fabulous mall  job I light a cigarette and mosey my way to my car. I'm 18 and yes I smoke for now, don't come for me. I plan on quitting and spoiler alert I do eventually. I climb into my car, adjust my makeup, and change into shorts and a black shirt... you know the usual... and set my GPS to take me to my next adventure. When I arrive at the party, I scan through seemingly endless crowds of drunken randoms, I finally catch the eye of my best friend, Hadley. When she notices me and waives me over to her and the group she is with.

"Finally, you're here, " she drunkenly whispers to me clumsily pulling me next to her around a barely there fire at a random house in the woods. Not that I'm complaining, I love Had and she's my best friend, I'd meet her in the middle of the desert if she asked me to. Apparently, the owner of this party is one of Had's friends from high school and he lives here with a couple of his friends who assuringly are up to no good like many of them are.

Hadley and I have known each other for the better part of a year. We went two different high schools in the same area and both just graduated a month ago. You can say that we were forced to get to know each other by a couple of our guy friends that we work with at the local mall. For as long as I can remember, being in any type of all female relationship has been a struggle for me. Some call me rude or maybe even a bitch, but to me I'm just honest and if you can't handle that then you're welcome to not be any friend of mine. Thankfully, this isn't a problem for Hadley and honestly I'm so relieved. Getting to know her has been one of the few and far between pleasures of the last year of my life.

"What have you been drinking and where can I get some," I ask her after a few minutes of sitting around on a very uncomfortable log by the fire. Hadley has clearly been drinking for the better part of two hours since it was her night off work and it shows. This is one of the things I love about my best friend. She's down for a good time and isn't afraid of anyone, even me.

"Let's go on a booze hunt," she winks at me pulling me again towards the back door of the house. Going inside, it is evidently clear that several men live here with no mothers around to pick up after them and make sure they have their outfits picked out in the morning for them. We giggle as we walk in which I assume is for different reasons but I'll pretend she's thinking the same thing that I am.

"NOA OVER HERE," she yells unfortunately finding me a half empty gallon size container of blue liquor that I know is what regret is made of. She obviously sees my discontent with the treasure she has found and subsequently rolls her eyes at me as she mixes me a drink of blue nightmare and Sprite. We don't make it out of the kitchen before a voice calls over to Had.

"Had," calls a man-boy-thing from across the room as he walks over. "Noa, this is Drew, he lives in this castle," she says sarcastically as she motions to the man made mess around her, "Drew this is Noa my friend from work." This boy must be Hadley's friend from high school. Drew looks like a nice enough guy, not my idea of attractive but he isn't completely tragic either. He's average height, light brown hair, and athletically built so I can assume that he gets what he wants from women quite often.

"Hey, nice to meet you," he says as he pours himself a drink. "Nice to meet you too," I reply in kind staring at Hadley while attempting to telepathically send her messages for us to move this party back outside. Now that I have a drink in hand and a joint waiting in my pocket I would love nothing more than to relax for the night. I earned it.