Right There: A Story of Friendship

Chapter Fourteen

I dug out my ancient makeup bag and went through every old and expired lipstick and dried out mascara tube until I found something that worked. I put on a party dress I bought from Ross in the eighth grade and was shocked it still looked good on me. It had been such a long time since I actually dressed nice. A regular t-shirt and jeans had been my signature attire for years. I had forgotten I even OWNED a dress.

I went to my mom's room and told her I was going to hang out with my friends from work for a sleepover and she got really happy. I thought she would be upset. She told me she had ordered pizza for my sister and to not worry. I felt relieved.

As I walked outside to my car a feeling of guilt started quietly gnawing at my gut. But the anxiety and feeling of wanting to get out of my house silenced it. I started thinking about all that was going wrong in my life. My job, my mom, my dad being away, money-all of it just started feeling like too much. For the longest time I could handle so much pressure and stress trying to keep everything together. Now, not so much.

I don't know what my intention was going out that night. Maybe I truly needed an escape. Maybe I thought hanging out with Sam and her friends would help me feel better and take my mind off what was going on. I didn't even know anymore. I really didn't.

Once I got to Sam's house, I almost changed my mind when I saw how many cars were parked on the street. Her house had its porch light turned off but I could clearly see the shadows of all the people inside. Even just three houses down I could still hear how loud the music was blaring. I braced myself.

Okay, Riley, you can do this. This will be good for you. Maybe you need to be around some people your age.

I checked my makeup in the mirror one last time and took a deep breath.

As soon as I walked in, I was hit by the heavy stench of cigarette smoke and booze. There was a keg sitting on the living room table and red solo cups all over the floor. It looked like something out of a college frat party movie scene. The guilt feeling grew stronger and I almost turned around and walked back out, until Sam spotted me.

"Riley, is that you?" she asked as she approached me. She was holding a beer in one hand and put her arm around me with the other.

"Yeah, I thought I'd come just to check it out," I told her. It was so loud I had to almost yell.

"Why don't you stay a while? We just started," she said. "If you don't want to drink I have sodas in the kitchen."

"Thanks!" I yelled. I watched as she waltzed over to some girls, one of them was smoking a cigarette. Gross.

I shrugged and decided to walk around. I went into the kitchen to see what kind of soda she had when I almost ran into this really tall guy who was dancing crazily to the music. I apologized and made it safely to the kitchen. As I looked in the fridge I was tapped on my shoulder from behind. I jumped and blushed. It was a really handsome guy with the cutest smile on his face.

"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," he said. "I'm Chris."

It took me a minute to compose myself.

"R-riley," I said. "How are you?"

"I'm good, just thought I'd introduce myself. I don't think we've met before," he said. "Are you a friend of Samantha's?"

"Um, yeah, we work together at the restaurant by the beach downtown," I replied, brushing a piece of stray hair away from my eye.

"Cool. I'm in one of her classes at the community college," he said. "Philosophy to be exact."

"Wow, that sounds fun," I said. "What brings you in here?" I asked, realizing how incredibly lame that sounded.