Frustration -SERIES- [Part 1] [boyxboy]

Chapter Twelve

It was not a party as we were used to them. Josh and I glanced at each other dubiously as we made our way down the hall after Rachel towards the sitting room.

Parties held by Glenstal Abbey students – both in dorms during the school year and over the summer – are loud, messy, drunken gatherings not dissimilar from those of your average Hollywood-generated high-school-oriented teen movie. There are people having sex upstairs, doing oral on the couches, and making out on the porch. The music is too loud, the alcohol flows freely, and if you are lucky enough to know the host personally, you will get a large glass of Dad's eighty year old vintage brandy, previously unopened.

This was not the case in Jackson and Rachel's friend's house. We walked into the sitting room, all six of us, to see Rachel thrown down beside Jackson on a couch comfortably, Sally sitting slightly awkwardly on the edge of her seat, and everyone else sprawled lazily on various sofas and recliners. There were about four people I didn't recognise in the room, but I could hear more noise from upstairs. There was no music, though there was some alcohol on the table, and a sweet smell I recognised was filling the room. I was pretty sure all the St Vincent's kids, including Jackson who, for some reason, I had previously thought of as pretty straight edge, were high as balls.

'Sit down, friends,' one guy said lazily from a corner. He reminded me of Howard Moon, and was, indeed, sporting a rather impressive moustache. But it was hanging off in one corner. I figured this was Robbie.

Josh and I glanced at Rachel uncomfortably as we shuffled around the unusually large assortment of furniture to find seats.

'Smoke?' somebody asked me from the floor, brandishing a spliff in my direction.

'Um,' I hesitated, then not wanting to be rude, 'sure.' I took one drag and passed it to Josh quickly. I get... Well, you know, when I smoke, and I couldn't really risk that happening tonight, with both Conor and Jackson within touching distance. It wouldn't be a good idea to end up in bed with either one of them tonight.

Instead I poured myself another drink and drank it; then looked around the room, privately wondering if anybody was sober enough to notice if I just left and went home. I knew I had promised Rachel that I would make an effort but I was starting to think I had learned the lesson Jackson had wanted to teach me: what it felt like to not belong.

Robbie was regaling an enthralled looking Jackson and Rachel with some anecdote in the corner; Sally was still sitting uncomfortably on a sofa with some St Vincent's boy sitting beside her, getting a bit touchy with his hand on her knee. If he didn't cut it out he was gonna be facing the collective wrath of the Name Withheld boys. Said boys were scattered about the room as well; Conor was sitting by Philip and another St Vincent's kid, a girl, on a couch that was half in the kitchen, half out, and Daniel and Tarquin were with Loopy on the windowsill. Nobody here seemed as impressed by the band's presence as they student body had done when Sally and I had turned up yesterday but then again, I'm not sure anybody was 100% in the room at this point, or even in this world.

'Weirdest party I've ever been to,' Josh muttered to me, but he needn't have bothered keeping his voice down.

'Snap,' I replied, glancing blatantly at my phone to check the time. Only twenty minutes had passed since we'd walked inside the house. I looked up at Rachel, feeling kind of jealous of her ability to fit in in drastically different environments. I had a new appreciation for how hard it must have been for her to transfer to Glenstal Abbey from St Vincent's.

'Okay,' Robbie turned and smiled broadly at all his guests. He wore the stretched-out, lazy expression of somebody who had been smoking a lot of weed that day. 'Shall we play a game or something?'