Only in My Dreams

Chapter 3

"Turn right at the next light," Laura commanded me in the passenger's seat. I was so nervous. Not only do I hate driving but I was also grieving having to talk to people I barely know. Let's just say I am horrible at talking, especially with random people.

When we finally got there, we saw the house was packed. Cars were parked outside in the driveway and lined up alongside the road to several driveways after the house. We eventually got to the front of the line and parked. Being in the front of the line also meant we had to walk the farthest to the house.

Once we finally got to the front door, Laura rang the doorbell. We could hear people talking to each other and occasional cheers and laughter from what I guessed were from people playing games. In the background of all of that, music was blaring from somewhere in the house. Just then the door opened and we were face to face with one of our classmates, Caroline.

"Hey, Laura and Melony! I'm glad you guys could make it! Please, come in, make yourself at home. There's soda in the fridge and food on the coffee table."

We made our way in and were almost greeted by the stairs leading upstairs. To our left was a grand open space. From where we were I could see couches and I immediately saw where the laughter from board games was happening. There were people all around in the open room that I assumed was the living room, couples cuddling, friends joking around, and groups sitting around a card game that seemed to resemble Cards Against Humanity.

We continued through the living room taking everything in. It seemed like a clean yet popping party. There were tons of people and no one that I could see was carrying any alcohol. That surprised me since I have always watched those movies where teenagers get wasted at parties.

I can't do big crowds and especially can't socialize. This was not my thing. Just standing there in the kitchen with Laura while she brought out drinks for the two of us was making my palms sweat.

"Let's go. I saw some people playing Cards Against Humanity, let's go join them!" Laura exclaimed.

"Uh, sure I guess," I said. "You know I am horrible at that kind of stuff. I don't have a sense of humor." That part probably wasn't completely true but I know I can't talk dirty or even talk about anything remotely 'inappropriate'.

"You'll be fine. You can be funny sometimes!" She said, trying to lift my confidence. It didn't work that well though. My hands started shaking as we walked closer to the large group. "Hey, can we join?"

"You came just in time, we just started a new round," a guy I assumed wasn't in any of my classes since I didn't recognize him at all. He started counting out cards and both handed us a stack.

"Thanks," I said when he handed the cards to me.

"The prompt is 'And the Academy Award for blank goes to blank."

Oh boy. I don't have anything good. Well, I don't even know what would be considered good since I've always overthought things and never knew what to say.

I decided to go with 'And the Academy Award for A lifetime of Sadness goes to A zesty breakfast burrito'. Not too great but with my skill of failure, it's the best I could come up with. I handed in my cards to the person who I needed to and sat back on the couch trying to think of something less stressful.

I ended up technically not winning but in my head, I won a few rounds by making some chuckle with my lack of humor. After a few more rounds, I ended up drinking all of my drink due to the stress flowing throughout my body so I decided to ditch this game for a few rounds to go to the bathroom. The bad news about going to the bathroom was I had to ask Caroline where the bathroom was. I found her outside with a group of people around the bonfire. I went up to her and quietly asked her where the bathroom was. At first, she didn't hear me but once I cleared my throat and tried a little louder she jumped clearly startled, and turned around to look at me.