Page 26 of This is Me

“I’m good. It’s weird feeling this nervous walking into my own house, though.” I felt her nod as she lightly grabbed the sleeve of my jumper and pulled me into the house, making sure that I stayed by her side.

Wading through the cluster of people that had piled into the front hall, we soon found ourselves in the back yard, and I did my best to look around to see if I could see Andy or Leroy.

“They must have split off from us,” Blaire stated, noticing that I was looking around, and I nodded in agreement.

“Yeah. They must have. Sneaky fucks.”

“You sure you’re good?” Blaire asked again, and I looked down at her, nodding once again.

“I’m fantastic. I think I just need a drink. Or five,” I added in a murmur, and I saw Blaire nod before gesturing that she’d be back in a second.

It may not be a good idea to drink so much since a lot was going on in my mind, and mixing alcohol into my blood may cause some of those thoughts to come spilling out.

No. I needed to push everything out of my mind. I deserved to have fun, and damn it, I was going to.

Standing alone at a party was an odd sensation. Standing alone at my own party was even weirder, especially when there were plenty of drunk people around me, dancing and having fun.

I hadn’t expected a ton of people to hang around me throughout the night, even if it was my birthday party. A few people did wander over while I waited for Blaire and wished me a happy birthday. Some also told me they had left a gift for me in the house. They all kept moving, though. All onto the next thing to drink or do.

Sighing to myself, I leant up against the wall of my house, looking out into the yard at all the other people who had found their way out into the fresh air. Many of them were standing around talking and drinking, but there were a few who were partaking in a few drinking games. I did hate to admit it, but Brad had done a great job of setting the party up.

Looking around at everything that had been set up in the back yard, I realised that I had no idea what any of the games were, but it seemed like a lot of them involved cups. Though much to my concern, one did look to include darts, and I made a mental note to steer clear of that.

After a few more minutes of waiting, I saw Blaire make her way back out of the house and toward me, and I decided to meet her halfway.

“Here you go,” she said, holding out a red cup to me, which I carefully took.

“Do I want to know what it is?” I asked, studying the dark liquid in the cup before shooting Blaire a questioning look.

“All you need to know is that it will have a little kick to it.” She gave a small laugh before taking a sip of her drink and pulling a sour face. “Caitlyn was mixing the drinks, and I’m pretty sure she’s about to pass out. So, don’t be surprised if she’s mixed two spirits and left out the coke.”

“Awesome.” I chuckled. “Thanks for the heads-up.”

Cautiously, I lifted the cup to my lips and took a small sip, almost spitting it back out straight away. The moment it touched my tongue, I knew that Caitlyn had no idea what she was doing as it felt as though it was burning a hole in my flesh.

“Holy shit, that’s bad!” I exclaimed a minute after forcing myself to swallow. A burning sensation lingered in my mouth and throat.

“I can go and make you a proper one if you want?” Blaire offered after suppressing a laugh.

“No, no. I’m good.” I offered her a small smile and took another sip, regretting it almost instantly. “If I keep drinking these, I’ll be out of it in no time at all.”

“I’m not looking after you if you pass out.” Blaire shook her hand and linked her arm with mine before walking further away from the house, pulling me with her.

“I’ve never passed out before, and I’m not going to start now.”

“You got pretty close at Reynold’s party two months ago?” Blaire asked after letting out a laugh, causing me to groan slightly.

The memory of what had happened that night was still seared into my mind. I had arrived late to the party, by which time, everyone else had already drunk enough to kill all of their brain cells. Wanting to join in on the fun, I had decided to take two shots of straight vodka. Putting it lightly—it didn’t go down very well. It took the majority of the night for me to start feeling like I could stand again, and even then, I could barely last two minutes up on my feet. I was surprised that I could remember that night at all.

“That was… not my proudest moment,” I mumbled, taking another sip and cringing at the taste. “Oh, my God. I’m a lightweight.”

“You may be, but you do pull off a drunk disorderly very well!”

“Thank you, Blaire.”

We both let out a laugh before falling silent and observing the party around us. Both Blaire and I never really got too involved in parties. We’d much rather watch other people do stupid things while we slowly get drunker and drunker as the night goes on. The stupid things get funnier with every drink.

Sadly, however, Andy and Leroy did not share this trait with us and were often two of the people we watched do stupid things. They really thrived in those kinds of situations.