Haley and her entourage and walked over to them.
'There you are. I’ve been looking for you,' she said. 'Are you okay?' I nodded.
'Yeah, I’m fine. What’s up?'
'Well, my friend Ryan was looking for you.'
'Who?'
Haley turned away, and began to scan the crowd. She spotted whoever, and yelled over to him. Within a few moments a tall, good-looking blonde guy was looking at me.
'Hey,' he said with a grin. I gave him a small wave. 'I saw you earlier, and um, wanted to know if you wanted to dance?'
Oh, boy. I looked at Haley to see her grinning at me like a proud mother. She gave me a thumbs up. Yay, she approves.
'Um, sure.' He grinned again, and lead me to a somewhat clear spot of the floor. He began to dance, and I stood there feeling like an inept idiot, and looking much like one, I’m sure, but soon enough I found the beat and joined in. He actually was a cutie, and a nice guy. He told me all about playing on the baseball team for Winston, and how great it felt to win 'the big one' last year, and how much he looked forward to training come spring. I also heard all about how he had just bought himself his dream car, a 1983 Camaro and how he was rebuilding it with his dad, and that I should go for a ride in it sometime. I nodded politely, absolutely no interest in riding in his anything.
'Can I have your number?'
'Sure.' What!? Shit. I had only been half listening to him. Now I was stuck.
'Great!' He reached into his back pocket to take his wallet out, and brought out a receipt to write on. 'Do you have a pen on you?' I looked down at myself.
'Where would I keep it?' He grinned, nodded, holding up a finger to tell me he’d be right back. I stayed where I was, beating myself for not the first time that day. Within a few seconds he was back.
'Okay, what is it?' Instead of attempting to yell over the party, I took the paper and pen from him and wrote it down, grimacing with every number.
'Here you go.' He looked at it, then smiled.
'Thanks. I’ll call you soon.' I nodded with a smile. Yeah, you do that.
He told me he was leaving, offering to take me home. I quickly got out of that trap, and headed back to Haley. She still stood with her friends, all of them, except her, getting more and more loaded. Heather actually looked sick. When I joined the group, Haley turned to me with a grin.
'So, how did it go?' I shrugged, noncommittal.
'Okay.'
'Just okay? He’s really cute, and a really nice guy, and it just went okay?' Shrug. Haley shook her head. 'Look, these three here are getting pretty wasted, and I think they should get home. I can either leave you here and pick you up after I drop them off, or take you with me now and get you home and out of your living hell.' She smiled, and I looked down, feeling sheepish.
'Um, I’ll go now.' I looked up at her, hoping she wasn’t mad. From the understanding look on her face, I knew it was okay. She turned back to the group, and said her goodbyes, disentangling Heather from the guy she was making out with. Wow, she was so gone.
So, Haley, Kelly, Heather and Meghan and I headed outside. I had never been so excited to see Haley’s car in all my life. Now I understood why I had never gone to a party before, and never would again.
Kelly went for the front passenger seat, and Haley said nothing, so I climbed in the back with Heather crammed between me and Meghan. She turned to me, looking into my eyes.
'Hi.' She smiled. I was nearly suffocated by the amount of alcohol on her breath. I smiled.
'Hello.'
'I like you.' Heather grinned, looking like a six-year-old, her long, brown hair in her eyes. She tried to blow it away, but all she succeeded in doing was blowing more obnoxious breath into my face. Coughing quietly, I turned to look out the window at the passing winter wonder land. Haley and Kelly talked quietly in the front, and Meghan had fallen asleep, her face pressed to the window. Heather began to sing, well she tried to, anyway, songs from the night. I felt like I was in a funhouse with no door.
'I’m gonna be sick,' my attention was whipped back to the car at those four slurred words. I looked at Heather as her head bobbed with the bumps in the road.
'We’re almost there, hon,' Kelly told her friend, reaching back between the front seats to rub her knee.
'I’m gonna be sick, Kel,' Heather said again, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth.
'Maybe you should stop, Haley,' Kelly said. With a screech of breaks, I opened my door, and helped Heather to the side of the road. She bent over, arms crossed over her stomach, hair hanging all around her. I grabbed it and brought it all back in one hand at the base of her neck as she began to wretch in the snow. I couldn’t look, the sound and smell was bad enough to make my own stomach churn.
Tears began to flow down her cheeks as she stood again, leaning against me.
'Are you okay?' I asked quietly. She nodded. 'Want to get back into the car?' Again she nodded. I helped her in, buckling her seatbelt before I got myself in. I saw Haley through the rearview mirror, looking at me. As I looked back, she smiled. So did I.
'So, how do you feel?' Haley asked as I got settled in the front seat, thrilled to be with only one person instead of a hundred.
'Oh, I’m okay. Glad to be heading home.' I smiled at her, and she looked at me for a second before turning back to the road as we pulled away from Kelly’s house.
'Yeah, I bet. I’m really sorry to have dragged you there tonight.'
'Nah,' I waved off her apology. 'It was a learning experience.'
'I bet.' She smiled, taking a right turn onto Cleft Road that would lead to my neighborhood. 'Also, thanks for helping out with Heather. I really appreciate that, and if she knew her own name right now, I’m sure she would, too.' I chuckled.
'It’s okay. She just had a little too much fun.'
'Yeah, she always has a little too much fun. I really worry about her sometimes.' She was quite for a moment, the radio a quite distraction in the background. The streets were nearly empty as two a.m. approached. 'So what did you think of Ryan?'
'He’s nice. Cute. Likes his car and baseball.' She smiled, nodding.
'That he does.' She paused. 'So, if this isn’t your thing, what is? What do you do other than study and doodle lopsided houses?' I grinned, embarrassed.
'Well, not a whole lot. I’m a pretty self-entertaining kind of person, you know?'
'Sure, but there’s got to be something you do that I understand.' She glanced at me.
'Hmm, well, I enjoy Playstation.' Laughter filled the car as she looked at me just before pulling into my driveway.
‘Well, I don’t think I would have pegged you for a video game fanatic, but I guess it’s possible.'
'Hey, when you have a younger brother who gets cooler stuff than you do, you’re bound to start taking it over, you know?' She nodded, turning to me.
'Listen, I’m sorry you didn’t have fun. Maybe we’ll have to try something more along the lines of what you enjoy next time.' I smiled, nodding.
'Okay.' I figured there wouldn’t be a next time, so I didn’t worry. I’m sure after tonight Haley thought I was even more of a geek than she did before.
'Sleep well, Andi.'
'Thanks, you too.'
'Oh, I plan to hit the pillow and die.'
'Please don’t. You’ll get me out of the tutoring business.' She grinned, and pushed me on the shoulder.
'Get out of here.' I smiled, and opened the door.
'Drive safe.'
'Will do. Bye, Andi.'
'Bye.'
