Feeling Weightless

Laura is alone.

I was sitting in the passenger seat of Kieran's grey Corolla, playing with the automatic window button, when a thought occurred to me. "How did you find out where I lived, anyways?"

"I have my means." He didn't go on to further explain as his fingers began to thrum against the wheel to the rhythm of a Linkin Park song playing in the background.

I didn't ask further. I was already tired from the amount of time already spent in the car.

With a worried expression across his face, Kieran took a glance at me. "You seem a bit uptight. If you don't want to go to the party, I can take you home, ya know."

He was sincere, for that I was grateful. However, I knew that if I made him turn the car around, that odd tingling of guilt would once again gradually seep into my skin, suffocating me. I couldn't be having that.

"No, I'll go. I just don't do particularly well in social settings."

In my peripheral vision, he nodded like he understood. I doubted how much he did though.

...

It's a house. A very large house. This became my final conclusion once the car rolled to a stop in front of the enormous structure. For a moment, I sat staring at the thing, trying to decide if what I was seeing was actually real. The sheer size of it was enough to intimidate anyone.

When I finally had an eyeful and slight headache after staring for too long, I climbed out of the car and joined Kieran as he strode up towards the house's main entrance.

"Whose party is this, anyways?" I asked, slightly curious.

I tried to sound casual, as if I'd crashed a million parties without a thought or care. Truthfully, this may be the only real party I had been to that did not involve a never-ending game of Apples to Apples with my ten year old neighbor or a hyped-up Scream marathon with my cousins.

"Kenny Lagsworth," Kieran answered nonchalantly.

I immediately cocked an eyebrow in disbelief. "The AcaDork?"

Kieran shrugged his shoulders, not at all seeming to find it odd like I did. "He holds some good parties."

My eyebrow still did not ease back to its normal position by the time we reached the entrance to the house. Music, despite the barrier created by the closed front door, already began to reach my ears in a constant form of a thrum that was altogether annoying and beat-less.

We didn't bother with the doorbell or a knock. Instead, Kieran twisted the knob in his hand and escorted the both of us in; as if it was our house not some kid I had vaguely heard of from the announcements every other morning.

The party had already begun. Just through the doorway, panic instantly began to seep through the crevices of my mind, making the sight of the party all the more uncomfortable for me.

The living room was jam packed. I was even bumped into by a few dancers. If it weren't for Kieran's convenient and steady hand, I probably would have fallen on my ass. My ears immediately burned red, the telltale sign that I was blushing in embarrassment.

The air that slowly wafted throughout the house was almost unbearable. It was still and smelled awfully close to a mixture of weed and sweat. It was an awful stench that engorged my nasal senses and left me in a small fit of coughing after my first breath.

Kieran glanced above the moving heads with a worry expression on his face. When it seemed he had spotted what he was looking for he leaned down into my ear and shouted, "I'll be back. I need to go check on a friend, okay?"