Buttercup [H.S]

Chapter Fourteen

"What happened to not wanting to be the one to be sent home in a taxi before 10pm?" I giggle as I hold up a very wobbly Lucy, who's hoop earrings have been shoved into her bag and her wedges dangle by the strings from her hand.

"It's 11 o clock, Dummy," she slurs, leaning her entire weight into my side, causing me to totter across a couple of cobbles.

"Jesus Christ, look what you've done to her!" Mitch chastises his fiancé, who is looking a little worse for wear herself as they wait with us out the front of the house.

"It's Riley's fault, she brought the wine!" Sarah points at me accusingly, hiccuping slightly at the end.

"Yes, one bottle," Mitch points out, shaking his head in exasperation. "What about the gin the two of you polished off?"

"And the rum," Lucy admits, causing her and Sarah to glance sideways at one another before bursting into a fit of outrageous giggles. They try to lean toward one another to embrace, but Lucy loses her footing and nearly face plants the cobbled street.

"Woah!" Harry groans, just managing to catch her around the waist in time, pushing her slightly to prop her back up against me and freeing his hands of her. "Did you say she's got a lift coming?"

"Yeah," I say to him, "Her mum, she should be here any minute."

Sarahs party had been somewhat civilised for a short while after Harry and I's trip down memory lane by the bonfire. Sarah had filled up my glass and then Harry had taken me for a lap around the garden introducing me to his friends.

Then Sarah had suggested a drinking game that I don't think any of us had attempted since our early twenties at best, which left most of us tapping out three shots in.

But Sarah and Lucy were on a mission, and once Mitch had discovered the two of them hiding side by side under the dining table, rapping along to every vulgar lyric of WAP with a bottle of Gin, he'd declared it was home time.

Which is where we found ourselves now, the rest of the guests having already left, with Mitch and Sarah on the one side of Lucy, and Harry and I on the other.

"Oh, there she is!" I point to the headlights of the little silver car that is heading towards us. I wave to get the attention of Janis who flashes her lights to us in return, parking up with the engine running just in front of us.

"Oh for god sake, LuLu, what state have you gotten yourself into!" Her mother scolds, leaning across to push the passenger side door open.

"Sorry mum," Lucy apologises in a meek voice, tiredness having caught up with her as I help her to safely situate herself in the seat, leaning across her body to buckle her in.

"You'd better not be sick all over the car," Janis tuts. "Riley, dear," she turns to me, her disapproving motherly scowl turning into a kind smile. "Do you need a lift home?"

"Oh," I say, feeling my cheeks erupt with heat. "Harry's just round the corner from me so he's going to walk me back. But thank you."

Lucy and Sarah suddenly perk up from their near comatose state, exchanging a knowing grin before simultaneously belting out a childish, "Oooooh!"

"Shut the fuck up," I hiss at Lucy, tempted to pinch her bare arm but I remember the company we're in and the fact that I've just told her to 'shut the fuck up' with her mother only a few feet away from me. "Uh, I'm sorry Janis."

"Don't worry about it, Love, if it wasn't you telling her, it'd be me. Come for dinner one night next week?"

"Yeah, that'd be lovely. Thanks. Bye Luce."