Taking My Penalty

20: Alcohol's Alternate Universe

TALIA

Soooooo, I got tipsy.

First party thrill got to me— I think.

Well, at that point, I didn't actually know how pissed I'd become but I definitely wasn't sober. I had my first drink with a group of boys I met from the football team within the first five minutes I was there.

It was a shot of Smirnoff vodka, which the girls took with me.

They handled it much better than me, downing the whole shot with a straight face. I, on the other hand, grimaced, gagged and coughed in that very order. It was a terrible choice of a first taste of alcohol. It was like straight-up hand sanitiser but I lost count of how many more I had after, regardless.

Felix found it quite funny watching me drink, seeing him hogging the bar with Harvey and Francie, also seemingly drunk.

Protective Felix was not in the room.

Being in Felix and Francie's house for a reason other than a family gathering was like entering an alternate universe. Probably could say it was a big psychedelic dream.

I was downing bottles from the bar I wasn't allowed to go near at family events all my life. The same bar that I watched Felix and Uncle Robbie build a decade ago.

Everything about being there in my skimpiest dress and heels felt so wrong... but it was so right.

I really wasn't me but then again, I was in an alternate universe. Alcohol's alternate universe.

Another thing about this realm was that I became fully drawn away from any burning need to lose myself to Mr Man of the Match, Reece Kennedy.

Honestly, I was still a bit of a moody wreck about the whole Lexie situation that had done a solid job of making me iffy about Reece.

I mean, I know I said I wasn't going to care about what Lexie said but I was also just a girl, who liked an annoyingly gorgeous football player, drinking for the first time.

I'll stand by the fact that I was allowed to be that way.

I was a fifteen-year-old girl with feelings, for crying out loud.

"Has she finished the bottle?" Felix's voice squeezed into the group I was stood in.

"Nearly," Maeve lightly bent down and lifted the bottle in my head. "She'll probably finish it in a minute."

Oh, wow. I didn't even know I was holding the bottle.

"Leave me alone." I grouched as I pulled the bottle back to my lips.

Couldn't taste a thing.

Should I be concerned?

"Go easy, Talia." Felix's voice began to sound like it went through a kaleidoscope for noise.

"Go back to flirting with Maeve." I slammed the empty bottle of tasteless vodka down from my mouth while blinking away the stars swirling in my vision.

Felix turned into a tomato— As red as one, I mean.

"She's offit." One of the boys who had encouraged my first drink chuckled.

"Quiet, Ellie" I raised my finger at him, taking a surprisingly unbalanced step forward.

"It's Eli," The boy corrected as he grabbed my elbows as support. "And I think you've had a bit much."

"Just sit her down, Eli," Felix grumbled while holding onto Maeve's shoulders. "I can't stand myself up."