Risking the Fall to Gain it All

5; A Shocking Coincident

The only thing I was aware of was the strobe lights flashing and the bass pounding in my ears. There was a layer of sweat all over my body and if it were any other occasion I’d feel disgusting. But I was having too much fun to care. All night I had gone from guy to guy dancing and living in the moment. It was one reason Joel’s parties were so popular. People could talk about these parties for days, each time a new story would pop up. But no one looked at you differently at school. It was like for one night you could shed all insecurities and just party like Ke$ha. No regrets.

The song faded into the next but my dance partner had other ideas.

“Come on,” he whispered in my ear. His hot breath tickled my ear and I giggled obnoxiously.

“Where are we going?” I yelled back in his ear.

He replied but I couldn’t hear him so I let him just pull me towards the back of the house. We were passing a bathroom and I could overhear someone throwing up. Delicious. There was a line of girls waiting outside the door and I could see them all cringe at the noise. Olivia was at the front of the line and shot me an urgent glance. I instantly sobered and pulled my hand from the guy’s grasp.

“Hey?” He whined and reached for my hand.

“Hold on,” I barely glanced at him as I went to Olivia. “What’s up?”

“It’s Jess,” she tilted her head to the door.

I groaned. Why couldn’t this girl ever keep her drinks down? Looking back to where I left the guy I realized that he was gone. Guess he couldn’t wait.

“She won’t let me help her. Maybe you can try.”

I nodded stiffly. The last thing I wanted to do was be in a closed space with someone throwing up. I gave Olivia my cell phone and told her to go get some sprite, hold the vodka.

Jess was lying on the floor when I entered. But she wasn’t passed out. Oh no. Jess stated singing “The Circle of Life” as soon as the door opened.

“NAAAAASSS SAA BEEEEN YAAAAA!”

“Jess!” I yelled over he screams.

“BA BA BEEE SHOOO MO MO!!”

“Jess that’s not even how the song goes!”

“IT’S THE CIIIIIRCLE OF LYYYYFE!”

I sighed and took note that she managed to only get vomit on the toilet seat. She’s improving. Jess started singing softer as I reached down and pulled her to her feet. Before long she was simply whispering words that I couldn’t distinguish.

“Come on, let’s get you home.” I reached for my back pocket before I realized Olivia had my phone. “Where’s your phone?”

She continued mumbling but pulled her phone out of her pocket. I cleaned off the toilet seat and flushed the toilet before I sat Jess on top. Her head instantly started drooping.  I dialed Darnell’s number and waited for him to pick up. As expected it went to voicemail. Nice Darnell.

There was a knock at the door and I opened it to see Joel and Rick trying to peak around me.

“Are you here to help?”

“I am, Joel here just wanted to get some pictures for blackmail.” I let Rick in and scowled at Joel. He instantly put his phone away. When I was satisfied he wasn’t going to whip it out again I stepped aside so he could enter.

It was a tight squeeze so I decided to stand in the open doorway.

In routine fashion Joel and Rick grabbed each one of Jess’ arms and started towards the door. I moved out the way and began leading the way to the front door. As sad as it was, after people saw who it was being dragged out the bathroom they carried on minding their own business. This situation was such a common occurrence it amazes me we don’t ban Jess from drinking. Probably because we know she’ll get her liquor somehow, someway.