Life without You...

Part 9 - New Year's Eve

Mia had gone in the direction of the living room. The room was spacious and comfy. It would be trashed by tomorrow. In the corner there was a couple gripping onto each other. A closer glance showed me her skirt was bunched up around her waist and his belt was opened. Shuddering I ignored that. A reason why I hated parties of this scale, I preferred the slightly smaller parties which had been hosted before as people didn't get as shit faced nor did they fuck each other in the corner of a room.

I spent my night fending off the advances of guys, none of whom recognised me from school though I recognised the majority of them.

Travis kept advancing on me and he pinned me to a wall. "One kiss?"

"How about none?"

"Just one, I don't kiss and tell."

"Neither do I but still no. Now please fuck off!"

"Oh feisty, exactly how I like my girls."

"Touch me and I swear you'll regret it. Black eyes don't look good man."

I bit my lip as my stomach twisted. I turned my face away from him, pretending to flush under his intense closeness, and carefully positioned my foot against the wall, ready to knee him in the balls if the need should arise. Ethan had recognised me and I could see him making his way over. He probably thought he needed to rescue me. Forcing myself to face Travis I used my hands to push him away from me but he misread that and his lips collided with mine. I brought my knee up and kneed him in the balls. Instantly he crumpled to the floor. I kicked him once in the stomach watching as the wind left him in a rush. His face reddened so I turned away from him, calmly making my way to the living room door.

Ethan took me under his arm and murmured, "Nice job."

Ethan and I had always been good mates. He took me outside to show me the pool. We grabbed another beer each in the kitchen and sat outside by the pool. I'd have jumped in but I couldn't ruin Mia's clothes. The music could still be heard blaring outside and I smiled. At least we could kind of catch up out here.

"So Let, what do you do these days?"

"I work in the garage full time, Monday to Saturday. Seven thirty in the morning to six thirty at night," I told him as we sat down on a wooden summer seat.

"Brutal. That's worse than school."

"Nah, I actually like working. School was draining the life out of me man," I sighed as I thought. "What do you do?"

"Still at school Let, working hard to get into NYU next September. I want to study business." He literally had eighteen months left at school. That was scary.

"Cool, you going to start your own?"

"Nah I figure a cooperate chain is the quickest and easiest way to make money."

"True man. True as long as you're happy and the bills get paid what more do you need."

We reminisced over old times as we sat and drank our beers together. We talked about the fights we'd gotten into. The great hits we'd doled out and the nasty bruises we'd worn proudly as battle scars. Laughing, we compared how often we'd ended up in detention together and separately. Eventually the principal worked out we fought together and tried to split us up but we were fighters and so we fought side by side anyways. We took many scoldings together and argued many a case together to justify our actions.

That fucker Travis returned and his eyes narrowed when he saw me. He bounded toward me and I didn't have time to react in my silly shoes. Travis was practically on top of me before I could get away. His hands grasped onto my waist and his fingernails dug into the bare skin of my back. With a grunt I pushed him away with my free hands. Some people never learn. I drove my heel into his foot and curled my hand into a fist. Ethan was on his feet and he yanked Travis' arms back and curled them behind his back. Travis winced and screwed his face up in agony. My fist was itching to punch him and it seemed like a good idea for all the torment he had put me through tonight. I punched him square across his jawline, I hoped it would leave a nasty purple bruise. I'd forgotten about my ring so he'd have the imprint of the ring on his face for a while making it obvious that a girl had caused this damage to him. My good teammate dropped Travis and gave him one sharp kick to his back. With no guilt we left him sprawled on the concrete which surrounded the pool.

"Some people are arrogant assholes," I ranted furiously to Ethan.

He nodded in agreement. "Some people don't know when to quit."

We made our way back into the house. He offered me another beer but I waved it away. Drinking tonight had lost its appeal especially now since Travis had gotten overly friendly and after being kicked once he came back for seconds.

The countdown to New Years began about ten minutes later. Ethan and I stood in the thick, he was now drunk but fun drunk. I was just tiddly so I was just happy and jolly about everything. He stood with his hands on my waist but in a cozy friendly way. On one everyone started kissing and saying happy new year. I said happy new year to Ethan. Shyly he pecked me on the cheek and I have him a quick kiss on the cheek. Weirdly he seemed to respect that I didn't want guys kissing round me, usually Ethan didn't really care but a respect seemed to have developed for me.

Around half an hour later we caught up to Mia. The waves she had teased into her hair had begun to fall out and her makeup was slightly smudged. Her appearance made me laugh as she had spent so long getting ready yet you'd hardly know it now.

"Oh Letty," she slurred. Damn was she full.

"Hey girl, you get enough to drink?" I joked.

"I th-i-i-ink s--s-so," she slurred as she giggled.

She needed sobered up a bit. Even on our so called relaxing night out I was still looking after her. I'd promised Dom I'd look after her ten months ago and I didn't break my promises. Carefully I slipped my arm around Mia's waist and helped her to the kitchen. A few red paper cups stood untouched on the counter, I took one from the middle of the stack and filled it with water.

"Here drink this," I told her.

She took the cup and looked at it doubtfully but she knocked it back. I filled the cup again even though I knew she wouldn't drink it.

Mia shook her hair out and I rubbed some of her smudged eyeliner from beneath her eyes tidying up her look. She was drunk in that annoying way where she wouldn't have known how drunk she was herself but it was obvious to others. Now I was worried someone would try to take advantage of her. After that I stuck with Mia until our taxi arrived at one thirty.

The next day I rose late at ten but Mia was still sound asleep. I took myself off to the garage and worked a half day. With a slight headache I worked through the day, glad of something to do.