And Your Girl Can Sing

Chapter 7: I Didn't Want To Spoil The Party

"Not here, love," a voice that belonged to the lap said in a more familiar tone. I squinted my eye and looked up to see Danny's face, smoking something that was definitely not a fag, his shoulder length greasy hair hanging like a weeping willow as I looked up at him. He was smirking at me from above, wisps of smoke hanging stale in the air.

I opened my eyes wholly and saw that I was lying with my head in his lap. We were on a futon in the basement. I could feel its springy coils around me, pushing against my stockinged feet.

"Is this Marty's basement?" I asked. My tongue felt funny. Danny nodded, puffing on his blunt. People were playing beer pong in a corner. The floor was spinning, and then it wasn't there, and then it was spinning again. "John," I said again. "Where is he?" Danny spoke patiently, with an edge of sarcasm to it. "Dunno."

"How long was I asleep for?" I asked slowly, rolling the words around in my mouth like a hard sweet.

"Not long enough," Danny responded. "I liked having you silent." There was a silence, in which Danny took a drag of his blunt and I sat up fully next to him, yawning. Danny snickered. There was the laugh that I had heard before. "What's so funny?" I asked indignantly. "You fell asleep while on skunk," Danny laughed. "Ryan told me what happened. Too much for you?" The lighting in the basement was dim. Trails of smoke rose from another corner, and from my spot on the futon, I could only see a sliver of his face as he spoke. "He said to give him a bell when you woke up. I didn't think it would be this quick." He laughed, taking out a phone to text Ryan, and put it back in his pocket. "He wanted to talk to you. Hey, hey, Cora, you ever been high before?"

"Do I look like I've been high before?" I asked crossly. Danny folded his arms behind his head, looking relaxed. "Nah... now that you mention it. Anyway what would you know about why some people choose to smoke."

"I can't possibly be blamed for that," I told him sharply. His hard glance softened. "I'm sorry."

Silence.

I looked down at my feet and noticed that my shoes were gone. I was just wearing my black sheer stockings. "Why am I on your lap?"

"You came downstairs, took a kip on my shoulder, and your head started falling. I wasn't about to remove it. Said some pretty interesting things too."

"Danny—" I heard someone thump down the basement stairs. "Danny, she's awake?"

"Bingo, mate," Danny said. "She's all yours. Though I wouldn't mind having her all to myself."

"You're disgusting," I shot back, getting up and realizing he was probably high. Probably wouldn't remember it in the morning either. "Bye, Danny." I left him sitting on the futon, staring into space, legs spread apart in a relaxed manner, the buttons of his shirt still intact from when I'd seen him in the car. He mashed out his joint on the cement floor and ground it with the toe of his boot.

***

"Found an empty room yet?"

I shook my head. Crazy party, full rooms, and we couldn't exactly talk about time travel in front of the whole party. I was looking for John, but he was nowhere to be found. My searching eyes found a door that seemed to lead into an empty room and we entered into a bedroom.

I grabbed a floral bolster and held it tight against me. We ended up sitting on the bed—there was nowhere else to sit. My stockinged feet felt cool against the previously untouched bedspread. It was a great moment, except instead of John sitting across from me and plucking at my guitar, smiling up at me self consciously, there was Ryan, smoking another cigarette. Six foot two Ryan, with his red buzzed hair and lip piercing. The top two buttons of his shirt was unbuttoned, leaving a purple mark on his neck, no doubt Jane's work. I suppressed a smile.