Rising Power ~ p. parker

Party Foul

Taylor was staring directly into the eye of a hurricane. She finally felt the calm she was hoping would show up eventually. Everything around her was being destroyed, but at that moment, she was focused on not caring.

She was back at her apartment, having left her friend's house when he fell asleep with a cigarette loosely dangling from his lips. She put it out and went back to her place, praying her roommates would still be out doing their own thing.

The record player was back out and playing an old rock classic at full volume. She laid sprawled out on her couch, only moving to shovel handfuls of the sour candy she bought earlier into her mouth.

For the first time in a while, Taylor felt at peace. The only thing on her mind was figuring out how many more Sour Patch Kids it would take to fix her dry mouth. Anything that existed outside of biting the heads off of the blue candy, simply did not matter.

The sudden banging on her front door was nearly drowned out by the music. Taylor grumbled to herself and rolled off the couch to shut the record player down. She mumbled a quiet, "coming," before opening the door.

MJ stood on the other side with a toothless smile. She wore a flowy dress, denim jacket, and boots.

"You're awfully dolled up just to be visiting little ol' me." Taylor opened the door wide to let her friend inside.

MJ stepped in and eyed her questionably. "The party is tonight. Did you forget?"

"Absolutely not. It just slipped my mind entirely."

She rolled her eyes. "Do you still wanna go?"

Taylor wandered back to her bag of candy and popped a few more in her mouth. She picked out her favorite colors already, so it was down to the yellow and orange ones now.

"I don't have anything to wear."

"I have clothes in my car. Come on, we have to go now if we wanna be fashionably late."

MJ grabbed Taylor, who snatched her unopened bag of chips on her way, by the wrist and dragged her out.

*~*~*

The two stood in front of a brick house in the suburbs of New York. Taylor slyly slipped a hand into her jacket pocket and pulled out the almost empty candy bag. She lifted it to her lips and dumped the remaining sugar at the bottom into her mouth. MJ stared at her, a look of disgust prominently displayed on her face.

"That's so gross," she commented, scrunching her nose.

Taylor licked her fingers. "We're about to go to a high school party, and you think that was gross? Cool, good to know where you're at cleanliness-wise."

They walked inside and were met with loud music. The deep base rattled their chests. Piercing voices and cackles resounded from the kitchen where most of the people were gathered. Almost everyone held a cup filled with different drinks. Some sat on the counter and joked with strangers, while others spilled into the living room and swayed to the beat of the song.

Taylor and MJ took slow steps towards the commotion. They averted their gaze away from the couples sloppily making out in the hallway. They looked at the other and cringed.

From behind the two teenage girls, a woman loosely followed, paying particularly close attention to one of them. Her breath caught in her throat when Taylor turned to the side. She was seeing her face in person for the first time in seventeen years. She quickly rubbed her wet eyes and regained her composure to follow through with her superior's orders.