Life Of A Bitch

33

The place is crowded beyond measure and it's suffocating me a bit. I find Brenna beside me.

"This place reeks of alcohol," she complains, closing her nostrils tightly with her fingers.

"Really?" I sniff a little. "That's normal. It's because it's your first 'crazy' party."

"Maybe." Brenna mumbles.

I suddenly feel very awkward. It has never happened to me before but now, I feel very lonely and self-conscious.

Maybe it's because for the first time, you don't have any friends with you. Not Stephanie, not Lana, not Anita. No one.

"Hey Brenna!" I hear a familiar voice and turn left to see Brandon approaching us. Or Brenna.

Brandon said I could be with him.

Did he really mean it?

"Hey, less-disgusting person," he greets me, with a hint of a smile on his face.

He meant it.

"Hey." I say and stop.

I'm totally at a loss of words.

"Did she invite Aaron?" Brenna asks him.

Brandon sighs. "She didn't. I did. He's here, come with me."

I proceed to follow them but I stop and start walking towards the kitchen. They don't want an intruder in their circle, do they? Plus, there could be other Body members, with whom I'm not really on good terms.

I enter the open kitchen, which too is crowded and approach the island, where the punch bottles were.

"They're spiked, aren't they?" I ask a blonde-haired girl in front of me, who was refilling her cup.

"Of cour- oh, hey."

It's Stephanie.

I try to act as nonchalant as I would be with any other person and not as I would be with someone who broke up with me.

I repeat my question with a smile. "Aren't they spiked?"

Stephanie studies my eyes for a second and then smiles. "Obviously, it's a party. A little alcohol doesn't do any harm, does it?"

"Not really," I say as she moves out of my way, to let me get a cup. But as I finish filling my cup, she's already gone.

I look around myself. There are some cool-gang members, laughing at others and there is a couple, whisper-fighting fiercely. I join the cool gang.

"Hey, s'up?" I say, with my well-known dazzling smile.

They welcome me warmly and soon I'm fake-laughing with the girls, at people's makeup and clothing. My jaw hurts, but at least it's better than standing awkwardly at a corner all by myself.

Just as I'm about to make a joke on a girl who's on the cheer team, there's a deafening mic static, from somewhere in the living room. An announcement is made on the mic to come quickly to the coffee table, to watch Callaghan cut the cake.

She got a mic?

Man.

I follow the others to the living room where I see Brandon opening the cake carton and Lana lighting the candles. I spot Aiden and Noah walking towards my direction, so I quickly change tracks and stand far away from the table.

"Hey there," Brenna laughs into my ear. I look at her, to see her smiling widely, with bleary, half-closed eyes.

It's obvious that she's drunk - already? - by the smell wafting out of her mouth. Still I ask her.

"If course notsss," she says, slurring. "I just drank some punch."

"How much did you drink?"

"Eight to ten cups," a bespectacled guy, whom I didn't notice before standing beside her, says. "She's drunk and has stinking breath."

I look at Brenna, her cheeks reddening under the freckles. I look at the guy beside her and try to remember where I saw that face before, except for school.

"Oh you won't remember me," he says, straightening up. "I'm Aaron, the computer geek who is in your find-the-hacker group."

"Oh yes, hi." I greet him and turn to look at Callaghan, who's laughing along with Brandon and Lana, while Stephanie clicks photos of them. Their laughter is real, unlike the one I just had with the cool gang.

I wish I was a part of that group.

"Okay, cake time!" Stephanie shouts. And everybody sings the birthday song as Callaghan cuts the cake. I smile a little: except for the slight smell of booze and the lack of streamers and balloons, everything reminds me of my childhood birthdays.

"Now," Callaghan says, taking out a piece of the cake she just cut. "This cake cake is for the man of my life!"

Brandon turns to her and smiles, opening his mouth just a little. But Callaghan turns away from him, walks in a slightly swaying manner that proves she's tipsy and pushes the whole piece into Aiden's mouth.

And if that's not all, they kiss, with cake between their lips.

The chaotic room goes into a stunned silence.

And suddenly, all eyes are on me.