The music was loud, the colorful lights were now flashing like crazy, and voices were surrounding me. Everyone was dancing, including me and Marigold and Ansel. Not long after we started dancing, Esther found us and joined us. She and Marigold exchanged some words while still dancing. Ansel turned toward me, and we danced and laughed and talked and I swear I had the best time in a while. That, until Marigold and Esther finally talked me into drinking. Ansel told them to let me do whatever I wanted, but I told him not to worry about it. Marigold handed me some Vodka, and I drank it in a matter of seconds. Apparently, they found it funny. I laughed with them too.
Not long after my first drink of the night, I drank more. My thoughts were completely drowned by then. No Basil, no school, no worries. My only priority was drinking some more and having fun. Now I understood the hype about parties. I felt good.
Ansel made me sit down at some point, telling me I should stay down for a bit unless I wanted to pass out. I got annoyed and tried to get up, but Marigold pushed me back down. She gave me a glass of water and told me to drink it.
"Ah, so you do have water and soda, not only alcohol," I murmured.
"Jesus Christ, of course, we do. What party only has alcohol? Surely mine doesn't," Ansel laughed.
Hearing him say that made me feel somewhat dumb, but I didn't care about it enough to address it, so I just let it slide.
"Can I get up now?" I asked annoyed.
"Hell no. Now I understand why you insisted on not drinking. You're terrible with alcohol," Marigold muttered.
"Right," I replied.
Ansel suggested that he could stay with me until I got a bit sober, but I told him it was all right. I didn't want to feel like I was anyone's problem, so I tried to bring less attention to myself. I settled down on the couch Marigold and Ansel made me stay on, and I calmly watched them as they danced. I would sometimes sip some water out of the glass that was brought by Marigold.
I got bored quickly. I slowly got up, trying to see if my own feet could hold me, and when I realized I was feeling okay, I went to find my friends. Not long after I started searching, I found Esther. She was drinking. I spotted Marigold and Ansel too, but they were making out, so I didn't want to interrupt them.
"Ah, Creek! It seems that you're feeling better!" Esther grinned.
"Yeah, guess so," I shrugged.
Esther looked at me, still holding a glass of alcohol, but then she put it down on the table. I caught her eyes and saw that she had a sad look on her face. I didn't really want to ask her about it, but Esther started talking about it anyway, so now I was kind of obligated to stay and listen to her. Apparently drunk Esther was more emotional than I would've guessed.
"You know, my boyfriend—" she stopped and sighed. "Ex-boyfriend, Basil, randomly disappeared one day," she said slowly.
I was quite surprised to hear her talk about Basil, it was one of the subjects I least expected to hear from her. And I knew about Basil. Sure, I was not going to say anything about it. I was just going to listen to her talk about how much he missed him. I gave a small nod, letting her know that she can continue talking.
"I miss him very much. I love him. Loved. But now I hate him for it. I hate that he was so egoist to leave me. Leave us," she said looking into my eyes.
I avoided her glare. I was beyond confused. Which part of Basil disappearing did she not understand? Why would she jump to the conclusion that he wanted to disappear? I knew the truth, didn't I? Basil was forced to leave us. He was murdered. He didn't choose to die.
"What makes you think he left us intentionally? I knew Basil myself,
and I would never think he would choose to leave," I said.
"Well, you clearly didn't know him enough to know his true intentions. The past months I spent with him before he disappeared were horrible. He was depressed all the time. He barely laughed anymore. I always felt like a burden when I hung out with him," Esther said sadly as she shrugged. "I was the closest to Basil, believe it or not. Not even Ansel was as close to Basil as I was to him."
Now I was getting annoyed. She was speaking with so much confidence. If I didn't know Basil, I would've believed her. But she was wrong. Who she described wasn't Basil. He wouldn't act like that. I was convinced he would not.
Her hand went into her pocket and she grabbed a cigarette and lit it. Esther brought the cigarette close to her mouth, and she started smoking. "I hate him. Sure, he wasn't on good terms with his parents, but that's no reason to kill yourself. How selfish. How ignorant," she sighed.
I knew I was going to regret my words sooner or later. "If you knew him well enough as you insisted, maybe you would've known he was murdered," I shot her a cold look.
"Murdered, you say? And how did you come to that conclusion?" she spoke with arrogance, her words sounding like an accusation.
At this point, I didn't care anymore. Blood was pumping in my veins; the colorful lights became a blur of colors. Even Esther's face became a blur. I couldn't see Marigold nor Ansel anymore. My glasses were sliding off my nose and I angrily pushed them back, blinking to re-adjust my blurred vision.
"How I came to that conclusion? What makes you think it's a conclusion? What if I told you Basil told me?" I interjected.
She frowned. "You're crazy. Is Basil's death a funny subject to you? Cause it seems like it is."
"Funny enough, Basil still chose to show himself to me, a person he never spoke to before, and not to you, his dear girlfriend. Don't you find this funny?" I spat out.
And that was it. That was the breaking point for Esther. She punched me in the face, and one of her rings was caught in my skin. Her goddamn ring left blood drooling from my cheek. She probably wasn't expecting to hit me that hard. Her mouth hung open, but then she quickly closed it again. She looked like she wanted to say something, but I was so done with her little stories and her actions that I didn't care. I just wanted her to leave me alone.
"Fuck you," I provoked.
Then, her so-called worried look shifted into a frown. She raised her hand, probably getting ready to punch me again. However, Marigold came out of nowhere and caught Esther's arm. I swear I don't think I've ever been happier to see Marigold. She came at the right time.
"What the hell is going on here?" Ansel asked, half worried, half angry.
He also came at the same time Marigold did, but I didn't see him until he talked. His words brought attention to us, and people started whispering. I looked at my feet, not wanting to meet Marigold's or Ansel's glare, not even Esther's. I could feel that everybody was staring at me. Or possibly they were glancing at my injured cheek. I wanted to dig a hole, crawl into it and never come out again. The fact that most of the people there were attending the same school I went to didn't make me feel any better.
As if I wasn't screwed enough, something in my brain told me to smile. So, like the idiot I was, I just smiled. That, apparently, got Esther even madder. She tried to get rid of Marigold's hands that were holding her, but she failed.
"You're such a prick!" Esther shouted.
Ansel grabbed my hand and motioned me to follow him. Marigold remained with Esther, trying to calm her down. I soon realized that Ansel was taking me outside.
"Are we going outside?" I ask dumbly.
"You are. I'm not. Listen, Creek, I don't know what happened, but you need to calm down. And the party clearly doesn't help you. So, how about you stay a bit outside? It's not raining anymore, and it's pretty chilly. It will get you a bit sober. Please," he said. "If you want to, I could get you a warmer jacket," Ansel added, looking at the jacket I was wearing.
I shook my head, telling him my jacket was already warm enough. I also wanted to tell him that I was calm and that Esther started it, but I just didn't have the energy to complain anymore. He opened the front door, and I got out. He told me he'll come back in 10 minutes. I agreed with his decision. As he left, I slowly let my body calm down. I sat down on his front porch. Luckily enough, it wasn't wet from the rain. I looked up. The roof also covered the front porch.
I raise my fingers to touch my cheek, and I was surprised to find a hot liquid covering my left cheek. It took me a few seconds to remember that Esther hurt me.
I heard some footsteps behind me, so I just assumed it was probably Ansel or Marigold. It could be even Esther, maybe Marigold made her come and apologize to me. I smirked at the thought of that. It was going to be very satisfying hearing her apologize for hurting me like that.
"Hey," the voice said.
My heartbeat stopped for a second. It wasn't Marigold, nor Ansel. Not even Esther. The voice was Basil's. I turn my head to find Basil beside me, slowly sitting down on my right.
"You missed all the fun," I muttered, shifting my glaze from him to the house in front of Ansel's, and putting my knees against my chest.
"I don't understand how you call getting hurt fun, but alright," he said, raising a brow.
My lips shifted into a small smile. "Who knows."
"On the bright side, all that blood looks good on you, really brings out your eyes," he laughed.
"Out of all the things you could have said, you picked that out?" I asked slightly amused by his dumb attempt to make me smile.
"Guess so," he said, one of his hands touching my injured cheek.
He forced my head to turn with his hand, and now I was basically staring into his eyes. With blood smeared onto his fingers, he pulled me closer to him. For a brief moment, we just stood like that, gazing into each other's eyes, his hand still holding my bloody check.
"Creek? Who are you talking to?" Marigold's voice called behind me.
Shifting my head, I could see that Marigold just opened the front door and that she was walking in my direction. I quickly looked back where Basil was supposed to be, but he was gone. My mouth hung open in surprise. I didn't expect him to disappear on me like that again. However, I found myself smiling like an idiot.
"Creek?" Marigold asked again.
"No one, I was just talking to myself. I'm sorry for causing you and Ansel problems," I say sincerely.
"Oh, don't worry about causing us problems. Something like this always happens at parties. Don't worry about it," she said with a small smile. "Are you feeling better?"
"Yeah, I guess so. Ansel's idea sure worked. I'm much sober now,"
"That's great! Do you want to go back inside? I could get you another glass of water," she continued, throwing a glance behind her shoulder.
"Actually, how about we call it a day. I'm pretty tired. I'll probably head home. It's not raining anymore, so I can easily walk on my own," I smile.
"No way in hell I'm letting a drunk person walk home on their own. I'm coming with you," she quickly replied as she started grabbing her coat.
"I'm not– no. Don't. Go hang out with Ansel. That was the reason why you came here anyway. I don't need you coming with me," I say softly.
"You can't decline, I already made up my mind. Plus, I came here to hang out with you. Ansel too, of course, but mainly you."
"I don't want to ruin the fun, Marigold," I say uncertain, looking at her.
"Pfft, you're worried about that? Don't be. I can come back later if I want to. But for now, I'll accompany you on your walk. And for the record, call me Mari from now on," she says smiling, looking back at me. "Sadly, I can't drive you home because I drank, but the least I can do is come with you," she continued.
"If you insist, Mari," I said, testing out the nickname she asked me to use.
"I do," she grinned.