Zara Costanza
Zendaya and I were the last two people shooting. The majority of the cast had already left. We were just getting dressed to go to Tom's house for some surprise that they had planned for my birthday.
"So, what exactly is this 'surprise'?" I asked, hoping to get some kind of answer.
"I guess you'll just have to wait and see," said Zendaya with a smirk on her face.
Together, we got into a car and were driven to Tom's house.
When we got there, there were cars parked everywhere.
"It's a bloody party!" I exclaimed, happily. I smiled and thanked our driver.
She nodded, "Well, you'll have to wait to get inside to have the full experience. You didn't think that we'd do nothing on your 20th, did you?"
I could feel the excitement in my body beginning to arise, "I didn't expect you to throw me a huge party, that's for sure."
"It's your 20th Zara. I hope you know that we all love you," she began to chuckle.
"Aww, I actually have no idea what I did to serve you all. I love you guys!" I said eagerly as we left the car.
From the outside, it was dead silent. If there weren't so many cars, I would've guessed that it was just Tom in his house.
My heart was pounding as Zendaya and I stood at the doorstep. I usually get scared easily so I was a little worried.
The door swung open and a group of people yelled, "SURPRISE!"
I screamed in fear (even though I expected it), and then began to relax. The lights were then turned on and I could see most of the crew, stylists, makeup artists, and some of the cast who all popped out.
I began to laugh and began to get hugged by multiple people.
Everyone laughed at my reaction and I was showered with hugs for the next 10 minutes. Loud music began to play as I got settled into the house. I hadn't noticed earlier, but there were drinks and two setups of beer pong.
People were scattered: some were in the pool meanwhile others were lounging by the drinks. In fact, I had actually lost Zendaya who was with me earlier.
Someone had tossed their arm around me, I turned to see who it was, Harrison. "Happy birthday, Zar, hope you enjoy the party!"
"Thanks, Harrison, thank you for setting this all up!" I hugged Harrison and pecked his cheek in a friendly way.
Tom also joined in, "Hope you like the party, love."
I smiled, "Thank you!" I stretched my arms out and embraced Tom with a hug.
"Do you want a drink?" Harrison asked.
I wasn't much of a drinker because, by consuming one beer, I would be tipsy. But then again, I was now 20, so I decided to cut myself some slack.
"Yes, please! I'll have a beer," I answered, yelling over the loud music.
"I'll have one too," Tom added. "Woah! Wait! Are you breaking the law, Zara?" He asked in a very dramatic tone.
"What! No! I'm not the DD today... why?" I asked, utterly perplexed at what Tom was trying to get at.
"21's the legal drinking age in America," he said matter-of-factly.
"No-no! You're kidding, right? In Canada, it's 19! Shit I can't do... not here at least," I said, a little bit bummed. My main fear was being caught by the paparazzi. It really only takes one video to ruin someone's career nowadays.
Tom laughed, "Dude. I'm kidding, lighten up. It's fine, relax, it's not like we're at a pub. You're at my house. Relax, Costanza."
"Still," I said, crossing my arms.
"Good golly, Costanza! Why are you so innocent? It's just a cheeky sip of beer! I'm 20 and I'm doing it!"
I gave Tom a funny look. "Okay, but you're Tom. I'm Zara. I don't break rules like you," I said in a mocking-ish tone to him.
"For heaven's sake! It's your 20th! Bend a rule or two! Does a sip of beer hurt that much?"
I groaned and clenched my teeth together. "I'll probably regret this tomorrow."
Tomorrow, I'd wake up with a throbbing headache and feeling guilty, but I decided that I'd deal with that tomorrow. "After a beer, I'll be tipsy. If I end up having more, please do make sure I don't do anything stupid."
"Okay, if you say so. I'll throw you into the pool if you're being crazy and maybe you'll snap out of it a bit."
"We'll see. But if I drown, that's on you, Holland!" I playfully punched his shoulder as we both laughed.
Harrison came back with the drinks. He handed me mine and Tom's his. I thanked Harrison and began to sip on my cold drink. Chills ran down through my spine as I tasted the bitter alcohol. I haven't had alcohol in months. In December, my mom gave me champagne during New Years'. I forgot how bitter it tasted.
"I'm going to go find some more people!" I announced, leaving the two boys. I moved my way past several bodies saying hello or hi to people that had called my name. I found Jacob, Laura, Tony, and Zendaya together, all four of them dancing.
I took a sip of my beer. "May I join?"
The four of them expanded their circle for me to join. We all danced and drank for another hour. Of all of us, Laura probably drank the most; she had an exquisite taste in alcohol.
"I-I feel so good right now," Laura said in a drowsy tone. It was quite funny because I had never seen her have this many drinks.
"Tell that to me tomorrow morning," said Jacob. Tony and Jacob probably had one or two drinks within the past hour. Zendaya didn't drink at all.
"I-I think I need to s-sit down. I think I've lost track," I said, the alcohol partially taking over.
"Aww, you're so cute! You're such a baby, you've only gone through two beers. I think I've had probably 4-5 shots and a few beers. But you know what, I'm going to come with you before I, fall on my face," said Laura. The two of us stumbled to an empty couch and sat down.
I laid my head on the couch and bobbed my head to the music. I recognized the song that was playing, even in my drunk state.
A song that Harrison, Tom, and Jacob always danced to came on. It was hilarious because it was this one song that they'd all film themselves dancing to and post it on one of their social media accounts. I spotted the three of them together laughing very hard and were jamming out like crazy to the song. Laura and I both watched and laughed at the three boys.
After the song ended, I went to get another drink. I then rejoined Laura. She stared at the substance which I held. "Is that another beer?"
I downed the rest of the drink quickly. "Y-Yes ma'am," I answered. My vision began to blur a little and I felt a little disoriented. It was like I was a whole new person.
Laura gave me a funny look, then began to clap. "Wow, someone's growing up!"
I put one hand up and pointed my finger, "I have to talk to Harrison. He seems very nice. I think I like him the most out of the three of them," I said referring to Jacob, Tom, and Harrison.
"Okay. Don't do anything stupid, you idiot," said Laura as she laid back into the couch. By the sound of her voice, I was convinced that she as well had lots to drink.
In my sober mind, I wouldn't have said that and in Laura's sober mind, she would have stopped me.
Harrison, Tom, and Jacob were still together. I walked up to them and grabbed Harrison's hand. "I want to talk to you," I said, as freely as possible. I was completely drunk.
"A-alright," he answered and allowed me to escort him to one of the bar stools. "What did you want to talk to me about, Zar?"
At this exact moment, there was something about Harrison, that I had never seen before. There was something about him, that in a drunk state of mind, I felt so attracted to him. It was strange because I never felt this while sober, but drunk was another story.
I smiled at him, "I know in the movie-the Spider-Man movie. That by the way, I am in... my character really-really has a crush on Peter but she never tells him. I think that she should. Because she is so, so badass and I-I think that maybe she's very, very hurt at him for not saving her in the elevator. He saved Liz first," I said. The alcohol had already consumed my brain at this point. I barely understood what I was saying.
"This is a really cool story, Zar, but I'm going to have to ask, what's your point?" He asked. Even though I wasn't able to think straight, Harrison seemed like he had too much to drink too. I had seen him over the course of the night with several different drinks, so he was probably just as hammered as me.
"I like your hair. It looks very soft and your eyes. You are very, very pretty and I think I've liked you since the day I met you. I mean, I always thought you were good looking and all-but shh don't tell anyone I said that!" Before I knew it, my arms were wrapped around Harrison's neck and his hands were around my waist. Our faces were inches apart and the space between us only continued to get smaller.
Harrison began, "I-I think that you're very pretty. I always thought from the day that I met you that you were gorgeous. I thought you smelt wonderful-"
I began to laugh as I held onto Harrison. "You should've told me! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I don't know. But I do know that I really want to kiss you right now."
"Do you?" I asked, our foreheads touching. Our lips nearly crashed against one another, but a set of hands pulled me back.
Tom interrupted and slid in between the small space in between Harrison and I. He put his hands on my waist and guided me away from Harrison. He looked me in the eyes, though everything was blurry, and yelled over the music, "I think you two have had too much to drink. It's getting weird and I don't want you to do anything that you shouldn't because-"
Even though I was drunk, I was able to notice how close Tom was to me. I stared into his brown eyes and said, "Hey! Holland! Stop!" I yelled, trying to escape Tom's grip. This was definitely not a battle that I could win.
Once I stopped fighting, he loosened his grip. As my focus changed to Tom, I began to say, "Oi! What do you think you're doing, Holland? Back off! I was having fun!"
"Hey! Mate!" I could hear Harrison call from behind Tom. Tom turned around but began to tighten his grip around my waist. "Yeah, could you let me get back-"
"No," said Tom firmly. "No, do you hear me, Costanza? You too, Harrison. Both of you are drunk. You won't remember anything when you wake up and realize that you made a mistake. Then what's going to happen? I'm not letting the two of you, hook up while being drunk and then be all awkward with each other for the rest of our lives," said Tom.
After a few moments, Harrison and I somewhat understood what was going on. Harrison patted Tom's shoulder and whispered something that I couldn't hear because of the loud music. He then began to laugh as he slowly made his way through the crowd, and walked upstairs.
"We're going to sit down-"
Tom picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder.
"I-I'm not drunk, I promise! Please don't throw me into the pool!" I pleaded, thinking that he was actually going to toss me into the pool again.
"Yeah, right. If you can walk in a straight line, without stumbling, I'll believe you," he let go of me and took a few steps back. I slowly began to walk towards him but on a diagonal. I then stumbled and nearly fell, but he caught me in time. "You're drunk, Costanza. I won't throw you into the pool because I'm afraid you'll pull a fast one on me and drown, and I'm not about to get into cold water to save you, dumbass. So instead, you're going to sit on the couch with me," he put his arm around me to help me walk.
I was a little astounded by his bluntness. He was probably frustrated at Harrison and I, and I couldn't blame him.
"Are you drunk, Tom?" I blurted out. "Wait, why did you take me away from Harrison-"
"You're the one that told me to prevent you from doing anything stupid, so here I am."
I tried to read his expression, but couldn't get anything. Maybe he was right, but during the moment, anything anyone said to me went through one ear and out the other. "Okay, but you're messing up my moment," he dropped me onto the couch and sat beside me.
"Your 'moment' would have been something that you would've regretted. Also, you told me to keep an eye on you. Thank me later."
I completely ignored what he just said, and tried to stand up on my own. "I'm going to get another-"
"Come on, Zara. You've drank enough. I don't want you to get alcohol poisoning, okay? I know you want to crash, so just lie down and shut your eyes for a little."
The couch was quite large, so I laid down and Tom laid down beside me. I rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes. Before I knew it, I could no longer hear loud music or voices.