My outfit was as follows, cropped red tank top and Grey champion sweatpants- I had chosen comfort over looks which was a new concept for me. I tied my hair up in a messy bun, my makeup was still eyeliner, mascara and eyebrows but to spice things up a little I added some red eyeshadow that went with the colour of the top. I spun around in the bathroom mirror to have a look at myself and decided I would also add in some dangly heart earrings that framed my face nicely.
"Hello, anybody home?" Jessi's voice rang throughout the house. I walked out of the bathroom and waved at her.
"Do you know where Shannon is?" I asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly.
"Is mom not home?" She closed the front door behind her and shrugged off her coat, going up on her tip toes to reach the coat hanger.
"N-No I thought you two had gone out or something?"
"I've just come back from my after school detention."
"Oh ok well I feel bad leaving you at home alone so if you want to come to this party that I'm going to with me you're very welcome to." I tried to change the subject and invited her to come with me, I honestly didn't want to leave her alone- especially if Shannon didn't come home tonight, which made me worried for her but I'm sure there was a perfectly logical reason as to why. Plus Jessi was always fun company.
"Uhh yeah that's totally cool, I'm totally cool with that- yeah, totally cooooool."
"Judd Birch is going to be there." I winked at her and she blushed, fidgeting with her hair. I still couldn't believe he had invited me, I wasn't going to make Jessi jealous though. I chuckled at my thought and snapped back into reality.
"What time does the party start?"
"9, but we're going to come just a little bit late because all the cool people turn up later."
"Y-yeah!"
"Anyways what do you think of my outfit?" I spun around to show her the fit.
She didn't say much, I just watch her stand there. The wind blew against the windows and made them rattle a bit, which made me a bit anxious but I ignored the feeling for the time being. I gazed off in the distance for a moment to see what type of weather there was outside, the sun was starting to set and I could see a couple walk on the pavement starting to get their umbrella out.
"You look hot." Was all Jessi replied, I laughed and leant down to hug her. She squeezed me and I could tell something was up that she hadn't told me about but I thought it best not to ask for the time being. Instead I walked to the kitchen and opened up the fridge, there wasn't much, but there was enough to whip up a quick meal before we had to leave. I began to get out kitchen utensils to cook with and spotted an envelope on the counter addressed to me. My first move was to get Jessi distracted so that she wouldn't see it. I grabbed the envelope and shoved it in the one of the pockets of my sweatpants.
"Jess go have a shower, wash school out of you girl and I'll make us some spaghetti with tomato sauce." She nodded excitedly and dashed up the stairs. I let out a deep sigh of relief and got out the envelope, opening it cleanly with a kitchen knife. Inside was a letter and $500, my breath hitched in my throat, I didn't even guess what was the contents of that letter- this had happened to me before many times with my dad, but usually there was less money, Shannon had been generous.
I'm sorry for everything being last minute, I have to go away for a few days for work reasons. I put some money in the same envelope as this note.
Love,
Shannon
I had to say, she had played it very smartly, my dad would just write- away for a bit. I shrugged off the thought of my dad and decided that me and Jessi would get whichever takeout she wanted and we'd watch some Tv to pass the time.
After she had finished getting ready and had come downstairs we agreed on Pizza and ordered a large to share between us, as we knew we'd probably not finish one each. I checked the time quickly, 8:30- perfect, there was no rush. I told Jessi to pick a Tv show to watch on Netflix and rushed downstairs quickly to charge my phone before we left.
Just as I had plugged my phone in, on my bedside table, the doorbell rang and I rushed up the stairs to get to the front door as quickly as possible. I opened it to reveal a man with hair all over the place and a wonky cap with the name of the pizzeria messily scribbled onto it, "Coach Steve?" Jessi's voice erupted behind me.
"Uh yea, that's me, but I got fired from the school so I'm just coach now."
"Damn, that's tough."
"Yeah don't worry kiddo I'm a pizza man now!" I smile sympathetically at him and handed him the money I owed him, "Wow you gave me money? I have money now? Oh man I'm going to go buy a burger!" I widened my eyes at his comment but just shrugged it off and closed the door behind me with my foot. The pizza smelled so good I could tell me and Jess were as hungry as each other so we rushed to the sofa and began to stuff out faces with pizza whilst watching an episode of Sherlock, we laughed at their English accents and copied them whilst our mouths were stuffed with food. It was a memorable moment which we'd probably reminisce on in the future.
"Shit it's 10!" I exclaimed and we immediately began running around, trying to get our shoes on and coats on as quickly as physically possible.
"How are we going to get there?" Jessi asked, I assured her that it wasn't too far of a walk- trying desperately to remember the route myself. I grabbed the house keys and we dashed out of the front door.
By the time we'd arrived, the party was already well in motion, I heard faint music coming from inside and I fiddled anxiously with a wisp of hair that had fallen out of my bun, quickly sweeping my outgrown fringe/ curtains, out of my eyes as well. "Jessi!" Blondies younger brother that I'd seen on my first night opened the door, clearly already drunk. He saw me standing behind Jess and made a drunk attempt at a wolf whistle but I rolled my eyes and walked in.
"Alright Jessi my girl, have fun I'll come find you in a bit, I've got to say hello to a couple of people. Don't get too drunk- just kidding knock yourself out, but make sure that I'm not calling the ambulance to get your stomach pumped ok?"
"Sweetttttt, your cousins cool Jessi." Nick slurred, Jessi nodded and I smiled at her affectionately. I then proceeded to walk up the staircase, I heard the faint shout of someone saying "party wolf" and laughed.
I knocked at Judds' door and heard the faint laugh of someone in the walls, I felt goosebumps crawl up my arm. "Judd?" I said to the door, not wanting to barge in.
"Yeah hold on I'm in the walls." I heard a shuffle and after a matter of minutes, that I literally spent just with my eyebrows furrowed in confusion and slight fear, Judd's door opened. His hair was still in the classic curtains but it was a little ruffled and had bits of what looked like wall plaster in them.
He let me in and I plodded myself down on his bed, feeling it dip a little under my weight. "Here drink some of this, it tastes like a rotting corpse had sex with a raccoon." He extended his bottle of Jack Daniels that he had probably bought whilst picking up blondies wine.
"Nice!" I said sarcastically and took a swig calmly.
"You winced at me putting cream on a small cut but you didn't react when drinking Jack Daniels?" He sounded confused but I laughed.
"Used to it, this bad boys been pumped on various occasions." I pointed a finger at my bare stomach, but I realized too late how bad it sounded and I awkwardly blushed.
"Personified your organs, nice." He replied, nodding approvingly. I laughed it off- glad he got the joke.
We carried on drinking and talking of ways to ruin Blondies drama party. "How about we don't do anything, we'd be making it interesting by getting involved." I joked around, smiling when he let out a gruff laugh.
"Hmmm you're right, so what do you want to do?" He asked, raising an eyebrow lazily.
"We can talk about how badly I bashed Steph's face in!" I cried out enthusiastically, laughing whilst I talked. I got too confident when tipsy, when I was drunk though it was a completely different story. He chuckled and nodded.
"Yeah that was pretty sweet. Wanna go slash some car tires?"
"Fuck yeah." I replied and I grabbed the Swiss knife out of my fanny pack that I kept for emergencies.
"Got your own stuff, nice." I smiled at him and we left his room, I was sure to stay a little ahead of him as I didn't want to start any rumours.
It was weird to think that yesterday I couldn't stand being around him and suddenly I was going around slashing tires with him. Everything had happened so quickly I was finding it hard to keep up myself, Judd was a confusing character.
The rest of the night was plain sailing, we slashed some tires, I drank too much Jack Daniels for my own good and we were currently in his room laughing at dumb shit we'd done. "I flushed the glass eye, of one of the teachers at my old school, down the toilet." He sounded very proud of himself.
"No wayyyyy." I slurred, not believing fully what Judd had said, but a small part of me didn't doubt that he was capable of doing such a thing.
"Yeah, it was funny." It was entertaining because when he said something was funny, he kept a straight face- no smile.
"You're hot." I blurred out, slapping a hand over my mouth once I had said that. I stuttered over my next sentence to try and make an excuse but I was too drunk I couldn't think of anything.
"You think so?" Judd turned to look at me, he brushed some of my hair out of my face and stared at me in the eyes.
I froze up all of a sudden, it was like my blood had turned into ice and I couldn't move anything. My sober me was trying to stop the drunk me from saying everything I was thinking but it was losing. "Nice conversation with yourself." Judd said chuckling averting his gaze towards my hands which rested in my lap. I widened my eyes,
"Did I say that all out loud."
"Yeah, you did."
"Maybe it's Maybelline." I whispered and blew air at his face. He wrinkled his nose and for the first time ever I saw him truly smile, it lit up his whole face, making him hotter than ever.
I had no idea why I was so fascinated by him all of a sudden but I didn't want to be anywhere else right now. I leaned in a little to see if he'd do anything and he shuffled back a little. I felt so embarrassed all of a sudden, I had instigated something and he'd completely shut me down. I'd fucked up the night by being an idiot, he was right- I was a retard. My heart began to beat faster and I got up all of a sudden. "I'vegottogo." I said so quickly it basically merged into one word. He couldn't do anything because by the time I had he had time to react I was already out of his room and making my way outside to the garden.
A small boy around Jessi's age came and sat down next to me. "Party wolf thought you needed some cotton candy brandy. I'm Jay- PARTY WOLF!" He must've been the boy that shouted that earlier. I grabbed the bottle out of his hand and chugged some, suddenly I couldn't see, my throat and eyes burned and I choked on the sickly sweet taste.
"I can't see!" I shouted panicked. I waved my arms around frantically.
"Oh it does that, your eyesight will come back in like 30 seconds, wow dejavu, that's the second time I've said that today!" I heard him say, he was wrong on the timing as my eyesight came back after 10 seconds.
"What is that shit?"
"Cotton candy brandy, my dad worked with them but they got shut down." He explained and I nodded, trying to swallow the burning taste to get it out of my mouth. It made me feel so drunk though.
"I love it." I was seriously enthralled by it. Jay cheered happily and handed me the bottle to take another swig.
I was pissed out of my head by the time Jay left my side, we had basically told each other our entire life story and supported ourselves- classic drunk move. I felt rather alone once my new little friend ran back indoors, so I walked into a corner of their massive garden and leant my back on the brick wall. I was also trying to figure out how to stop the ground from spinning.
"I knew I'd find you here."