Senior Fling

As I closed the door behind me I looked down at my phone. "Shit!" I said out loud. I had 13 text messages and 4 missed calls. I unlocked my phone and began looking through them as I power walked out to my car. Thankfully one two texts were from Curtis. The missed calls were from Beth. We always meet in the parking lot after class to go to the softball locker room together to get ready for practice. When I didn't answer she started in the group text, debating whether they should contact Curtis or not. I was so relieved when I read that they didn't. In fact, they basically just made jokes about me with Mr. Messner. 'Jokes'...

I responded to the group text that my phone had died and I had to go run some errands for my parents. I really did want to tell them all about what just happened, but I knew I couldn't. Then I opened up the text messages from Curtis. He was telling me how excited he was about tonight. Since our one party over Winter break we hadn't really gone out together. I wasn't sure that I was ready to go out anywhere where there was booze with just the two of us. And my friends were supportive of that, always tagging along to be a third or fourth wheel. I was so grateful for them.

I rushed home and hopped into the shower and got cleaned up. I couldn't stop thinking about Mr. Messner, but that could have been because I had his juices leaking out of me. Just cleaning myself up from that gave me butterflies and sense of entitlement. That I was now his and no one else could have me. But it only took a second for me to remember that that's not how it really was. That I was really with Curtis and I couldn't tell anyone about Mr. Messner. I wanted do badly to tell my friends, but it took all that I had not to. I knew that I couldn't...

It was about 7:30 when I had finished getting ready and my friends were deciding where they wanted to go out to dinner before the party. I didn't respond so they began asking what I wanted to do.

Fiona: Amanda, what do you think?

Me: I'm actually going to pass on dinner. Curtis is picking me up so I should just stay home.

Beth: Wtf just ask him if he can meet you there

Fiona: He'll understand

Me: No it's fine. I already made dinner here actually. I'll see you guys there!! :)

I really did want to go out with them. It was rare that we all got the chance to hang out together outside of school. We all had such busy schedules that it was hard to get everyone together. So I did text Curtis just in case he'd be okay with it.

Me: Hey babe, the girls are going out to dinner before Ryan's house. Can I go with them and just meet you there?

In less than one minute there was a reply...

Curtis: No. I'm picking you up and we're going together.

Curtis: Why do you even want to go with them instead of me? Are you meeting guys there?

Curtis: We are going together. End of story. I will pick you up at 8:30 now. Be ready or don't go.

Me: Okay babe, I just wanted to ask, they all want me to go with them. Just the girls for dinner before the party. That's it. I already told them that I can't but I wanted to check. I'm sorry...

No reply from Curtis. He was right though, I already agreed to our plans and it'd be wrong for me to show up with anyone else except him. He was always right and he always looked out for us. I really couldn't wait for him to pick me up.

I rifled through the fridge to see what I could whip up for dinner tonight. My parents had left for the night and they didn't leave any money or anything in the fridge. Usually I had leftovers from wherever I went the night before but it looks like my younger brother had already eaten it. All that was left in the fridge was apples, vegetables, and soda. I peaked in the freezer and luckily there was a half-filled box of pizza bites. So nutritious and appropriate for a pre-party. Sure to have no burps or pizza bite vomit. But I ate them anyways as that's all I really had. I looked down at my phone a little after 8 and I had another text message from Curtis which read: I'm on my way, be ready in 15 or tell me not to come.

I didn't respond but did a run-through of the house to make sure it was clean and I ran into the bathroom to throw on some lipstick as my final touches. I thought about douching to get Mr. Messner out of my but I knew I didn't have time. I waited outside for Curtis right at the 15 minute mark and he pulled up right on time. I hopped into the car and looked at him so excited to see how he reacted to me. I had put a lot of time and effort into myself tonight. Perhaps it was still the excitement of what had just happened, but it didn't matter. I closed the car door and looked over at him and watched him eyeball me. "You look hot, you better stay by my side all night." He looked back at the road and drove away.

"I will babe", I said looking over at him, waiting for him to turn to me and plant a loving kiss on my lips. His eyes never left the road and I scooted back into a normal, comfortable position in my seat to watch our way to the party. It was about a 20 minute drive and he let me control the radio on the way there. I turned the radio onto a love song where I looked over at him, fishing for a loving gaze back. I saw the disgusted look on his face and quickly changed the station to something I knew he would like. We drove to the party in silence and I was relieved when we finally reached Ryan's house.

Curtis parked the car on the side of the street just a little bit past the house. And when I say house I really mean mansion. That's what the house really was. The only benefit of going to a small school of rich, preppy kids was that their parents left town all the time and left their booze collection unattended. I had grown fond of sparkling wine and whiskey, completely different than most of my classmates. Curtis and I walked into the huge house, one of the first to arrive. Sara was Ryan's girlfriend and she was clearly already drunk. She greeted me like we were best friends even though we barely talked at school. I went along with it without flinching. For some reason I felt like I was faking who I was and my intentions just as much as this girl. I knew her actions weren't genuine and soon my turned to the same.

She ran to me so excited and embraced me in a hug. I hugged her back just as tightly and I saw Curtis walk over to Ryan and hand him a beer. Sara saw my eyes escape to them and she asked me what I wanted to drink. "I'm fine with whatever." I told her.

She put her arm around me and leaned her face in close to mine, "Let's go down to the cellar and pick something out." I mumbled an 'okay' to her and off we were. I looked back towards Curtis to see that he was flipping through the TV remote to find the right channel. After helping Sara get down the stairs to the huge wine cellar she told me to pick out whatever I wanted. I looked through the bottles, amazed at what I saw. We all lived near Napa Valley, but I seemed to be the only one who really knew the difference between wine and other alcohol. I looked through the cellar, pulling out bottles and observing them slightly. I could tell the difference between a nice bottle and a cheap bottle, but for this situation, I'm sure a cheap bottle is best.

"Do you know what they have several bottles of?" I asked, referring to Ryan's parents. I didn't want to take anything that they only had one of and would notice gone. I also didn't want to overstep my bounds.

"Oh they don't even know what they have down here! Pick whatever you want and come join me down here!" I looked back only to see Sara sitting on the ground looking down at the ground. She was wasted and probably shouldn't drink anymore, even though her party hasn't even started. I, however, was going to take her up on her offer of taking any bottle of wine. I pulled out a bottle of Champagne and found a glass on a table in the order of the room; it wasn't a champagne glass but I really didn't care. I opened it up, poured myself a glass, and sat down next to Sara. I didn't have many friends, so I was at a loss of words for what to say to her.

"This is such a great party, Sara!" I exclaimed so excitedly, trying to gulp down my first glass. I wasn't much for gulping fine wine, but I knew this was an emergency.

She looked up at me with the biggest smile and brightest eyes, "You think so!?" She almost yelled, "Ryan was worried no one was going to come. I spent so much time telling everyone about and cooking food for us. I just hope it's fun and Ryan has a good time with his friends." As she continued she looked back down towards the floor of the cellar. I had managed to finish my first white-wine-sized glass of champagne before she was done talking.

I looked over to her and began speaking until we were looking each other in the eyes, "Sara, Ryan is going to love everything you've done for him! Everyone has been talking about this party for weeks. It's going to be great! Hell, it already is great!" The only excitement I could muster out was the excitement of another glass of wine, which was much needed. She looked up at me and looked so happy.

"Let's sit down here and finish that bottle. By the time that we're done everyone else will be here and we'll be ready to par-tay!" She said as she leaned her head against my shoulder. I took her lead and continued through the bottle until I felt a goodd buzz going after three glasses.

"Are you ready to head up, Sara? We can get you a glass for this little bit left here in the bottle." I raised the bottle and showed her that there was more than just one glass left and that we should share it. She shook her head as if she was going to puke, "Are you okay??" I asked panicking now.

"No, I need a bathroom..." I could see her eyes trying to focus and her mouth beginning to thrust with warning burps. I helped her up and we rushed upstairs, bottle in hand and made it to the bathroom for her to throw up. Thankfully the guest bathroom was right at the top of the stairs and the living room was a couple feet out of sight and Ryan didn't see or suspect a thing. Neither did Curtis.

She flopped to the ground right beside the toilet and stuck her head as far as she could get it. I turned on the sink and sat down next to her, lifting up her hair as any good friend would. We were in there for about 15 minutes when she had launched out several rounds of throw up. She finally took her head out of the toilet and sat her cheek on the toilet seat, closing her eyes. I flushed the waste away and pulled her head up to at least put the cover down for her cheek. She sat like that for just a couple of minutes and finally opened her eyes, miserable and guilty. I turned the water off and she tried to get up on her knees, "I need to go back out. I feel so bad. This is Ryan's night and I just ruined it."

"No you didn't, Sara! He doesn't even know! You're fine. We're going to get you some mouth wash and we'll get you some food to soak it all up a bit." I helped her to her feet and found some mouth wash under the sink. She was already looking a little bit better, but now I think I was a little drunk after that bottle of wine. But I was able to handle myself much better than she was. As she was cleaning herself up I looked down at my phone. I had been here nearly an hour but it seemed as if I was hiding out. I had several texts from my friends letting me know they were here, then asking where I was, then letting me know that Curtis was upset that I wasn't with him. Sara was ready to head out and I followed her lead. She opened the door and I followed close behind her. We made our way into the kitchen where there were now a couple dozen of our classmates hanging out and drinking, trying to start playing beer pong. As we entered the kitchen and Sara tripped over her own shoes, I helped keep her steady and Ryan ran over to her to see if she was okay. He walked her to the kitchen table and got her some food to eat.

As soon as Ryan came to her rescue, Curtis came up to me, "Where have you been??" He said as he grabbed me by the arm.

"I was helping Sara, she just spent the last 30 minutes throwing up in the bathroom. I wasn't going to leave her there." My eyes wandered over to Fiona and Beth standing a couple of feet away, watching what was happening. As Curtis saw my eyes divert, he realized they were watching and loosened his grip.

He put his hand on my cheek, "I was just worried about you, is all. I didn't know where you were." He said as he planted a kiss on my forehead. I smiled at his affection and told him I was going to go say hi to my friends.

I walked away from him and towards Beth and Fiona, who were clearly already a couple shots in and greeted me with an embracing hug. "Oh my god I'm so happy we're all here, this is the best party ever!" Fiona said practically yelling. I laughed at her and Beth and asked them if I could have whatever they were having. They both grabbed me by the arms and led me to the makeshift bar that w=displayed several bottles of multi-flavored liquor. "Where is it!? It was just here! It's a jolly rancher flavored vodka and it's amazing. You don't even need a chaser. It is soooo good! Here it is!!" I loved seeing Beth when she was drunk. She was just so full of life and happy. She wasn't usually like that all the time and I know it's not the best circumstances, but I did enjoy seeing her smile like this. She poured the three of us a shot each and then another one for me, "You have some catching up to do, here's another one for you." She exclaimed as she giggled and leaned in to kiss my cheek. We took our shots and I poured myself a mixed drink and we made our way over the area where they finally set up the beer pong table.

"Where's Mary?" I asked wondering why I hadn't seen her yet.

"Oooh, remember that guy from Grant high school that she wants to bone? She invited him and she's trying to seduce him out in the hot tub." Fiona chimed in oh so casually. Wow, these girls were on another level that I needed to get to in order to catch up with them.

There was an intense game of beer pong going on between some football players when the somehow decided to stop playing and go outside to shotgun beers to see who the real winner was. Beth jumped up to the table and claimed her turn to play. Fiona joined her and they urged me to play against them. "I don't have a partner and I don't even know how to play!" I told them.

"Oh come on, Amanda, not everyone is as fancy as you with your sophisticated wine tastes. Be a teenager and play some fucking beer pong!" Again, another reason why I love Beth when she's like this. I was cracking up by the time she had finished her sentence and walked over to get that jolly rancher booze because I knew I would need it to get through this game.

When I got back I complained that I still didn't have a partner to play with. Fiona yelled across to the other room to get Curtis, "Curtis come play with some balls with your girlfriend!" He was deep in conversation with his guy friends so when he looked up he was a little annoyed.

"I need a partner, babe!"

"Start without me, I'll be right there." He said not even acknowledging either of us and turning back to talk to the guys.

"He's not going to come." I said as I poured myself another shot. "Let's go drag Mary out here to be my partner."

"We can't cockblock her, she's been waiting for this for months! She even had four shots before she went out with him in order to successfully seduce him!" Fiona commented, barely even able to pronounce that entire story.

"I'll just be a one-man team. I can take you two any day!" I told them bursting them into hystericals.

They let me start and I threw the two balls, not even hitting any cups. I would have been a little discouraged if it weren't for them who did the same. We all just fell to the floor laughing at how horrible we were and how stupid that was. "Okay, let's try again!" Beth said standing up and helping Fiona up. "But really, we have to find you a partner, you suck!" They both laughed at me but eagerly looked around the room for anyone to force into playing.

If we were at school I would have said fuck everyone whose here and played by myself, but I was having a great time and didn't want my hatred for everyone here to stop me. But just then Sam walked through the doorway and Beth ran towards him, grabbed him, and drug him to my side, letting him know he was on my team. Sam was a cool guy in our grade, he was a swimmer going to Berkeley next year. He was tall, with chlorine bleached hair, and tan skin. He was beautifully sculpted and a complete gentleman. Sam and I were a thing our sophomore year. And when I say thing, that's all it was. We were both too shy to actually date but we went to all three school dances together throughout the entire year. After the school year we just drifted apart, but there was always still a spark there. But this was strictly for beer pong. "Are you good at this?" I asked looking up to him standing at 6'3".

"Yeah, I've played a couple of times. I'm alright" He shrugged and smirked at himself and got ready for his first shot. Right in the cup!! Beth and Fiona groaned at him, already expecting their defeat. I shot my ball over to the cups and missed by a longshot, sending it over the table and missing the cups completely.

Clearly this gave Beth some of her confidence back, "Oh good Amanda is still over there. We have a chance!"

"Have you played before?" Sam looked down at me and asked completely amused with the other two goofballs.

"I've played a couple of times. Like once or twice. I'm not very good."

"Well I'll help you when it's our turn again." Beth and Fiona both shot again, missing both times. They both insisted they needed another shot in order to straighten their eye sight. They also poured me two more shots and wouldn't play until I took them both. I put up my arm to shoot and Sam examined my form, moving and fixing my elbow and hand placement. He showed me his wrist flick and had me shoot. Right in a cup!! Way too excited for what just happened, my arms shot up as if I had just won some championship game and I gave Sam two loud high-fives. Just as I did that Fiona's eyes shot over to the other room where Curtis was still hanging out at. I could tell by the look on her face that he was getting upset. But we all played on anyways.

The night continued a lot like that. Sam and I won game after game after game. We beat Beth and Fiona three times and beat all of the football guys when they came back in from the backyard. The girls insisted that we all take shots each time I won. I should have rejected that, but I was having fun. We were playing the next game and both teams were down to one cup each, we had gone about five rounds before either of us won. There's all the complicated rules that come into play when there's only one cup left and I'm not sure what was going on, but we ended up losing. Sam and I looked at each other and exchanged sad faces. Well I had a sad face, and from what I could still see I think he had one too. He extended his arms out wide for a tight embrace as our final match together had just come to an end. The hug lasted less than five seconds and when I walked away from him to head outside to find Beth and Fiona, I felt a smack on my butt. I whipped around and it was from Sam, saying good game. Just like they did in baseball. Was that a joke? "Hey, that's not cool." I said putting my finger on his shoulder and falling into him from turning around too fast. He caught me and stood me up but continued to hold me steady. "You can't spank my ass like that. I have a boyfriend." I could feel my words coming out seamlessly but when I listened to myself, I'm not sure if that's what actually came out. I was really starting to feel those shots now. I felt the room spinning and I laid my head against his arm.