Author's Note: This is Meredith's chapter; I plan to write a concluding chapter wrapping up the story from all sides next. This one took me a long time to complete, thanks to a ton of travel recently. Hopefully, it doesn't disappoint. This might take a bit of a left turn for the Romance category, which is somewhat monogamy-oriented, so caveat emptor. As always, I appreciate all your feedback, and I hope this chapter lives up to the story so far. -Theworldspins
*****
When it got dark, the voices started to blend together more, as everyone competed with one another to be heard. Even with the minimal buzz she got off a single wine cooler—drinking
that
was the subject of much comedy, to be sure—she felt like it wasn't just the noise itself. It was her. It didn't help that DJ Virginia liked to crank the music so damn loud, either. Meredith never tried to compete to be heard over people louder than she. Since most people
were
louder, she usually had to be content with keeping silent in situations like this. Parties weren't really her thing.
"When was yours?"
It took Meredith a moment before she realized Lydia was addressing the question to her. She was mildly startled, having grown accustomed to being forgotten at things like this.
"Sorry, couldn't hear you," she replied apologetically.
"Can we turn it down a little?" Lydia begged Virginia.
After first rolling her eyes demonstratively, Virginia walked over to Robert's desk, all the while play-acting as if she was using a walker. Meredith found it hard to always be cool enough for Virginia. Her eyes darted around—bending over to pretend to grip the 'walker' meant that Virginia's ass was sticking out. Meredith watched as, slowly, every guy in the room noticed and did their best to surreptitiously look without being too suspicious. It wasn't just the guys either—their friend Kylie, who would, no offense, fuck anything on two legs, seemed just as into it.
Who wouldn't be with a butt like hers?
Lydia wasn't drunk, not exactly, but she was definitely loosened up. Her wide-eyed face was flushed, and she was that drunk girl thing where she constantly was playing with her tongue, biting it playfully whenever she spoke. Meredith had met her freshman year at a party much larger than this one. Lydia had made a point of seeking her out and striking up a conversation, and Meredith always appreciated it. Though Virginia dragged her along to countless parties when they first came to Austin, it wasn't the easiest for her to meet new people as anything other than Virginia's friend.
"We were talking about when we had your first crush," Lydia continued, now that the decibel level had receded. "When was yours?"
Meredith smiled. She knew she'd get a chance to make Virginia blush, which didn't happen often enough. She looked around to spot where she'd gone—she was bouncing from person to person, playing the part of hostess here at Robert's place.
It seems as much like her place as his now.
"Seven years old," she said. "Howie Gibbons."
To her surprise, Virginia heard her and turned her way.
"No! Not happening."
By trying to prevent Meredith's response, Virginia only managed to draw more attention. Like a flower bending towards the sun, the dozen or so people present all turned towards Meredith. Though not quite silent, they were at least attentive to her for the moment. As far as Meredith knew, no one else had heard this story.
"Howie Gibbons, huh?" Kylie asked, her voice dripping with innuendo. "He must have been pretty hot to get your attention. Like, pre-pubes Timberlake hot."
"I bet he had frosted tips," added Max, Lydia's boyfriend of the moment, to general laughter. "And, like, wore gel in second grade."
"He knew all the dinosaurs," Meredith began, smiling slyly. "Like, not the fake ones, either, the ones that it turned out they didn't exist and stuff."
"The fucking brontosaurus," Virginia said, taking a swig of her beer. "Total bullshit."
"No shit?" asked Pete, their friend Madison's boyfriend. "That was my favorite one."
"Well, sorry to crush your dreams, dude," Virginia responded, "but lots of the cool ones were fake."
"You were saying..." Kylie interrupted, steering the conversation back to Meredith.
"So, he was the smartest boy in school. I remember him reading to all the other kids in, like, kindergarten. So, anyway, I didn't even understand what it meant to like a boy. Boys were totally mean."
"Still are mostly," Robert added, before Virginia pinched his side and twisted. "Damn, girls are too."
"Get a room, you two," Madison, always quick with a cliché, chirped.
"So, anyway, I told Virginia—"
"You two went to elementary together?"
"Yeah—before Caroline put me in private school for a while," Virginia clarified. "That's, like, the only reason we got to know each other."
"Touching—but why's Virginia trying to keep on lid on this story?" Kylie said.
"So when I told Virginia about Howie, she punched him."
No one laughed louder than Robert. Meredith smiled directly at him.
"Best part was why—she told him he couldn't take her best friend away."
"I don't see what's so embarrassing about that," Madison added quizzically. "I think it's sweet."
"That wasn't the funny part," Meredith countered.
"You're dead to me," Virginia intoned, though Meredith could sense she wasn't really embarrassed, just playing it up for everyone's benefit.
"The best part was when she had to explain why to the teacher and her mom. Tell everybody what you told them, sweetie."
Virginia started to twirl her hair girlishly.
"Howie can't get married to Meri," she said in a baby voice, "'cause I'm gonna marry her."
Everyone erupted into laughter.
"It wasn't that funny," Virginia protested. "At least, back then it wasn't. I got the whole 'You can't be a lesbian, you're a Methodist' talk from Caroline. I was freaked."
"So you've been corrupting poor Virginia since way back," Robert said, stroking his girlfriend's shoulders from behind.
"Maybe that's why your mom still hates me," Meredith said, sharing a moment of recognition with Virginia.
She was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable being the center of attention—it was nice to be noticed, but she had a feeling that too much of this kind of talk and they would end up like most parties falling into a reminiscence circle jerk that would probably just cause her a lot of embarrassment and—
"Never Have I Ever?" Madison asked to no one and everyone. "C'mon, Never Have I Ever."
Meredith felt a sinking feeling in her stomach.
"Haven't we played that before?" Virginia asked.
Thank you. Kill this idea before it grows.
"There's a lot of new people," Kylie said, oblivious to Virginia's intentions. "And besides, that was, like, freshman fall. Lot's changed since then."
Meredith watched Virginia turn first to Robert, who shook his shoulders without a care.
He's thirty. He's probably done everything. And the rest of them? Great, it's time for another round of 'pity the virgin'...ex-virgin.
"OK," Virginia said, heading into the kitchen. "Tequila shots?"
"Tryin' to put me in the hospital?" Kylie asked.
Kylie had done everything at least once. If the game continued long enough, she'd be face down and have to crash across the courtyard over at Virginia and Meredith's place.
"Then everyone can choose between beer or tequila—tequilas for the saints and beer for the sinners," Virginia said.
"Can I be a sinner and still drink tequila?" asked a tall, jocky guy, one of Lydia's boyfriend Max's friends Meredith didn't know well.
He was cute in a square-jawed, Captain America kind of way. Meredith didn't really ave a type per se, but athletic without being too muscle-y, clean cut, but with a little rough around the edges was always a good start. Though she couldn't deny his physical attractiveness, Meredith never got too hot and bothered over a guy until she at least got a sense of his personality. She'd have to keep an eye on this one, though.
"Your funeral," Virginia replied.
There were only a couple of single guys there, which was fine as far as Meredith was concerned. Ever since she'd started officially dating Robert a couple of months ago, Virginia had been not so subtly hinting that her next goal was finding Meredith a guy.
Everyone just assumes I want a boyfriend. Do I just scream 'desperation?'
It was just about half couples, half singles. There were Robert and Virginia, of course, but Lydia came with her guy Max (who would never last, they all knew it), and Madison had Pete. That left Meredith alone with Kylie, and the rest of the singles, none of whom she had met before tonight.
Everyone formed a rough circle. Robert had long ago staked out his desk chair, and Virginia sat on the floor beneath him, receiving one of the back and shoulder rubs about which she was always gushing. She wasn't alone on the floor, though; Robert's place wasn't made to accommodate a dozen, and apart from Madison and Pete on the couch, most of the people there were reclined against walls on the floor or leaned against the sides of furniture. The table in the center of the circle was covered in shot glasses, beer bottles, empty and full, and an ominous bottle of El Jimador silver.
"This must be a white people thing," the Asian dude in a basketball jersey snarked. "'Cause I got no idea what y'all are talking about."
Meredith giggled a little to herself.
"I've played this before," a pretty Indian girl countered, "so don't even try. Don't they send Chinese kids to camp?"
"Re-education camp," he responded drily. "Not, like, Camp Anawanna."
"You're from California, not Beijing..."
"It's easy," Kylie butted in. "You go in a circle. When it's your turn, you say 'Never have I ever...blank.' You know, something you've never done in your life. Anybody's who's done it, takes a shot."
"Or sip of beer."
"Yeah, whatever," Kylie continued. "Basically, all the cool people get drunk and pass out in twenty minutes."
Meredith scowled.
Thanks a lot.
She had two good reasons to hate this game. First, it made a big public show of how innocent and inexperienced at pretty much everything fun and dangerous she was. Second, this fact inspired not only pity but also some degree of animosity in others. Like the sober person in a room full of drunks, she was the little angel whose purity made everyone else seem like devils.
"You'll pick it up quick," Virginia promised. "Just follow along."
