by Ashley West
“Come meet everyone,” Kat said to her, tugging on her arm before she could argue. “Hey, losers,” Kat said as they joined a circle of people in the kitchen. There were six of them in all, four guys and two girls, both blonde and tall. Silvia fought the urge to hunch into her jacket.
“Hey, Kat,” said one of the girls, smiling thinly. She glanced over at Silvia and arched an eyebrow. “Who’s this?”
“This is my friend Sil,” Katya said. “Sil, this is Darren, Kris with a K, Chris with a C, Eve, Charlie, and Alan.” She pointed to each of them in turn. Kris with a K was one of the blondes, and she smirked at Silvia when she was introduced.
“Silvia,” Sil said. “Nice to meet you.”
“Where’re you from, then?” Darren, the one who had called them over, asked. “Haven’t seen you before.”
“I’m home schooled, technically,” Silvia replied, shrugging a shoulder. “And I don’t get out much.”
“Juvenile detention?” Kris with a K asked, smiling innocently.
“Nothing that exciting,” Silvia fired back.
“Behave, Kris,” Charlie said. “Any friend of Kat’s is a friend of ours. Can I get you a drink, Sil?”
She could hear her mother’s voice in her head, warning her of the dangers of accepting drinks from strangers. Roofies for one thing, and think of the germs! She sighed internally and smiled. “Yeah, sure. Whatever’s fine.”
Smooth. Definitely best to pretend like she did this all the time and knew what people drank at keggers. Beer, she was assuming. She could handle that.
She could not handle that.
Beer was disgusting. It tasted like medicine and grass mixed together into some horrible, fizzy drink that she was supposed to like. Charlie had brought her a red plastic cup filled to the brim with the frothy liquid, and she’d downed half of it like she saw everyone else doing, before the taste caught up to her.
Then she’d coughed and spluttered and asked where the bathroom was while Kat’s friends had laughed.
“She must be new,” Kris with a K said as she walked off in the direction she’d been pointed in.
“Must be,” Silvia mumbled under her breath. The bathroom was blessedly empty and she locked herself in and dumped the rest of her beer down the sink before filling the plastic cup with water from the tap and chugging it. The horrible taste still lingered, though and she shuddered and then sighed, plopping down on the closed toilet lid.
Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this. It had been less than half an hour, and already she was tired. Her head hurt from the music, beer was vile, and the only thing she’d seen by way of food was bowl after bowl of chips and cheesy snacks.
“I would kill for some pizza,” she mumbled under her breath.
“Um,” said a voice from behind the shower curtain. “I can help with that.”
Silvia screeched and was on her feet in a second, wrenching back the tastefully floral patterned shower curtain to find a boy sitting in the otherwise empty tub, fully dressed.
“What are you doing?” she demanded. “Trying to spy on people in the bathroom?”
“No, no!” the boy said, holding his hands up. “I was just hiding in here. I was going to say something but I couldn’t decide if it was creepier to say something while you were already in here or just wait for you to finish. I was going to keep the curtain closed.”
That didn’t really sound better to Sil, and she huffed, stepping back. “Why are you hiding in the bathroom?” she asked. “Why come to a party at all if you’re just going to hide?”
“It’s my party.”
Oh. Well, then. Silvia hadn’t realized she was shouting at Bobby Henderson himself.
“Oh,” she said out loud. “Well, then why throw a party if you’re just going to hide?”
Bobby sighed. “It wasn’t my idea. You know how it is. One of your friends hears your parents are going to be gone and mentions it to someone else, and then all of a sudden you’ve got four football players in your face talking about how rad it would be if you threw a kegger because keggers are rad. And then before you know it the whole school is on your front lawn and probably some other people besides, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before, and I’d remember.”
Silvia blinked, trying to catch up with that tirade. “So you got peer pressured into having party.”
He nodded. “Is it rad? The party?”
She shrugged. “I wouldn’t know. This is the first one I’ve ever been to.”
“Oh.” Bobby frowned and then looked up at her again. “So...pizza?”
And that was how she found herself sitting in the bathtub eating an extra large ham and pineapple pizza with Bobby Henderson of recent house party fame. He was nice enough, and they talked for hours while the party went on around them.
Once the pizza was gone, Silvia sighed. “I should probably go find my friend. We came here together, and I don’t think she’d leave without me, but knowing her, she’s probably passed out drunk somewhere.”
Bobby groaned. “I need to figure out how to get all these people out of my house.”
“Should have thought about that before you threw a house party,” Silvia teased.
He rolled his eyes and got up to help her out of the tub. “Yeah, yeah. Next time they’re doing this at someone else’s house. I don’t care how rad it would be.”
“What does that even mean?” Sil had to ask.
Bobby shrugged a shoulder. “I don’t even know.”
They looked at each other for a long moment and then dissolved into laughter. “Well, I had a pretty good time,” Silvia said. “So that has to count for something, right?”
“Right. So uh. This might be a really dumb idea considering you apparently don’t even go to our school, but would you wanna do this again sometime?”
“What, eat pizza in a bathtub?”
“Well, the pizza part. Maybe without the bathtub.”
Silvia smiled. “I dunno, that part seems pretty important.” She shrugged a shoulder, going for nonchalance. “Sure. Sounds like fun, though.”
When they emerged from the bathroom it was to find Katya slumped in the hallway. “Silvia!” she cried, slurring the word and trying to stand up. “‘Found you!”
“You definitely did,” Sil said, shaking her head. “And you’re in no state to drive, of course. Where are your keys?”
“Bowl.”
“What?”
“Bowl,” Kat said. “Downstairs. Chris took them and put ‘em in a bowl.”
“With a C or with a K?”
“With a B,” Kat said, looking confused. “For bowl.”
Silvia rolled her eyes. “Never mind, Kat. Let’s just get you home.”
It hadn’t been the wild night she’d been expecting, but as she listened to Bobby try to convince people to leave his parents’ bedroom, she had to admit that it had been fun.
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About the Author
Ashley West was raised in a small Midwest town. She has always been a big fan of science fiction and paranormal books and movies. Her all-time favorite movies are the first three Star Wars movies. She started writing at a young age and has not looked back since. Ashley brings her worlds to life with vivid details and likeable characters.
On her spare time, she enjoys painting, jogging, and curling up next to her favorite books. If you enjoy Ashley’s titles and wish to receive a Free Sci-Fi Alien Romance, stay updated on all her new releases and book giveaways, please visit her website.
ashleywest.net
You can also reach out to me on:
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Kisses,
Ashley
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