Fly Me Away

Danielle’s house was packed. The second the five of us walked through the door, we all had to split up because of the crowds. I struggled to weave in between people. The music was deafeningly loud, so the kids having conversations were standing about an inch apart. I groaned and wiggled around until I was against the wall. It was easier to maneuver there, and it was nice and cool against my hot, alcohol blanket arms.

I stood stationary in the corner of the room, scanning around for Kelly or Karina. They would be the easiest to spot because of their enormous height advantage. Surely they hadn’t gotten too far in the time it took me to squirm towards a wall. I felt something digging into my leg, so I turned to kick it away, when I discovered that it was a chair. Perfect. I stood up on it shakily, both my hands against the wall to try and keep my balance. The view just looked like bright colored vomit. Hair and dresses merged together and continually shifted around. It made me feel sick, but I ignored it and snapped my eyes from place to place trying to find someone I knew.

“Hey you, pretty girl on the chair!”

My eyes landed on a red headed guy in the middle of the crowd, waving an arm casually at me.

“You!” I called, trying to wave back, but swaying too far to the left. My hands jutted out to the wall and I decided I’d had enough of being on the chair.

“Let me help,” Bronco’s voice was barely loud enough for me to register. He grabbed my arms and kept my balance as I strived to get even one leg on the ground. Bronco wasn’t that much help, but at least I didn’t slip. As we both struggled to stand in a spot that was obviously only meant for one person, I felt his hand grace the small of my back lightly. Bronco looked messy, like he’d been doing God knows what in that crowd for the past hour or so.

He pulled me close and spoke onto my ear, “you look nice. Did you dress up for me?”

“I didn’t even know you were coming,” I laughed distractedly, still trying to look around for Kelly.

“Yes you did, you don’t need to lie to impress me,” he leaned close to my face and breathed, “I’m already impressed. Come on, for old times sake?”

He was so close to kissing me that my heart started screaming at me to do something. I was definitely not interested. He lingered there for a moment; the smell of alcohol on his breathe was something to behold. I put my hands on his chest and pushed him away, “you’re drunk.”

“So are you,” he defended, fighting against my hands. I frowned, still persistently pushing him and he laughed, finally leaning away from me, “sorry.”

Before I could respond, he took hold of my wrist and started pulling me through the crowds. I let it happen – I wasn’t getting anywhere just standing on a chair and scanning the room. It was easier to get around when there was a drunk guy in front of me making space. We ended up in the slightly less crowded kitchen, where he pulled me over to a large chiller in the corner.

“Drink?” he asked casually, pulling out a bottle of something.

I eyed it skeptically, “what is it?”

“A free drink.”

“But what kind?”

“I don’t know, find out.”

He shoved the bottle into my hands and I stumbled backwards a little. I tried to read the label, but it was blurry and written in some illegible font. Bronco rolled his eyes and took it from me, then twisted the cap off and handed it back. I held it up to my nose – it smelt good. I downed a big mouthful, then gave myself a second to analyze….I liked this one; it tasted like melons, with only that slight bitter after-taste that always followed in alcoholic drinks.

“Thanks,” I murmured, taking a bigger swig. But when I looked up, his attention was elsewhere.

Pip was standing in the doorway, arm and arm with a guy I only vaguely recognized. She was staring at Bronco intently, communicating in a way I didn’t understand. The boy with her was tall and gangly with longish black hair and a thick fringe that almost covered his eyes. Kyle was his name or something…. Pip had had her eyes on him for a while; he played the drums for some band.

I almost felt the venom when Pip took her eyes off Bronco and looked at me. I furrowed my eyebrows and did my best to hold her ferocious gaze, ignoring my brain telling me to look away. Her lips folded down at the corners as she started walking towards us. That was when I reeled away, not liking the way her boots were nearly stamping holes in the floor.

“Bronco, where’s Alley?” she snarled at him rudely, dismissing my presence all together. I didn’t know this Alley girl, but it didn’t appear to be too important to either of them.

Bronco ignored her, opting to smirk smugly at the boy on her arm, “oh look, it’s the cute couple. How are you Kyle? Treating young Pippani well?”

The fact that the two of them were together didn’t interest me at all; I had expected that much. Something I did find amusing though, was that Kyle looked deathly afraid of Bronco, especially while Bronco was in his smart-aleck drunken state. He turned nervously to Pip for reassurance. Pip growled and repeated herself, only to receive the same answer from Bronco. I scoffed, then let out an annoying laugh and glugged down another mouthful of melon. That was when she turned to me.

“Hi Maggie,” she said bitterly, “enjoying the company of my brother?”

I was in a strange mood. Normally, this was when I would apologize and grovel at her feet for forgiveness, but there was no way that was going to happen. What was up her bum, seriously?

“Hi Pip. Not really, no,” I replied nonchalantly. She wasn’t going to get to me. Bronco laughed in a jolly way. It was clear to see which side of this battle was the drunken one.

She looked down at my dress for a second, then back up to my face, “Kelly’s?”

I nodded and took another mouthful from my melon bottle. She curled her lip up at it distastefully.

“You know what Pip?”

I had another burst of bravery. I didn’t want to sock it to Pip, I just wanted to stand up for myself. Her eyes snapped back to me, a mixture of shock and anger on her face. My head was telling me that now wasn’t the time to be saying any of this, but I couldn’t stop myself. Bronco and the other boy were now looking at me too, waiting to see me assert myself.

“Why are you so mad at me? I haven’t done anything you realize. You’re in the wrong here, not me.”

I felt a certain delight in watching her face turn red.

“You’re drunk, I don’t wanna talk to you.” She spun on her heels and yanked on that Kyle guys arm. He stumbled around and walked shakily along with her.

“I believe you were the one who said hi,” I yelled, “don’t start what you can’t finished Pippani.”

Bronco made a low pitched ‘oooo’ noise, as if to say 'you’ve done it now Maggie.’

Pip stopped and turned back to me, Kyle flailing around beside her, “excuse me?!?”

“You heard!” I almost beat my chest like a gorilla, but decided that was too far.

Her mouth gaped open and she disconnected herself from her arm candy. By the time I realized what I had done, it was too late. Her hands were clenched into fists and she came running at me like an angry bull. I had never seen so much hate before in my life.

I recoiled backwards into the wall as she stormed towards me.

“How dare you!” She screeched, throwing the wine glass in her hand against the opposite wall. I watched it shatter and fan out everywhere, sending people flying out of the way. The entire room had noticed us now, and half of the people were either retreating or standing around waiting eagerly for the fight.

She got to within a meter of me before Bronco stepped in. He grabbed her by the shoulders while she struggled desperately to get passed him. There were a few moments when I thought she was going to overpower poor staggering Bronco, as he had obviously had a bit much to drink, but he eventually trapped her in some kind of headlock, a move that he must have used on Pip before.

“Hey, easy,” he attempted to calm her, but his out of place laughing wasn’t doing any good. Her struggling slowly chilled out, but I couldn’t stand looking at her eyes. She was so mad; something was wrong. It can’t have been Pip looking at me like that. Tears started slipping down her face by the bucket load and she suddenly ripped herself out of Bronco’s hold and ran crying into a rather stunned looking Kyle’s arms. He had done nothing but stand there with his mouth open during the whole ordeal. He still looked shocked as he pulled her swiftly out of the room.

There was a minute of silence as everybody stood there and stared at me. My face turned red and I held the bottle up to my lips sheepishly. Then, as if nothing had happened, everything went back to normal – the chatter continued and people started moving in and out of the room again.

“Whoa…” Bronco was suddenly right there beside me, an amazed expression on his face, “you really do have some fight in you….”

I shook my head as I looked at the broken glass on the floor, “I didn’t mean to do that.”

Bronco threw his head back and laughed.

“MAGGIE!!”

Kelly came flying into the room and flung her arms dramatically around me. I was bowled over by the sheer size of her and we both went slamming into Bronco. He was completely caught off guard; the three of us crashed against the wall, then slid to the ground, Bronco receiving the brunt of the blow.

“Ouch,” he muttered, winded from the impact.

“Maggie are you okay!? I’m so sorry I heard from, from, I don’t….wait… what happened? OH! Pip! And a fight and…. Maggie are you okay? Sorry I had a few of those melon things….” Kelly nuzzled her head into my shoulder.

I tried to process everything, and with great difficulty. I was stuck between Bronco and Kelly, desperately trying to free myself. The bottle in my hand was now empty; I’d finished it within the space of 10 minutes – not good for my rational thinking. No wonder I’d almost provoked Pip into a fist fight.

To my complete disdain, Bronco decided to take advantage of the moment by wrapping his arms slyly around my waist. “I finally have you where I want you,” he cooed in my ear, attempting to use his deep seductive voice, which I had heard too many times before.

I opened my mouth to argue, when Kelly’s hand shot past me and smashed into Bronco’s unsuspecting face, pushing his head back against the wall, “no relative of spawn of devil!!” she slurred, trying to lift herself up slightly, whilst keeping her hand securely in place. Bronco began speaking into Kelly’s hand, but all that came out was muffled nonsense.

“I need to get up,” I said quietly, and mostly to myself. I’d take a few of those melon things and buzz off, find something to occupy my time. I didn’t feel like dealing with Bronco or Kelly. Well, I never felt like dealing with Bronco, but If I escaped quickly enough, I could avoid having to explain everything to an extremely intoxicated blond girl.

“Okay sweetie, I’ll….I’ll help,” Kelly rose to her feet with an alarming amount of grace.

I raised an eyebrow at the contrast between her slurred speech and her graceful movement, but didn’t question. Even when it seemed like she couldn’t possibly get any drunker, she was still pretty and elegant without meaning to be. She took my wrist and pulled me up, leaving a pouting Bronco sitting on the floor, “nobodies helping poor Bronco?”

“Hell no ya crazy—well—I guess I could,” Kelly shrugged, comically changing her mind mid sentence. She leant her long arms down to Bronco, who eagerly took them.

“You’re a silly boy you know? I mean….that sister and genetics and things….” I heard her mumble, as I strode back towards the freezer and reached in to pick out some more melon bottles. I took out three, which was plenty – I was already losing my balance. The clock on the wall said 10:04, which was, according to Monique, waaay to early to leave a party and she would never forgive me. I was stuck there until at least 2 in the morning.

Eager to make my escape, I gave the two of them one last fleeting glance. My mind was blown when I found them grinning at each other, their faces about an inch apart. Bronco had pulled Kelly down and she was practically sitting on his lap. I rolled my eyes and quickly turned away; Kelly hated Bronco, and she would realize her mistake when I told her about it in the morning. He wasn’t so much of a jerk that he would completely take advantage of her, but he wouldn’t let the opportunity to make out with a hot girl pass him by. That was just Bronco.

I cracked off the top of a bottle and chugged down most of the green, fizzy liquid, before making a beeline to the dance floor. The first of many destinations in my quest to forget my troubles.