Just Another Reason I Could Never Forget You

Fathers, be good to your daughters
Daughters will love like you do
Girls become lovers who turn into mothers
So mothers, be good to your daughters too.

My heartbeat raced as I sat up and looked for my phone. It was somewhere in the area because I could clearly hear it going off. Scrambling out from under the sheets, I ran towards the sound, which was coming from the bottom of my closet. Why is my phone in the closet? I wondered as I threw aside dirty clothes until I saw my phone lying on the floor.

“Hey mom. What’s up?”

“Are you okay? You sound like you were….up to something.”

“No. The phone ringing woke me up, that’s all.”

“Oh, well, I’m not gonna be home tonight. I have to stay at the office pretty much all night to work on this new case I was given.”

“Oh, alright. Do you think that I could have friends stay the night then?”

“Sure. Just don’t wreck the house.”

“Yes ma’am. Love you.”

“Love you too hun, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

Sweet! I had the house to myself, it was a Saturday afternoon, and the weather was nice. What would any irresponsible teen do? Throw a party, of course. What would a well-behaved and mature teen do? Who knows, because I’m not one of them… at least not on days like today. I sent a mass text to the guys and Amanda, telling them to come over immediately. We had some serious planning to do.

<->

“Alright, so Jack, you are in charge of getting people together. I trust you and Amanda together can do that, right?”

“Definitely! I mean, after all, I am one of the most popular guys at school!”

“Of course you are, Jack. Rian, Alex, are the two of you absolutely sure you can get a hold of enough alcohol for tonight?”

“Hey! You don’t doubt Jack, but you doubt us? Of course we can do it!”

“Okay, okay. Zack… I need you to get some kind of snacks for the people that like to stand off to the side and just do their own thing.”

“Mmkay, that I can do.”

“What about you Jerri-Berri? What are you gonna do?” Jack asked as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket.

“I’m going to get the music for the party together. Anybody have any preferences?”

“Dancey techno stuff!” was Jack’s reply.

“Some alternative would be nice,” Rian pitched in.

“I think that about covers it for all of us,” Alex said. I nodded and then watched everyone but Zack leave. He stood in the doorway watching me double check my list of things to do. I knew he was there but I acted like he wasn’t. I was on my way to being my normal self again, even if that meant ignoring Zack once more. Every move I made, he watched me. It felt like I was a gazelle in Africa being stalked by a fierce lion. The thought was a bit scary, to be honest.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you actually going to talk to me?”

“Sorry. Where are you going to get all of the music from? And what table are we going to use for beer pong?”

“Uhm… I suppose we could use one of the plastic picnic tables in the garage. They’re long enough, right? And the music… could you give me a ride to the music shop in town?”

“Yea, it’s not a problem. I have to go that way to get the snacks anyway.”

“Sweet. Now where did I leave my phone?”

“It’s in your pocket, Jerri.”

I frowned and reached into my pocket. Yep, there was my phone. I didn’t even remember putting it in there though. The next few minutes were spent by me running around the house trying to make sure I had my keys, purse, list and anything else I thought I might need. Zack had sat on the couch by this point and was laughing at how silly I looked. It had been a few years since I’d thrown a party like this and I wanted to make sure everything went according to plan. That meant having all valuables put away, and plenty of room for dancing imbeciles to dance. I had him help me push all of the furniture to the sides of the room so that there would be plenty of space.

“Do you think I should lock the bedroom doors?”

“Probably. Your mom’s room definitely needs to be locked or she’ll figure out you threw a party.”
I nodded and then went upstairs to lock both my door and hers. The last thing I wanted was finding some random couple doing it in my bed. There were so many things wrong with that picture. My mom’s spare bedroom key was on my keychain for tonight, as was the only key to my bedroom. It was safe to say that nobody would be getting into either of those rooms unless they went through a window or busted down the doors.

<->

And so the party begins, I thought as I watched all of the people filtering in through the front door. Being as OCD as I am, I had made a last minute run-through of the house to make sure there were no valuables still out. My mom would have a fit if any antiques were broken or stolen. Watching all of the people from school filtering into my house, I wondered if this had been a bad idea. I didn’t know half of these people and the ones I did know hardly ever talked to me even inside of school. But it was too late to turn back now.

Alex came up to me with two beers, one of which he handed to me before he draping an arm over my shoulder. He stood there beside me and we both watched people filtering into the house by the carloads. If people didn’t stop coming soon, I didn’t think there would be any room left in my house. I could hear Daft Punk playing in the living room, and there was the murmur of voices everywhere. “I think tonight is gonna be crazy,” I said as I took a sip of my beer.

Alex nodded and took a sip of his as well. “I believe you are right, m’dear. Here’s to a wonderful evening full of fun times and maybe some advances in relationships.”

“What’s that supposed to mean, Lex?”

“It means that some people tend to open up more to others when they drink,” he said with a wink before walking off and leaving me standing by the door looking confused. What the hell was that supposed to mean? I sighed and wandered towards the living room to see what was going on with everyone else. Most people were just having fun and dancing, though there were some that were standing to the sides watching. I stopped to talk to each of the loners for a few before going to check out the backyard.

There was a large group of people crowded around the table playing beer pong, which was to be expected. I found Jack and Amanda in that crowd and gave them both hugs. Amanda was jumping up and down like someone had given her monster. I looked at Jack and he gave me a sheepish smile.

“Fuck. Did you really give her monster Jack?”

“Yes. No. Maybe. Yea, maybe. Final answer!”

“Ugh, whatever. Just don’t do anything too crazy, alright Amanda?”

“You got it ma’am. Nothing crazy. I can do that!”

I walked away muttering under my breath. This night was already beginning to look crazy. As I walked towards the pool, which already had about ten people in it, I saw Zack watching me. I started to walk towards him when some random girl shoved past me and ran towards him. Her arms locked around his waist and she reached up to kiss him on the cheek. To say I was jealous was an understatement. I was furious. Who was this girl and why on earth was she at my party? He smiled and began talking to her, but I could see him looking at me over her head every few minutes.

Sighing, I turned back towards the pool and walked over to the shallow end, where I stuck my feet into the cold water. Unlike Zack’s parents, my mom didn’t find it necessary to heat our pool. But I suppose the cold felt good to the couples that were in there, since they were getting a bit hot in other ways. I looked down at the red cup in my hand and chugged it down. Now my dilemma was that I needed more beer. Alex showed up beside me with more beer and handed me one.

“What are you, the beer fairy?”

“No babe, I’m just making sure everyone is having a good time. Why do you look so glum? Your party is great and everyone else seems to be having a good time. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I just… nevermind, Lex. I don’t want to talk about it.”

He looked around the backyard and choked on his beer when he spotted Zack. I watched as his whole body stiffened and his face scrunched up angrily. Did he know the girl that was hanging all over Zack?

“Why that little whore… I oughta….ugh!” Apparently he did.

“Lex? Do you know her?”

“Know her? Yeah. I used to date her. Her name’s Riley. I broke up with her because she’s a clingy bitch who was trying to get Zack to fuck her while we were dating. Needless to say, I dumped her.”

I nodded and swallowed back some more beer as I watched her rubbing all up on Zack. It was pretty damn sick looking and I knew Zack wasn’t enjoying himself. He kept looking around for help, but nobody was coming to his rescue. Chuckling, I looked up at Alex. “Do you think I should go bail him out?”

“If you want. But the only way you’d be able to pull him away from her is if you pretend to be his girlfriend. Are you up to that task, young jedi?”

“Is that a challenge, Gaskarth?”

“I think it was.”

“Well, consider that challenge accepted.”

He laughed as I downed what was left of my second cup of beer. Standing up out of the pool, I plastered a smirk on my face and sauntered over to Zack. I thought the whole charade probably would have looked better if I’d been wearing heels with my skinny jeans and Goo Goo Dolls shirt. Nonetheless I walked up to Riley and Zack, clearing my throat when I was within hearing distance.

“Babe, who’s your friend?”

Zack looked at me like I was high, which I wasn’t. A bit drunk, yes. Riley turned to look at me with that possessive attitude most girls seem to get when they are around someone they like. She gave me a look that clearly said “Back off.” Zack looked between the two of us before clearing his throat. “Oh, right. Riley, this is my close friend Jericha. Jericha, meet Riley.”

“Close friend? Oh honey, we’re more than close friends. I guess the fact that we’re only newly a couple still throws you off huh? Anyway, pleasure to meet you Riley. Are you enjoying the party?”

I watched her face scrunch up in confusion as she looked between me and Zack. Something told me she didn’t believe this charade. Her eyes lit up like brown fire as she looked back at me. “I don’t believe it. Zack would never date someone like you. You’re too manly. Zack prefers the girly-girls.”

“Oh please, tell me you aren’t referring to girls like yourself all dressed up in your short dress with your boobs hanging out and heels that you could kill someone with.”

Zack laughed from behind me and I joined in before I could help myself. Riley wasn’t too happy with that response though and she made it very clear when she slapped me across my face. I put a hand up to where she had hit me and counted to three in my head before smiling. “Why are you smiling? I just fucking hit you bitch!”

“Honey, that wasn’t anything compared to what I could do to you. But I’m gonna be nice and let it go, since I’m having a good night,” I said as I wrapped an arm around Zack’s waist and kissed him gently on the lips. He smiled down at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, finally catching on. At least I hope he was catching on, because this was starting to feel more and more real to me. My cheek stung from when she had hit me and the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to hit her back.

Riley stood there glaring at me for a few more minutes, obviously at a loss for any words to say. But she finally turned and began to storm off, hopefully out of my house. Unfortunately, she spotted Alex and began to head towards him. Jack saw this and casually stepped back as she walked by, causing her to stumble and fall rather ungracefully into the pool.

“Well, that was amusing,” I said as I watched her bob to the surface with her makeup running down her face.

“Yeah… Jerri?”

“Hmm?”

“Did you mean that?”

I turned to look at Zack and wanted to tell him that no, I didn’t mean any of it. But he looked so hopeful and I didn’t want to be a killjoy and ruin his night. That being said, I plastered a smile on my face and looked down for a minute as I gathered my thoughts. “I… yeah, I meant it.”

“Does this mean what I think it does?”

“What do you think it means?”

“That you like me?”

I sighed and looked up at him. Of course I liked him, but he already knew this. I’m sure Jack had already told him what I’d said before about liking him. Then again, maybe Jack hadn’t and I was just assuming things. Now came one of those moments where I was at a loss for words. Honestly, I didn’t know how to reply to that question without giving away something that might hurt his feelings.

Zack saved me the trouble of having to answer when he leaned down and kissed me. It was gentle and sweet, just like the first kiss had been, but it was also anxious. When he looked down at me, I grinned and leaned up to kiss him again.

“What do you say we go inside and find somewhere to hide?” he asked.

I bit my lip and looked around. Alex, Jack and Amanda could take care of things, right? I knew Rian was inside keeping an eye on things, so I didn’t worry all that much about the house. This felt right though, being with Zack like this. So I nodded and lead the way upstairs to my bedroom, which I promptly unlocked. I kicked the door shut behind us before I was pressed up against it with Zack’s lips attached to mine.