Let Love In

“Guess what, Noah, I have a surprise for you.” Riley’s sing-song voice made Noah groan, bringing back memories of previous times she’d heard that phrase. “Oh c’mon, you’ll like this. Trust me.”

“Uh huh…” Noah gave her friend a sideways skeptical glance. Riley rolled her eyes, walking past her into the formal dining room, heading straight for the china cabinet.

“Hmm… let’s see. We’re going to need this one, aaaaannndddd… this one.” Riley selected two antique tea cups off the top shelf and walked right past a confused Noah, heading for the stairs. “Well, come on then.”

Noah followed her friend up the stairs and back toward her room confused as to what the teacups were for, but intrigued nonetheless. Riley locked the door behind them before digging through her bag, pulling out a glass bottle of whiskey, shaking it in the air in front of her.

“Courtesy of my older sister. She said if we were going to drink this, we had to be classy about it, and this was the best I could come up with.” She poured some for each of them and handed a tea cup to Noah. “I’ve decided that classy girls drink whiskey out of tea cups. Cheers!”

Noah laughed at her friend before sipping on hers. Riley pulled out a mix cd from her bag and popped it in the stereo, turning up the music and dancing around obnoxiously to a childhood favorite of theirs they knew by heart. The two quickly forgot about any boy drama for a while, enjoying their nostalgic dance party while sipping on whiskey in their fancy tea cups. Soon after came a chick flick movie marathon, and the end of the bottle was in sight. The two easily finished off the bottle, their moderately sober state bringing heaps of gratuitous laughter at the smallest things, but neither girl cared.

“Uhh Riley, s-s-somebody drank all of our w-whiskey.” Noah held the bottle upside down, shaking out the last few drops into her tea cup with an over-emphasized sad expression.

“Oh, oh, oh! H-hold up! I got this covered!” Riley stumbled over to her bag and dug out a second bottle. “I-I came p-prepared.” The lid quickly came off the bottle, and the tea cups refilled. “P-pinky out. Classy ladies s-stick their pinky out.” Riley giggled a sloppy apology as some splashed onto Noah’s hand, setting the bottle carefully back onto the desk.

The sound of Noah’s phone ringing broke through the room, causing yet another batch of gratuitous laughter as Noah claimed she couldn’t remember where her phone was. Both searched the room in all the wrong places, throwing the pillows, blankets, and sheets up in the air as they moved them out of the way. With no luck by the fifth ring, they fell onto the pile of blankets and pillows on the now unmade bed.

“Ehh, if it’s important, they’ll leave a m-message, and I’ll just check it in the morning. I’m o-over it.” Noah shrugged her shoulders, clearly not bothered by her missed call. The two went back to watching their abandoned movie marathon, attempting to calm down after noticing the clock read 2:15 am.

A little while later as the two started to doze off, Riley’s phone rang from the desk. “T-that’s John’s ringtone…” She held an arm out toward the desk a few feet away without bothering to otherwise move, attempting to will the phone toward her. Noah rolled her eyes and after the third ring, stumbled across the carpet toward the phone, throwing it Riley.

“H-hey baby, w-what’s up?” Riley giggled into the phone, sitting up to take another sip of her whiskey. “Oh shit, whoops…” She laughed, staring at Noah, pulling her phone away from her face. “Th-that was Garrett calling, and apparently he th-thinks you’re” Riley giggled in response to John’s muffled voice Noah heard coming from the phone. “Th-that you’re mad at him for not answering.”

Noah slapped her forehead and a few slurred choice words slipped from her lips as she stumbled around to look for her phone.

“We’re h-having a girl’s night…” Riley continued to giggle at whatever John was saying through the phone, warranting a few whispered responses that Noah was sure she didn’t want to hear. “J-just whiskey in tea cups… Because classy girls drink whiskey in tea cups, th-that’s why… Psh, you know you wish you were here baby, d-don’t even deny it…” Noah rolled her eyes at Riley’s one-sided conversation and giggled to herself as she steadied herself on her hands and knees on the floor, continuing to look for her phone.

“I f-found it!” Noah half squished her head under the bed to see it knocked behind the bed frame by the wall, focusing her movements to grab her phone. She struggled with the keyguard, connecting to her voicemail after seeing a missed call and voicemail from Garrett. She laid there on the floor staring at the ceiling, listening to Garrett’s equally slurred voice laced with concern and worry as he muttered a sincere apology. Noah knew he was sincere because Garrett slurred the word “sincerely” every third word before sorry after sorry, and he hoped she wasn’t mad, and he feels sincerely horrible for not calling her more often, and he can’t wait to see her. Noah smiled at his message, pressing nine to save the message before downing another cup or two of whiskey and returning his call.

“G-gary, I’m s-sorry I didn’t answer before, I’m not m-mad atchu, I p-promissse.” She flopped back onto the foot of the bed, giggling when he immediately started apologizing yet again. “H-have you been drink-drinking Garrett? You seem to be s-slurring your words, baby.” She giggled, not really knowing what she was saying.

“Kenny and John have been pumping w-whiskey and tequila shots into my veins tonight at the hotel we’re s-staying at. Just cuttin' loose, a-and Imma not a big fan of b-beer so they said t-this was the next best thing.”

“Riley did the same thing, I w-wonder where she got the idea from…” Noah grabbed one of the pillows within reach and threw it at Riley, who was still giggling and muttering into the phone. “I bet they’re in on it together somehow. Oh j-jeez.” Noah rolled her eyes, and sat up to reach for her tea cup. “I c-can’t wait to see you in less than two w-weeks, Gary.”

“I know, I-I’m looking forward to it. I wish I could s-see you sooner, baby.” Noah giggled at him calling her baby. As simple as it was, him calling her baby reassured her a little bit more of what they had, and it may have been the whiskey talking, but she took another sip and slurred out a sloppy “I lahve youuu babyyy…” before giggling for no obvious reason.

“Oh y-you do, d-do you? Uhh, w-well baby, I’ll say it right b-back then. I l-lahve…” Noah heard mumbling in the background and a sarcastic “f-fuck you John,” before he cleared his throat. “S-sorry. Uhh, I miss you so much baby, I w-wish you lived closer so I could see you more. C-come to our s-show tomorrow night. It’s in V-vegas which is only a four hour drive from LA.”

“Y’know babe, I m-might. It’s the weekend, hell, why not?” Noah sat up and looked over at Riley. “Yo, R-Ri, Garrett invited us to go to the show in Vegas tomorrow. Wanna go? It’s only four hours away.” Riley nodded enthusiastically and quickly told John they would be there tomorrow night. Noah knew this new found feeling of reckless abandonment and adventure was the whiskey talking, but she didn’t care. She wanted to see Garrett, and he wanted to see her, and that was good enough for her.

Noah could feel her body crashing as she whispered into the phone, “Oh-okay baby, it’s l-late and I’m t-tired, but I’ll see you tomorrow. Lahveyouu baby.”

“I can’t wait. See you tomorrow baby.”

Noah giggled mid-yawn and disconnected the phone, tossing it on the night stand and throwing herself against the pillows at the head of the bed.

“S-so, apparently Garrett loves me? W-wow.” Noah broke the silence after stared at the ceiling for a few minutes, taking a few deep breaths. She looked over at Riley who was half asleep in the same position.

“Wow. T-that’s, um, that’s big. G-good for you guys. I can’t wait to see the guys tomorrow.” Riley mumbled through a yawn. “We seriously just w-went through t-two bottles of whiskey, didn’t we. That’s like, a bottle for each of us. H-how are we even coherent righ’ n-now?”

“I don’t even kn-now.” Noah mumbled as her eyelids grew heavy, sleep crashing over her.