The Singer and the Teacher

After all of the fans had finally left the venue, the smaller opening bands were packing up while the bigger bands waited for their roadies to load their gear. Derek was keeping me close, probably feeling a little threatened now that he knew someone like Alex would attempt to kiss me if he had the chance. Tamara had found me earlier saying that Nick's parents were coming to pick them up, so Derek and I took my car to the party.

"Are you ready to drink?" he asked, reaching from the passenger seat to put his hand on my thigh.

"As ready as I'm ever going to be," I said shyly. "If I start communicating to everyone in Greek, will you tell me?"

"Of course," he said, smiling.

"I haven't been drunk since college," I said, thinking back to those days. "My boyfriend at the time, Ian, was part of a fraternity and I was obligated to go to all of their parties."

"So you're a pro?"

"You could say that."

"You're going to have to prove that one," he said, shaking his head. "You're always so calm, I don't know if I could imagine you drunk."

"You'll see," I said, smirking. Other than my skill with languages, I didn't have a lot of talents, but I did know how to party responsibly.

We were either late or this party was started quickly. By the time I had pulled up to the huge, three-story house with the weeping willows in the front yard, people were streaming inside. Alex and Jack were on the front lawn waiting for us, drinks in their hands.

"About time!" said Alex, handing me a red cup with a mystery fruit drink. "Jungle juice, you'll love it."

"Thanks," I said before taking a sip. It was good, but whoever made it was more concerned about getting enough alcohol in there rather than making it taste good. "Let's go in."

* * *

Someone made the drinks way too strong. I'm not the smallest guy around, and I've had a little more than two drinks and can feel it getting to my head. I had already lost Adriene to a small group of girls, but they were an easy group to find. Just follow the noise. They danced together, sat and drank together and migrated together.

I found another drink and drained it as fast as I could. If she was going to be shit faced, this night was just going to be more fun if I was too. I refilled it and sat down before finishing that one.

"Deeeeeeerrrrreeeeeeek!!!" shouted Jack, stumbling over in my direction. "C'mon, le's dance. You and me need to show everybody what bromance is!"

"Hang on," I said, chugging the remainder of my drink and getting another one. I was going to regret this later. "Woo! Let's go!"

* * *

I was the center of attention since I was Derek's new girlfriend, but he and Jack stole the show with a very odd dance that would have looked really stupid if I wasn't drunk enough. I was, however, drunk enough to believe they were the best dancers in the world. He must have been pretty drunk too, because he was not walking very well towards me.

"Hey baby," he said, putting his arm around my shoulders.

"Hey," I said. "I wan' you to meet my new friends."

"Okay," he said, letting me lead him to the group of girls that I had been with all night long.

"These," I said, having a hard time speaking without a slur, "are my groupie friends. This is Natalie, Bridgett, Cassandra, Katura and Faye." The each waved in turn, and Derek waved back.

"You are sooo lucky, Adriene," said Cassandra, reaching over to grab my shoulder. "But we're still best friends, right?"

"Oh my God, Cassandra, yeah! Duh!" I said. "You and me, we're like this." I twisted my pointer finger and middle finger together.

"Ha ha! Oh my God, I know, right?!" We fell into a fit of giggles.

"Hey, hey ladies," said Derek, sitting down next to me. "What about me?"

"Did you know that if you touch him like this, he'll like it?" I told them as I reached up his shirt and ran my fingers up and down his torso. "Hey! Everybody try it. It's okay, I said it was okay." In a matter of seconds, there were six pairs of hands feeling Derek.

"Whoa, I am so missing out!" shouted Alex from the end of the hallway. "Wait for me!" He tried to run and knocked over a glass bowl that thankfully didn't break.

"Alex! You come, too! Derek is all alone," I said, sticking out my bottom lip and walking over to him. I put my hands on his hips where his pants rested and slowly ran my fingers up underneath his shirt. "Well? Are you gonna let Derek be all alone?"

"No, but I think Derek wouldn't mind if the three of us, uh, went somewhere quieter," he whispered, nipping at my ear. I looked over and Derek's shirt was missing and he seemed to enjoy being felt up by five different girls.

"Yeah, let's get him and go," I said, grabbing Alex's hand. "Derek, I want you to follow me!"

"Okay," he said, sitting up immediately and taking only a few seconds to look for his shirt before giving up and taking my other hand. "Where are we going?"

"Don't worry about it," I said, taking someone's mostly full drink for myself. "Let's do some shots first!"

"Yeeeeaaaahhhh!" whooped Alex from my right. "Derek, you found a partier!"

"Fuck yes I did!" said Derek from my left. We found someone who was sloppily pouring vodka shots and took them. "To whatever the fuck happens!" We toasted and threw them back, laughing so hard I can't believe we were able to do more shots.

* * *

It was the sun that woke me up. Adriene was wearing a big t-shirt and baggy jeans, Alex had a bra on and was spooning me from behind.

"God, I hate waking up like this," I groaned out loud. Chances were that we were jumping on the bed having a pillow fight, traded clothes and passed out. Then again, it could have been a lot nastier. I was sore everywhere, so my bet was the pillow fight. I climbed over Alex and wrapped my arms around Adriene. She was wearing Alex's shirt and my pants, explaining why I had Alex's pants and he had his boxers and Adriene's bra.

She never let me cuddle with her in her sleep, mostly because she would fall asleep and kick me. She didn't seem to mind now, but she probably had a worse hangover than me. She knitted her eyebrows together and moaned quietly before rolling over to hide her face in my chest.

"Owie," she whined quietly, pulling her knees into her chest. "That was dumb."

"I agree."

"What the fuck happened last night?" she asked, sitting up very slowly. When she saw Alex, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Why does he have my bra on?"

"He probably thought it would make him look sexier," I said, shaking my head. "Don't worry, I don't think you were ever actually naked."

"You don't think?" she said, sounding a little irritated. "Where are we anyway?"

"This is your apartment," I said, remembering enough to know where we went after we left the party. "We drove our drunken selves here somehow. I'm afraid to see how your car is parked though."

"Theé mou , den eímai poté xaná pósimo," she cursed. "Káno̱ pánta káti i̱líthio..." She got up and left the room, still ranting to herself in Greek. I could recognize the difference between her many languages now, and Greek was her favorite. Even when she was angry she was still beautiful, especially as she was constantly pulling my pants up so they wouldn't fall to her knees.