Misguided Ghosts

I sat in a ball on my bed, waiting for my tea to cool down a bit. I had no intentions of going to work today. I just didn't feel good. I didn't want to move. Not to fix my hair that was still damn from my shower, not to put makeup on my face, not to breathe some fresh air. I just wanted to be alone. The only thing that motivated me was seeing how dead and depressed I looked. I took a long, deep breath and stood up to find my purple makeup bag. I took my hair band and tied my hair up into a bun, that sat messily atop my head.

I did my makeup simple today. With some moisturizer, followed by my liquid powder foundation. I colored in my eyebrows and brushed my lashes with two different mascaras. I put on some black shorts and an oversized black knit-sweatshirt and my red Converse. I needed to check my mail - I haven't checked it in over a week.

I skipped my way down the steps to David's, the manager of the complex, office.

"Have I got any mail?" I let myself into his open door.

"Ramona. Haven't seen you in awhile.." I smiled at me. I gave him a half smile. "Mail for Ramona." he talked to himself a lot. "Ah-hah!" he handed me two envelopes. My room bill and my cell phone bill. I rolled my eyes and thanked him.

I exited his office, looking down at my envelopes when I walked into a room's door. "Fuck!" I yelled, rubbing my forehead. I probably looked as stupid as ever. Not stupid enough, I guess, because the door hit something and came back to hit me again. I stopped it with my hand.

"Woah! Are you alright?" a young man came from behind the door.

"Yeah... I'm sorry. I wasn't watching where I was going." I tried to brush it off and walk away.

"I'm Jeremy by the way." he smiled and offered me a hand to shake. I shook it and he had a grip on him.

"Ramona." I released my hand. "You're new here aren't you?" I gave up on my escape.

"Yeah.." he chuckled a little. "Just moved in yesterday. Last night." He corrected himself.

"Well it's nice to meet you Jeremy." I gave him a smile and made my way past him to the stairs.

I had no intention of going into work tonight. I knew the complex was having a party so I'd stay in and get hammered, let myself relax a little. It's been awhile. I spent the rest of my after noon mostly reading a book I'd picked up about a month ago, and I got fast-food hamburgers from a family owned joint down the street at about 4:30.

It started to get dark at around 7:00 maybe? I'm not sure, I started drinking at six. I started myself off with a small glass of the Adios Motherfucker. That one there was a bad boy. I planned on making myself Sex on the Beach for the rest of the night. I changed my sweatshirt into a grey tank top that was a little loose. By 7:30 I joined the people who had come to the center of the complex by the pool. There was a band and a lot of drunk people.

I went and stood next to Amanda, she hated being called that, she preferred Mandy. She had a red cup in her hand and she was cheering on the dude who was going to jump in the pool off the second floor.

"Mandy! Hey." I said super friendly. Drinking makes me extremely friendly and lovable.

"Oh my gosh! Ramona! I haven't seen you in forever!" she smiled when she saw that I had a red cup in my hand as well. "Cheers bitch!" she tapped her cup against mine and downed whatever was in her cup. I did the same, finishing off the last 3/4 of what was in my cup?

"What are you drinking?" I spoke over the music.

"Beer." she rolled her eyes. "Some new kid gave it to me."

"Come to my room. I'm making sex on the beach." I took her arm and lead her up the stairs, slightly running.

I fixed us up two drinks and we made our way back down to the party. We made small talk about how we've been and such and she got lost in the crowd talking to Brian, who I know she only flirts with when she's drunk. I chugged at my drink and found Jeremy standing in front of me when I lowered my cup from my face.

"Hey there, newbie." I smiled at him.

"Hi Ramona." he smiled and waved sheepishly.

"Enjoying yourself?" I tried to make this as least awkward as possible.

"Yeah! I didn't know so many people came to this complex for these." it was hard to hear him over the music.

"Shit. These are some of the best parties I've ever been to." I looked around at the liveliness around us. Realizing I had nothing but a sip left in my cup I asked him if he wanted one of what I was having.

"What've you got?"

"Sex on the Beach. Come on I'll make you one." I hollered over my shoulder already making my way back to my room. I didn't now if he was following behind me. I didn't really care.

I opened my room door and made my way across the room to the counter top where I had my liquor set out. I heard footsteps behind me which showed me he did follow me. I mixed up two drinks on ice and handed Jeremy his.

"Thanks!" he took a seat on the edge of my bed. I smiled and sat on the sofa to the side of my bed. I was a little bothered that he welcomed himself onto my bed and didn't go back to the party.

He took a sip of the drink and placed his cup on the table next to the sofa, and took a seat next to me. "So I see you're place is al decked out. How long have you lived here?" he wiped some liquid from his upper lip.

"A little over six months. Its cool here. Most people are friendly. We kind of all live here. It's actually like a complex." I shrugged before taking a swig of my drink.

"What brought you here?" he questioned to curiously.

I sighed, a little annoyed. "To be a bartender first of all, which I am. I fucking love my job. But I also wanted to be a tattoo artist. Reality backhanded me and it's now just like a small hobby I guess." I tried to keep it short.

"Are you any good at it?" he bugged.

"Obviously not. You barely made that drink I made you.

He laughed as he grabbed his drink from the side-table. "I meant at tattoos girl."

"Uhh... I like to think so. Most of my arm work was done by myself. Free-hand mostly." I reached my arms out to show him.

"Damn, that's tight." he examined my arms. "Alright, watch this. We're gunna race to see who can finish their drink first. If I win you tat me up for free; if you win, you name your price."

"I don't know. I think we should get a more challenging competition going on." I suggested, deviously.

"I got it. It's hilarious. Me and my sister used to play this all the time." he clapped his hands and stood up. I followed his lead. "Ok we're gunna need a lot of shot glasses and your favorite liquor."

I brought out 10 shot glasses and a bottle of Pineapple Skyy vodka.

"We're gonna need tape." he added.

"What the fuck?" I was so confused.

"Just trust me." he smirked at me.

I found a roll of scotch table in the table next to my bed and handed it to him.

"Ok the object of the game is to finish as many shots as you can first, but you have to tape your nose upward like a pig." he started to cut off big strips of tape.

"Fuck." I laughed. I poured 5 shots for each of us and grabbed two more just in case, filling those up as well. I took the tape from the already pig-looking Jeremy and taped my nose up to my forehead. I took my hair band and threw my hair up into a bun. I was ready to win this. Jeremy was already laughing at me. I tried to keep my cool but it was hilarious.

We sat down at my table with the shot glasses in front of us. On the count of three we both started throwing them back, laughing so hard, trying not to choke or spill the vodka. After Jeremy's fourth shot he couldn't take it anymore, and he tapped out. I took my last shot and stood in victory. That was a mistake, I got dizzy and lost my balance landing my ass on the floor. I was dying laughing.

It felt like a good three or four minutes had passed while I was still laughing. It was getting to be ridiculous so I tried to gather myself, standing up and brushing my clothes off when it all happened so quickly. Jeremy leaned his face into mine as if he were about to kiss me. I sped up the process and bought his lips to mine with a pull at his head.

I knew I shouldn't be doing this. I have commitment issues and the kid lives in the same complex as me. But it just came so natural to me. I don't know if it was all the alcohol or what. I could hear the music from just outside of my room, booming through the walls and windows. We started to undress eachother as we made way to my bed.



"You should go." I started to pull my sweater I wore earlier that day over my head.

Jeremy looked at me with nothing but confusion on his face. The poor kid looked like he had done a terrible job.

I searched my head for a quick lie to excuse me kicking him out. "I have a lot of shit to get done tomorrow... Really early." I pressed my lips together and stood up, making my way to the door.

"Oh. Yeah no problem." Jeremy scratched at his hair and stood up, pulling is fitted grey t-shirt over his beautifully sculpted body. "Tonight was amazing, thank you for it." he smiled and kissed my cheek.

I closed the door behind him and made my way to my bed.