The Party

Alé calls Scott up on his phone and puts him on speaker. I can hear Scott exclaiming as I walk in the room with my bowl of Fruity Pebbles.

“What, you’re actually coming to party!? What the hell is the sudden change, last big party I remember seeing you at was Leah’s summer bash after graduation. . . Man you haven’t partied in about four years, you ready to get absolutely fucked up?!?!”

Alé takes my spoon and scoops cereal into his mouth, mumbling about Scott still having a high school jock’s mentality.

Alé chuckles lightly, “not really. It’s more of showing Vica the way you animals party.”

Scott tells Alé the address and how it’s about an hour and forty or so minutes to get there, but it’s supposed to be the best place to be for New Year’s. He says there is a code for the gate that we’re going to be stopped by and tells Alé the four digits. Scott’s way too excited and far more surprised that we are coming.



We have to drive thirty minutes from our house to be lead down a rocky bumpy dirt road that stops at a tall heavy duty electric fence preventing us from going any further. You could set off an explosion out here and there’d be no one to complain. Once we get past the gate, the road becomes smooth and quiet and it’s an hour of nothing but smooth road, green shrubbery, the warmth of Alé’s hand on mine and the bass, saxophones and piano on the Jazz station playing softly out of the car speakers.

The road forks ahead and to the right a sign reads, “Guest Parking,” so we take that road. About five minutes down this road leads to a slew of fancy cars, old timey and brand new all shiny and detailed. The parking spots are on the grass with logs dividing cars into horizontal rows.

“There are about sixty cars out here,” I’m overwhelmed.

Alé continues to drive until he finds the next available space and pulls in. “I’m sure a lot of people are carpooling or were chauffeured here in limos too.”

That makes my heart swell even more, Alé puts the car in park and the lights in the car illuminate. He sees the worried look on my face and reaches over resting his hand on my thigh.

“Sweetheart, you look amazing, you are amazing and no one is going to judge you I swear. These people are too full of themselves to even notice anything besides the latest and greatest thing they can buy to decorate their empty lives,” he sounds miffed.

“Are you sure that you are okay with going?”

He nods and then shrugs, “yeah. I’m not leaving since I drove all the way out here, may as well try to enjoy myself with you.

I take a deep breath to calm my nerves, cool I’ll go unnoticed and everything will be fine. . . I close my eyes and then flutter them back open.

“Do I look okay in my outfit? I probably shouldn’t have worn a jumpsuit right? All the other women are going to be in ball gowns aren’t they?”

“Look at me,” he holds my face in his hands. He gives me an adorable smile and says, “Just be yourself and also I’ll be with you. I don’t care for any of these people except Scott. But if Scott’s been here for a while I’m sure he’s already down by now feeling sick and not wanting to talk. So you know what? Fuck them.”

I smile we kiss and walk along the grass path leading to this humungous beautiful mansion that is thudding with music covered by a vibrating projection of a white background and black numbers telling the time, it is 9:45.

Ale’ starts to knock, but then soon realizes no one will be able to hear his knock so opens the door that leads to a vault of deafening music and we let ourselves in. People are everywhere dressed in black and gold suits and sequin ball gowns and on their faces are extravagant masquerade masks. Some are decorated heavily in feathers; others look like demons and are kind of scary but all are really cool in their own way. We’re being showered in flakes falling from the ceiling of what is most likely real gold. A golden disco ball twirls and shimmers the golden light around the whole room. Feet are decorated across every inch of the wide floor all the way to people going up and down the stairs, a crowd walking through the swinging door and others going outside and disappearing behind other doors. Men and women dressed in suits offer us champagne and shrimp as Ale’ and I walk by hand in hand, him leading. Ale’s turned down three drinks and I accepted the second in order to not be asked again. Ale’ seems a little annoyed to be here, but then we hear his name yelled from across the way, I notice the music has been turned down a little bit.

“Aléjandro!” a tall spiky haired blonde guy walks up to us with a big polished smile and a raven’s long beak mask curving out from his face.

“Hey man,” the guy yanks Ale’ into a hug, patting him on the back. I don’t know who it is until he releases Ale’ and removes his mask.

It’s Bill, I only met him once. He turns to me, “I haven’t seen you in a long while, how you been?”
Before I can answer he’s already turned back to Ale’ offering a drink and saying something about how it’s a lot better than the cheap champagne they’re giving out.

Of course Ale’ says no, but a drink gets crammed into his hand anyway. They dive into business talk and so I get in Ale’s ear and whisper that I’m going to look around. “Hold on, if you’ll excuse me one sec,” Ale says to Bill and he turns to me, we take a few steps back. “Are you sure? He asks. “I mean, I’ve never been here so I have no clue where anything is, I wouldn’t know where to find you and I don’t know any of these people.”

I smile, I don’t think he wants to be alone with Bill, but I don’t want an earful of financial jargon all night. Ale’ loves that stuff which is why he loves his job and his dad loves him so I don’t want to take him away from this intriguing conversation.

“Well, we both know where the front door is and we both have our phones so I’ll just call you and if I want to meet up with you. I’ll find my way to the front door and call you if I don’t see you. And if I’m afraid I’ll yell out, Stranger Danger!”

He doesn’t laugh at my joke. “Honey, how long do you plan on taking off?” he’s a little surprised by my new ways of life and exploration.

“I don’t know, not long. I don’t get to see this stuff every day. I’m just curious. . .”

He sighs, “come back soon, I’d walk around with you, but Bill brought up some really good points about th-”

I shake my head and hurriedly say “I know baby, that’s why I’m not asking you to come.”

I plant a kiss on his pouting lips and he kisses me back before turning back around to Bill. I suck in a quick breath, check for my phone inside of my purse have a miniature heart attack because I don’t see it and then pat my pockets to find it’s in my jumpsuit pocket. That’s a better place to have it I guess, I’ll be able to feel it vibrate if I can’t hear it ring. I go deeper into the room. Over to the side close to the wall where I could not see is a DJ dancing and mixing behind his whole set up and he is really blasting out. I find my way through the masked crowd to the wall that is just glass doors leading to the outside. Man, I’m surprised they haven’t shattered yet I twist the knob and go out.

When I turn around from closing the door, a man in a suit carrying drinks is towering over me and he offers me one. I consider taking it because the champagne isn’t so great anymore.

“Can we trade?” I ask pointing between the glass he’s offering and my own.

He gives me a nervous smile and nods, it’s almost as if he isn’t allowed to talk.

He walks back inside with the drinks. I take a sip of the drink and it’s really sweet, mixed with something. . . I’m not too sure about different types of alcohol, I don’t drink very much but this is tasty. There is a tall water fountain made of glass or ice or something transparent, I don’t know I can’t get too close to it because people are crowded around that too. The temperature is a lot cooler outside than inside, not as many people have their masks on out here. I walk over to the shrub fence and look out to see a maze of green shrubbery, I would get so lost down there. There’s a woman wearing a gold shimmery mask cackling really loud in my right ear and I turn to see some man is nibbling at her neck and she just wants the whole world to view it. I catch someone’s eye behind a mask after we’ve both looked away from the laughing woman and hold eye contact for longer than I intend.

After my gaze is dropped by this person who has stalked off, I feel I’ve been read all the way up and down and that’s when I hurry back inside. Wow that was weird, almost uncomfortable.

I see more people tripping their way upstairs and stumbling down, these people are hammered. I navigate through the crowd trying to stay close to the wall and head upstairs to see what’s up there. I’m shocked to see topless women in short black miniskirts with black bowties around their bare necks and bowties wrapped in their hair to make ponytails. They’re serving more drinks and little desserts. There’s a room with smoke billowing out of it, but before my curiosity can pull me further into the room, the weight on my bladder catches my attention first.

“Wow,” I mumble to myself, “didn’t know I had to pee so badly.”

I stumble into a door, “shit, drunker than I thought too.”

I push the door open to be let into a wide open room, like the washroom before you get to the actual toilets in the mall. I almost expect someone to come out holding moist toilettes and peppermints. The floral wallpaper makes me a little queasy, or maybe it was that drink which is now just an empty glass. I set it on the counter and it makes a clanking sound. Then what seems to be at a snail’s pace I make it over to the other door that leads to some bathroom stalls. Who the hell has this kind of set up inside of their house?

I get to the stall and plop down onto the toilet. I can’t seem to remember how to pee so I sit there for what seems like 15 minutes and then finally hear and feel the urine trickling out of me and into the toilet. Then I hear a brrring sound go off that comes out of nowhere, but I try to pay it no mind.

Sure I’m done, I stand up from the toilet and my eyes slip closed, God it seems with every minute that passes I get more lethargic.

I start nodding and leaning forward, but I catch myself on the door then there’s a little sound that goes off again buzzing against my ankle. It scares me a little and I reach down pulling my panties and jumpsuit up and on, stuffing my fingers into my pocket in a hurry to find out what it is. Oh, it’s my phone! Ale’s name is on the screen and with every power in my body I try to drag my thumb across the screen to answer but then the call ends, ‘Ale Missed Call’ it reads. I start to have a panic attack because I desperately want to talk to Ale’ and then the phone lights up again, playing the same tune. I’m able to get my pinky across the screen and I put the phone up to me to hear him say, “hello?”

“He- hel,” is all I can manage to get out.

“Vivica?”

Snot’s starting to dribble out of my nose, and I hear Ale’ on the other end continuing to call out my name.

My tongue feels too thick to use for talking, “Al- I don’t kno-”

My phone slips from my hand and drops into the toilet.

Fuck!