Was this written from the start?

This is something experimental I wrote a year ago. About a party and how quick things can turn ugly. (I promise I can be happier!) Note: there is swearing.

There’s nothing more satisfying than after months of hard work being able to have just one night to relax. Unfortunately, relax isn’t the word that comes to mind looking back on last night. Don’t get me wrong it didn’t start badly; in fact it could have gone either way, but the strange thing about life is that the small decisions lead to the big decisions and if you get the big decisions wrong then people get hurt. From experience, it seems the wrong decisions are made more often when loud music and beer are involved.

 

The three of us got out of the car, gathered our toy guns and swords and said thanks to Kyle’s dad for the lift as the car rumbled along the gravel. Each of us looked at one another again in hilarity at the outfits we were wearing; Tiffany in her cowgirl costume, short skirt, pistol holsters and fake spurred boots, Kyle in his knight’s armour without the chainmail but with a light plastic helmet and myself in a spy suit including goggles (which got annoying quickly).

“I still think you should have worn a cape,” said Tiffany.

Kyle scrunched his face up. “I kind of wished I had now...”
I let out a loud laugh and put my hand underneath my black shirt. Tiffany and Kyle gave me a smiling shocked face.

“You haven’t...” I pulled out a red cape which flailed in the summer breeze, “You have!”

Kyle took the cape off me and tied it around his neck as I smiled smugly.

“You know me too well,” chuckled Kyle.

“Can we just get inside, it’s chilly out here,” complained Tiffany, rasping her hands around her bare arms.

We walked inside the bar and to our relief we weren’t the only ones in costume. All manners of outfits were on display ranging from hobbits to Jedi, pirates to ninjas and nurses to soldiers. There were a couple who had chosen casual clothes, but they would enjoy the evening as much as the rest of us.

“Hey!” called one of the fore mentioned soldiers, “Vince, Tiff, Kyle, over here!”

We waded our way across the empty dance floor and out through the open doors onto the garden patio (which I think had seen better summers) where everyone was waiting for us.

“Mel, I didn’t think you were getting here until later,” said Kyle.

Mel gave an unconvincing laugh. “Well, you know how the parents can be sometimes.” Everyone responded with an exaggerated nod and then soon split off into separate conversations. Tiffany went off to talk to Cassie, Keighley and the rest of the girls, whilst the guys and I went to speak to the lads who were already stood with pints of orange and gold.

“Hey everyone!” greeted Kyle.

“Eurgh...”
“Eurgh?! Why is everyone looking so glum?”

The group looked down into their cups that would lead them to relief from their old pains, or help them seek new pains.

“Look, I know this year’s been hard, and I know we’re all tired of some of the crap that’s gone on this year, but all of that can be erased in one evening if you just play your cards right,” said Kyle with a burning passion that was filling the cups of each individual with hope, “So come on guys, let’s remain optimistic and let our cups remain full!”

Mel tapped me on the back and took us away from the group, back inside to the bar.

“So Vince, remember how you said you would help me tonight?”
My mind wandered for a bit, recalling something along those lines. “Yeah of course mate, what do you want help with?” and then he went awkward, which was unlike Mel.

“Oh, it’s a girl?”

He looked at me for a long while, smirked and then turned to the bartender.

“Beer me,” he commanded with that swagger Mel was known for and I laughed, partly at his ridiculous confidence and partly because he got served.

“So who is it?” I asked.

“Tiff,” he replied, almost sorrowfully.

“You think she’s out of your league?”

The bartender came back with Mel’s drink and he quickly took a large gulp from his cup, making that refreshed “aah” sound when he finished. I signalled for a drink.

“No, it’s not that. With every other girl I’ve tried to pull they didn’t know a single thing about me.”

I put a fiver on the bar, ready to pay for our drinks.

“It’s Tiff, you two get along great and I’m sure she would give you a chance. Plus she’s been looking for a guy ever since that d****e Jack treated her badly.”
“Yeah, but, she’s been acting a little weird recently. You must have noticed it.” (I had but I didn’t think anything of it at the time).

“It doesn’t matter, it’s never stopped you before,” I paused. I needed one sentence of inspiration, “Don’t think of her as Tiffany, think of her as a stranger, use your confidence to your advantage and sweep her off her feet like you would anyone else.”

Mel took another large gulp from his cup, almost a third of the way through his drink now.

“Okay, you can come with me, I think she’s with Keighley at the moment and I know you two will want some time together,” we began to move back outside, “So here’s the plan, us four, you, me, Tiff and Keighley, will hang together for a bit and then when I slap you on the arse, you leave me and her alone.”

“Slap me on the arse? Why do you...oh hey girls.”

A flaw had arisen in our plan, for it wasn’t just Tiffany the cowgirl and Keighley the, dare I say it, sexy nurse, but Cassie the nurse, as well, was also with them.

“Hey Vince, Mel, how do you like our costumes?” asked Cassie, posing in a way that most guys would find attractive.

“You all look stunning as ever ladies,” replied Mel, staring up and down Tiffany’s tanned legs (I wonder if he knew how obvious he was making it).

“Oooh, the other girls have arrived, I’ll be right back darlings,” said Cassie, walking as quickly as her heels would take her. (I forgot about that piece of luck)

As soon as she was out of earshot, “So guys, we were wondering if we could get your help with something?” asked Tiffany.

“Sure, anything!” replied Mel, a little too eccentrically.

“Well, you all know that Cassie likes Kyle right? (He wouldn’t admit it, but I think even Kyle knew Cassie liked her) Well, we need some help getting them two together, like alone on the dance floor. Can you help?”
“Sure, just give us the signal.” This was certainly turning into a night of matchmaking, when all I wanted to do was spend the evening with my match.

“Keighley, you’re quiet tonight,” I said, “Anything the matter?”
“No, everything’s fine,” she said in a sarcastic voice as she turned her head away.

“Oh!” I blurted, “Keighley, you look beautiful tonight. Of course I don’t need to tell you that.”

She continued to look away for a bit and then smiled. “Aww you’re so whipped.”

Mel made the whipping sound, which seemed ironic to me.

“Haha and I wouldn’t have it any other way,” I said as we hugged, which I heard Tiffany “aww” at.

“So Tiff,” began Mel, “Maybe I can buy you a drink?” He was straight in there, and I worried that he had showed his hand too early through nerves.

“Sure I’d love one.”

I felt a gentle pat on my arse as a grinning Mel walked passed, which finally left Keighley and I alone. Unfortunately, Keighley being Keighley had girlfriends she needed to attend to and I dejectedly looked down at the ground when I heard her name being screamed in a flurry of high pitched squeals.

“We’ll have some time later on the dance floor, trust me.” She kissed me on the cheek and ran off to her friends, as I walked away to the edge of the garden and took my goggles off (They were extremely annoying). I had been here only twenty minutes and already so much had happened and there was potential for so much more to happen. Potential for a good night. However, potential can sometimes be wasted, and I remember thinking that exact thought.

“Hey Vince!” called Kyle with two pints in his hand, but he tripped and one of those pints launched in the air. He looked dismayed, but quickly shrugged it off and came over to me.

“Vince, what are you doing over here? You should be on the dance floor with Keighley!”

I pointed to a group of excited girls.

“Oh, haha, fair enough.”
Then there was a silence, because he had nothing to say, and I was quietly contemplating how to get him and Cassie together. Amongst the group of girls, I saw Cassie beginning to break away. Simplicity is normally the best way.

“Come on.” I grabbed him by the arm (sadly for me, the one holding the beer as it splashed on my sleeve) and dragged him to where Cassie was.

“Hey Cassie,” she looked upset, “You okay?”

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he eyes were welled up with tears, “Tara’s cat was run over today.”

(Yeah...)
“Oh that’s terrible,” my acting skills weren’t up to scratch, but I discretely nudged Kyle, “Right Kyle?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, it’s terrible,” his feigned interest would have to do for now.

“Well, I’ve got to head off quickly, but Kyle, you’ll look after Cassie right?”
“Yeah sure...”
“Thanks Kyle,” said Cassie, cheering up a little as Kyle returned with an awkward smile. For as long as I was in earshot of them, not a word was spoken between the pair.

Keighley was still occupied by her girlfriends, but I thought I would attempt to break her away from the pack.

“Hey girls.”
“HI VINCE!” they yelled back at me.

“How are you all?”
“AWESOME!” they yelled back once more, jumping up and down. (I couldn’t help noticing some had chosen to go without bras)

“Great, great,” I turned to Keighley, “Can I buy you a drink?”

“Sure,” she replied, turning her back on me to talk to one of her girlfriends.

“What do you want?”
“Whatever.”

I walked towards the bar, stopping on the way to talk to a few of my distant friends who I probably wouldn’t stop to talk to if I saw them in the street. That’s the beauty of parties though, anything goes.

I think about fifteen minutes had passed since I said to Keighley I would get her a drink, and I began to panic a little. When I did finally make it to the bar, I ordered an alcopop and turned to see she already had a drink in her hand. Part of me was happy that she was attended to by one of her girlfriends, but another part of me was angry at myself that it wasn’t me that had gotten her the drink like I said I would. Rather than face Keighley’s wrath, I decided to go back outside, but out the front rather into the garden.

The sky was dark and the stars began to twinkle faintly. I swigged at my bottle in silence as no one else seemed to be outside, which surprised me, as there’s normally one couple who can’t keep their PDA down to a low enough scale inside, and so have to escape from the sweaty disco warmth inside to the dry naturally coldness outside where together they can create their own saliva induced heat. I was partially right...no one seemed to be outside, but I heard some whispers from around the wall which told me otherwise. Normally, I would have let it go, and I was about to go back inside before things got awkward, but things got awkward before I could do anything.

“Wow Tiff, this is amazing.”
“It gets better,” and she giggled in a way I’ve never heard Tiffany giggle before. It was a sexy, flirty giggle. Then I heard a zip which I can only assume was going down.

“Tiff, I didn’t know you could be so hot,” but she didn’t reply.

At that point, I broke free from my frozen shock state and got back inside. Walking back through the crowd, the horrifying image of what I couldn’t see crippled my brain into submission. I found myself unable to concentrate on what was going on around me and I can only assume I looked drunk to my friends. Somehow I had made it back out into the garden, where I saw a very angry looking Kyle slumped on the ground, beer in hand and on shirt.

“Hey Kyle,” I said, but he didn’t even flinch, “Kyle, you okay?”
“Fruh oeh Vrince,” he mumbled.

“Sorry?”
“I said f**k off Vince!” that one a little louder.

I went to sit down beside him, but he flapped his hands around at me until I backed off. He was in no fit state to do anything.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, as an older guy came with some water.

“Drink this lad,” he ordered, but Kyle didn’t acknowledge him.

“You! That’s...you’re my problem!”
“Lad if you don’t drink this water, I’m gunna have to throw you out.”
“Kyle, drink the water mate.”
He snatched the water from the old man’s hand and poured it down his throat, crumpling the plastic cup in his hand when he was finished.

“Keep an eye on him lad,” whispered the man in my ear before he left us.

“You!” shouted Kyle once more, “You...you’re my, my f*****g problem!”

“I don’t understand, I haven’t done anything...unless you’re upset about me leaving you with Cassie?”
“Don’t be soooo stupid. You, you, you think this is about something small?”
“Then what? What did I do Kyle? You’re my best mate, I wouldn’t hurt you.”
There was a pause and he shuffled his body around on the floor before staggering his way onto his feet. We were now facing eye to eye, but he was swaying all over the place. I could smell the alcohol in his heavy panting.

“You stole her from me.”
Those words were clear as day, because this wasn’t the first time I had heard them.

“Not this again...”
“You f*****g know it too.”
“We’ve been through this. She dumped you and came for me and I left it for a couple of months so you could have time to adjust to the idea...”
“And does it look...look like I’ve ad, ad, come to it?”
I looked him up and down, and this was the worst I had seen Kyle.

“No...”
He seemed satisfied that I finally understood he was still hurting over the idea.

“Well what am I supposed to do?!” I yelled at him, which took him by surprise.

“Break up...up with her.”

I couldn’t believe that my best friend was seriously asking me to break up with my girlfriend who I had been dating for the best part of four months.

“And if I don’t?”

Without looking me in the eye, he forced his way past me, shoving my shoulder. I spun around and watched him pathetically stammer back towards the dance floor. But as one person entered, another person left. Mel looked at me from across the garden (which had definitely seen better summers) with hurt and confusion.

“She’s changed,” he shouted, slowly stepping towards me, as if reaching me meant having to accept his own words.

“Jesus Christ,” I said under my breath, “What’s happening tonight?”

Mel stopped a metre or so away from me, far enough so he thought I couldn’t see his diminished confidence fade away like the stars behind the clouds.

“So what’s wrong, it sounded as if things were going great for you?” I asked, naive enough to believe it to be the only problem. (Ah, and my mind was filled with that horrible image from the front of the pub again)

“It was,” he replied, “we went out the front about five minutes after leaving you and started making out, which I didn’t think was Tiff’s style and then...”
“Mel, I don’t want to hear what she did to you or what she gave you.”
Then he smiled and laughed in disbelief.

“Well that’s the thing Vince; she didn’t do or give anything to me.”
I was puzzled, “I don’t want to admit this, but I heard you two talking out front.”
“No, you heard her and some twenty year old.”

The image in my head changed completely from one of awkwardness to one of complete disgust.

“No...” I said, “No, no, no...I know Tiffany, she’s not like that.”
“She told me to get her a drink, I walked passed you on the dance floor when you were just coming from outside and when I got there...hmm.”

Everything seemed so surreal at that moment. I believed every word Mel said to me and yet at the same time I couldn’t help thinking he was lying. And maybe the whole incident I had with Kyle was just my imagination too. Maybe I had just had one too many to drink, or maybe something was put into one of my pints that started to make me hallucinate, but nothing seemed right. My fears were soon to be found true when I saw Tiffany on the dance floor with her hands down the back of someone’s trousers. That’s the ugliness of parties though, anything goes.

“Who the hell is that? Tiffany doesn’t even know him!” I exclaimed.

“That’s not him...” stated Mel who lost his breath.

“What do you mean?”
“From earlier, that wasn’t the guy Tiff was with.”
I was lost for words. Tiffany and I had grown apart in recent weeks, but it became apparent in that crystallising moment I didn’t know who she was anymore.

“You’re worth so much more than her,” I said to Mel spitefully and walked off to find Keighley. I think Mel said something else to me, but I was deaf with fury at Tiffany. I needed one good bit of news.

“Hey...hey Vince...”
I paused my march towards the bar because of that frail voice. (I think I blame her for what happened after we spoke, and I guess that’s why I don’t regret what I did next)
I was on my last nerve, as I glanced over my shoulder to see a tearful nurse and thank god that it wasn’t my nurse.

“What Cassie?” I asked in a raw dry voice.

“Oh...just...Kyle...”
“He’s a prick,” I retaliated without thought. Those harsh words healed the bite marks that were on my tongue. Cassie went silent and her eyes opened wide, possibly shocked by my truthful statement, or possibly because she agreed for a split second. I didn’t care either way.

“No,” she said hesitantly, “He just doesn’t understand me...”

“He doesn’t like you Cassie!” I roared in her face, but quickly recoiled. Was this who I was? I saw the poor broken girl quivering in fear of me. She clearly thought I was drunk, and if you can be drunk on anger, then yes, I was absolutely smashed. I had heard so many truths thrown around tonight that I figured another couldn’t hurt.

“He doesn’t like you Cassie and he never has and he never will, because he’s still madly in love with my girlfriend, so do yourself a favour and move on!”

I stormed off, leaving her to surround herself in denial until she could believe my words, where she would then proceed to drown herself in sorrow because of the meaning behind those same words.

The loud beat that hypnotised the people around me to dance couldn’t break me from my trance, as I searched through the crowds for my dear Keighley who would make everything better. I saw her standing at the side of the room leaning on a wall and I went to approach her, but before I got there, a knight in tacky armour appeared. I waited to see what would happen (In hindsight, I should have punched the crap out of him). Then Keighley lifted the helmet off his head, threw it to the floor and started to kiss him. It was like looking back a few months when these two were the most passionate couple around, and I would look at them and smile with a light sensation forming in my chest. Now all it created was a dark pit in the bottom of my stomach.

The room suddenly started to cave in and the floor began to melt as my legs trembled. I was being trapped by everything around me and I had to get out. I ran out of the front door, back to where I heard Tiff and some boy talk sweet nothings to each other (which didn’t come to mind this time) and headed towards some bushes. I vomited, quite violently, as I saw an orange liquid with chunks of brown and red splatter up off the surface of the leaves.

“Are you okay...haha.”
Of all the people right now...not her.

I spat on the ground to clear the last remaining bits out of my mouth and turned slowly to see a less than presentable cowgirl.

“Oh...Vince, you look so good,” she grabbed my shirt and pushed me back against the wall, shoving her tongue down my throat. I could taste the ash cloud that was floating around inside her mouth (she didn’t used to smoke) and then I remembered other places where her mouth had been tonight. I shoved her back with such a tremendous force she almost fell over.

“It’s okay Vince...haha...Keighley is with Kyle now, so you can finally have me,” and she grabbed onto my shirt again and once more she was pushed back.

“Shut up you s**t!” I yelled, but she didn’t even seem hurt. (In fact, I think the words hurt me more)

“You need to loosen up Vince,” she whispered seductively.

“No, do you even know how many people you’ve hurt tonight. For that matter, do you even care?!”

She just kept on smiling a smudged lipstick smile.

“What the hell has happened to you? Is this because of Jack?”

Her smile vanished and so did her interest in the conversation.

“I thought you were so much cooler than this Vince,” and she stormed off inside and then it was silent. My mind had finally stopped and this made me realise everything that happened. “Keighley is with Kyle now”. I cried for about five minutes and luckily, no one else came outside.

Once I composed myself, I rung for a taxi, and then I rung Mel to meet me outside, because I knew he wouldn’t mind leaving early either. I heard the door to the bar open and I turned to see Keighley.

“There you are,” she said in her devilish voice, tuned perfectly to sound sweet, “I haven’t seen you all night.”

I was shaking, looking anywhere but in her eyes, because I knew seeing her beautiful blues would allow her to trap me in her indecisive heart. Keighley’s a sensible girl, and she knew something was up.

“What’s wrong?” she questioned, as if clueless.

“I’m surprised you crawled back to Kyle so easily.”
I turned away from her and faced out into the empty car park, but I assumed from her silence she hadn’t planned for this.

“It was a mistake...he caught me off guard,” her voice was so apologetic, so sorry, so angelic that one more word and I would have believed it.

“Go,” I didn’t want to hear her sad anymore.
I heard her sob. The old me would have turned and held her so tightly and she would have reached her hands around my back, entwined her fingers around my arteries and grabbed my heart. She waited patiently for that moment to come, but I had made my decision.

The door opened once more, and I heard steps run away from me and steps walk towards me.

“Did I do something to deserve this?” I asked Mel.

“No mate, some things are out of our hands,” the taxi pulled up, “You could have done everything differently tonight and it would have all turned out the same.”

Today it rained. I believe I could have made it sunny Mel.

Reviews

[livinglifeloud]

Interesting. Rushed, but kept my attention. Not exactly the drama I was expecting. This sounds a lot like the s**t that goes down at my school, except at my school no one cares all that much. Anyways good job!

[harley]

this was the first thing of urs that i read and i completely relate to it. imthe one who ALL my friends come to with hookups and breakups and everything in btween. all in all i loved it.

[Honourfish]

A brilliant piece as always mate! exceptionally good seeing as I was there when it was inspired. I really connected with it.