Another Party

A Chapter by MCrouch

Pete's POV

Ryan and I had made out… once. It was the only thing I could think about. I was absolutely content with what had happened that day, but once and a while, thoughts such as “Should I have gone further?” or “Are we ‘together’ now?” or even “What does he think of me now?” would pop into my head.

At practice 2 days after the whole make-out thing, I didn’t know how to act around Ryan- particularly while we were around our other band members. Did he want the others to know? Had he already told them? Were we together now? Or was I just something to do on a boring Thursday night?

“Hey,” he said, smirking at me. I blushed and he noticed, laughing at me. I rolled my eyes, but smiled back. He quickly broke his gaze as Ron walked into the basement. We were at Madison’s house again; her parents weren’t home and it was Saturday night.

“Hey,” Ron mumbled as he grabbed a Miller Lite from behind the bar. Ron had graduated from our high school last year, being the oldest one in our band. He took care of the techie stuff when we recorded songs and hoped to go to college to become a soundboard technician. He was the only one of us who knew at that point what they wanted to do with the rest of their lives.

“I got an email today,” Ron announced as Benny, Matt and Madison walked over to the bar.

“You’re so popular, Ron.” Benny remarked sarcastically. Ron brushed it off and continued.

“We- the band- got an email,” he said, attempting to build up suspense, raising his eyebrows. “We, The Revenge, are playing OUR FIRST GIG IN CHICAGO AT THE METRO!”

The room was dead silent until the news sunk in. Then we all looked at each other and couldn’t hold back the exclamations of “We did it! Yes! We’re gonna make it! I love you guys so much!”

Ryan pulled me into a tight hug. I noticed Madison looking at us with something more than just sadness in her eyes.

“When is the gig?” Matt asked, the smile never leaving his face.

“It’s this summer… June 21^st.” Ron answered. He nodded excitedly, his brown curls bouncing.

“I don’t even know what to do right now guys… I-I’m just so happy. I love you. It’s like, this is the greatest thing…” Madison trailed off, lost in her own world. I wondered if there was ever a time that she wasn’t stoned.

“Party… party! We need to have a party,” she said, whipping out her cell phone from inside her shirt. Today, she was wearing an Iron Maiden tee shirt that she had cut to make a deep v-neck with her black lace bra visible, dangerously short jean shorts, and various feathers decorating her head.

“Rob, honey, you have to come to my house immediately. Bring everyone, and all of your ‘party favors’… Okay… Yeah, see you in a few.” she said into the small phone.

We all frantically started pulling out bottles of various alcohol from behind the bar, finding red plastic cups, and Madison plugged her iPod in as loud as it could go. The music she listened to was usually tolerable, but extremely strange. Most of the time she listened to mind numbing dubstep remixes or British electro-pop. It all sort of added to her persona. I didn’t know anyone who didn’t think she was the weirdest f*****g person they’d ever met.

But when this Rob McCormick character and his gang of seven guys and three girls arrived, Madison strayed far from my mind.

“Robert, you’re so beautiful.” Madison greeted him. He smiled, kissing her on the cheek and grabbing her a*s. I was immediately skeptical of what this celebration had come to.

Rob McCormick was infamous. There were things that he’d done that no one would believe if they were told. He had greasy black hair to his shoulders, his face was probably a week’s worth unshaven and his piercing blue eyes were perpetually dilated. To say that he was rough around the edges would be an understatement.

“Hey, hi, hello,” he greeted the band. They all nodded back at him, except for Ryan who greeted Rob with a “Hey,” and a smile. Rob went to sit next to Ryan at the bar while I sat in the corner on the stool behind the drum set.

Rob said something that made Ryan laugh so hard, he almost started crying.

“He’s such a spaz,” I thought to myself, smiling as I replayed last Thursday in my mind for the billionth time. Ryan noticed me staring and smiled at me. Then, Rob pulled a small baggie from his pocket. Ryan nodded, rolling up a dollar bill. I sat there and watched as they both snorted two lines of cocaine off of the bar. Madison ran over and jumped on Rob’s back, laughing hysterically, and licked the side of his face. They talked a while before Rob handed Madison two white pills. She French kissed him and swallowed the pills with a swig of whisky. I was more impressed than I was shocked.

“Madison sure is somethin’,” said a voice next to me. I looked over to see a boy who looked a little older than me with short blonde hair. I had seen him come in with the group of Rob’s friends.

“I’m Kalin,” he introduced himself.

“I’m Pete,” I said back.

“Congrats on the gig. I heard Matt talking about it. You guys are really good.” he said.

“Thanks man,” I said. I noted that neither he nor I had been drinking or doing any drugs.

“Not in the mood for a ‘real’ party?” I asked.

“I’m the, uh, designated driver tonight. It’s kinda bullshit since only about 3 kids are gonna need rides. They’ll all just crash here.” he explained.

“Ah,” I said, nodding.

“Rob and Ryan seem to be getting along quite nicely.” I said, my gaze never straying far from where they stood at the bar.

“They’ve hung out before. There were rumours that they had been, um, more than friendly together, but I’m still skeptical. Rob usually tells me that sort of thing.” Kalin said. My face got very warm and I felt a pang in my stomach.

“Am I the only one who didn’t know that Ryan was into guys?” I asked, looking up at Kalin.

“No, we all just sort of assumed, and he’s now decided to confirm it. My guess is that he wanted to be out of high school before he confirmed or denied anything.” he explained.

“I like your logic,” I said.

“Thanks,” Kalin said. I liked this guy. He was easy to talk to. Maybe that’s why I felt as though I needed to spill my emotions, troubles and worries to him.

“Ryan and I kind of have, well, ‘a thing’ because two days ago, we made out or whatever, and it was really special to me because I’ve liked him for like, five months now and I’m really worried that he doesn’t like me back because I’m paranoid and I feel like he was just using me as something to do that day because I was there with him, but he’s been spending a lot of time with me just as friends but he’s been like, holding my hand and s**t. Ugh, f**k. I’m sorry. F**k.” Everything was spilling out of me like an upside down wine bottle with a cotton ball instead of a cork.

“Woah, that’s quite the story dude,” Kalin said. I nodded, now unable to make eye contact with him. “You should ask him how he feels. Don’t f**k around. I haven’t known him for very long, but I don’t think he’s the type of guy to beat around the bush.” he chuckled.

“He’ll… never let me live it down if he knew I made this up to be something serious if it’s not.” I said, shaking my head.

“So the f**k what? He might laugh at you but you’ll both get over it and then you can have peace of mind. You’re gonna be f****n’ rock stars any way.” Kalin said.

I smiled and nodded, “Thanks bro. You give good advice.”

The party died down around 4 am. Madison had vomited in some girl’s hair and was pushed to the floor into her own vomit, so she yelled to “get the f**k out of my house”. Kalin drove Rob and some other kids home, but a guy and a girl fell asleep spooning on top of the bar, and about four others crashed on the ground.

“Pete,” Ryan whispered, weaving his way through the maze of sleeping bodies. He took my hand and led me upstairs to the living room.

He pushed me onto the couch and got on top of me, resting his head on my chest. He laughed, mimicking the sound of my racing heart with a “ba-dum, ba-dum” noise. His heart, I could feel, was beating pretty fast too, but that could’ve been from the drugs he had taken.

“I’m happy that you’re here with me.” he said. I smiled, burying my face in his messy hair.

“Diddo,” I said.

“I’m so happy that we got a gig. We got a gig!” he exclaimed.

“Shh,” I said laughing softly and kissing the top of his head. I could smell the alcohol on him. It didn’t bother me that he new how to party, but I wished he was sober in that moment. I wanted to kiss him and go further than last time, but first and foremost, I wanted to talk to him about the status of our relationship.

“I like you a lot, Ryan.” I said. My words were deeply sincere, but empty at the same time. It almost wasn’t fair, confiding things in him- telling him my deepest thoughts when I knew he wouldn’t remember anything when he woke up the next day.

“He… he l-loved me. Don’t… I’m sorry…” Ryan slurred, his face pressed into my shoulder. I wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, so I pulled my arms around the beautiful boy on top of me and fell asleep.

prev chapter