One Page #11

She lifted an embarrassed hand to her mouth. Pink spots appeared on her cheeks and she looked away. Everyone else laughed, but the laughter faded quickly and the group stood around looking at the floor or the ceiling with hands twisting in their pockets. She turned back to face them. Sorry, she said, I didn’t mean to do that. She and her friends were standing around the morning after their graduation party that had been held at the girl’s house. Her parents were out of town, and had graciously allowed their daughter to host a party. They had even bought white wine (no red, it might stain the while carpeting). Little did they know that their daughter was a slut, so her friends now called her, and that her friends would not be drinking the white wine. Instead they had a keg and several bottles of Jack, and half of their graduating class showed up. The crowd spilled out of the living room into every other room of the house and finally, as more people showed up, outside onto the lawn. A band had arrived unexpected and had set up in the living room and all of the furniture had been shoved to the side. They danced the night away. Eventually people drifted away or passed out on every surface of the house including the stairs and under the kitchen table. When she and her friends awoke they kicked everyone out and started to clean up, heads in hands from being hung over. Some of them were even still drunk. The girl’s closest friend started taking swigs from the last of the whiskey to keep him going. The house was mostly put together and they stood in an awkward circle near the front door. The girl’s parents would be home soon, and they wanted to be gone by then. But one girl had to bring up the host’s famous moment from the night before. She had been dancing on the dining room table and had stripped down to her thong as the entire crowd watched, still throbbing and pulsing to the beat of the music. The girl twisted her hips and arched her back and fell to her knees throwing her ass into the air. After dancing for a moment longer, she fell to the floor and passed out until the morning. People had clapped and stepped over her, resuming their good time. She had awoken the next morning, nearly naked, and remembered nothing. Her friends filled her in. She had never done anything like this before, and very few people had even seen her stomach, let alone her naked breasts. Outwardly, she was shocked at her behavior, but as her friends walked out the door and down the front steps, she smiled to herself. She liked her drunken self, the self that was invincible and beautiful, daring and seductive. She resolved to become this person every day, and she reached for the Jack.