“But close friends, girlfriends, roommates, they all gather at the house with kegs, snacks, and drinks,” Ava butts in, securing a big top knot on her head, her hair a bright purple this time. “The boys just open the door when they arrive and plug in the stereo someone's sure to bring. The party's set.”
“That's convenient,” I say, polishing off the last cold fries. “Should we help? We're considered close friends, right?”
The girls both bat my remark away. “No,” Missy answers for both of them. “We are part of the entertainment, so that’s our job.” She gives me a broad, kind of evil, smile and I groan.
“Nooo, I don’t want to sing tonight, I want to drink booze, lots of it, and do stupid college stuff.”
“It’s probably only one song, they love it when we do and weneedto, you know that.” Missy squeezes my knee. “And you love to perform, don’t deny it.”
“I do,” I say. I really do. The music, performing live, the energy–it's unbeatable. “But I thought we had the night off. I wanted to get a bit drunk, and you both promised to dance with me.”
They did. Those two love to dance, but they unfortunately both have guys who hate to dance. Well, I don’t think Lamar hates it, it’s more like he’s too big to coordinate his limbs to cooperate with each other correctly, so he’s just getting in everyone’s way. It’s just better for all of us if he doesn’t come anywhere close to the dance floor.
So it’s very nice of me to provide my services to these two lovely ladies for the night.
“I'm just glad Asher's coming too,” Ava grins. “He may hate massive crowds, so he wouldn't be here in the stadium. But he doesn’t mind parties as long as he can find a quiet corner to observe.”
I chuckle. “So you'll twerk in front of him to secure a good time later?”
She smirks. “You know me. That's the plan.”
Her comment almost makes me laugh, but then my phone rings. And when I notice the caller-ID, I frown and kind of want to throw the damn thing at the field. And I need my phone, so that wouldn’t be wise.
“Original,” Missy deadpans at the name on my screen.
“Lord Voldemort?” Ava asks, peering on the small screen. “Who is that?”
“My lifegiver?” I answer. “Well half of the duo, anyway.”
“Ah, your dad,” Ava nods, understanding.
“Yup, the one and only.” I decline the call on that note and stuff the device back into my dark skinny jeans. Which actuallykind of matches with the black and orange jersey I have on. Still with Tyler's number, like last time.
“Don't want to answer? Maybe it's something important–” Missy suggests before shutting up at my expression.
“I've got nothing more to say to him.” I manage a sad smile. “Just like he had nothing to say to me the day that I left.”
She gives me an even sadder smile in return, clearly remembering it. It was two weeks after my hospital stay, after my dad didn’t even give me the courtesy of a damn visit. I knew he never liked me much, but it didn’t fully hit me until then how less he actually wanted me around when he didn’t even ask where I was going when I was packing my bags.
So fuck him and fuck that. Missy helped me enroll here, I got my shit figured out at home, and since I already anticipated that my relationship with my dad would end someday, I fortunately had my finances in order thanks to the bit of modeling I did.
“Well, you’re better off without him. You know you are part of my family, right?”
I get a warm feeling inside, and give my longtime friend a firm side hug. She’s right, she basically is the only family I have. “You sure are. The both of you,” I add the last part while I pat on Ava’s head with my outstretched hand. “But Ireallyneed a drink now. So get your two lovely asses up and let's head to the jock house, you can teach me how to drink beer upside down, college style.”
Turns out drinking upside down is more difficult than it looks.
But it sure as hell is fun, and I laugh my ass off when people cheer as I get back on my feet, swaying a bit and wiping off my mouth with the hem of my jersey which I still have on. I high fivethe two big guys that held me up, who I think are teammates of Tyler.
People are everywhere–porch, house, backyard. Music pumps, and this being a student housing block works in our favor, no neighbor complaints hopefully.
It’s so busy that I lost my bandmates immediately upon entering, but that didn’t stop me from finding the kegs in the backyard asap, looking for any distraction to not think about the missed call from my dad.
Do I want to call back? Find out what the hell he needs me for?
Not really.
He never showed much interest in me before, being way too busy being the hot-shot attorney that he is.
