His Best Friend's Sister

Chapter 8

The first person to arrive was Rex. He had brought a twelve-pack of beer and practically came in howling. Alexander was pumped up to see him and the volume in the house increased exponentially by their merging. I wanted to make a side comment to Ricky about how annoying I found Rex, but then I noticed how Ricky had genuine laughter on his face while talking to Rex. I mulled over what could possibly be Rex's redeeming features in the eyes of Ricky.

More seniors began pouring in: Peter Mauro, Theo Matthews, Elliot Bowden, and the twins, Logan and Steve Henderson. Then came a large group of girls, including Heather Marbury, and her best friend, Cassandra Ferguson. Robin and I had been lingering in the living room and I noticed Robin's entire body tense up when she heard Heather's voice. We both peaked our heads out into the foyer and saw Heather wrapping her arms around Alexander's neck and bobbing excitedly.

"Ugh," Robin mumbled. "Could she be any more all over your brother?"

I just shrugged. I was accustomed to girls being 'all over' Alexander. It was commonplace. 

Robin scoffed, still invested in the matter. "You don't think he'd actually have a thing for her back though, right?"

I shrugged again. "I don't know, who cares?" I thought back to how Alexander had revealed to me one morning that he had been on the phone with Heather until the late morning hours on a school night. That along with my sister intuition told me that he did in fact like Heather. My sister loyalty however told me to respect his privacy and keep quiet on it. 

Robin sighed, looking unsatisfied with my answer. To be honest, it really didn't matter to me whether or not Alexander and Heather would start dating. The only thing that would matter to me was if –

"Ricky!" Cassandra ran across my front hall straight into Ricky's unprepared arms.

It felt like a punch to my gut.

"I need a drink now," remarked Robin. "Care to join?"

"Oh, uh, no... not yet..."

"Anna come on, it's your birthday. You have to start drinking at some point!"

I was reminded in that moment that it in fact was a party for my birthday. Had anyone even said happy birthday to me? By now, my house had somewhere close to 20 seniors inside of it, most of whom, I wasn't even on a first name basis with. A group of guys were in the kitchen playing beer pong, a group of girls were sitting in my living room on the couch, and others were standing and chatting in various places. Ricky and Alexander were laughing loudly in the kitchen about something Rex had said or done. Yet, not one of these people had actually wished me a happy birthday.

I felt my eyes swelling up with tears. "Let's get drunk," I told Robin.

Robin laughed at my abruptness, unaware that I had been holding back tears. She marched up to the group of girls sitting on the couch. "Do you girls wanna do some shots?" she cheered.

In unison, the girls bursted out: "yaaaaaaaassss!"

Within seconds we were all in the kitchen and Robin was pouring vodka from our fridge into mini shot glasses. Before I knew it, I was holding the tiny shot glass in my hand. I looked at the clear based liquid inside of it. How bad could it be? There was barely anything in there and it looked just like water. Robin counted down and we all put the shot glass to our lips and threw back our heads to drink the vodka.

I instantly felt a blazing flame in my throat and sinuses. I couldn't tell if I was going to burp or vomit, or both. My eyes squinted shut and my lips pursed as I tried to shake the taste out of my mouth. "Blagh," I exclaimed. When I reopened my eyes, the girls were all giggling.