(Never) Again

by Theresa Paolo

  “And?” I asked, moving to the edge of the toilet seat.

  She tossed her hands up in the air. “And I ran in the kitchen and grabbed you.”

  “Why would you do that?” I asked. Was she crazy? It’s not like they’d never been alone together. Hell, they texted on a daily basis and carpooled all the time.

  “I panicked. I didn’t know what to do.” Her head dropped into her hands and bent forward, black hair falling over her knees.

  She was beautiful and usually confident, strong, and smart, yet she was letting a longtime crush get the best of her. This girl with her head hanging in defeat was not the vibrant, flirtatious Sadie I knew.

  I stood up and pointed to the door. “Go with him to his car.”

  “But then we’ll be alone and . . .”

  “Sadie, you guys have been alone before,” I said, hoping she would catch on to how ridiculous she was being.

  “I know, but . . . I don’t know what I’m doing. It’s like I’ve never flirted with a guy before. I’ve had a bunch of boyfriends.”

  “Yeah, you’re a whore,” I said with a smile.

  “Shut up.” She shoved my shoulder.

  “Sade, you like him. All those other guys you dated, you liked the way they looked and that was it. Probably why none of them stuck around long. Matt’s more than that to you and that’s why you’re so unsure of yourself. You’re scared of losing him. But don’t be. You are beautiful, intelligent, and just plain awesome. And besides, I know he likes you too.”

  “Really?” Her gray eyes widened.

  “For the gazillionth time, YES! Now go!”

  “Okay, I’m going. Thanks, Liz.” She threw her arms around my neck, her bracelets jangling.

  “You’re welcome. Now please just go.” I opened the door and pointed my finger outwards.

  “Love you,” she said as she skipped by.

  “I know. Hurry before you lose your nerve or your chance.” Before she disappeared behind the living room wall she rolled her eyes in my direction. I had to love her.

  With Sadie on her mission, Joe still setting up with the band, and Josh talking video games with Zach, I really had no one to talk to. It was already ten p.m., and other than the band and my friends, not a single person had shown up. How pathetic do you have to be to have a party and not have anyone show up? I mulled the question over in my head while I sat on the couch across the room from the bickering band.

  When at ten thirty hit, there was finally a knock at the door—I couldn’t jump off the couch fast enough. Maybe I wasn’t as pathetic as I thought. I opened the door to find Tanya and Vicky. Okay, maybe I was. I didn’t close the door when I saw our neighbors’ doors were already opened.

  “Hey guys,” I said. “Party’s this way.” When they stepped in, I felt the need to say, “Still waiting for everyone to show up.”

  “See! Even when we try to be fashionably late it backfires,” Vicky said, her newly manicured hand resting on the waist of her designer jeans.

  “Well, we tried and besides, it’s not like we were the first ones here.” Tanya tossed her head in the direction of the band, then looked back to the far corner where Sadie and Matt were laughing. I gave an exaggerated smile when Sadie turned my way, which she acknowledged with an eyebrow-raise then quickly dismissed before Matt could notice the two of us communicating.

  “Yeah, and you have first dibs on drinks,” I said, trying to be a good hostess.

  “See, Vicks, she has a point,” Tanya said. “A good one. What do you have to drink?” She walked towards the kitchen as if she had been in my apartment before.

  “Beer, beer and more beer, but I also have a few hidden bottles of wine that I’d be willing to share.” There was no reason for me to hold anything against her. Why wouldn’t she be crushing on Zach? He was a good catch. At least until he stopped calling.

  “Oh, I would love some wine,” Vicky said, catching up with Tanya.

  Tanya looped her arm through Vicky’s. “Me too.”

  “Then follow me.” It was perfect timing. The band had just started tuning up, and I didn’t know how much of that my ears could take. I gave Sadie a wink as I walked by, but she was too engrossed in Matt to notice. “It’s right in here,” I said, stepping into the kitchen, where Zach and Josh were still discussing video games. Seriously, how long can two relatively grown boys talk video games?

  Zach had sat on one of the stools and his hands were moving as he explained something to Josh.

  “Oh, Zach, I didn’t know you were here already!” Tanya squeaked right before she jumped into Zach’s lap. Blech.

  “Hey, when’d you get here?” he asked, looking a bit shocked to have her on top of him. His gaze drifted to me for a second before returning to Tanya.

  “Like not even five minutes ago,” she responded. Her arms wrapped around his neck and then she kissed him. Okay, it was on the cheek, but still. I could feel Josh staring at me but I refused to glance back.

  Vicky exhaled loudly. “God, can you guys get a room? Sheesh.”

  I was starting to like Vicky even more.

  “Where’s that wine, Liz?” she asked, drumming her fingers on the counter.

  “Oh. Yeah. Right here.” I bent down to the cabinet beneath the sink, pulled out a bottle, and handed it over to Vicky.

  “Do you have a corkscrew?” she asked.

  “Um . . .” I opened the drawer with the plastic utensils. Nothing. I moved to the next. Nothing. The junk drawer was corkscrewless too. Shoot. What good was wine if you don’t have something to get the cork out?

  “Do you have a phone book?” Zach asked, peering around Tanya’s curls.

  “Why? Do you plan on calling a corkscrew delivery service?” I asked as I continued to search the drawers.

  “Umm no. Do you have one or not?” he said, clearly annoyed.

  “Yeah, under the coffee table in the—

  “I know where it is,” he said, and the way he said it, like he knew my place better than I did, made me want to smack him.

  I opened drawer after drawer and cabinet after cabinet to no avail. No corkscrew. No wine.

  “Give me the bottle,” I heard Zach say. I turned to find him holding the yellow pages.

  “Do you plan on beating the cork out?” I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.

  “Actually that is exactly what I plan on doing,” he said.

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No. I saw it on YouTube. Trust me.” He passed me and stopped in front of the wall.

  “He’s obsessed with ‘How-to’ videos on YouTube.” Tanya tossed her red curls over her shoulder and sat down on a stool. “He’s always showing them to me in class.”

  Ugh. She thought she knew everything about him.

  “Can’t be as bad as his video game obsession,” I said, trying to cover my discomfort with a laugh.

  “Oh my God! I swear that controller’s attached to his hand. Every time I call he’s like, ‘Let me call you back, I’m on a mission in the Middle East and I need to drag my comrades to safety.’”

  “And don’t walk in front of him if he’s playing Wii,” I added. “You’ll wind up with a black eye.”

  “I’m standing right here, you know,” Zach said, holding his arms out with the yellow pages in one hand the wine bottle in the other.

  I smiled at Tanya then turned to Zach. “We know. Go beat the bottle or whatever. We’re talking.” He shook his head and turned away.

  I went to go back to our conversation, but I watched Zach out of the corner of my eye. He held the yellow pages on the wall next to the doorway then took the wine bottle in his hand, neck facing away from the book, and began hitting the bottle against the book.

  He was kidding, right? There was no way in hell this was going to work. I’d be cleaning up shards of glass and wine
off the floor before I knew it. Then, little by little, with each hit against the book, the cork slowly made its way out until I heard a pop.

  I was impressed, but I wouldn’t show it. Josh threw his arms up in victory and patted Zach on the back for a job well done. Zach was proud and didn’t hide it. Neither did Tanya, who thanked Zach by planting another sloppy kiss on his cheek. He held the bottle out with the hand that wasn’t wrapped around her waist, and Vicky grabbed it.

  “Glasses?” she asked.

  “Right here.” I got three down and handed them to Vicky. She poured a little in the first, lifted it to her lips, and downed the liquid in one sip before continuing to pour.

  “Bottoms up,” she said and handed me a glass before taking another huge sip out of her own. I sensed she wasn’t as thrilled about being at the party as Tanya.

  “Cheers,” I said back.

  By five after eleven, there were more people in my apartment than was fire safety-approved. I guess, like Tanya and Vicky, most people didn’t want to be the first ones to show up.

  The band played and people nodded and danced along—I don’t know if they were too busy drinking to notice how much Purge sucked or if they had no concept of what good music was. Scott screamed. Joe beat the drums as if he was trying to keep them from walking away from him. E-Rock jumped up and down more than he hit the right chords, and Charlie looked as if she was in her own world, swaying to the rhythm in her mind. I watched as she looked back at Joe and he gave her a thumbs up, reassuring her that she was great. I didn’t think so, but then again it’s not like I was a music connoisseur or a writer for Billboard magazine.

  Either way, the band did their thing, people danced, drinking games were played, and my party was a success. Come Monday, it would be all anybody talked about.

  I was right. My party was the most talked about event on campus, but not for the reasons I’d hoped.

  Chapter 14

  By the time Purge finished their first set Joe was on his fifth keg stand. Not that I was counting or anything. Okay, maybe I was, but I had a good reason. Joe wasn’t exactly known for his self-control. When it came to drinking, he didn’t know when to stop.

  While I kept an eye on Joe, I couldn’t help noticing Scott and Ruthie in the corner. Then again it was kind of hard to miss them, considering they were practically stripping each other’s clothes off in my living room. The saying “get a room” couldn’t possibly have been any more relevant. I didn’t want to look. I’m sure nobody wanted to look, but it was like when you’re watching the monkeys at the zoo picking bugs off each other. It’s disgusting and you don’t want to look, but you can’t seem to turn away.

  “Do you think he’s trying to lick her insides dry?” Zach said, his breath hot against my ear. I couldn’t stop the giggle that slipped out.

  “I was debating if he was trying to crawl inside her mouth, or if he’s getting sucked in against his will.” I raised my eyes to his and caught the amusement tugging at his lips. He still had his sense of humor. Thank God for that. It was one of his best qualities.

  “I bet he’d go willingly if he could bring his microphone with him.”

  We shared in a moment of laughter before I asked, “So where’s Tanya?”

  “Oh. Uh, bathroom. What exactly do you girls do in there anyway?”

  I folded my arms across my chest. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

  “Yes, I would, hence the question.”

  “If I told you I would have to kill you.” I said, trying not to laugh.

  His eyebrow arched up, his scar rising with it. “Really? You couldn’t come up with something better than that?”

  “Too cliché?”

  “You think? You’re going stale on me.” He nudged me with his elbow. I tried to come up with something witty and sarcastic in response, but I was out of practice. Sarcasm went over Joe’s head, so I pretty much stayed away from it. Zach was right. I was stale. I couldn’t let him know that though, so I searched my brain for something relatively clever.

  “What’d I miss?” Tanya bounced in between me and Zach and wrapped her arm securely around his waist, as if to tell me he was taken for the night. I didn’t need her to remind me. A quick glance to my left helped remind her that I too was taken. Her head turned back to Zach as she swayed in his arms. Obviously she had been hitting the vino, my vino, a little too hard.

  “Nothing. Lizzi . . . uh, Liz was just helping me pass the time until you got back,” he said, tucking her curls behind her ear.

  My heart all out stopped. That was . . . he only . . . that was our thing.

  “Well I’m back,” she said cheerily.

  “Really? I didn’t notice,” I mumbled.

  Tanya took her head off Zach’s chest. “Excuse me, Liz? Did you say something?”

  “I was just saying that I didn’t notice Joe waving me over. Excuse me. My boyfriend is waiting.” Before the words finished leaving my mouth, Tanya already had her over-glossed lips pressed to Zach’s cheek.

  “Hey, what are you guys talking about?” I asked as I approached Joe and Charlie.

  “Nothing. I mean, not nothing. Band stuff, you know. Like we always talk about. Not like we talk a lot. Anyways, you know what I mean.” Joe took another swig of his beer, even though from his lack of sentence structure it was obvious he had had enough.

  “We were talking about how it might be beneficial to the band if we added a tambourine,” Charlie said, the diamond stud in her nose reflecting in the light.

  “Yeah, babe, a tambourine. That would be awesome wouldn’t it?” Joe gave a good attempt at trying not to slur his words but was not successful.

  I had two options. Agree, or tell them the truth. A tambourine did not fit in with the music they played. I wasn’t up for sitting there and listening to them try to persuade me that yes, a tambourine was exactly what Purge needed to take it to the next level.

  They could add as many tambourines as they wanted, but it still wouldn’t hide the fact that they royally sucked.

  “A tambourine would be awesome,” I said instead. If there was anything I’d learned in my short college career, it was that there was no arguing with a drunk. Because regardless of what you said and how wrong they were, you would get nowhere.

  As my mom said, choose your battles.

  “See. Liz knows what she’s talking about,” Joe said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and putting a little more of his weight on me than I cared for.

  “I have to take this new evidence to Scott,” Charlie said. “I’m going in. Wish me luck.” She turned, her fire-engine-red highlights spinning, before she bravely went where no man had gone before: to interrupt Scott while he made out with Ruthie.

  “Good luck,” I said. She was going to need it.

  “So?” Joe said, and I knew he was waiting for me to praise his drumming skills.

  “You were amazing?” I said, more like a question than a statement.

  “Yes!” He punched his fist in the air as if he’d just won the biggest contest of his life. “I love you, babe.”

  “I love you too.” I stood up on my tiptoes to kiss him and would have if the sound of shattering glass hadn’t ricocheted through my ears.

  “What the . . .” I turned, pushing through the crowd of people towards the noise. I popped out in front of the kitchen just in time to see red wine dripping down the white wall onto the beige porcelain tile and white grout. Oh my God, our security deposit! I was never going to get those lines clean. My eyes burned with anger as they darted from the floor up the wall until they settled on the culprit.

  Evan “E-Rock” Rochler held the jagged neck of the wine bottle. A small group circled around and he was left in the middle like a carnival act. One guy cheered him on, a beer held high in the air. “Do it again.”

  Did this guy want to survive the night? Because seriously, if h
e didn’t shut up, I would kill him. To keep myself from screaming, I took a deep breath and marched over, my fists clenched so tightly my nails dug into my skin.

  “I’m so sorry, Liz,” Evan said. “Vicky told me that Zach opened the other bottle by banging it against the wall.” His black thick-framed glasses hung low on his nose. Behind him, Vicky drained her glass.

  “She must have failed to tell you that he didn’t bang it against the wall. He banged it against the yellow pages.”

  He pushed his glasses back into place. “Oh. She didn’t say that.”

  I glanced in Vicky’s direction, and she looked down into her glass. Staring at it wasn’t going to make more wine appear, but she was so focused on the bottom of the glass I honestly thought she believed it would. Either that or she wanted to crawl inside and pretend she didn’t just initiate the biggest possible mess ever in my kitchen. Even my flour fights with Zach back in the day didn’t create such a freaking disaster.

  “Whatever. Can everyone please get out so I can clean this?” Vicky was the first out.

  “Liz, let me help.” Evan bent down to pick up a piece of glass.

  “Stop!” I yelled. “I don’t need you cutting yourself. I got it. Please just go enjoy the party and do me a favor—don’t break anything else.” The last thing I needed was blood winding through the apartment like a crime scene.

  “I think I can do that.” He flashed a smile, as if that would help ease the tension that trailed up my neck to my head.

  “Good,” I said, watching until he was lost in the crowd. He bumped into some girl and I cringed as liquid splashed over the top of her red Solo cup.

  A group of guys in the far corner stacked beer cans and a group formed to hand them more empties. Architects in the making.

  Where was Josh when I needed him? Probably hitting on some girl. Seriously, he flirted with anything that walked.

  And where was Joe? Probably downing another beer and discussing the pros and cons of adding a tambourine to the band.