“Tell me about it, damn we dressed up for nothing,” Trent said as he tugged on his jacket. He was right, we should have known better. Both of us were wearing suits, and shirts, and everyone else was either in bikinis or just shorts. It was a pool party. We hadn’t bothered looking at the invitation, we just knew the party was happening tonight, and our only concern was not to be the first to arrive, and not the last either.
“Yeah, I thought you guys were snubbing me, because you haven’t been around for a while? This is like the fifth invitation that I’ve sent you, and the first that you’ve decided to show up.” He responded. He and Trent started to chat, and my thoughts wandered.
I wondered if Claire was lurking around somewhere, but she wasn’t. As soon as we came to the house, she hopped out of the car with Goldie, and disappeared which suited me just fine.
“Claire tells me that you’ve been busy with the new girl.”
I turned back to Jet with a lifted eyebrow as I felt irritation prickle at my spine. Who the fuck did he think he was? For that matter, who the fuck did Claire think she was? “Claire’s got a big mouth. She needs to keep it shut.”
Trent wasn’t impressed by my attitude as he cut his eyes at me, and said, “Chill, what’s the big deal?”
Then he turned to Jet, “Final year man, and we need to get out of that place. University life is calling our name, and we need to study, and keep our heads down, but not tonight.”
“I can respect that. Well, let your hair down tonight, because it’s going to be one long ride,” Jet said, and then he whispered as he drew nearer to both of us by standing in the middle and crouching his head, “You know if you need something to get the party started for you, just give me a wink, and we’ll head up to my room.”
I nodded, knowing exactly what he was talking about, and hoping that Trent didn’t want any drugs. Not tonight. Not ever, after seeing the state of Mom. Sure, we could get loose, and have one too many drinks in a crowd. But by ourselves, alone, back in our suites there was nothing more depressing then fucking drinking to forget or even sometimes just to remember what it felt like to be out of it.
He patted Jet on the back, “We’ll let you know when we’re ready for something, but for now, you young ladies look as if you’re ready to get wet.”
He hurled the red-haired chick in the pool with no hesitation in his arms as if she was a feather.. We both laughed as he started to throw his shoes, and clothes by the side of the pool to join her.
“Maybe you don’t need anything. It looks as if Trent’s on a natural high. I thought maybe seeing as you hadn’t partied in a while you may need a little help,” Jet said as Trent dived into the heated pool, and left me standing there like a jilted bride at the altar.
I didn’t have a comeback to his line, so I said nothing. Jet appeared to grow bored with my company so, he wrapped his arms around a blond and headed into the house. No doubt into his bedroom. Jet didn’t just have a reputation for being rich, he had one for fucking too. He claimed that from a young age he had been an addict not only to drugs, and booze, but to sex too. God knows what he was going to be like when he was older. I sighed as I thought of him ending up like a male version of my mom. She was evidence of the destruction of addiction, and as much as you feel as if you’re in heaven at the time, sooner rather than later, you look, and act as if you’ve been dragged out from hell.
I gathered Trent's clothes as if I was his dad, and decided that I would follow him, but I needed to make sure that I had everything in order before doing so. I wondered for a split second if coming to this party was a good idea, I felt like an idiot as I walked to the car to put his clothes where they were safe, and then I saw Goldie with a cigarette in her hand hanging by the car.
“What are you doing here?”
I meant to say that I didn’t know that she smoked, but I stopped myself because by doing that I did feel old, and boring.
“I don’t know where Claire is, she just dumped me as soon as we got to the party. I tried to follow her, and called out, but she wasn’t interested. I hate when she does that.”
“I see, but you don’t need Claire to have a good time. You could just mingle.”
She laughed as she opened her coat, “Mingle? Mingling while wearing this isn’t a good idea, honey!”
She was wearing a gold bikini which had no straps, and her breasts were popping out as if they were suffocating from the thin strap which was just covering her nipples. She turned, and showed me the back, which was pretty much like the front. She had on a gold thong, and her butt cheeks were hanging out all on display.
“Why did you let Claire talk you into wearing that?”
She smiled, “She’s wearing the same thing, sugar, and for some crazy reason she told me that it would definitely get both of your attention. She said that after tonight, I’d finally see what it feels like to have a good time with the kings of the academy.”
I nodded, “I see. Goldie do you think that we’re really the ticket to having a good time at the academy?”
She smiled as if I would give her what she was craving so bad, but that wasn’t the reason for my question.
“Yes.”
Claire was determined to get both Trent and I in bed with her, and she was using Goldie as a pawn to do it. I could see the happiness in her eyes. She thought that all her efforts hadn’t been in vain, but all I could feel was pity. I felt sorry for her, because unconsciously we had dragged her into this mess.
I couldn’t respond to her for a long moment. I was thinking of the right words to say. So far, I’d said the wrong words, and managed to make her feel that there was a chance. In another life maybe, but right here and now, not by a longshot.
“I know what she did,” Goldie said as I stashed Trent’s clothes into the trunk and got out our flip-flops. It was very warm considering that it was Spring, usually it was chilly at this time of year but tonight it was warm, and I felt silly for wearing the suit not only because it was a pool party, but because I was sweating a bit under the jacket.
“What do you mean?” I asked as I stopped taking of my shirt, and sat down at the trunk of the car, and patted for her to sit next to me. I could do with a break from the party that I hadn’t even really joined, just because I was tempted to drink. Between Claire pissing me off in the car, and Jet taking a girl to his room, and Trent being in the swing of things already, I felt left out. Somewhere along the line I’d forgotten how to have a good time, and it made me feel old before my time, and I was hating being here. I’d spent the last hour figuring out what to wear like a kid going to prom, but not once have I been relaxed about tonight. The idea of the drugs and alcohol that were within arm’s reach had put me on edge, and I hated myself for feeling this way. Seeing Mom in such a state should make me want to be as far from them as possible, but not stretch out my hand, and take not a little, but all of it.
“She hired a PI to look into Vicki. I know, because I gave her the number of the guy.”
I shook my head, “Why did you do it?”
She giggled, “I don’t know, Claire can be pretty persuasive. I’d told her my life story including the part about my mom trying to divorce my dad, and hiring a PI, and me doing the same with this guy that I was into in my old school. I’d hired the same guy, and Claire asked if he was good, and then told me about her plan, and at the time it made sense, the thing that Claire said to do.”