The Party

The Party

It's funny how, when you go to a party and you don't know anyone, as soon as you have a drink in your hand it becomes a companion. Until that moment you feel that you cannot talk to anyone else because it would almost be like intruding. That's exactly how I'd felt before my first whisky and lemon. Now, four glasses of Scotland's finest later, I felt I knew everyone. I especially knew the girl I was talking to at this very moment. She was very plain. Her hair, a drab mousy colour, was short and straight. It seemed to curl round her head just above the nape of her neck and it was parted in the middle.

"I haven't seen you before," she shouted, even though the music wasn't very loud.

"No I've just moved in upstairs." I said, gulping another mouthful of Sainsbury's own brand. "Do you know the protesters?" I asked, wondering if she knew our hosts, Billy and Angie, who were forever being pulled out of trees or dug out of the ground.

"Yes, Angie and I used to go to different schools together." It took a second or two for her humour to sink in. Then I laughed and, raising my glass, refreshed my throat. As if I had given her some kind of silent command, she began to sip an obnoxious, greenlooking, liquid too.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Green Chartreuse...It's a liqueur."

"How can you drink something as revolting as that?"

"I had a boyfriend once, who said the more I drank of it the more adventurous I became."

"And did you?"

"No, it was just his way of trying to seduce me."

At that moment the music stopped. Angie jumped onto a chair, waving an orange scarf.

"I want to see a few more of you dancing, so Billy is going to turn the lights down and I'm putting a smoochy record on. Whoever you're with right now, you must dance with, OK." And she fell off the chair giggling.

"Looks like we don't have any choice," I said to my companion. We both put our glasses down and our arms around each other, waiting for the music to start.
I could smell a mixture of fresh soap and a heavy musk as we got close together. It was so intense that, for a moment, my head began to swim and I felt I was losing control. But I seemed to adjust pretty quickly. Beside that, my thoughts were turned to other things as our bodies touched. I could feel the welcoming warmth of her skin through the thin cotton blouse she was wearing.

"Do you think we should be introduced?" I whispered, my lips brushing her ear with every word. Her reply was to pull me even closer as we slid around the darkened room. As we danced I would occasionally find my right leg drifting naturally between her open thighs and, at the same time, my lips would kiss her neck. If there's a God, I thought, don't let this music end. But I must have done something really bad in my life because just then it did.

"Thank you," she said, stepping back.

We struggled across the room, through bodies still dancing without any music, to where we'd left our drinks. I was thinking, as we squeezed between passionate embrace after passionate embrace, this could be us a little later.
The contents of both our glasses were quickly consumed, I grimaced at mine as the ice had melted and it was warm.

"Do you want another...and must it be that green stuff?" I said.

"The answer is yes to both questions. Then we'll go back to my place."

I almost dropped the glasses.

"Your place?"

She was nodding and smiling. Her eyes seemed to catch the small amount of light in the room and sparkled in the darkness.

"That's if you want to."

"Jimmy!" A loud tipsy female voice, I recognised as Della, broke the magic spell surrounding my dancing companion and me.

"I didn't know you were here," she shrieked, planting a slobbering kiss full on my trembling lips. I knew I'd be covered in the brightest shade of red lipstick available in Boots. Her arms were around me like the tentacles of an octopus.

"Come and see the gang."

I resisted.

"I'm with someone, Della, leave off can't you?"
Della released her grip and, with some difficulty, she put her hands on her hips. She was swaying gently from side to side. She had a puzzled look on her face.

"Who?" she said.

I spun round quickly, but it was too late, I was alone. In the flicker of a candle flame she had gone.