The Resident

Chapter 22

JANEL'S POV:

The hotel had a taxi waiting for us already when we got to the lobby. Ian had his hood up and we walked fast and got in. No one noticed him this time. It was nice.
While we rode, Ian brought up the subject of alcohol. He had talked with me about it a few weeks ago, when he realized one day, that I had probably never drank, in my entire life.
In fact, I hadn't. He said that one day he'd get me some, and we'd drink a little together, so I could see what it was like. So a few days later, he got me some girly fruity drinks, and we played card games and put music on and drank. It was fun. It would have been fun even without the alcohol. It was like our own little party. After only 1 drink, I started to feel weird. A strange feeling in my head. It was sort of sudden. A "swimmy" feeling. I felt my cheeks get hot, and my eyes glaze over a little bit. I described it to Ian, and he said "Yep! You're feeling it. It gets worse. Ha haha."
I ended up drinking 4 of the drinks that night. I felt good! Being drunk was...I didn't quite get the point, but it felt kinda neat anyway. It made me more talkative. More giggly. More silly. I ended up calling Bonnie while I was drunk, which she immediately knew I was, and told me to put Ian on the phone to make sure we were home and safe and all, see why I was drunk. When he gave the phone back to me, Bonnie was laughing at me, asking me how it felt. I told her we were having a party, and to come over.
She ended up coming over! She brought one of her kids' games, and we played that at the kitchen table, and Bonnie drank some of my drinks too, and we all cracked up all night. And danced. We all danced like idiots to the music. It was a lot of fun! Bonnie slept over, on the couch. Ian slept on the floor in my room. Even drunk, (and he was pretty drunk!) I STILL couldn't con him into sleeping in my bed with me. Maddening!
When I woke the next morning, I felt so........echhh!! I was sooo thirsty, even though Ian made me drink water a few times, in between drinks, and lots before I went to bed. Bonnie made us all breakfast, and left, and Ian and I relived what crazy funny things we remembered from our drunken night. He still has the rest of his beers in my cabinet, with the rest of my girly beers. We haven't touched them since then, though.

So in the cab, Ian told me about the different kinds of alcohol there would probablly be there, and how each one migtht make me feel, and which ones taste good or strong or whatever. He didn't "daddy" me, which was good. I thought he might. He said to have fun. Try not to over do it. That's when things get shitty sometimes, when ya get tooooo drunk.

The party was at "Brian's" house. Whoever Brian was, I'd soon find out.
Ian had us go a little bit late to the party, just so everyone would already be loosened up and working on being drunk, so they would be more friendly and I wouldn't feel as awkward. He's so smart at this stuff. He was right. I don't know how they'd be before they were drinking, but since they were already half drunk, they were all chatty and huggy and laughy and friendly to me. I liked them.
I was mostly scared about the girls. I had never had girl friends. So I didn't know how to act all silly with them like I'd seen in movies. I was afraid they'd hate me and pick on me like in some movies. Like....Mean Girls or something.
But these girls were really nice.
One girl, Michelle, who kind of took me under her wing, told me that Ian had texted her a few hours ago and asked her to make sure I felt comfortable and had fun, because I'd never really been to a party...I'd had a rocky past, but that I was the coolest chick ever. I was embarassed about him telling her that, but I supposed he knew what he was doing. He did it for the right reason. I got it. And it's not like he goes around telling everyone about my past, so for him to say what he said, he did it for a good reason.
I was very shy and felt awkward with all these strangers. When Ian first left me to go say hi to some friends, that's when Michelle came right over to me, and helped me pick out what to drink. She really was nice. When Ian would come back to me, Michelle would give us our space. I guessed that Ian had a good relationship with her.
This went on for the first hour, and then I started feeling the drunk come over me, so I ended up getting more talkative to Michele. And she started making the rounds to all her friends, dragging me along by my hoodie sleeves tied to my waist. It was a LOT easier to be introduced to people being drunk, I noticed. I'd have to keep this in mind. No wonder people drink so much.
All the people at the party gave me hugs when they met me, and told me any friend of Ian's was a friend of theirs.
Michelle helped me get my second drink, and well into that drink, I was feeling just plain.....good.
Michelle and I were cracking up at stupid stuff at this point. Making fun of the drunk people all over. People were making fun of us. It was quite funny. When I started to have a long, deep talk with some guy, Andrew, I happened to look over at Ian, and noticed him looking at Michelle. He gave her a quick smile and a nod, and a quick thumbs up, and Michelle smiled back and quietly left our conversation, and went to go jump on some guy Mark's back, which made Mark fall onto the couch, and it was a whole funny scene. I looked back at Ian again, and he was happily talking to some other guys in a very animated, loud conversation.
I figured out later, that the little thing that Ian and Michelle did, probably meant that I was doing well at the party, and she didn't have to babysit me anymore. She still talked to me a lot. We had fun together. She just let me venture out on my own, now. Especially if I was talking with someone, which I almost constantly was.
Andrew and I's conversation though...that lasted pretty long. It was about science. Astronomy. Smart stuff. I loved the stars. I loved astromony. It was one of my best subjects in school. So I found that I could actually keep up with him in the conversation, and not once did I feel stupid. He was very...deep. Cosmic. I liked him. He was cool. And he respected my thoughts and ideas. A really nice guy. And funny, too.
I went to get my own drink after Andrew got dragged into another conversation. I was standing at the booze table, as they called it, and some guy I'd met earlier, came up to make his own drink. When he poured something from a dark bottle, I caught a whiff. It was strong. And icky. And suddenly, I had a flood of memories rush up in my head. I was probably 6 or something. I wasn't sure. No one ever mentioned my birthday, so I never knew how old I was as a kid.
I had come out of my room to go to the bathroom and sneak a drink of water. (that couple never gave me drinks except for maybe once a day. So I'd learned to drink out of the bathroom faucett when I'd go potty. Sometimes I'd act like I had to go potty, just to get a drink.)
I had finished pottying, and I climbed up on the radiator next to the sink, and leaned over to drink out of the faucett, when some man who was at the house that night opened the bathroom door.
He saw me there and said "What are ya thirsty? Here! I got something perfect right here" He held up a bottle and took a few steps over to me. He picked me up and sat me on the sink and took a huge sip out of the bottle, then held it out to me.
I was happy that someone was giving me a drink, so thinking he was being nice, I took it and took a HUGE sip.
Immediately, the burn hit my mouth and throat, and I thought I was going to die, it hurt my entire mouth and chest so bad! I coughed and gagged and spit some up and all I wanted was to get to the water in the sink. But he was blocking me by standing too close, and he was cracking up. Laughing so loud and hard, he made squeeking air sounds. His fat belly was jiggling all over in front of my face.
His breath was sooo bad....
He laughed so hard and loud, that he stepped back and tripped on the toilet and fell onto it.
I used this moment to quick jump down off the sink, and run out of the bathroom and back to my room, where I hid under a pile of clothes, hoping he wouldn't think to look for me there.
I fell asleep there for the night. I never did get that drink of water until the next day. I fell asleep crying in pain. It was one of the times I could cry out loud, because there were other people at the house, and they had music on, so no one could hear me and get mad.