The Other Guys

Chapter 1

A lot of cocktails later, I find CeCe dancing on the top of the table with some other girls while a group of guys is cheering her on, urging her to take off her top and congratulating her on her “mad moves”. CeCe’s ignoring them for the most part, all the while looking like she’s having a good time. She occasionally giggles at the boys’ leering stares and their hooting and whistling, but she doesn’t look like she’s about to go topless just yet. Topless or not, I don’t even want to dwell on what her parents are going to think if they see her up there, especially since she’s supposed to be having a “study session” tonight and instead she’s partying it up like there’s no tomorrow.

Lola and I stand on the sidelines, deliberating when to step in, but we have yet to figure out what we consider to be “crossing the line of appropriate party behavior”.

“Do you think we should go in?” I ask with my arms crossed across my chest as I nod my head towards CeCe’s direction. I’d hate to ruin her fun, but as her best friend, I have some duties to fulfill.

“Nah, not yet. I think we’re still good.” She eventually evaluates the situation, but a second later, CeCe’s pulling her shirt up and the moment we see a bit of skin showing, Lola and I are both on the move.

“Okay, I take it back. We’re going in,” Lola quickly says, not wasting time and off we go, trying to save CeCe from herself once again. And here I thought I’d be the one getting drunk out of my mind.

CeCe gets a manic case of the giggles when she spots us in the crowd and her unfocused gaze lights up as she recognizes us. As we make our way towards her, she’s giggling like she just saw Santa and can’t get the image of his funny-looking beard out of her head. I almost trip over my heel-clad feet and fall flat on my face, trying to dodge a guy who’s a millisecond away from hitting me in the nose with his elbow.

I don’t almost hit the floor like a heap of rocks because I’m wasted; it’s because someone has spilled his drink over the floor and it’s wet and slippery whereas I’m not known for my balance. Lola, however, having missed the memo, gives me the kind of look that says something between the lines of ‘oh, babe, not you, too. One drunk at a time, please.’

I’m the first one to get to CeCe and before I know it, she’s gotten off the table and is hugging me with all her might, nearly choking me with her love.

She smells of beer and stale cigarette smoke as I bury my nose into her hair and I grimace at the smell, but don’t comment on it.

“This party is insane,” she yells into my ear, making me wince at the volume of her voice and I pull back to keep her at arm’s length.

“I can see you’re enjoying yourself,” Lola observes, carefully taking the red plastic cup CeCe’s holding from her shaking hands before she sloshes it all over my silver body-fitting dress, which I actually borrowed from Lola.

“Yes, I am!” CeCe shouts excitedly and she looks just so happy to see us that she tries to get me to climb on the top of the table, but Lola stops her as she grabs her wrists and holds her gaze.

“Okay,” she sighs heavily, closing her eyes for a moment to mentally prepare herself, “I can’t believe I’m about to say this,” she begins, already regretting the next words that are about to leave her mouth, “but I think you’ve partied enough for one night,” she concludes, nodding her head to further stress her point. “I doubt there’s one guy in this room who hasn’t gotten a glimpse of your underwear yet,” she speculates and then even pulls CeCe’s mini-skirt down a little bit. CeCe frowns at the gesture whereas I almost giggle at how motherly hen of Lola it is.

“Who cares?” she asks, not waiting for Lola to answer as she continues, “I’m having fun,” she proclaims happily before she tries to go back to dancing and getting half-naked.