Fools Fall

13- Sam

Sam

I gulped down the rest of my spiked punch when Noah reached for the lighter on the coffee table. If he was going to dismiss my worries about him getting high, then I didn't care about his 'pace yourself' comment. It wasn't even that Noah brushed off me asking him to not get high, it was that Jude butted in as well. Who the hell was he to give his unwanted opinion on our conversation?

And I didn't miss the way Jude scooted closer to Noah when we sat down. But of course Noah didn't move away, I doubt he even realized. I loved Noah more than anything, but his ability to be completely oblivious to things like flirting and people coming onto him, was astonishing. I wasn't crazy, I knew I saw Jude shift closer to my boyfriend and it took everything in me to stay still. To not grab my boyfriend's hand and make us leave.

But I didn't. I stayed put like the good boyfriend I was because I didn't want to be the type to ruin a night over jealousy. I wanted Noah to go to college parties and live that college experience, and I knew he wouldn't do anything to jeopardize our relationship. But that didn't mean other people (like that stupid Jude) wouldn't try to mooch his way through.

Luckily, Alice was a friendly distraction from my heated jealousy. We seemed to have a lot in common with her being a part of the LGBTQ+ community and when we got up to play Foosball, she told me the craziest story.

"Yeah, so my cousin, Amanda, lives in Florida, and she goes to Austberg High School, and she was telling me that their school is super homophobic. Which is why she's still in the closet to all her friends. And apparently, these two boys- I think their names were Grayson and Ryan. Anyway..." and then she told me this whole, bizarre story about Grayson and Ryan, but honestly it was hard to keep up with in my drunk state.

Plus, it didn't help that Alice was stoned and drunk, everything she was telling me was slurred. And yet I found myself saying, "Jeez, thas horriful!" Wait what? I laughed, "I meant to say awful and horri- horri... able. How do you pronounce that word?" I might've surpassed tipsy.

Alice laughed, "horrible," she helped me out.

I chuckled. Our game of foosball wasn't really a game; we just mainly screwed around and gossiped about people we didn't actually know. I turned to Noah to tell him about the story I heard, but he wasn't there. I looked around the garage and still no trace of Noah.

And Jude was gone. Oh God, my stomach felt queasy. "Where's Noah?" I asked Alice.

She looked around as if her searching for him would make him appear. She shrugged, "no clue. I'm sure he'll be back though."

I had a strong gut feeling that he wouldn't be back anytime soon and was Jude with him? "I'll be right back," I told Alice and as I was walking out, I noticed that girl who talked to Noah and I earlier, also wasn't in the garage. What was her name... Ciera, right?

I walked back into the house, almost tripping over the threshold of the doorway. The music was obnoxiously loud in my already pounding, sloshy head. There was so many people. Too many people. I kept bumping into others and I thought I apologized, but I wasn't sure. Walking into the kitchen, I decided it was a brilliant idea to take two Jell-O shots that were on a tray. I shot back a blue and green one.

Making my way outside, there was a huge pool with that was covered up for the incoming winter, but there was also a hot tub. The hot tub was filled- probably beyond capacity- with people in their underwear. But no Noah.

"Hmph" I was about to turn around when a hand clapped my shoulder.

Jude. Ugh.

"Sammy. Didn't think I'd find a lapdog without its owner," Jude jested. Maybe he was making a joke on mine and Noah's costume, but part of me knew he meant that in a bad connotation.