Maybe Before Today

Chapter 11

     "Alice. Oh my god. Have you seen this?"
     I looked up from my practise essay to Lex's phone where she had instagram open and asked, "What's this?" even though I knew exactly what it was. And the thought filled me with dread.
     "Aimee and Lucy. Their Halloween party."
     I nearly groaned. Aimee and Lucy French, more commonly known as just "The Twins" owned a huge mansion. Like, could-house-fifty-people-at-least-but-only-has-three type massive. There were four of them until their parents got divorced and their dad was forced to move into a regular sized house. Tragic.
     Every Halloween, they would throw a horribly obnoxious party open to everybody in our year group, which had involved alcohol since we were thirteen years old and had always included a game of Truth Or Dare, laced with immeasurable levels of peer pressure. I knew all of this only from the instagram stories and posts. I had never once been to one of these parties, nor had I ever had any desire to go.
     "What about it?" I asked, hoping she wasn't going to say what I suspected she was thinking.
     "Obviously I'm making you go."
     A raised a skeptical eyebrow. "That's gonna be trickier than you think."
     She shrugged, smiling. "I don't mind a challenge."

     "No, no, Alice, come on. It would be so much fun."
     I threw my head back in frustration. "Ziggs. What, pray tell, would be fun about drunk teenagers and peer pressure?"
     "The costumes." I could practically feel their excitement radiating through the air. And that was them without any caffeine.
     "We can dress up anywhere."
     "Think of everybody else's costumes," Lex said, earning an eyebrow raise from me and an excited little squeak from Ziggs.
     "One word. Instagram."
     "It would be so much better in person," Ziggs said, their eyes pleading.
     "You two go, then."
     "You're coming, Alice. You need a break. You need to have some fun."
     They were right. I really did need a break. But when I imagined getting that break it never involved sitting in a room with obnoxious dubstep music giving me the headache I went out to try to avoid and teenagers replacing the screaming I was trying to escape.
     "I can do that in front of the TV with cake and doritos."
     "You're coming," Lex said. "Even if we have to drag you there in pyjamas and a pair of cat ears."
     "Ooh, costumes!" Ziggs clapped their hands. "So. I'm thinking Sandy from Grease. But, like, ending Sandy."
     "Perfect. But I think I'm sticking with devil horns and a cape. I'm not the most creative with costumes."
     "Alice, what about you?"
     I knew the two of them, and I knew they got what they want. I really had no chance. My best bet was to give in and then insist on leaving early in an attempt to make them regret taking me. And an attempt to get out of there and home to headphones, cake and doritos. "Cat ears sound good."
     Betrayed is the only word I can think of to describe Ziggs's expression. "Horrifying lack of effort from you both. I'm disappointed"
     "Hey, I have an idea!" I feigned excitement.
     "What's that?"
     "Well, Lex and I can go as Gargamel and Azriel and-"
     "And I can be a smurf. Ha ha. Very funny."
     "It is," I said, chuckling along with Lex and ignoring the glares from Ziggs.
     "Do you know what? I don't care what costumes you two wear. But we are all going."
     "Even if we have to peer pressure you." Lex grinned.
     "You're gonna have to peer pressure me."
     "Fine by me," Ziggs said.

     "Are you really gonna make me go to this thing?" I asked Ziggs as we walked home - well, to the forest - from school.
     "You heard Lex and I at lunch, didn't you?"
     "So there's nothing I can say?"
     "No."
     "Fine. Okay. I will go to your stupid party. But under one condition."
     "What's that?"
     We discarded our school bags and sat beneath a tree. "Neither one of you goes near the alcohol. I am not dealing with a drunk Ziggs. You're difficult enough sober."
     "Wasn't planning to anyway. And you know you love me."
     "Thank you. And yes, but not when you're forcing me to a Halloween party and forcing me to miss out on hours of binge-watching Netflix shows."
     They pouted. "But seriously, I think it'll be good for you to get a break from everything and just have fun. You can only binge-watch so many shows before you'll get bored."
     "Can't we do that with just the three of us? Do we need to witness a drunk Emily Drake breaking another crystal vase?"
     "You sure pay a lot of attention to what happens at these parties - you know, considering how much you hate them."
     "What can I say? I'm judgemental as hell about these people and I like ammunition."
     "Oh, and speaking of Emily Drake, did you hear she and Aimee have been secretly dating for a month? She came out a few days ago as a lesbian."
     I felt a little stab of anxiety. I wasn't completely sure why. Or, at least, I wasn't going to admit it. "Can't believe Aimee is dating her after the Great Vase Incident of 2016."
     "I'm not surprised to be honest. The two of them always were very ... I don't know. I just had a suspicion."
     I laughed, even if what I was feeling was sheer terror at the implication that Ziggs could tell these things about people they barely knew. Would the fact that I was their closest friend make it easier or harder had anything been going on with me?

~

(A/N: I'm back! And I will probably disappear again but oh well)