A Case of Black and Blue

16 | Liquid Courage

"Another shot!"

I poured the añejo tequila into four shot glasses and grabbed the salt from Darcy, placing some onto the crook of my thumb. Joey handed me a wedge of lime and we all proceeded to lift our glasses in the air.

"To fighting the patriarchy!" Darcy said.

"To not dying." Joey said.

"To getting drunk!" Kevin said.

"To good things to come!" I finalized and we all clanged our shot glasses together, licked the salt off of our hands, swallowed back the tequila and then sucked on the limes.

Surprisingly, Joey was the one who suggested we all celebrate our good deeds and making an okay recovery—not a perfect recovery since Darcy still had a red ring around her eyes and I still saw stars if I turned my head too fast—but okay enough. Although Joey was never one to drink due to his status as a minor and his strict diet from being a future Olympian, he made an exception.

We invited over Lara, but she was dealing with some home troubles so it ended up just being the four of us. Well, we did consider other people we could've invited, but we ended up keeping the group small. Which was to Joey's relief because more people attending heightened the possibility that word would get back to his parents.

So we drank, shared stories, laughed about stupid things, played a few cards games and then Darcy and I led the boys to dance. Kevin jumped in right away because of those snake hips of his, but Joey was a lot slower to get into the groove. He was definitely lanky and struggled with his confidence as a dancer, but I tried to help him as much as I could.

"It's okay to look stupid as long as you're having fun!" I said loudly over the music we were blasting. I put my hands on his hips and tried to guide him to move more fluidly, but he still kept popping and locking all over the place. I laughed, which definitely didn't help him in the slightest, then brought him into a hug and just swayed side to side. We didn't match the pacing of the music at all, but Joey didn't seem to mind.

After a few swishes, Joey wrapped his arms around my waist tightly, pulling me in as we continued our circle of swaying. Darcy changed the song to All of Me by John Legend, and when we circled around again I flipped her the bird. She laughed, flipped me two and Kevin pulled her into a slow dance as well.

"Hey Cala?" Joey whispered in my ear.

"What's up, Joe-Bo?" I responded, feeling a little nervous. I could sense the severity in his tone and what Darcy had told me before rose to the surface of my mind.

He sighed at my nickname for him and I laughed, trying to keep the atmosphere light.

"Thank you," he finally told me and I felt relieved. I knew he was holding back, but I wasn't going to push him to speak his mind. Which might have been selfish of me, but I decided I wanted to open myself up to the possibility of Leo. Boy how life didn't cut any breaks for anyone.

"Of course!" I smiled brightly at him and gave him a hug before ending our dance. The song wasn't completely over, but it seemed like the right thing to do. Joey wound up in the kitchen and started making mixed drinks with the contents of our fridge. I ended up on the couch, browsing through my phone.

In the next hour or so, everyone was shitfaced. Joey made the drinks strong and the two other shots of tequila didn't help. To no one's surprise, Joey and Darcy were fast asleep, Joey sprawled across our sofa and Darcy had retreated to her bed. Kevin and I were the last two survivors, although it was clear that Kevin was not nearly as drunk as I was.

"I'm going out back to smoke, you coming?" He asked me, pulling a spliff out of nowhere.

"I'll pass," I said, looking up at him from my place sprawled across the floor. He got up and I watched as his legs retreated out of my peripherals and then heard a door open and close. I sighed, looking up at Joey on the couch who was lightly snoring. I wasn't ready for the party to end, but it seemed like that was happening.