Two Weeks With Chelsea

Chapter 4

A handful of Well Stone students called Auburn and Lewiston home and acted as a bridge between the local public high schools and the rural private academy. One of Trevor's friends, Clay, made sure he and the rest of the group were invited to anything happening in town.

"Trevor, Dave you made it," Clay said as the duo entered the house. "Some of the others are already here. Erick is already wasted and hitting on all the wrong girls."

"As long as he leaves the single ones for the rest of us. Whose place is this?"

"My buddy Declan, c'mon, I'll introduce you after we get you a drink!"

The venue for the party was new but the routine was much the same as every party that preceded it. The early party goers start off with a bit of heavy drinking. A few guys arrive with a small supply of pot and fill one part of the house with smoke that eventually wafts through the rest of the space. A lightweight drinker will try to keep up but early into the evening spews on someone's shoes or the sofa before passing out behind a Lay-Z-Boy in a corner of the living room. The vape boys gather in the kitchen, competing to see who can rip the fattest cloud, completely oblivious to the annoyed bunch that had already claimed the area. Bedrooms are occupied by couples looking for a bit of privacy for some sort of sexual encounter before returning to the party. Bethany, one of the girls from Well Stone will get sufficiently intoxicated then pick her first guy of the night at random and lead him up the stairs or into the basement or garage. Where she ends up by the end of the night is anyone's guess, a stranger's house, a park, or perhaps a motel room in Lewiston.

Normally, by the time marijuana smoke had become thick in the air, Trevor would have taken his drinking to the backyard or left the party all together. On this occasion, he was still at the party and working towards a promising hangover in a lounge chair on the back patio when David found him.

"Hey, Stacy is here and looking for you," David said. "She brought Library Girl with her this time."

"Dude, her name's Chelsea," Trevor said as he tapped his beer bottle against his friend's red disposable drink cup. "Thanks for the warning. You sticking around?"

"No. I'm just waiting on Trinity."

"What? Congrats! So, are you two—"

"Hooking up? No, I'm just walking her home. But, that's farther than anyone else has got with her. Right?" David replied with a wide smile.

"I was going to say, planning on going on a date," Trevor said before tipping back the bottom half of his beer. "I hear Stacy coming, gotta go. Good luck, remember what I told you, and don't screw it up!"

"Yup, act like a gentleman. Denny's at one?" David asked.

"Not just acting... Being!"

Trevor slipped out of the back yard through a gate at the side of the house. The prearranged post party meeting spot was a few blocks away. Anyone that wasn't crashing somewhere in town for the night would meet up with the hope that someone had a car and was sober, to drive them back to Well Stone. The second option was to share a taxi.

"Have you seen Trevor?" Stacy asked after she had stumbled into David. "I think he's hiding from me."

David stared at Stacy as the gate latched shut behind Trevor. "He left a while ago."

"Aww, why you let'm leave?" Stacy asked as she draped herself over David.

"Sorry, David," Chelsea said as she attempted to pry her friend off the unimpressed boy. "She's just a little... drunk." 

*****

David arrived at the Denny's at twelve thirty and found Trevor doodling on the backside of the paper placemat with a half dozen broken crayons. He showed Trevor a contact entry in his phone with Trinity's photo and phone number then smiled while the waitress poured a cup of coffee.