Bridged

Chapter 1

"Bridgette! It's so good to see you again!", A loud Australian voice shouted over the pulsating music. I turned around, falling into an excited embrace with one of my cousin's best friends. Though we had only met for a few days last time I was in Australia, and rarely spoke on Facebook, the atmosphere was just so light and exciting  that everyone was acting like best friends. An array of comments and praise of people's dresses floated from all directions and though I knew nearly no one here, it felt warm and simply happy. There were people of all ages, some I recognized as Casey's relatives from the side of Casey's family I was not a part of, some I assumed were students from her school. As Casey wandered around thanking her guests for coming, I took the opportunity to move to the bar stationed on the far side of the room. There were older men scattered around it laughing loudly at jokes I couldn't understand because either their accents were too heavy or their words were too slurred, so I found an empty seat to slip into and waited as the bartender made his way over to me. Once he was finally made it I leaned forward on the counter and whispered loud enough that hopefully only he could hear, "Could I please have a beer?".

A deep laughter sounded from next to me and then I heard, "Why are you whispering?". Turning around I came face to face with a blonde boy taking a seat next to me. He towered over me sitting down, let alone standing up.

"Ummm", I tried stalling, not wanting the bar tender to hear me admit to being underage, but the boy was giving me a weird look so I quickly whispered, "I'm not 18." At this he let out a soft laugh.

"You must be Casey's cousin", he replied, a smile still adorning his face.

"How'd you know?" I asked, then quickly thanked the bar tender as he passed me the bottle.

"Well, you've got an American accent, I've never seen you before, and," he paused taking a sip out of his own beer, "you're concerned you'll get in trouble for underage drinking. This is Australia, we feed babies beer in their bottles." It was now my turn to laugh. I fully looked at the boy next to me, he was actually very cute with nice blue eyes and dimples in both cheeks. "I'm Luke, by the way", he stated holding his hand out.

"Bridgette", I replied shaking his hand. With a straight face I continued the conversation, "So I guess the alcoholic Australian stereotype is true then?"

"Oh yes, very true. We also have barbeques every night for dinner, and every Australian family is require by law to have a pet kangaroo," Luke replied maintaining a serious expression up until the last bit which made both of us break into laughter again. We bantered back and forth, the conversation never falling into an awkward silence. Both of us threw witty remarks back and forth as if it was a clever game of chess. The party continued on in full swing around us, and the slightly inebriated DJ was making strange comments that continuously made us laugh.

It was hard to tell how much time had passed before a beautiful blonde girl came bounding over. Putting her hands around Luke's eyes from behind she called out, giggling, "Guess who!", breaking the conversation between me and Luke. Laughing along Luke responded, "Hmm... Dani?". I almost felt like I had been woken up from a dream. I silently cursed myself for feeling this way. With his personality he must have had so many other friends; I was nothing special. Luke and Dani appeared fully comfortable with each other, and I wanted to be upset about it, in fact I might have been a little upset, but I couldn't admit it. Dani just seemed so nice. If she was Luke's girlfriend, so be it. Who am I to Luke anyways? We'd only just met.

As Luke and Dani caught up, I briefly glanced behind her scanning the crowded reception hall for Casey. I didn't want to bother Casey by following behind her the whole night like a puppy, but I also didn't want her worrying about me being bored or lonely. Luke spoke up, clearing his throat, "So Dani, this is Bridgette. She's Casey's cousin from America!", flashing a broad grin in my direction. Damn his teeth were straight.

"Ooh America! What's it like! I hear there's a McDonald's on every street," Dani responding, letting out an inarguably cute laugh. "Come on, Luke you've been missing all night. Let's dance! Bridgette, you can join us too!" This whole interaction with Dani threw me off a little, and, suddenly, I didn't feel as connected to Luke as I had before.

"That's really nice of you, but I think I'm actually going to try and find Casey now. It was nice meeting you, Luke," I responded politely, excusing myself quickly, leaving my beer on the counter. I didn't want to wait to see if Luke would request me to come with him. Instead, I put it out of my head and began searching for Casey.