Bridged

Chapter 7

"Can we just have a lazy day today?" I moaned as Casey told me what she planned for today.

"No! You're only here for less than a month now! We have to do everything," She replied loudly. She was finishing her cereal, and I was resting my head on my arms on the counter. I had finally started to get readjusted to the time zone, but I still had a slight headache from the restless sleep I'd had last night.

"Fine, fine, so we're going over to your friend's house for a party tonight?" I mumbled keeping my head in my arms. "How are we going to get home if you drink too much?"

"He's one of my best friends," She replied. "I normally just sleep over after his parties." She finished the food in her bowl getting up to put it in the sink. "Do you want some medicine for your headache?" I nodded my head, still keeping it down. She went over to the cabinet pulling out a bottle of Tylenol and sliding it over to me. Then she excused herself to take a shower and made her way upstairs. I picked myself off the counter, and took some medicine. I got up to get dressed as well, and as I moved over to the stairs I took a moment longer than usual looking at the picture frames on the wall. There were pictures of Casey all through her childhood, playing with her parents and blowing out candles on her birthday, and even some of us together as little kids.  There was a particularly big frame incasing a large picture from my aunt and uncles wedding. My aunt was looking down, a huge smile on her face, and my uncle was looking at her, his entire expression read joy. We didn't have a picture like this at my house.

I quickly jogged up the stairs making my way into my room to change out of my pajamas. I picked up my phone. I had one new message. It was from Luke.

 I've got an early shift today, but I'm free after 1

I turned my phone over deciding to take a shower before I responded.

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We'd spent most of the day at home, eating and watching tv. I had a few summer reading books I needed to finish for college, so I was trying to get that done. At around 7 Casey decided to start getting ready for the party. She was wearing a tight short dress and because I hadn't brought anything like that with me, she gave me one of hers to wear. Casey and I normally shared clothes when we needed to, so I knew she wasn't much smaller than me, but this dress surely was. I slipped on a small pair of spandex underneath just as extra coverage and made my way back into her room. Casey never had to do much to look pretty. She had beautiful long brown hair that fell to her waist. It wasn't perfectly straight, so it looked really unforced. She had really big eyes that were a lighter hazel color. I'd always envied that about her. I turned to the mirror taking my own look in. I didn't think I was as naturally pretty as her, so I reached for her hair straightener plugging it into the wall.

Within about an hour or so we were both ready to leave, but we still had time to spare so we were sprawled on her bed looking at our phones. I suddenly realized that I had never texted Luke back. It was almost 8:00; he had texted me 10 hours ago. I tried to tell myself that it would've been weird if I suddenly texted him back.

"Hey, you ready to go?" Casey asked, turning her head to face me.

"Yup, ready when you are," I replied easily. She turned back to her phone, staying in exactly the same position.

"I don't wanna get up," She mumbled.  With a loud groan she pulled herself off the bed. She straightened out her dress, pulling it down so it reached a few inches below her butt. She held out a hand for me to take and pulled me up. We grabbed some last minute things, a sweater, our purses, and we left the house.

It only took about 20 minutes to reach Calum's house, and it was easy to spot even down the road. There were people pouring out of the front door and all over the lawn. The houses in the neighborhood were pretty spread out. Even though the houses themselves weren't that big, the lawns were huge. We parked somewhere down the street and made our way up to the entrance. The music could be heard clearly from outside, and we pushed our way in. I had to admit that I was pretty excited. I loved going to parties back home, but a party in a different county, that was even more fun. The house was packed to say the least. As we walked in I noticed the family room had turned into a make shift dance floor, in the kitchen a very loud game of beer pong was in session, and in the back yard the thick clouds of smoke were visible.