Someone Will Remember Us

Sober Thoughts

Chapter Fourteen

I don't think I've ever been sober this long into a party.

However, Scott hunting is much easier when you're not shitfaced yourself.

"I can't find him anywhere," Charlie says. We planned to meet up by the stairs but neither of us has found Scott.

"Did you check outside?" I ask.

It's just so unlike Scott to disappear halfway through the party. He's the only one of us who brought a jacket with pockets so Charlie gave his house keys to him so that we wouldn't lose them. Kind of a stupid thing to do now I that I think about it.

Scott's not answering any of our texts and Charlie's worried that he left with his house keys.

"Yes," Charlie says and he's stressed out because his parents are out for Halloween and if we don't find Scott, he won't be able to get back into his house. "Where did you look?"

"Kitchen, living room etcetera. Downstairs basically," I say. But Scott wasn't the only one I was looking for. He said he'd be here, so where is he?

"Bathrooms too?" Charlie asks and he moves out of the way to let someone go up the stairs.

I nod. I checked all the available ones, and I knocked on the taken ones, no sign of Scott puking anywhere.

"Guess you know what that means," I sigh and I nod up the stairs.

No one wants to be checking the upstairs at any party, who knows what you might walk in on.

"Great," Charlie says unenthusiastically and then he takes one step towards the stairs. "See you in 10?"

I nod.

At this point, it'll be a miracle if we find him.

***

Charlie's checking one side of the house upstairs and I'm checking the other. Walking into open rooms, knocking on closed ones, asking one question, 'Scotty, you in there?'

I have an advantage over Charlie, I've been here before. I check rooms that he probably would have never found.

I check out of the bedrooms that Bryce usually keeps locked. It's open.

But when I walk in, it's empty. Bryce was probably here not long ago and he forgot to lock the door behind him.

But just as I'm about to turn on my heel, I hear someone puking in the bathroom. The only entrance to that bathroom is through the bedroom and I try to remember if Scott knew about this room.

"Scotty?" I call out but I get no response apart from more retching noises.

Fucking gross.

But being the good friend that I am, I walk over to the bathroom. The door isn't locked, it's not even closed and I see someone crouching down over the toilet bowl.

"Winn?"

He sharply turns his head towards me and I see his red eyes and cheeks, he doesn't look good. He's been a mess ever since he came back on Tuesday.

"What's up with you?" I ask. He opens his mouth to answer but then he turns his head back towards the toilet bowl and he vomits again.

I've seen Charlie take care of vomiting Scott before, many times actually. But I just left that to Charlie, I never had to do this shit myself.

He pauses for a moment and then he spits into the toilet bowl. "Diego had me playing that stupid game," he groans and then he brings his head down to rest his chin on the toilet seat.