Chapter 675: Fun Afoot


    I don’t know what the hell I was even doing anymore, or why I was doing what I was doing.


    Peer pressure, I guess. Mass hysteria, if you wanna get outrageous. I dunno, the pounding vibe of the atmosphere... it was just contagious.


    Always used to think that night fever was just a myth, never understood how people could just be swayed right out of their inhibitions just ’cause some groovy tunes and catchy beats.


    But here Amanda was being a tease, swaying and enticing, and around me, it was like people were kicking up invisible dust of energy. I could feel it coating my lungs, surging through my veins, and then suddenly I was tapping my foot, and suddenly my head was bobbing up and down.


    “Come on, you can do better than that!” Amanda yelled. “Here, I’ll help a bit, ‘kay?”


    The next I knew she was close enough that our bodies were pressed, that sweetvender smell of her golden locks grazing my nostrils as she moved about, her hands shimmying their way between my fingers.


    “Remember our dance at the convention?” She asked, slowly swaying me along with her motions. “Just pretend it’s that, except more wild, more energetic, more...”


    .....


    “Fun?” I said.


    Her lips curved. And up close, her smile was an even more beautiful sight to behold. “Now you got it.”


    Yes, slowly, gradually, I could feel ourselves picking up the pace and my reserves beginning to crumble. With every step we took, every turn we tossed, it was like my body was getting looser, limber. At some point, I just stopped thinking. Before I knew it, I was taking charge... twists, turns, sways, and shakes... I was doing it all.


    And that was when I finally realized I was infected with fever... and more than that... I was running on high.


    Put it simply, I was actually having fun.


    “Y’see? Nothing like a bombastic party to lose yourself for a while,” Amanda was springy, sweaty, her breath warm and heavy. “Stay like this for just a bit longer, alright? You’re more fun when you’re having fun!”


    I could hear my words bouncing along with me to the beat as I spoke, “Meaning to say I haven’t been fun?”


    “You’re always fun,” She said. “But seeing you actually having fun? Rarer than diamonds, that’s for sure.”


    “Congrattions, then. I’m having fun, alright. What’s next on the agenda?”


    “To do my damn best to keep you this way,” She said, cheekily tiptoeing her fingers across my chest and onto my chin. “The night’s still young, you know? Hate to see you finish prematurely.”


    Wow, that’s subtle.


    “Not one for being premature, actually,” I replied.


    “Hmm, don’t know about that just yet,” She said, giggling. “No worries, I’m sure I’ll find that out for myself in time, won’t I?”


    “Careful there, Amanda,” I warned her, pulling her closer to me with a twist. “Say any more, and I’ll start thinking you aren’t even talking about dancing.”


    “Ooo,” She yed right along, propping her head up just beneath my jaw, and lowering her voice to a sultry whisper. “And just who said I was?”


    And with the drop of the beat, we were swept away again in the fervor of the night, without thinking, without considering, I went through the motions with my empty head full of adrenaline and bravado.


    Clumsy dancing in the makeshift disco pad of my living was just the beginning.


    See, a party was kinda like a carnival of sorts. There’s always something to join in on, always another ride, another sight to see, and keeping with the theme of tonight’s lesson, always another way to have fun.


    Amanda in hand, I was coerced into a friendly match of beer-pong with the current ten-streak reigning champion. An up-anding basketball star on a schrship at the university nearby, apparently. Anyway, he wasn’t looking so much like a star by the time I got done beating him ten filled cups to zero.


    For some reason, his balls just kept missing... swearing up and down that some inexplicable gust of wind just kept blowing his shots off their mark. You ask me, I’d say he’s just being a sore loser.


    “Should have yed for cash if you were just gonna do that,” Amanda said, dragging us both away from the scene right quick.


    I turned, blinking nkly at her. “Do what?”


    “Oh, nothing,” She shook her head. “C’mon, let’s keep this momentum going, shall we?”


    We went all across the house, mingled with various groups, and various types of games. Spin the bottle sounded like a pretty fun time until it got my turn and my whirl went and pointed directly towards Hayley sitting across from me. Then all of a sudden it wasn’t as fun. Amanda pulled me so fast out of there, I didn’t even get the chance to ask if I could go for another respin.


    In another hall we found arge bunch ying telephone. We didn’t participate in this one, watching it unfold was enough fun in and of itself since the entire lineup was filled with drunkards stumbling over their words. Poor Nick the gamemaster had to sit and listen as his chosen words passed along from person to person slowly and gradually turned into some eldritch chant to rouse the Great Sleeping One from its infinite slumber.


    “No, Sammy.”


    Batting a re and spouting a frown, Sammy fumed in silence as I discarded the ss of wine I swiped from her hand, handing it to Amanda who promptly downed it in a single gulp.


    Don’t think you’re supposed to do that...


    “Oh,e on, Big Bro! it’s pretty much just... just grape in a ss! That’s all it is!” She whined away at me. “See, Amanda’s fine!”


    Amanda hupped in response, staggering in a ce bit before she managed toe to her senses again.


    “Mmm, maybe not too fine,” Amanda said, grimacing slightly. “Was I supposed to down it like that? Wine’s the same as beer, right? I have only drunk beer before, so...”


    I sighed, turning back to the still greatly miffed Sammy. “Amanda’s older,”.


    She iled her arms in front of her. “We’re only seven years apart!”


    “Yes, and four years too early, ording to thew. And forever years never, if I can help it,” I said, waltzing to the fridge and pouring her a fizzy ss of something more PG. “Here stick with this if you know what’s good for you. I’m serious. Also, where the hell did you even get wine? I don’t stock any.”


    “Yeah, because you’re prude, boring...”


    “Caring.”


    “Mostly boring,” Sammy’s scowl remained sic’ at me as she took a sip. “Thankfully, at least your friends aren’t boring. That’s all I’ll say.”


    “Who brought the wine, Sammy?”


    “Snitches get stitches.”


    “And little sisters get blisters,” I rolled my eyes. “Who brought the-?”


    “Hey, Sammy...” Amanda spoke up, staring at the remaining small sliver of wine rolling in the ss with one closed eye. “This is not the same wine that Leon gave as a Christmas gift to your brother, is it?”


    “My wine?” I cocked my head back, ncing back at a now stiff-faced Sammy. “Oh-ho, is this the pot calling the kettle back? You wanna lecture me about Christmas traditions, and you’re piging through people’s presents?”


    “I’m putting it to good use!” She eximed aloud in her attempt to justify. “I just hand it to you, and it’ll just be gathering cobwebs somewhere on the shelf until the end of the world. Besides, I just poured a sip! A tiny sip!”


    Amanda huped again, turning redder and redder in the face affirming that a tiny sip it was not. “Bathroom...” She weakly excused herself, before turning tail and vanishing from my side.


    “Alright, I’m sorry, was just curious...” Sammy finally conceded. “I swear it won’t happen again. Just wanted to have some fun...”


    “Fun, huh?” I muttered, pondering a little while, before feeling that same tingly, fiery boldness stirring up inside me. “Pass the wine over here.”


    Silently from somewhere out of sight, Sammy returned with the still brimming wine bottle in hand, and judging by its elegant design, it felt like I was holding six figures in a bottle. I uncorked the corked, poured a dash into the ss, and handed it over to Sammy.


    “There,” I said. “A tiny sip.”


    Sammy stared long and hard at the ss, and then even longer and harder at me, before asking with a straight face, “Who are you and what did you do to my Big Bro?”


    To that, I just walked away sighing, corking back the bottle and shelving it up high. “Merry Christmas, Sammy.”


    Alone now, I walked back towards the center of the living room, just taking in the sights, and hearing all the sounds. For once I felt like there wasn’t anything weighing me down. Not worrying, not thinking, just living in the moment... just this one night, this one time... it feels pretty damn good, not gonna lie.


    Even when there was a stern knocking on the front door, I was too mellow and rxed to even put in the effort in answering. Right now, I’m free of all worries. ‘Sides, it’s probably some guy’s friend’s friend of a friending along. Someone else will get the door.


    And there indeed, as if right on cue, I saw Tyler spring up on his emerging from a crowd of fans and friends, saying aloud to no one in particr as he headed for the entrance, “Everyone, chix! Door duty’s all on me! You all just continue with your vibe, alright?”


    Don’t mind if I do, Tyler, don’t mind if I-


    “OH FUCK!”


    Suddenly there was a reverberating m. I whirled back around, and Tyler’s eyes were practically bulging from their sockets, pressing his back firmly against the door, and scouring about the room in panic, as if he was searching for something.


    And after a while, Tyler found it.


    He found me... stammering, panicking, he let out a loud strangled whisper,


    “It’s the cops!” He said to me. “They’re here!”