Party Time. Not Excellent.

As I was not looking forward to attending this party, time flew to the day. If I had been looking forward to it, time would have dragged and dragged. Such is life. It felt like I agreed to attend, snapped my fingers, and then I was driving us to the party.

'Us', as it turned out, was myself, Heather, and the As. As neither of the As had a boyfriend at the time, I became their driver. It's not that the As were wallflowers or unpleasant looking as both were attractive. Abigail was just a little on the crazy side, a little too clingy and needy for most guys to put up with for long periods of time. Angela was, well, Angela. She was the only Goth type girl I knew that had dark hair and bleached blond streaks into it instead of the other way around. As individualistic as she was, it confused me that she was keen to go to this probably idiotic party. Her answer to me was two-fold: she enjoyed gatherings to watch people make asses of themselves and to make sure I behaved for Heather. So even with three very attractive young women in my car, I was still downhearted. I just knew this wouldn't go well.

The party was being held in one of those big houses near the lake. The driveway was jam packed with cars, as was the block. After finally finding a place to park, I grumbled that we might as well have walked from the dorms considering where we parked. This got me a Look from all three ladies. I grumbled to myself, took Heather's arm, and started walking.

In the darkness, the house glowed with light and throbbed with music. There seemed no way that this party wouldn't be visited by the cops but I kept this realization to myself rather than be seen as further grumping.

There were people everywhere. People hanging around outside, leaning on cars or sitting in the grass, talking, drinking, smoking. The same was the case indoors, just more so and in a confined area. Snaking our way through the crowd, I became very impressively unhappy. Crowds make me nervous. When you gather enough people together, their collective intelligence drops and with some of the people here, they didn't have much to lose.

The kitchen was filled with hooting individuals entertaining themselves with a beer bong, a funnel attached to a hose used to deliver beer in a rapid manner. Angela flashed us her cute but wicked grin and joined them. I knew her well enough to understand her plan. She wouldn't be drinking but she would bat her eyes and play dumb and cheer on the big lugs that were drinking. In this way she'd get her entertainment value out of watching stupid people. We moved onward, attempting to complete Heather's goal of finding her friend, our host.

We soon lost Abigail as well. Passing through the den, a friend of hers called out and nodded towards the young men on the couch with her. One of them smiled at Abby and that was all she needed. Fair enough. Good for her. Heather and I continued onward.

On the patio behind the house we finally located Carol and her bulky football playing boyfriend Bob. Heather made contact with Carol and they oohed and aahed over each other as females will do when they meet. I just stood back and let it happen. I'd seen it all before. It was only fair to let her enjoy the company of her friends like I did mine. I drifted off mentally until I heard my name as part of an introduction. Politely I shook hands with Carol and then with Bob once he was dragged from his conversation. As he was deep in conversation with his pals, I expected our contact to be brief; we'd nod to each other, shake hands, and return to what we had been doing before this started. That wasn't what happened.

We shook hands, Bob went to turn back to his friends but returned to me. Smiling, he complimented me on my beard. Few people had expressed such an opinion and I warmed to him immediately. I was brought into Bob's conversation, much to the delight of Heather. I was making friends. We were mixing.

Of course, this was a horrible choice.