Chapter 11: ‘Tis the Season

The following week, I returned to school. This is the last week of school before our two-week Christmas Break. The aches from my scuffle with Dirk are minimal and I’m able to remove the bandage from my forehead now. The bruises on my back are shrinking, a little smaller each day from what I can tell by looking in the mirror when I get out of the shower.

People at school ask about my fight, but I keep the explanation to the basics and don’t go into any great detail. I passed Dirk a few times in the halls, he gives me customary nasty looks, but keeps his distance. I notice a small scab on his jaw that I put there, it’s not much compared to what he did to me, but at least I was able to give him a small souvenir for when he looks in his mirror.

Tiffany and I contemplated skipping out of school one of these afternoons for some alone time together. In the end, we decided this week would probably not be a good idea being that I just returned from a suspension for fighting. I have a lot of make-up work to get caught up on from my little, unplanned, four-day weekend.

I called Bill Moore at Pizza Depot and let him know that I am ready to return to work. He was happy and told me to come in Tuesday afternoon.

Eric let me know that he is having a party at his place on Saturday night, and everyone at Pizza Depot is welcome. I have to work the dinner rush that day, but my shift is over at 9:00. Sounds like fun, I’ll see if Tiffany wants to go.

On Saturday, Mom gives me a ride to work and I bring a change of clothes with me. Tiffany is going to pick me up when my shift is over and go to Eric’s party with me. She wants to drive so I can have a beer or two if I want. The last time I had any beer was last summer with Renee painting those apartments; I remember sweating those out in more ways than one.

Eric rents a house with a couple of his buddies. I hear it’s quite the party place; he’s always talking about the wild times they have. We find his street and there are many cars parked up and down, on both sides. I forgot the exact address of his house, but it was easy enough to find with all the hooting and hollering going on, not to mention loud music; he must have awesome (or deaf) neighbors.

Tiffany and I make our way inside, the air is thick with cigarette smoke and the place is packed with people, drinking and playing all sorts of games. Games I’ve never seen before involving bouncing quarters on tables into cups of beer, bouncing Ping-Pong balls into cups of beer, passing playing cards around and gulping cups of beer. Cups of beer seem to be the common denominator in every one of these games, they’re everywhere.

“Hey, Kyle! Glad you made it.” Eric shouts and slaps me hard on the back.

“Yow! Easy on my back, Eric!”

“Oh man, I’m sorry Buddy, I forgot.” He looks Tiffany up and down, “And, who is this lovely lady?”

“Eric, meet Tiffany. Tiffany, meet Eric. We work together in the kitchen.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Tiffany,” he reaches out and kisses her hand.

“Nice to meet you too, Eric.”

“Hey, come with me you two, I’ll show you where the keg is.” We follow him through the crowd, into the kitchen, where a keg is set up in a garbage can full of ice.

“Here are the cups, here’s the keg. You know what to do, help yourselves!”

I ask, “Do you have any soda pop or anything? Tiffany is driving.”

“Sure, there’s plenty over here.” Eric motions to a counter cluttered with 2-liters and various bottles of booze. Tiffany goes over to see what they have.

I’m too sure about hard liquor, that could make me pretty drunk and fast, I better stick with beer. I take a plastic cup and put it under the spout and pull the little lever down, nothing but foam comes out. Could it be empty already? One of Eric’s buddy’s sees me jiggling the keg, trying to figure out how to make this thing work and starts laughing, “You gotta pump it up, Dude!”

“Huh?”

He comes over and shows me that I have to pull up and push down on a ball attached to a rod on the top to make the beer come out. “Let me guess, this is your first kegger?”

“Yeah, kinda,” I sheepishly, admit.

“No worries, Dude, we all have our first time,” he says and slaps me hard on the back. What is it with all this back slapping? Sheesh.

Tiffany comes back with a glass of pop, “You take it easy on that, Kyle. I don’t need you puking in my mom’s car.”

“I will.”

Several of my coworkers are here, but mostly a lot of people I’ve never seen before, must be other friends of Eric, and his roommates. I originally thought this party was just for the people I work with, but this ... this looks like a full-blown, college party! This is what I imagine frat parties must be like.

I’ve never even been to high school party, so you can imagine how out of my element I feel here. I have a feeling that Tiffany and I are the youngest two people here. No-one seems to notice though, or even care, they even insist we join them in their games. Being that Tiffany isn’t drinking she tells me, it’s okay, if I want to play a little, but, she again, warns me to take it easy with the beer. With Tiffany sitting off to the side, it will help keep me from playing for too long. I certainly can see how people get drunk fast playing these types of beer games by the way they’re slamming them down.

They invite me into a game with cups set up in a triangle, like bowling pins, at each end of a long table. It’s called Beer Pong (also known as Beirut). They take turns tossing a Ping-Pong ball, trying to get it to land in one of the cups. I’m teamed up with some long-haired, rocker-dude named Gavin who explains the rules to me. We’re going up against two other guys I don’t know.

For my first time playing this game, I actually land quite a few in their cups making them drink plenty, maybe because I’m still sober. Gavin slaps me on the back (ouch) and tells me that I’m his new best friend. We end up winning the game, so that means two new chumps must move in and face the dynamic duo of Gavin and I. This is fun!

I look over at Tiffany and see that she has found a new friend, she’s in conversation with a waitress from Pizza Depot named Allison. I wave at her and she smiles and waves back. This is great, she’s occupied, that means that I can keep playing and not feel bad that I brought her to a party full of strangers while she sits and watches me have all the fun.

Gavin and I kick ass for the next four games of Beer Pong before he tells me he’s had enough and thanks me for being a great team partner. I take leave of the game as well and make my way to kitchen to refill my beer cup. I’ve lost track of how many I’ve had, but I do know that I’m feeling pretty damn good right now.

While I am at the keg filling my cup, some female hands reach around me from behind. One hand on my chest and the other is down lower, cupping and squeezing my genital area. This startles me, my eyes pop wide open and I almost spill beer everywhere. My instant thoughts are that, maybe Tiffany is having a little more than just pop and is feeling frisky? I hear a giggle and a voice I haven’t heard in several weeks, “Hey, Sport!”

I spin around and here is Renee, of all people, she tells me, “I just came from another party, and look who I find here!”

“Hey Renee! Wow! When did you get back in town?”

“Yesterday, I’m back for a few weeks.”

“That’s cool,” I tell her, looking around to see if Tiffany was in view of Renee’s rather, gropey greeting.

Renee gives me a hug and falls into me at the same time, she’s clearly had quite a bit to drink already. She whispers in my ear, “I’m sooo happy to see you.” I feel her hand fondle my crotch area again as she informs me, “I’m horny as fuck! Do you maybe wanna come help me with something at the apartments?”

I gently push her back a bit, “I’m here with Tiffany.”

“Oh ... I am so sorry, Kyle, oh my god ... I’m so sorry!”

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I calm her.

“Can I meet her?” she eagerly asks.

“Ah, yeah, she’s in here talking with Allison.”

We push our way into the living room and Renee goes right over to Tiffany, “Hi! I’m Renee. I work with Kyle, here.” She puts her arm around my waist, pulling me tightly to herself. Tiffany looks up a little confused and seeing that Renee is pretty drunk offers a fake-smile. It sure feels awkward to be in the same room with two girls (the only two girls) I’ve had sex with, and have them talking to each other.

Renee loses her balance a little bit, grabbing me tighter for support, “You have a good ... no, great ... no, awesome, most awesome guy here, Miss Tiffany! You better take, extra, good care of him.”

“Ah ... yeah? Okay?” Tiffany shoots me a darted, questioning, look that definitely says, what is up with her?

Renee lets me go and wanders off, I choose to stay put and sit down with Tiffany and Allison. We hang out for a while and I occasionally see Renee across the room winking at me, and giving me thumbs up gestures that convey, good for you, Kyle!

I promised to go easy on the beer, so I stop filling from the keg and switch to soda pop. I’m feeling a pretty good buzz right now, but still have enough sense not push my luck.

An hour later, Tiffany and I decide to go home. On our way out, I receive various, drunken, high-fives from Gavin and some of the others. Our host, Eric, is plowed and he gives me a big, goodbye bear-hug, lifting me of off the ground; he probably won’t even remember most of this night.

As soon as we’re in the car, Tiffany turns to me and asks, “So ... what was up with that Renee chick? She seemed a bit on the touchy-feely-friendly side.”

“It was nothing, she was little drunk, she came from another party,” I try to blow it off.

“A little drunk? More like, a lot drunk!”

“Yeah, normally, she’s cool. She’s actually the boss’s daughter.”

“She sure seems to like you a whole lot.”

“Yeah, we have a lot of fun at work and get along pretty well.”

“A lot of fun, huh?”

Maybe it’s my buzz, but this conversation has me feeling a little uncomfortable; time to change the subject. “So, do you want to go Christmas shopping with me tomorrow?” I ask, “I still have a few things to get.” Actually, I haven’t even started my Christmas shopping yet, but that’s not the point.

“Okay, I still have a few things to get too. Are you going to be up to it?”

“What do you mean?” I slightly, slur.

“Well, you might be nursing quite a hang-over tomorrow.”

“I’ll be fine,” I pooh-pooh it, “I didn’t have that much.”

Tiffany rolls her eyes. She is right, this is most buzzed/drunk I’ve ever gotten myself, I hope I’m not too sick in the morning...

I sleep till after 11:00 am and awake with a pretty solid headache, but a couple of Excedrin tablets soon work their magic and take care of it. I lucked out with no churning stomach or throwing up, I can be thankful for that.

Around noon my phone chirps, it’s Renee calling, “Kyle, I am so sorry for how I acted last night, I had way too much to drink. I don’t remember much, but I know I probably made an ass out of myself with you and your girlfriend.”

“It’s okay Renee, no harm done.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

“We still friends?”

“Forever,” I smile.

“I do remember telling your Tiffany something about, taking good care of you, so now I’m going to tell you the same, you take good care of her too, Kyle.”

“I will.”

“And remember, I’m always available for you, if you need to talk about anything, okay?”

I borrow Mom’s car and pick Tiffany up to go shopping, we’re going to brave the Christmas crowds at the mall. “So how did you feel this morning?” she asks once we are on the road.

“I had a little headache, but it went away. I’m fine now.”

“You had quite a few last night, Kyle,” she yawns. Pfffttt ... I still don’t think it was that many...

Tiffany looks tired. “Are you all right?” I ask, “You look like you didn’t get much sleep.”

“I didn’t,” she yawns again.

“How come? I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.”

“Of course, you did, you were drunk,” she replies, in a semi-scolding way.

“Oh-kayyy, someone’s a little testy today.”

“If you want the truth, I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about that girl ... that girl from the party last night. The one you said you work with, the boss’s daughter.”

“Renee? What about her?” Here we go with the Renee business again.

“I know she was drunk, but it was just the way she was all over you. It was borderline creepy.”

“She’s just ... super-friendly, and then add in too much to drink ... I don’t know, I’ve never seen her like that before.” I attempt to shrug it off as nothing.

“Has she ever, like ... come-on to you at work?” Tiffany presses.

I miraculously find a spot in this overcrowded lot and park. “Why are you so interested in Renee?” I ask, starting to get a little peeved.

“I don’t know, Kyle, something about her being around you makes me ... uncomfortable.”

“Uncomfortable, how? She’s a co-worker of mine.”

“Call it female intuition, or whatever, but it just seems that there is more to it,” Tiffany will not just let this go. “I get the feeling she likes you way too much, or something...”

I just can’t compete with female intuition, “Okay,” I put my hands up in surrender, “We had sex a couple of times last summer. It was before you and I got together.”

“I knew it, I knew there had to be something...” Tiffany grumbles.

Now, I’m moving from peeved, to getting ticked off, “Tiffany, you can’t seriously be mad at me because I was with another girl before you.”

“No, that’s not what’s bothering me. I don’t care if you boned her last summer. What bothers me is, that she didn’t seem to get the memo that you have a girlfriend now.”

Tiffany is really getting herself worked up about this, “She’s just so flirty ... and perky ... and bosomy ... and cute ... and ... and I’m not sure how I feel about a hussy like that working alongside my boyfriend! No, I’ll tell you how I feel, I don’t like it!”

I calm, take a breath and lean over to put my arm around her. She looks up at me and I wipe a tear from her cheek. Very softly and very gently, I say, “Tiffany, I am not like those other guys you dated. They cheated on you. They hurt you. I will not. They taught you not to trust. I can only hope to show you that you can trust me.

“Yes, Renee and I were together last summer, but she has been away at college since then. She only comes home at holidays, and for the summer. She didn’t know we were together until just last night. She’s actually happy for me, happy for us, really, she is.

“Last summer, I told her how much I liked you ... from way back. Before she left for school, she told me to be patient, that things might work out for you and me. She was hoping it would work for us.”

Tiffany leans her head on my shoulder, after a little while she says, “I’m sorry, Kyle, I didn’t know, you never told me about her...”

“I didn’t because I figured it was in the past.”

She quietly asks, “Were you two, like, boyfriend and girlfriend last summer?”