Chapter 8: Roman Decadence

By mid-February it became obvious that Deirdre's eighteenth would not be like any of her previous birthdays. There were expectations by her small circle of friends. They expected a party, a birthday bash, and Deirdre was at a loss. This was something she had never done, not even before Karen killed her social life in her freshman year. It was a sad fact that there had been little social life to kill. The parents of her class mates had always been suspicious of Deirdre's unusual living arrangements, and Maureen's invitations to birthday parties for her daughter met with lame excuses all through the years before high school.

In short, not one member of the Darling household had the first clue about throwing birthday parties and thus it fell to Deirdre's friends, namely Deborah and Joey, to do the organizing. This was aided by a bundle of cash from Maureen. From the start Joey insisted on the party being staged in his and Tess' house for the simple reason that Deirdre could simply stay for the night. Tess had arranged to be with Uncle Vincent when none of her friends was able to accommodate her for the night but when she asked Joey and Deirdre they relented and invited her, too.

The motto was Roman Decadence. The basement spa would feature prominently in their planning and the guests were advised of the dress code: bathing suits under Roman-style togas, i.e. linen sheets. They planned on finger food and fruit and Joey organized a wineskin filled with red grape juice which they would drink from pewter goblets.

Deb would bring Chet Adams, her on/off boyfriend who was currently back 'on'. He was an okay guy if a little full of himself. Liz, who had aligned herself with Joey and Deirdre and was friends with them brought her college boyfriend, Wayne MacIntyre, who had graduated with Joey's old class. Then there was Ray Alvarez, Tess's date for the evening. Two more girls from the AP Biology course, Monica DeVeer and Lin Wu, completed the list. Those girls had been Deirdre's original preference as lab partners. They had snubbed her but she wanted to reach out to them. That made it a party of ten.

The day started with a surprise for Deirdre. Maureen had conspired behind her back and when Deirdre came down from her room for breakfast, sleepy and still wearing a crumpled flannel pajama, she found herself looking at her boyfriend.

"Eeek!" she squeaked, conscious of her less than perfect attire, but it was too late.

Maureen hugged her and wished her a Happy Birthday. Then it was Karen's turn and when she released Deirdre, Joey was already standing in line. By now Deirdre had recovered from her surprise and embarrassment and she was looking for a payback. With a devilish grin directed at Karen and Maureen, Deirdre plastered herself against Joey. Just a thin layer of cloth covered her naked body, and her kiss was no kiss but rather a blatant and unashamed foreplay. Joey emerged from that onslaught flustered and with an erection fit to split firewood. Giving the conspirators a smug grin Deirdre sat down at her usual place. Maureen looked at Karen and smirked.

"Hoisted by our own petard," she said dryly. "Joey, sit, please. Napkin's right next to your plate."

Deirdre giggled and patted Joey's hand while Karen glowered at Joey. "When will you be back tonight?" she asked rather harshly.

"Don't wait up on account of me. I have plans on who I'll wake up with," Deirdre answered serenely.

"You don't say!" Maureen laughed. "Well, seeing that you were born at five in the afternoon you're not yet eighteen and that means that I still call the shots until five. First order of business: open your presents. Then, breakfast. After that: shopping malls. Your boyfriend has informed me of tonight's dress code and since I know the only bathing suit you own we need to find you something that will give Joey an incentive to keep you overnight."

"Wha–what dress code?"

"Toga over bikini," Joey explained helpfully. "Let Deb and Liz have their comeuppance."

Karen weighed in. "Morry, is that wise? I mean, this is just a pretense..."

"Karen, accept the fact that Deirdre is of age. She couldn't be in better hands either."

Deirdre took a deep breath. "Karen, I'll be spending the night with my boyfriend. I'm eighteen, I'm not doing drugs, and I'll be in a private residence. Can you please accept that it's my life?"

Karen did not answer. Abruptly, she stood and left the room. Shaking her head Deirdre began to unpack the gifts. There were clothing items from Maureen, a pair of running shoes from Karen, and a flatbed scanner, again from Maureen. When Deirdre had finished unpacking Joey placed two more items before her. Giving him a shy smile, she opened the bigger one first. It was Charles Darwin's "On The Origin Of Species", a leather bound edition from 1958 which Joey had found on ebay. Deirdre pressed the book against her chest while she gave Joey a flaming kiss.

"This is so cool!" she gushed.

The second gift from Joey was smaller. It was a pair of ear pendants, aquamarine stones set in sterling silver. The stones matched Deirdre's eyes perfectly. This gift triggered the third kiss and this time Deirdre ended up on Joey's lap and with his right hand under her pajama top, right on her naked tummy.

"Jeez, I hope there are no more gifts," Maureen commented drily. "I don't think I can watch any further escalation."

"I'll better give her my third gift tonight," Joey answered with a smile.

"I'm sure you will," Maureen mumbled. "Kindly put a wrap on it, too."

Deirdre giggled unashamedly. "We should get some wrappers while we're at the mall."

Joey left after breakfast after his offer to assist Deirdre with her shower had been vetoed by Maureen. He received another kiss at the door together with a soulful look from Deirdre.

"Tonight, Joey, I'll be yours."

Maureen delivered Deirdre to Joey at five o' clock sharp, driving up in her Volvo 760 station wagon which she loved and trusted. Joey had talked her into letting Uncle Rico do a complete inspection and he had declared it safe after replacing almost the entire brake system, the muffler, and most of the steering. The silver paint had long ago changed into a light battleship grey under the influence of the elements but Maureen did not care.

She came to the door with Deirdre and Joey invited her in. She had never been in the house and Tess showed her around. She spent a full two minutes looking at the pictures of Carla and Giovanni Di Rosa in the living room. She was asking a few questions, too, before Tess was allowed to show her the rest of the house including the basement spa. Steam bath and jacuzzi interested her but she also inspected the decoration for the planned Roman style bacchanal.

Meanwhile, Joey and Deirdre had some time alone. In his room Deirdre changed into her new bikini bathing suit. Taking a deep breath and blushing her trademark tomato red Deirdre dropped her clothes and stood completely naked for a few seconds before she stepped into the bikini bottom and put on the top. The bikini was black and it showed off a well toned body. Deirdre had attended ballet classes until she turned sixteen and it still showed. Joey was trying to recover from the sight of a naked Deirdre and the addition of the bikini did little to redirect his blood flow away from his midsection.

"Now I know what Liz and Deb meant," he said with a shaky voice. "God, you are beautiful, Deirdre!"

"You think so? I guess my body is okay."

Joey snorted. "Yeah, like Halle Berry looks adequate."

"Stop it! You're making my head swell," she complained.

"Jeez, Deirdre, likewise," he laughed. "Now let's wrap you into your toga."

With Joey's help Deirdre wrapped herself into two bedsheets sewn together to create a makeshift toga. With a giggle she then put a fake silver tiara into her hair before she fastened her new earrings. Smilingly she pirouetted in front of Joey before she put her feet into a pair of hiking sandals.

When they returned to the living room Maureen was about to leave. She hugged Deirdre whispering into her ear and Deirdre nodded emphatically. After Maureen left Deirdre helped a giddy Tess to wrap into her bedsheets, too, while Joey performed the same task on his own.

It was shortly after six when Deborah and Chet showed, followed by Monica and Lin who were slightly uneasy. All four were already wearing their togas. Liz and Wayne arrived in street clothes and used the guest room upstairs to change. Ray arrived last but he brought flowers both for Tess and for Deirdre earning him a pardon from Tess.

After locking the front door and activating the alarm, they moved the party downstairs into the spa zone where Joey and Tess had carried three small sofas and two mattresses which were covered with bed sheets. Candles lit the room and two fake palm trees added to the ambience. Joey led Deirdre to the largest of the sofas and let her sit while the guests rushed to offer their gifts kneeling before Deirdre's 'throne'.

The atmosphere was easy from the start and Deirdre was so obviously happy and relaxed that even Monica and Lin forgot their bad conscience. Joey who was the only one to have received a limited education in Latin read the opening paragraphs from Julius Caesar's De Bello Gallico. Nobody understood a word of it, least of all Joey himself, but it made for a great laugh.

Everybody found a place to sit or recline and the meal began. Joey and Deb had done their research and the food offered was, if not Roman, certainly Mediterranean. A large variety of cheeses, shaved Parma ham, water and honey melon slices, and grapes were offered, together with fine Italian ciabatta bread. At first they kept to the red grape juice but when Chet and Wayne started to bug Joey he went and fetched two bottles of Chianti wine, extracting promises from each guest that they would take a taxi cab to get home. Tess and Ray, being minors, had to stick to the grape juice.

Even divided by eight the two bottles of Chianti loosened the mood and soon the first couple dropped their togas and settled in the jacuzzi bath. When Deirdre dropped her toga and stood in her new bikini both Liz and Deborah broke out in wolf whistles which soon drowned in slightly tipsy giggles. The male guests wisely refrained from making any commentary.

They took turns relaxing in the hot bath and snacking in between and a lively and friendly banter ensued, mostly centering on Deirdre's new position of 'Hottest Babe in Class', an appointment vested in her by acclamation. With all the scantily clad females in presence and with small amounts of alcohol in their systems none of the young men was able to avoid erections, which in turn exposed them to merciless ribbing from the girls.

The three craters on Joey's back were also admired briefly. He was not self-conscious about them anymore and he laughed with the others when Deirdre made a show of kissing each of them better.

Later, they all wrapped in their togas again and adjourned to the living room where Joey popped a DVD into the entertainment system. It was The Life of Brian and it closed the Roman theme evening with lots of riotous laughter. Deirdre had never seen it before, and she had a sore tummy from laughing before the movie was half over. When Graham Chapman as Bigus Dickus tried to placate the Jewish crowd in his awful lisp, "Thitizenth. We have Thamthon the Thaggithea thtrangler, Thilas the Athyrian Athathin, theveral thadiciouth thcribeth from Theatherea... ," she was literally rolling on the floor convulsing in helpless laughter. Red faced and weak she sank into Joey's arms, still shaking in giggles.

Sometime towards the end of the movie Ray got up and excused himself claiming he had to leave now to make it back in time for his curfew. Joey cast a curious glance at Tess who seemed okay with his departure and he let Ray out.

Once the movie ended, the party moved back into the basement. Lin and Tess begged off to watch another movie, but the rest filled the hot tub to overflow. Under the cover of the air bubbles some grab-ass action happened – something Monica tried to ignore – but it was good-natured and nobody was uncomfortable.

During the next half hour four females claimed the three hair dryers the Di Rosa household boasted to repair any damage to their 'do' before they left, while the remaining three guys amused themselves making smart ass remarks and getting scolded for it. Deirdre did not have to worry about her hair but she flitted back and forth between her friends to assist them while Tess joined the guys and their running commentary. If she was hurt by Ray's abrupt departure she did not show it.