By the time the three got home, the conversation had switched to outfits. In her mind’s eye, Meg saw images of the revealing, ‘sexy’ clothing she saw most partygoers her age wearing on social media. She wasn’t sure she owned anything even remotely close to that, and would feel horribly self-conscious. She felt pretty in what she was wearing, and figured it was best to be and look like herself. The twins, however, ran upstairs tittering as soon as they got home, still discussing options that Meg had mostly tuned out.
While they were there, Meg set up a folding table in their garage next to a cooler where she put the two-liters and ice. She arrayed the cups on the table with a few bags of chips they had floating around, and more or less called it a day.
She walked back into the house and spent a little time putting anything fragile or particularly important in her father’s office and closing the door. She was just wrapping up as her sisters came down the stairs, and Meg’s jaw all but hit the floor. They had changed, all right. They may as well have been different people entirely.
Anna was wearing a lightweight red dress that left a lot of cleavage exposed to the open air. It flared out a bit at the bottom and barely came down to her mid-thigh. If she sat down, she would have to keep her legs tightly together or the entire room would be getting an easy view of what was in between. Her hair was down, but there was a matching red bow on in the back and matching lipstick on her lips.
Amelia’s skirt was slightly longer, thankfully, but much more form-fitting, the fabric accentuating the rise of her butt. Similarly, her white crop top made her breasts stand out, accentuating rather than really concealing. She had her hair down as well, and a stray bang hung over her left eye.
“Uguhhuh” was about the only intelligible thing Meg could utter. Her sisters had always been cute, the way most younger sisters were – innocent, sweet. The words ‘sexy’ and ‘hot’ had never applied to the twins in her mind, but now she couldn’t describe them any other way. They WERE sexy, and hot, and every other synonym her brain was sputtering out. And they were clearly all but glowing with excitement, and pride that they could look this good when they wanted to.
“I guess you like it.” Anna said through a beaming smile, and did a little spin that threatened to raise the hem of her skimpy dress up past her hips. She hastily pushed it back down with her hands, giggling.
Meg regained some capacity for speech; “Where have you two been KEEPING that?? If mom ever saw them…”
Amelia shrugged, “She would probably give us a stern talking-to. Come on, Meg, give us some credit: we own more than just t-shirts and shorts.” She paused and considered, “Even though that’s mostly all we wear. I had this at the back of our closet, just waiting for an opportunity like this.”
Meg just shook her head, “Don’t get me wrong, you’re both gorgeous, it’s just… a bit strange. And new.” She eyed the two again. “You had better not be planning on having any sex here tonight. I am NOT going to let either of my younger sisters lose their virginity while I’m around.”
Anna blushed, the red in her cheeks matching her outfit almost too perfectly. “Meg! Come on!”
Amelia, however, just wiggled her eyebrows, “I guess that confirms there WILL be boys.”
At the word ‘boys,’ the doorbell rang. Meg went and opened it, still shaking her head, and found Brian waiting with a big cardboard box of beer under each arm.
“Speak of the devil,” Meg mumbled as she stepped aside to let them in. “You can take those to the garage, I guess.”
“Hello to you, too, Meg. If I’m the devil, what does that make you? Some sort of witch, a friend of the devil or whatever?”
“Try calling me a witch, see what happens.”
“Wow, someone’s not in a great mood. Here I was expecting Party Meg to be all bright and cheerful.”
Brian was tall, much taller than Meg, and had brown hair cut short enough to need very little attention and still look good. He was muscled like an athlete (he was on the basketball team as well as running track), not burly but clearly fit, and was wearing jeans and a plain blue v-neck.
He stepped into the house, and when his eyes landed on Anna and Amelia, they went wide as dinner plates and he had to scramble not to drop the beer.
“Wow – uh, hi you two – uh, I’m just, uh – carrying – um – you – I mean, not – uh – bre… BEER. I’m carrying the beer to the – uh…”
“Garage,” Meg supplied. She felt an unexpected pang of jealousy. She had no ‘claim’ on Brian, but it still felt wrong to have him drooling over other girls, especially her own sisters.
“Right… garage.” He tore his eyes off of Amelia’s cleavage and shuffled over to the garage more hastily than was strictly necessary.
Meg glared at her sisters, who just giggled more. Amelia shrugged as if to say ‘not our fault.’
As she shut the door, a car pulled into the driveway, and Sophie’s voice shouted ‘Hey, come give me a hand.’ Anna and Amelia jumped out the door before Meg could move. “We got it!” Anna said as she pushed past, mirth still in her voice.
It turned out that Sophie brought not only two bottles of vodka, but also a bottle rum and even a cheap whiskey.
There was really no more prep work to be done, so the five of them opened one of the vodkas and mixed it with Sprite for themselves, making the most of being on their own before anyone else got there.
“To high school!” Sophie offered. They all slammed their cups together and drank. the liquor burned going down Meg’s throat, and she had to fight not to cough. That was not nearly as good as wine.
“Bleh. Too strong.” Anna poured a bit more Sprite into her cup, and Amelia scoffed “Lightweight.”
“To college.” Brian said, raised his cup to Sophie and Meg. They met it and drank again.
“Can’t believe you two get to be together, but not me.” Sophie pouted.
“Aw, we’ll still see you as often as we can, you’ll only be like a two hour drive away!” Meg said, putting an arm around her friend’s shoulders.
“And I’m sure we’ll all have plenty of stories to share when we do see each other.” Brian added.
“I guess so…” Sophie didn’t look convinced, and just downed the rest of her drink. Meg laughed in an attempt to lighten the mood and downed hers too, “All right, Soph. Guess I gotta work to keep up.”
Sophie grinned a little at that. “Damn right. I may be small, but I’m no lightweight.” She glared at Amelia, who just winked back.
Brian joined them in finishing his drink and they all made another. Meg was already feeling a bit lightheaded, and it occurred to her she should probably have had more to eat before now.
—
An hour later, the party was in full swing. As Meg had expected, Sophie had invited way more people than they had talked about, and Anna and Amelia had covertly invited some friends from their grade as well, so the house was full to bursting (and beyond). Luckily, lots of the guests had brought drinks and snacks to contribute, so there was no shortage of booze to go around. Someone brought a speaker to put music on in the garage, and Anna turned some on their living room speaker system as well.
At first, Meg floated from room to room, nervous that someone would spill a drink on the carpet or knock a picture frame off the wall or something, but as the alcohol-induced buzz in her head grew more prominent, she found she cared less and less. All her friends were here, having a good time, and she gradually relaxed. Influenced by the alcohol, no doubt, Sophie was flirting aggressively with every boy she could, and at some point left Meg to sit mostly on top of a boy in their grade on the couch. Meg would have found that scandalous under other circumstances, but tonight it seemed… appropriate, somehow. Part of the fun. Sex went along with teens and alcohol and parties, didn’t it? Her friend was entitled to have some fun in that area if she wanted to.
Meg could too, couldn’t she? Maybe it was time? Why did she want to wait, anyway? There are plenty of cute boys here…
As she looked around the room, considering this new line of thought, her eyes landed on Brian. He was laughing with one of his guy friends from the track team, but when Meg looked at him, his eyes flicked up to meet hers, as if he had felt her gaze. They both held the eye contact, and Meg’s heart fluttered, along with something lower in her gut, something warm and… hungry? She took a big gulp of her drink and diverted her eyes. Urgh, she had had a lot to drink, and her stomach was starting to bubble uncomfortably, adding to the volatile mix of feelings going on in her body.
Brian said something to his friend, apparently ending the conversation, and walked over to her. “Hey,” he said when he got close, “Having fun?”
Meg opened her mouth to answer, and had about three seconds of warning. Bile rose in her throat, and she had to shut her mouth tight to stop from puking right there on the carpet. Her eyes went wide, and she looked around in a panic.
“Are you okay?” Brian asked, his eyes concerned. Her reached out and touched her arm.
Meg couldn’t answer. She couldn’t throw up here, not now, not in front of all these people! In the moment, it seemed like that would be the most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to her.
She had no time to think though, as her throat spasmed, trying to force her to let the vomit out. She didn’t know what else to do, so she awkwardly thrust her drink into Brian’s hands and turned from him, running up the stairs to her room. She barely made it to her toilet before her body took over and the vomit spewed out despite her best efforts. She fell to her knees on the tile floor, heaving up the foul-smelling contents of her stomach.
And then there were strong, gentle hands on her back, gathering her braid out from in front of her and onto her back, saying it would be okay, and to let it all out. As Meg heaved again and again, she recognized Brian’s voice.
Tears began to fall from her eyes. Not from shame, exactly, and not from pain either, but just from raw, unfiltered and all-encompassing EMOTION, too complex and deep for Meg to parse at the time.
Leave a Reply