The Season of the Witch
Halloween time was coming around the corner and ‘Jesus’ Dan and Brooke were hosting the party.
Val and I had dressed in matching costumes in the past, but this year we went it alone. We still decided to go to the party together. I would normally have come with Chrissy, but she had taken a second job shooting weddings for some extra money.
Now that Dan had broken up with Sarah, I felt like I got Dan back from evil, so I was excited to see him. Val and I showed up at the party early, or rather on time, but early for fashionably late. There were a handful of people already there but still empty enough to be able to chat with the host immediately. He had opened the door to let us in and I was holding a bag full of snacks and liquor. In the corner of my eye I noticed a girl standing on the couch hanging some decorations up in the top far corner of the room. Her back was to us and I didn’t think anything of it. Val went into the living room and sat at a different couch as I followed Dan into the kitchen. I must have chatted with Dan set up the liquor and made a pitcher of mixed drinks taking at least 5 of 6 minutes. I fixed Val her drink and went to bring it to her when again I noticed the girl… standing on the couch in the same spot for the last 5 to 10 minute now breathing heavy wearing a harem girl costume. Just as I noticed, Val looks over at me and whispers “Isn’t that Az… “ and looking at my reaction got her answer. I did an about face and retreated into the kitchen.
“Did you not expect to see her?” Val asked.
“She was supposed to be in the army” I replied, although I suspected that that ‘joining the army’ thing didn’t take when I got a birthday card in the mail from her with her home address on it. My wishful thinking made me convince myself that she didn’t know her new address, but deep down I knew.
After almost 20 minutes of her hyperventilating in the corner she slunk away to another room. When the party became crowded, we spent the next couple of hours playing the ‘oh, I didn’t notice you were here game.’ It worked well enough until when going from one room to the other we made direct eye contact when we almost walked into each other in a doorway.
“Oh, wow! I didn’t know you were here!” I lied. It was awkward. If only that was the most awkward part of the night. She told me she got kicked out of the army for bulimia. More likely, the vomiting was caused by panic attacks and not self-induced, but she wasn’t going to correct them, I’m sure.
What was a very ominous sign was that she was drinking. Possibly for the first time. Esther and her friend Linda came as a ‘Pimp and a ‘ho’ and with their costume came fake paper money. A group of guys were in attendance that would be classified as… unsavory, for lack of a better word. Anyway, they were giving a certain intoxicated harem girl a lot of attention and were not polite about it. Borrowing some of the paper money, they all tried to get her to give them each a private dance in turn and things like that. I felt remotely responsible for it, until Sarah told me she wasn’t my concern anymore. She said it to be mean to me, but it let me off the hook in my mind. Then, when Chrissy showed up, I forgot all about Azuree and those guys.
As soon as my attention turned to Chrissy, Azuree focused on me. I guess she was hoping I was jealous of those guys, but now nothing. So as I was sitting on the floor with Esther, Linda and Chrissy. Someone suggested we do a shot and Chrissy went to get the Black Haus, my favorite shooter. Seeing her opening, Azuree came over and says, “I haven’t given you your dance yet.”
“Sorry, I don’t have any money” as I glance over at Ester who in turn, hid the rest of the play money they had. Azuree gave me some of hers and started to dance. I did a sort of throw/drop of the money at her within seconds and said thanks. Chrissy came over, poured three shots, one for each of the girls, and handed me the bottle.
By the end of the night, when the party was winding down, a guy named Cliff that I knew, but didn’t care much for, came over to me and asked me if I dated Azuree. I thought he was going to tease me. I told him I did and he told me I was lucky. I told him he was wrong and he said he understood because I had Christine now. I didn’t even want to explain, so I let it go. He asked if he could ask Azuree out and I told him to feel free. He then asked me for her number which was totally uncouth. Normally, I would have said as much, but this to me was a long term ‘out’ for me. So while under no circumstance would I condone doing this, I went and did it anyway.
A week or so later, Azuree called me to apologize. She felt that she should tell me that she was going to be going on a date with ‘my friend’ Cliff and wanted to make sure it was okay with me. I was like "oh, Cliff called you?" She then said, actually he called and asked Sarah out instead and Sarah suggested he try going out with her instead.
Poor form, Cliff. Poor form.
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0in 0in 10pt”> On a more upbeat note, Jay who was on an on again off again relationship with Cathy that was slowly driving him mad, hit it off extremely well at a gathering we had at Fiddler’s Green one weekend. That night Chrissy and I crashed on the couch and Azure crashed in Jay’s room. The next day, Jay and Cathy were broken up and Azure and Jay were a couple. I couldn’t be happier for the both of them.