Lucas And The Time-Traveling Fog Party Animals
Chapter 21 The Party Animal

Don’t act like an animal at the party, she said. Well, I’m planning on being one big party animal because it’s been way too long since I’ve been to any kind of party that has some good booze. I wonder what kinda drinks my dad will bring. Will he bring something strong like a Fireball Fury or something small like a Coors or a Miller Lite? Whatever he brings better be good. I can’t wait till Saturday!

When Saturday finally arrived, I drove to John’s house, which is apparently in Downers Grove, even though I thought he lived in Dekalb, but I could be wrong, while Margaret, of course, went with John to help get the party started earlier. But before she could leave, I was told that guests should arrive at around 5:30-ish. So, when the time came, I drove to this Downers Grove town, no problem, but then I parked the car at this house on 723 90th St, which didn’t sound like the street my dad grew up on.

First look at the house, and this doesn’t look like the house my dad grew up in at all. I´ve seen pictures. It almost looks as though it was someone else’s because I don’t remember my dad’s childhood home being Dark Brown, but I could be wrong. After all, the sun was going down. Hopefully, I was not the last one to arrive because a couple of cars were already parked on the driveway when I parked my car. So, I got out, locked my car, walked up these concrete steps, and rang the doorbell. John opened the door and said, “Hey Liz, you made it. Come on in, let me show you around.”

I walked inside and took off my shoes where John gave me this grand tour of the place. He first pointed out where the bathrooms are to me, and as we walked towards the kitchen, I had no idea there would be a special guest at this party. The special guest was Robert freaking Shelton. The nerd who, for whatever reason, I got really angry with when all I did was try to help him pick out some clothes for his little sister.

As soon as we made eye contact, Robbie, who was leaning on a counter drinking something from a red solo cup, looked like he had seen a ghost. As John was busy giving me a tour, I walked towards Robbie, who I hadn’t spoken to in a while but still tried to, but he keeps on ignoring me. Well, he can’t ignore me this time, so I said with a calm but serious tone, “Hey Robbie, how are you doing?”

He replied back but sounded rude, “I’m doing good, you?”

I said with the same snarky-sounding voice as Robbie, “Great. Thanks for asking.”

We then gave each other death glares, but John quickly got in front of our lovely conversation that we had and said, “Woahhh, sounds like you two know each other pretty well, huh?”.

“Yeah, I guess you can say that,” Robbie replied. John said, “Liz, if you can, please follow me. I’ll introduce you to the rest of the group that are somewhere downstairs.”

I replied, “Gladly...hmph” as I tilted my head away from Rob. As I’m walking down these wooden steps, I thought I overheard John say something about “Fix this” to Robbie, but I ignored it and thought it was nothing.

Downstairs, I saw Margaret, two other girls, and a group of guys all chilling by some fireplace talking. John shouted, “Hey Markster, where are you? We got company, so you better start gathering the crowd.”

Markster, who was somewhere nearby but I couldn’t yet see, replied, “Oh, we do...is it finally the pizza guy? I’ve been waiting for him to show for like forever.”

John replied, “Wha...n-no, not the pizza guy and dude, you’ve been waiting on him for like two minutes. That’s not forever. But anyway, that’s not why I hollered for ya because Lizzie’s here...you know Margie’s friend, I want to introduce her to the crew.”

Markster said while chewing something, “Her? Ahh, Johnny. You’re making me starve over here. I wanted the pizza guy, not some girl. Don’t do me like that again, man ... but, hey everyone, Liz is here. Let’s go say Hi.”

All of a sudden, I hear these giant footsteps coming towards me, and I see this Jack the Beanstalk giant dude with a half-eaten big piece of chicken wing in one hand walk in along with a few other guys and girls lagging behind, and I swear I’d seen them somewhere before. Anyway, John said, “Liz, I know Mark is pretty scary looking, believe me. When Cece over there first saw him, she nearly fainted. Mark turned around and said “Hey” while eating a chicken wing.

John continues, “But he’s one goofball with a big appetite. ain’t that right, big guy?” as he poked his belly.

Mark said, “Ahhhh, you know me, man. I can’t help it.”

After that encounter, I was then introduced to the two only other girls at this party other than my mom, which was a girl named Emma, who was Mark’s girlfriend, and Cece, who was Anthony’s. Then came the rest of the fellas who seemed pretty chill, like Anthony, Max, Alex, and David. But one of their friends by the name of Brian wasn’t chill at all. He was far from it. This dude thought it was ok to try and flirt with me and only me. Nooooo, thank you!

First, he started to casually talk to me, then it led to complimenting me and my appearance, but when he started talking dirty to me is where I drew a line in the sand. He has no idea how many times I could’ve slapped his stupid smirk off his face or humiliate him in front of his friends if I wasn’t in a good mood. So, while he was busy talking to me, I got up from the couch that we were sitting on and left to go hang/chat with the rest of the girls because I know they won’t try to do anything like that.

As we were having a good time partying, some dude by the name of Shane showed up and brought more booze all the way from Sycamore. From what I heard, that’s when the real party began. John helped Shane with the booze while Rob brought some chips and sodas down. After everything was set up, Rob went back upstairs and brought a lot of red plastic solo cups too, and we all dug in, except for Robbie, who said he wasn’t hungry or thirsty. But I doubt it. I had one drink of some good Miller’s Lite that Shane had brought, but something about this drink tasted a little funny, but after a few good sips, I didn’t feel the funny taste. After three drinks, I had enough but pretended to drink more at this party where everyone went wild, even Margie.

There were a few people eating chips on the couch, while others danced to some music with cups of alcohol in their hands. I danced too, but after getting a little sobered up, I wanted to get a drink of water and a slice of pizza once the pizza guy came over so bad, but I wasn’t feeling it. You know what’s funny? I’ve heard so much about how crazy the Eighties parties were, but this party seemed like one that I have with my friends almost down to a T. So, there’s nothing exciting happening other than what they’re wearing, and to top it off, I couldn’t facetime or post anything to let someone know about this party and brag about it.

I wanted to leave so badly, but I knew I couldn’t drive home because of the drinks I had, so it looks like I’m sleeping over. But finally, after being bored to death while pretending to have a good time dancing to the Rolling Stones with Emma, something exciting finally happened. David tripped on the carpet and managed to spill his and someone else’s drink on the top of my shirt while Emma got some on her jeans and shoes. Emma quickly turned to face David and got really angry with him, saying, “What the…” She looked down at her pants and shoes that were a little bit soaked and looked at him and shouted, “Davey! I just bought these shoes like yesterday! Now, they’re completely ruined. Are you kidding me?” while just looking at my shirt and staring back at him.

All he could say was, “I….am….so sorry, girls, it was an accident, I swear. Here, Em, I’ll help you clean up, and you too, Liz,”

Em replied, “Oh, you better.” She turned to me and asked, “Can you believe this guy, Liz?” while pointing to him.

All I could say while in shock was, “Do you know where the paper towels are?”

Davey replied, “There should be some in the kitchen.”

“Great, I’ll go grab some,” and I headed upstairs with my red solo cup in my hands.

Walking up the steps, I spotted Robbie in the kitchen all by himself, and he asked as soon as he saw me, “How much did you drink?”

I answered, “What…” then looked at my shirt and said, “Oh no, it’s not what it looks like. David spilled his drink on me and Emma. I barely had enough drinks to do this. Besides, the drinks weren’t that good, so I don’t know where your buddy Shane got them. So, what about you? Did you have a drink?”

Robbie replied, “Now, that makes sense. Davey is always a clutz, especially when it comes to drinking. But, Nah, I’m not that much of a Party Animal. I don’t really drink at parties.”

We didn’t say anything to each other for the next thirty seconds until I grabbed a paper towel and started cleaning my shirt. Only then Robbie said, “I’m sorry about the way I acted at the mall. I know you were only trying to help.”

All of a sudden, words came out of my mouth and said, “Yeah, I’m sorry too. I guess I overreacted when you gave me the cold shoulder.” Then I felt this strange tingly sensation in my stomach, and I was back. So, I said, “Sorry about this, but I-I really need to go use the bath-washroom right now, uhh, can you hold this for me while I’m gone?”

As I handed my red cup to Robbie, he said, “Sure thing, pal.”

I replied, “Thanks, I guess,” and left, but why did he have to call me pal? What was that about? Anyway, I headed to the bathroom, and as soon as I was done, I looked in the mirror and said, “What the heck is wrong with me? Am I drunk already?”

I did a few tests in the mirror to make sure that I was really drunk. I did a vision test and tried to walk in a straight line in the bathroom. I failed both, so I guess I am either really stupid or really drunk, so I said, “Ok, in that case, let’s go crazy tonight because I’m probably not going to remember any of this tomorrow,” and left the bathroom.

As soon as I got back to Robbie, he handed me my drink and said, “Here you go.”

“Ohh, thank you...and by the way, this house is pretty cool.”

Robbie said, “Thanks.”

Confused, I asked, “Thanks for what? What did I say?”

Robbie gave me a look and replied, “The house, you just complimented my house.”

“Ohhh, I did. I thought it was... never mind.”

“What, you thought this was John’s place?!” Robbie asked.

“Kinda,” I answered.

Rob laughed and said, “I don’t know if anyone told you this, but John isn’t allowed to have people over at his place or at least not for a while, so I’m told. The last party he had, his parents came home early and kicked everyone out, so I’m not surprised he lied.”

I just had to ask, “Did you get kicked out too?”

“No. Before the party even started, I told him it was a bad idea, not to mention pretty ballsy, and bailed,” Robbie clarified. “Now, look at what happened.”

“Yeahh, totally. That was pretty smart of you by not going. So, where are your folks anyway?”

“Both my parents are away on business and won’t be back until Monday morning. My older sister Claire works the night shift at Shell today, so I won’t see her for a while, and my younger sister is spending the night at her friend’s house. So, it’s just me and my sister Claire holding down the fort now.”

I then saw Rob get a bright idea and said to me, “That reminds me, since none of them are home, let’s see what we can do about that shirt of yours. Follow me,” as he motioned me to follow him.

While we were walking, I asked, “Where are we going?” But he didn’t answer, so we kept on walking. When we got to some wooden door, Rob opened it and turned the lights on. This dark room revealed itself, and this wasn’t your random room at all. But to my surprise, he led me to a girl’s room. He said, “This is my sisters’ Claire and Steph’s room, so if there is an extra shirt, it’s bound to be here.”

“Isn’t this considered stealing? I don’t want to make them mad,” I asked.

He answered, “Who says you’re the one making them mad and don’t try to think of this as stealing but merely a gift from a friend. You do like gifts, right?”

I smirked and said, “Of course, who doesn’t?”

Robbie replied, “Phew. Now, have at it...the closet is all yours for the time being.”

As soon as he said that, I don’t know what happened, but I just ran like a kid in a candy store heading straight for that closet. But as I was rummaging through Steph’s pile of shirts, he said, “Just don’t break or mess anything while you’re there, ok? My sisters are very picky about that.” I think I made a sound of disappointment. I don’t know if I really did or not. Could be exaggerating. Anyway, I think I tried one of Stephanie’s shirts on me first, but it was too small, but when I tried on Claire’s, they were just right.

As I changed my shirt right in front of Robbie, he stared at me in shock. I asked, “How do I look? I look ridiculous, right?”

Robbie answered, “No. You look...great in that shirt. I think that looks better on you than it did Claire, but don’t tell her I said that.”

My drunk self must have giggled and said, “Why. Thank you...so, what do you want to do now? Go watch a movie?”

“And leave those animals down in my basement in my house ALONE, no way,” he replied.

“Oh, I almost forgot they were even here...I wonder how they’re doing?”

Robbie answered, looking worried, “Yeah...me too. Ummm, before we go check-in on them, do you want to watch some TV in the living room? I-I-I could bring popcorn and some chips from downstairs. I’m sure they won’t mind.”

I guess the party animals could wait, so in my drunken state, I nodded, and we both headed to the living room where I guess we watched some horror movie marathon that was on tv that night where I totally didn’t latch onto Robbie when the scary stuff happened. After that, my memory of that night runs cold.