Twenty-One
He was a few minutes late, like usual, but Sam yelled goodbye to her mother and sister and ran out the door. She realized she forgot a coat when the frigid air hit her skin, but she didn't care. Jesse had the top on his car now that it was later in the day.
They were the last ones to get there. Liza's car was already parked in the closest spot to Johnny's driveway, and Cale's was in the other one. They had to park across the street, which wasn't that far, but they still sprinted across the way because they were cold.
Laughing breathlessly, Jesse rang the doorbell as Sam bent over. No one answered.
"Fuck," Jesse swore and pressed it again.
Still no one came.
"Damn it, I'm cold," Sam said and started banging on the door. She heard someone wrestling about inside. "Cale? Johnny? Liza? Someone open the goddamn door!"
The door opened and Cale stood in front of them. "Oops," he said sheepishly.
Jesse and Sam shouldered their way in. "Close the door, it's fucking freezing," Jesse yelled. "Yo! Johnny! Forget about some people?"
Johnny came out of the door leading to the garage, hands full of beer. He had a stupid grin on his face that made Sam think he had already had a few. "My bad dudes."
They followed him to the basement, where Liza was lounged on a couch flipping through channels on the TV. "Hey guys!" she smiled, and Sam could tell she had already been drinking.
"Well, go for it!" Johnny said, spreading his arms to include the entire room.
In the center were the TV and two couches. Liza was laying across one, taking up the entire thing. In the left corner there was a ping pong table, and to the right there was a bar. Johnny took the beer over and set some out on the counter and put the rest in the mini-fridge.
"Help yourselves," he said.
"Don't mind if I do," Jesse said, sauntering over to the bar.
Over the course of the next few hours, The Black Parade got completely plastered. Sam had never had alcohol before, but found the taste good enough to drink. Plus she had decided it was time to live it up a little. She had no intention of becoming an alcoholic, simply having a fun time at a party just once.
It was about eleven o'clock when Jesse suddenly stood up. He had been lying on the floor—passed out, Sam thought—when a thought suddenly struck him. "Iw hafta take Sham back home," he slurred. Sam looked away from the TV. She and Liza had been sitting there watching some stupid comedy show that wouldn't have been funny if it hadn't been for the beer.
"Oh shit," she mumbled looking at the clock. "I don't wanna go home!"
"Me neither!" Liza pouted.
"Hey guys!" Johnny said, jumping up from where he had been asleep, which was on top of the ping pong table. No one really knew how he had ended up there. "I've got an idea! How 'bout we have a sleepover? We can paint nails and everythin!"
In the back of her mind somewhere, Sam knew that statement should have struck her as funny and odd, but she was too drunk to get it. So instead she gave an enthusiastic, "Yeah!"
"I need to call my mom," Sam said, attempting to stand. "Oh shit," she said as she fell flat on her face. She had tripped over Cale who was out cold. She stared to giggle. Then Liza joined in, and suddenly the entire band was laughing hysterically. Cale sat up and smashed his head between two hands.
"Make it go away!" he screamed. "Too much noise!" Then he fell flat on his back and was out again, which made everyone else laugh even more.
"Phone, phone, phone," Sam sang, "where are you?"
She found it sitting on the bar and picked it up, along with another bottle. This one was green and pretty, and she didn't think she had tried one of that kind yet. "Mommy!" she called into the phone. "Mommy?"
"You have to dial first dipshit," Johnny said, laughing.
"Oh."
"On second thought, maybe you should just text. She'll know you're drunk."
"Okie dokie!" Sam said, and sent the text message saying she was spending the night at Liza's. "She'll neeeeever know!"
At one in the morning, they were all awake again. The effects were starting to wear off in the sense that they could actually stay away and function. They were still completely hammered.
"Let's play a game!" Jesse said.
"No, fuck you," Liza said. "I want to watch TV and sleeeeeeeeep."
"I'm hungry," Sam complained.
"Me too," added Cale.
Johnny found a pizza in the fridge and they ate it, none of them conscious enough to wonder how old it was. Then they messed around doing absolutely nothing for another hour before people started conking out.
Liza was the first, and she fell asleep taking up an entire couch. Johnny passed out sitting on a bar stool, face down on the counter next. Then Jesse somehow found his way to the top of the ping pong table and fell asleep there.
Cale was the last one to fall asleep. But when he did, he noticed Sam curled up on the other side of the couch with her head in his lap. She shivered a little in her sleep and Cale frowned. He took off his coat and put it over her torso. Then he laid his head back and fell asleep as well.