10. Let the Party Start!
Tick, tick, tick. The time was ticking by and Jess still hadn't arrived. Where was he? It's 10 O'clock. This is so like him to be late! Finally, I decided to call him up on his cell number. I picked up my flip phone and dialed his number. His number seemed to have glued itself in my mind. The phone rang and rang but there was no answer. Finally an answering machine came up.
"Hey! It's Jess Mariano. Leave a message. Nothing too fancy, just a simple name and where to call ya back."
"Hey Jess. It's Rory, just calling to ask where the hell you are. Hope you're okay, call me back when you get the message."
At about 10:30pm I finally heard a knock on the door.
Angry as I was, I stomped my feet all the way to the hotel room door. I quickly opened it, my face bright red like lava. For a few seconds I was confused because I saw nothing in front of me but when I looked at the ground below me I saw a small, cute little sunflower about a foot away from my high heeled boots. Sunflowers were my favourite. In an instant, my frown turned upside down when I saw Jess's guilty face looking at me. Jess looked so adorable when he was guilty. I let out a quiet laugh. I didn't want him to think that a cute little face would make me forget how angry I was.
Jess was wearing a dark pair of jeans with a black striped shirt with collars. In his hands was a huge bouquet of sunflowers sitting comfortably in purple wrapping paper. I noticed that the sunflowers were also mixed in with a few lilies. Lilies were also my favourite and so it seemed that Jess still remembered this after all these years. All those times when I thought Jess never paid attention to what I said, were flashing back in my head moment after moment.
"I am so sorry Rory! I swear, the stupid flower guy. He didn't have anymore sunflowers left so I had to go all the way to one of those stinking farms up north to get sunflowers."
"You know, you didn't have to buy me these." I said trying to cover up my secret smile.
"I know, but it just seemed a bit more, what's the word…traditional. Anyways I remembered that sunflowers were your favourite."
"Funny how you remember these things now. If you were like this a few years ago, who knows I might have reconsidered running away with you." Jess laughed hesitatingly almost turning red. I shouldn't have brought that up, I thought to myself.
"Shall we go?" I said, changing the subject.
"Ladies first." Jess answered holding his hand out like an escort. I clinged to his arm and we walked together, arms linked.
We reached the party late but it didn't really matter because parties like these went on forever! I learned from Logan that you should always attend parties late since all the good drinks were served later on in the party. Weird theory but I always followed it because of Logan.
The party was at some rented hall where there were about one to two hundred people. We met Paris in front of the bar section where she seemed to be having a good time with Jamie who had his arm around her while talking to a friend of his.
"Hey Paris. We just got here now. Having fun?"
Paris turned from her seat to see Jess. "Hey. Long time Jess. Still got the Stallone look going for you eh?"
Jess gave a small cough and said, "Not looking so bad yourself Paris."
"Oh. By the way, this is Jamie, my…boyfriend." Paris stuttered.
"Nice to meet you Jamie." Jess said as he gave a warm handshake to Jamie.
A bartender dressed in the traditional tux came to attend us. "Anything for you ma'am?" he asked me.
"I'll have a martini and he'll have…"
"Just a beer thanks." Jess said.
It felt good to be going back to parties just like I did with Logan. Usually Logan and I would hang out at the bar the whole time taking in shots and martinis. I needed this. I needed to get rid of all my problems for a while, I thought to myself.
The bartender came back to us and handed me a martini and Jess, a beer.
We toasted and in one gulp I drained the martini down my throat, the alcohol burning it as it streamed like a river down to my stomach. I gave a soft cough after I was finished and saw Jess staring at me amazed.
"Easy there Lester."
I laughed so hard I almost choked. Jess was referring to a book called Dark Star about a man name Everett Lester who led a famous rock band but was swallowed up by the drug and alcoholic influence around him.
Jess looked at me grinning widely as he took a sip out of his beer. For a moment we stared at each other.
I got up from my seat to get a refill of my drink from the bartender. Usually, I wasn't the person to drink much but tonight I felt as if it were my right. I've been through so much, I thought, I need to relax and let things slide. But what did I know that too much of a good thing would turn out to be…bad.