Chapter Sixteen: Christian

December 18th
Saturday
12:42 PM

Ho. Ho. Ho. Christmas sucks.

And we've still got another week to go.

Last night Dawn, her friends Sunny and Maggie, and I went to a party at Perry's house. The only reason they were with me is because Dawn called me to ask what I was doing and I mentioned the word "party" and suddenly we were all there.

"It's awfully smokey," Dawn said, waving a hand in front of her face.

"It's a party," I said, shrugging. Honestly, the smoke was making me itch for a cigarette, so I just inhaled the smoke as it was coming at me.

"Get over it, Dawn," Sunny said. She grabbed a spiked punch from the table.

"Sunny, out of all the people in the world, you should be the last one who would say that second hand smoke is a not a big deal," Dawn said.

"It's okay," Maggie said. "Really, Dawn, this is what parties are like."

"Well... okay." She seemed to relax, which made me relax.

"Merry Christmas!" Josh said, coming over to us. He shoved a beer in my hand and one in Dawn's.

"Dude," I said, "you're Jewish."

"Doesn't mean that I can't appreciate how Jesus was a good man. Besides, you're not exactly the good Christian boy you should be... well, you are a Christian, Christian, but..."

I laughed at the lame pun I had heard before and steered Dawn away from the obviously stoned Josh.

"Friend of yours?" Dawn asked, setting the beer down on a table.

"That's... Josh."

"Bong buyer." She smiled.

"Yeah. He's... an idiot."

"Hmmm."

The music started to really loud (or maybe I was just panicking) so I said, "Wanna go somewhere quieter?"

She nodded.

I found an empty bedroom and pulled Dawn in. I closed the door and flicked the lock.

Dawn sat down on the bed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "So, did you bring me here to seduce me?"

"What? Nahhh..." I sat my unopened beer on the nightstand and sat down next to her. "What in the world would ever give you that idea?"

"Well, the party, behind locked doors. If you're going to try, you might as well just ask."

"And what do you recommend that I ask?"

She grinned. "In a kind voice you should say... 'Dawn, will you sleep with me?'"

"I should ask that?" I had to admit, I was surprised. I didn't think she would be so outright. Especially since my mind was on second base, not all the way.

"Well, the answer's no, so if you don't want to ask, you don't have to."

"I'd guess that your Thanksgiving vacation would bring on a new sense of morals for your virginity. Even if it's just for superiority's sake, which I can respect, by the way." I nodded.

Dawn laughed. "Well, superiority or not, you're not gettin' any. Not with fourteen year old me locked in a bedroom of a boos and pot party anyway. Really, Christian, don't think I'm being holier-than-thou or something, but... are these friends... good friends?"

"It's just the guy's in the band. They're George's friends, really. But I got pimped out as a good guitar player, and you know how it goes."

"No," she said, no longer smiling. "Tell me."

"Look, he just said I was good, and Perry heard me play... I know we need to drop Josh and Tristan, but it's hard to find good musicians, Dawn. And as much as losers as they are, they're good." I shrugged. "What can I do?"

She shrugged too. "I don't know."

"Can we talk about this later? Because we may be at a crappy party, but we are in a locked bedroom."

Dawn bit her lip and smiled coyly. "Why in the world should I?"

"Well, I could have shoved this beer down your throat, gotten you drunk, and had you at my mercy, but I asked." I tried to be charming. It worked.

She laughed. "Kiss me, then."

So I did. Given the situations with her dad and the inability to go to my house, we hadn't done any actual making out. A good-night kiss here and there. That's it.

This was different. This was good. Second base was achieved (under shirt, over bra. Life is good) and Dawn is a REALLY good kisser. She seemed a little insecure about the whole thing, but she didn't have anything to be insecure about at all.

When we were done, about half an hour later, I'd guess. We left the bedroom and walked down the hall to where the party was still going strong.

"This really is a crappy party," I said, looking around. "Do you want to find Maggie and Sunny and get out of here?"

Dawn nodded. "But at this point, who knows where they are."

Maggie found us pretty easily. She grinned at us. "What have you two been up to?"

"Nothing," Dawn and I answered in unison.

"I thought so," she said, smirking.

"Where's Sunny?" Dawn asked.

Maggie shrugged. "No idea."

Luckily, Perry's house isn't that big. We walked into the kitchen and we found Sunny pretty quickly. She was pretty well trashed and making out with a girl I'd never seen before. There was a crowd around them cheering them on.

"This isn't good, is it?" I asked.

Dawn looked pretty pissed. She just barged right in and grabbed Sunny and dragged her outside. Maggie and I looked at each other and followed them outside. Dawn must have been going at fifty miles an hour, because when we got out there, the two of them were in a screaming match, though Sunny was a little bit less than half-hearted.

"Dawn." I sort of grabbed her by the shoulder. She turned at looked at me.

"What?"

"Right now, I think Sunny just needs to sleep it off. You can fight about it in the morning."

Her face relaxed. "You're right. What is her dad going to think?"

"Can I stay at your house?" Sunny asked. "Dad doesn't need to know."

"No!" Dawn put her hands on her hips. "I thought you were past this, Sunny. I thought this was over. I could overlook your drinking, when you were trying to be responsible about it, but then this comes out of nowhere. I thought I could trust you, and it turns out I can't. It's just like before. And you're not dragging your drunk self into my house."

I sighed. "She can come back to my house. My dad should be asleep by now, sleeping off his twelve pack. As long as he doesn't know she's there, it'll be fine."

The look on Dawn's face was so twisted I couldn't really tell what she was thinking. It was the first time I had even hinted that things weren't so great at home. But she ended up nodding.

"It's almost eleven," I said. "You and Maggie should go ahead and go back. I can take care of her. And call her Dad to let her know she's... well, tell him she's staying with you. He probably doesn't want to hear that she's staying with some guy he's never met."

Dawn laughed, but it sounded pretty forced. "Okay, it sounds good." We kissed and she and Maggie left.

I dragged Sunny back to my house. I was suddenly glad that I don't live too far from Perry.

"I'm so stupid," Sunny said.

"Huh?" I was concentrating on getting home, that she might have said something before that, but I missed it.

"I'm acting so dumb. Dawn's so right. I don't know what's wrong with me. I just always do such dumb things. I'm such a stupid only child. I always have to be the center of attention."

"Mmhmm." I hoped she would get it out of her system before we got home so she wouldn't wake up Dad.

We paused two houses down from mine so Sunny could puke in Mrs. Moran's hedges. Which I'm sure Mrs. Moran will love in the morning.

"Sunny, we've got to be quiet in the house. My dad is sleeping, and if he knows you're here, it won't be pretty for any of us. Got that?"

She nodded.

I opened the door and, like I thought, Dad was asleep on the couch, a beer bottle spilled on the carpet where he had dropped it when he fell asleep with it in his hand. I rolled my eyes and hoped that Sunny wouldn't remember this.

I settled Sunny in Frank's old room since it has its own bathroom, and told her to lock the door and only unlock it if I was on the other side.

I went to bed and didn't sleep very well. I finally woke up around eight this morning and walked Sunny over to her house. She was in better condition than she was last night, but she had a hangover something fierce. I filled up a water bottle and grabbed some Tylenol and we started walking. Dad was still asleep on the couch.

I didn't ask anything. Sunny just used me as a confessional. Some of the things apparently needed some back story because I had no idea where some of it was coming from. But apparently the holidays are hitting her hard, dead mom and all. Plus she's sort of depressed because she feels like all of her friends are too busy with their boyfriends to hang out with her.

I dropped her off at her house, figured Dawn was still asleep, so I walked back to my house without stopping there, and went back to bed. I slept a lot better. Until Dad was banging on my door. I don't even know what he wanted.

Really, I don't care.

But I did finally get my cigarette. It was good.