I joined Rose and Vasilisa up on the temporary stage and we were all given microphones.
"What song shall we sing?" Rose asked Vasilisa and I in a conspirator's voice.
"How about Livin' On A Prayer by Bon Jovi?" I suggested.
"Perfect! Everyone loves a bit of Bon Jovi!" Vasilisa squealed but then adopted a serious look. "Do any of guys have it?" Silently, I handed her my phone and she plugged it into the stereo. The music started and I found myself relaxing and enjoying myself immensely. Rose, Vasilisa and I sung and danced our way across the stage. Rose and Vasilisa bravely flung themselves into the small crowd that had gathered to watch us karaoke our way through Livin' On A Prayer. I was left alone on the stage, but I didn't care. I was a big Bon Jovi fan. My mother had introduced me to their music when I was a child. When the song had ended I handed the microphone back and jumped off stage. Because of all the alcohol, the singing and the dancing, I was feeling pretty warm, so I returned to the balcony. I was alone out here. I sat on one of the chairs lined up neatly against the wall. My feet were starting to ache so I kicked off my wedges. My feet instantly began feeling better and I sighed in relief. I rested my head on the back of the chair and stared up at the stars. It was a clear starry night. I was feeling a little nauseous and sat forward, hands clasped loosely around my knees, waiting for the nausea to subside. When it finally did, I decided to rejoin the party. Inside, someone was singing to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, with the crowd joining in in the right places.
"You look like you could use a drink?" I looked to my left and saw Jill standing next to me, a small knowing smile on her lips. In her hand was a plastic cup.
"There isn't any alcohol in there is there?" I asked pointing the cup.
"No. I've already had my alcohol for the night." I smiled.
"Glad to hear that. Has Angeline hit her alcohol limit?"
"Yeah, she has. She's also turned down numerous offers of drinks, Eddie even threatening to knock out this one persistent guy. Though, it seems you've had a fair amount of alcohol?" Jill asked as we walked to the kitchen. Adrian, Eddie and Dimitri were standing in the kitchen talking, but stopped when Jill and I walked in.
"What's a little alcohol here and there?" I said vaguely as I poured vodka and coke into a plastic cup. I looked over the guys as I took a sip. "Don't stop talking on account of Jill and I being here." Eddie and Dimitri both raised an eyebrow, while Adrian merely smirked.
"Sage, you're looking a little flustered." Adrian said coming over stand next to me. I smiled brightly at him.
"I'm fine. Just need another drink. All that singing and dancing is hard work." I said sarcastically. Adrian looked down and frowned.
"Where are your shoes?" He asked. I looked down at my feet.
"Huh. I forgot I'd taken them off when I went outside. Maybe they're still there." I said wiggling my toes.
"I'll come with you." Adrian said and we started out to the balcony. We never made it out onto the balcony to retrieve my shoes, as I changed direction and pulled him to where karaoke was still in full swing. A tiny mosh pit had even been formed at the very front. Yes, I, Sydney Katherine Sage, know what a mosh pit is.
"What are you doing?" He yelled. I spun around and grabbed both of his hands.
"Moshing!" I yelled back and pulled him to the very front. He only shrugged and joined me.
Once the current song ended, I jumped on stage, but instead of pulling Adrian with me, I reached over and grabbed Sonya, Rose, Vasilisa, Jill and Angeline, and pulled them onstage. Obviously besides Jill and Angeline, it seems the other girls had all had quite a fair amount of alcohol. Rose chose a song and when it started up, we all began dancing. Rose had chosen Lady Marmalade from the movie Moulin Rouge. We shimmied and shook, dancing and singing somewhat seductively. And the whole time, Adrian couldn't keep his eyes off me, his gaze warming me all over. The song soon ended and I jumped off the stage and straight into Adrian's arms. There were whoops and wolf whistles from people around us.
"Now, we go look for my shoes." I whispered in Adrian's ear, jumping out of his arms, pulling him along behind me.
There, right where I'd left them, were my shoes. I scrunched my nose up at them.
"I don't want to put them back on just yet. And I don't really want to go back in there just yet either." Again, I boosted myself up onto the balcony railing and swung my feet. There was a slight breeze now and it ruffled my hair. Adrian was leaning against the doorframe, his mouth tilted up at the sides. Suddenly, he strode over to me and placed his hands on either side of my hips. I tipped my head back to look at him. He leaned in closer to me, his eyes flickering from my mine to my mouth and back up again. I wanted him to kiss me again. That sane, sensible and sober, Alchemist voice in the back of my head was screaming at me that this wasn't right, I didn't want him. Yet, that drunken voice told me it was alright, that I wanted it...wanted him. Just as our lips were about to touch, there was a sound from behind and below me. I twisted around to see sprinklers. And all of a sudden, I wanted to go down and dance under the sprinklers.
"Dance with me?" Adrian asked. Daryl Braithwaite's The Horses had just begun to play.
"Sprinklers?"
"You want to go under the sprinklers?" Adrian asked.
"I want to dance with you under the sprinklers." Adrian complied with my request and we made our way downstairs and out into the backyard. He spun me around and wrapped me up in his embrace. We moved slowly through the sprinklers. One of my hands trapped between one of his and his chest. My other hand had snaked its way around Adrian's neck, while his other hand was wrapped around my waist. I rested my head against his chest, next to our clasped hands.
"Why did you decide to have this party?" I asked him after a while.
"It's my birthday." He said. I pulled away.
"Really? That makes how old now?"
"Twenty-two." He said spinning me in.
"Does anyone know?" I asked curiously.
"Only you and Jill."
"Hmm. Well then happy birthday Adrian Ivashkov!" He pressed a kiss to my forehead.
"Thanks."
We danced under the sprinklers for a while longer, occasionally being joined by other partygoers. I started shivering. I was soaking wet.
"Are you cold?" Adrian asked softly, rubbing his hands up and down my arms trying to get me warm.
"Wet." I laughed. I could feel him smile against my hair.
"Let's get you dry then." He moved us back towards the house. We sat on the balcony for a while, talking and continuing to drink as we waited for our clothes to dry. Adrian had draped his dry and warm leather jacket over shoulders. By the time we had rejoined the party, karaoke was over and everyone was having drinking contests. At the closest competition, Adrian reached over and grabbed two bottles of Smirnoff Black, removing the lid from one and handing it to me. As I watched the contest, I began frowning. They were just trying to see who could down the most shots. My eyes wandered and I spotted a bottle of Jagermeister and a couple of cans of Red Bull.
"I'll be right back." I said to Adrian and he nodded. I returned with the Jagermeister and Red Bull cans, slamming them down on the table of shot shooters.
"You call that a competition?" I asked as I began making drinks. "Do you think shooting the most shots is fun?" I twisted around and gave Adrian an evil grin.
"I challenge you, Adrian Ivashkov."
"To what?" I gestured to the drinks I'd prepared.
"First one to down all four of their Jager Bombs, wins." Adrian grinned.
"What do we win?" I hadn't thought about that.
"I don't know." Adrian sat down in one of the empty seats and I sat in the other. "On the count of three?" One of the spectators counted down, 3...2...1...
We began chugging down our drinks. They tasted horrible, but still I downed mine. I'd moved onto my second one a split second before Adrian. This time, He downed his before me. A thought was forming in my mind and I put it into action. As I reached for my last drink, I stood up and walked around to Adrian's side of the table and dropped myself into his lap. His eyes widened and he paused briefly in downing his last drink. Before he had fully realised what was happening, I'd already downed half of my last drink. Unfortunately, Adrian finished before I did.
"I win." Was all he could manage to get out because I'd crashed my lips to his. I gripped his hair as the kiss became hotter and more passionate. Then out of nowhere, nausea began building up and I had to pull away from Adrian.
"I don't feel so good." I whispered in his ear. He scooped me up and carried me into the bathroom. I bent over the toilet bowl, bringing the contents of my stomach up, while Adrian pulled my hair out of my face. Once I'd finished, He picked me up and carried me into a dark, quiet room and laid me on the bed arranging the covers so the lay over me. He went to leave, but I grabbed his hand.
"Don't go." I whispered.
"I'll be right back. I'm going to tell everyone to get out, get you a bucket and a glass of water, and then I'll come back." He said softly, running a hand over my hair. I nodded weakly and he left.
I was about to vomit again when he returned so he thrust the bucket under my head and pulled back my hair as my stomach came back up. I set the bucket down and had a sip of water when it was over. Adrian took the glass off of me and I moved to the other side of the bed, pulling the covers back with me.
"Will you hold me until I fall asleep?" I asked him. He nodded his head and climbed under the covers. I rolled over and rested my head on his arm. He shifted around and I ended up lying on his chest, both of his arms free to wrap around me. I began playing with the top button on his shirt. Undoing it. Doing it back up. Undoing it. Doing it back up. So on and so forth. I was starting to get uncomfortable and shifted into a more comfortable position against him. Eventually, even that got uncomfortable, so I sat up and twisted around to look at Adrian. His green eyes were watching my every move and it sent a shiver down my spine. I didn't know what was happening until my lips collided with his. We kissed and kissed, and with each second that passed, our kissing grew wilder. I'd managed to get all the buttons on his shirt undone and had removed it. I'd gotten rid of Adrian's leather jacket ages ago. Underneath his shirt was warm, smooth flesh. I ran my fingers lightly across his skin, one hand stopping over the spot where his heart was, I could feel it beating away. His hand captured mine and held it firmly over his heart.
"Sydney..."
"I can't do this." I frowned as I stared into those gorgeous green eyes.
"What?" His hand traced patterns lightly on my hand. I could feel more vomit rising up my throat and I pulled away from Adrian and vomited over the side of the bed and into the bucket. I curled back into Adrian and tried to calm my overactive stomach.
"What is it that you can't do?" He asked me again.
"I can't keep lying!"
"About what?" Adrian ran his hand up and down my arm sending my arm into a goosebump frenzy.
"I can't keep lying to everyone. More so, to you and to me." I looked up at him. "I do have feelings for you, Adrian. I think I always have, but I've just denied it for so long that I actually believed I didn't have these feelings. There's so much about you that. You're smart, you've always got a witty remark on hand, and you care so much about a lot of things." The room was spinning like crazy. "Ugh! I wish the room would stop spinning!"
"What about physical things?" He asked.
"I like that you're tall, you're strong despite having a lean body. I love the way your hair lies; messy, whether it's bed head or whether you put some form of product in it." Adrian kissed my hair. "You're so gorgeous that it hurts to look at you. And when I do, my heart skips so many beats that I feel like I'm on the verge of a heart attack. I like it when you have stubble; it makes you look even more gorgeous." I reached up and ran the back of my hand across his jaw.
"What about things you love about me?"
"Your eyes."
"My...eyes?"
"Yes. They are the most gorgeous shade of emerald green I have ever seen. You're gorgeous. You're everything I could possibly want." I shifted up and kissed him softly before rolling over taking one of his arms with me and securing it around my waist, while his other arm acted as a pillow. My back pressed against his chest, my head tucked under his chin.
Just before I fell into a deep sleep, I heard Adrian whisper,
"Good night, Sydney," His lips brushing against my hair. "I hope you remember all this when you wake up."