Page 13 of September Lessons
“It’s always good to have more friends, isn’t it? Especially as the new girl. Although them all being seventeen and under might make them not as cool as me…”
Grinning, Carrie texted Aiden back and let him know that she wouldloveto come to his party.
***
Her aunt and uncle didn’t care what she did with her Friday nights as long as she wasn’t blowing off work or other commitments. Outside of the occasional Friday, however, Carrie’s soul was sold to the pizzeria on Saturdays and Sundays only. What she thought would be hell on her social life, however, soon turned into a small boon as she was able to stop by work for a few minutes and bum an unclaimed pie off Skylar, who was thinking about throwing it away.
Yeah, waltzing into a high school party with an unclaimed pizza was definitely the way to make new friends.
“Damn, girl!” Aiden almost knocked the box out of her hand as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder and hauled her into his living room. Billie Eilish throbbed through the speakers. Red Solo cups full of Coke and beers were in everyone’s hands. The sweet scent of pot filtered through an opened window. The only thing missing from the parties Carrie was more familiar with was a couple of guys firing off…
BOOM!
For every person spitting out their drink in surprise, there was another hooting out the window. A guy dressed head to toe in camo rounded the corner and held up his hunting rifle. Soon, two more of Carrie’s classmates joined them, guns in their hands.
“Pizza for the lucky shots!” Aiden screamed behind Carrie.
Ah, yes, that was more like it. Aside from affected accents and a distinct lack of humidity, this felt like Alabama.
Bringing pizza brought forward a slew of kids who wanted to meet Carrie for the first time since she started school. When she glibly pointed it out to Amanda that they had plenty of opportunities to talk and hang out before that evening, she was met with, “Oh, don’t be silly! School is such a different environment! You have to keep up certain appearances there. If I didn’t hang out with my friends like usual, people would talk. Now, if you and I become friends tonight, it’s totally different!”
Maybe it was Carrie’s brain developing quicker than her seventeen-year-old peers, but that made zero sense. “Cool. Want some pizza? I think there’s one whole slice left.”
“Oh, no thanks! I’m at my carb limit for the day. Beer?”
Riiiiight.
Carrie was past the age of wanting to get drunk – another sign that maybe she wasn’t cut out for college – but she didn’t mind cracking open her own beer and keeping it close to her chest until it was finished forty-five minutes later. By then, half of her classmates were blazed or blitzed, their voices growing louder as they struggled to make themselves understood over the pulsing music beats and the porn someone streamed on TV.“Told you your parents were pervs, Aiden!”One of the guys in camo yelled. “They gotpornready to stream! Bet they’re in Vegas right now swingin’ with strangers!”
“Who cares what my parents do as long as they don’t bring me home a new baby brother or sister?” Aiden lifted his can of beer. “And let me use the house while they’re out of town!”
That inspired cheers and applause so fervent that beer spilled on shirts and pot was blown directly into Carrie’s face. Maybe it was time for her to make her final rounds and head home. This was getting kinda boring, anyway, since she didn’t have a dedicated person to hang out with and talk to. Not even Leigh-Ann, who was banned from these parties for some reason she didn’t feel the need to talk about.
Strange, wasn’t it? Carrie thought about asking, but she didn’t want to make things more difficult for Leigh-Ann at school. She seemed nice and normal enough. There was a short period of time there when Carrie wondered if the “real” Leigh-Ann would burst forth and prove why she wasn’t that popular in her class. Well, she wasn’tunpopular.Nobody gave Carrie crap for eating lunch with her, but there was this unspoken rule around Clark High that nobody went out of their way to talk to her, let alone invite her to things.
Would it be weird if Carrie threw a party and invited Leigh-Ann? Would nobody show up?Why?
“Hey, Care.” Aiden sidled up to her.More like crashes into me…Beer was heavy on his breath, and another can sloshed in his hands. “Spot me a fave and take this to the kitchen, would ya?” The can was soon in Carrie’s hands. “There’s a giant garbage bag for the stuff. My parents won’t look the other way if I trash the place, so…”
“Sure. As long as you’re not hitting on me.” Drunk Aiden wasawfullyclose to going for a kiss, after all. There was a reason Carrie could smell his breath so well. “I don’t swing that way, hon.”
“No shit.” He said that with a snort. “Everyone knows that, Care! Whatever. Think you’ll find we’re pretty cool about that stuff. Why, our own pretty girl Christina Rath got an out and proud mom. Shoulda seen the fuss this July.”
“Yeah. I shoulda.”
Carrie took the half-empty cans to the kitchen, where she did indeed find a giant trash bag full of garbage. On the floor. Because that’s where such things belonged, alongside empty pizza boxes and tons of half-eaten crust. At least the abandoned pizza hadn’t gonecompletelyto waste. Only half of it ending up in the garbage was better than all of it, right?
“Whoops!” Someone stumbled into the kitchen as Carrie attempted to clean up some of the mess. After all, poor Aiden would lose his house party privileges if his parents came home to a dump. “I tell you, come into the kitchen to avoid the porn party in the living room, and you step all over garbage!”
Carrie didn’t expect to see Christina in there by herself. Let alone a half-tipsy Christina who slightly reeked of pot smoke. Was she partaking, or did she simply hang out with potheads? Did Clark High have actual potheads? That was one of the few things Carrie looked forward to discovering when she moved to the PNW for one year.Potheads, lumberjacks, and Riot Grrls.Or was that more of a city thing?
“They’re still watching porn, huh?” Carrie propped the bag of cans against a cabinet. Hopefully, it was out of the way enough that people would stop knocking it over. She wasn’t about to do anything regarding the spills on the floor, though. Hm. Maybe she would. Christina was silly enough to slip in some beer if somebody didn’t put down paper towels. “How mature.”
Giggles announced that Christina didn’t think one way or another. She was simply there to party and have some fun.Not the brightest bulb in the box, is she?Christina was pretty and flirty, which was already kryptonite to Carrie, but she also came off as a mediocre student whose popularity was dictated by being the mayor’s daughter… oh, and being pretty. And flirty.
Not that Carrie had a problem with any of that. It simply changed howsheflirted with such girls. After all, flirting and seduction were precarious tools in the dating world. Carrie wasn’t looking for a forever lover. She was looking for someone to fool around with for at least a few months. Aiden had said that Christina was cool with the gays, since her mom was basically one. Hey, a little flirting would be okay, right?
“It’s kinda gross, huh?” Christina sat on the edge of the breakfast table. Carrie took her time cleaning up the mess on the floor. “Such a guy thing. Boys are really into porn. I once had a boyfriend – not from around here, mind you, but from the coast – who kept asking me to do thegrosseststuff. Guy was a real pervert. Got all his ideas from porn videos. Told him he better ditch them or ditchme.”
