One afternoon on a three day weekend right before summer started, Bella was awoken to the sound of her doorbell ringing repeatedly. Groggily stumbling to the door in an oversized T-shirt and mini shorts, she squinted through the peep hole. It was Alice and a girl she knew only by face.
“Okay, okay, hold your horses girlie.” The door was summarily unlocked and tossed open. Alice stomped in and surveyed the apartment, while the second girl timidly snuck past the doorway so she could close the door behind her. Bella didn’t know much about the horse, but she knew the girl was German and majorly introverted.
“S-sorry to barge in, Bella,” murmured the young woman, while Alice started tossing things in the trash can and clothes hamper.
“Holy shit girl, you’ve got yourself a major mess here. What happened to the neat freako that I know?” Pointedly stomping over to the kitchen sink with a handful of mugs and plates, she set them down and wiped her hands on her ripped jeans. Bella just stood and stared with her jumbled head of hair and ratty sleeping clothes.
“Um…” She managed to say, before Alice began to size her figure up.
“Jazzie, grab me some clean underwear from that laundry basket, I’ll find a shirt and pants for her.” Both of the girls buzzed around the room, Alice tossing clothes into Bella’s arms and Jazzie handing things quietly. When a full outfit was finally in her arms, she was bustled into her bathroom and had the door barred.
“Uh, guys? Are you seriously doing this?” She sighed slightly, used to Alice’s theatrics.
“Hell yes I’m doing this to you, we have a party to go to. You haven’t been to one in, what, like an eon? Come on come on, it starts in half an hour and we need to grab food for it.” Bella could hear her flats tap on the hardwood floor outside.
“Okay, fine… I’ll go out, just this once.” She usually wasn’t much of a partier anyway, and this seemed like weird party clothes; white jean mini shorts and a cute, light blue T-shirt that had a kitten wearing sunglasses on it. Obviously it wasn’t the club type, especially since it was… Bella glanced at the clock. …One o’clock PM. Changing quickly, she shimmied her shirt down over the top of her lacy white bra. Jesus, did they have to give her the dressy matching underwear? “Let me brush my teeth and hair, and I’ll be ready.”
“Bitch please, let me braid it.” Alice popped the door open and peeked inside.
“Alice, you suck at braiding, that’s why your hair is short…” Bella smiled softly, to which Alice stuck her tongue out fiercely.
“Um, I know how to braid… I have four younger sisters,” Jazzie chimed, voice gentle. She slid through the door behind Alice and started working at the braid while Bella did her makeup. Not five minutes later, her hair and makeup was done and ready to go. She slipped on her dark blue-black flats and grabbed her wallet and keys.
“So, where are we off to?”
“A couple I’m friends with is getting married this summer so they’re moving into a house in one of the newer neighborhoods, I thought we’d head over and pester them. I hear Jack’s making his famous barbeque ribs, so I couldn’t resist.”
Bella groaned inwardly; a housewarming party, just what she needed today. Alice was too excited to just let her stay home, though, so she decided not to fuss. Free food is free food, after all.
On the way over to the party, they grabbed a couple huge bags of chips and practically one of every type of dip the store had. Noms in hand, they trooped off to the car giggling to themselves over the boys who’d tried flirting with Alice.
“You know, it’s really fun being married, y’all should try it someday,” she chuckled. Jazzie smiled, and Bella shook her head with a laugh.
“Yeah, but you get into more trouble than when you were still dating Kyle, dork.”
“Not true! Okay, maybe a little true… But that’s not my fault, I swear,” Alice tried to defend herself, breaking down into another round of giggles. “Did you see that one guy who was staring at Jazzie’s ass, though? He wasn’t that bad looking.” A round of nods went through the car as they all agreed that he had been pretty attractive.
Rolling up behind one of many cars on the street, the trio each grabbed a bag or two and headed up to a pretty, newly-constructed house. To be fair, the whole street looked like it had just been built yesterday, but this one in particular was full of teens and adults. Couples and groups walked around the front yard, and a gaggle of children ran around after a giant mastiff in the back yard.
Walking through the wide-open front door, the smell of foods wafted around them. The bags of chips and dip were lifted from their hands and taken to serving bowls on a large table. All three girls glanced at each other and held back giggles. A young woman came up to hug them, and Alice seemed to become more hyper than before.
“Guys, this is the lucky girl who gets to live in this house, meet Sarah,” she bounced a bit, and then noticed some people she recognized. With a wave, she ran off to hug them and chat. Jazzie and Bella made pleasantries with the hostess before Sarah got called away, leaving the girls to grab food and sit together on a couch.
“I don’t really know what to do whenever I’m at parties like this,” Jazzie murmured quietly. Bella nodded in agreement, sipping soda. They watched as a group of boys hauled in a box that hadn’t been unpacked yet, pulling out a few gaming consoles and the cords for them. The flat screen TV was summarily hooked up to them, and the controllers were pulled out. Bella grinned, grabbing an Xbox controller to join in, but the guys scoffed at having a girl that knew how to play anything.
“Excuse me, I hold the record KD in my group, so sit down and shut up,” she sassed, picking out one of the games. They Oooh’ed and grabbed their controllers, taking up the seats in the living room. Jazzie watched with interest as Bella promptly wiped the floor with the boys.
“Damn girl, how the hell did you even manage to avoid my shots?” A dark gray jackal huffed with surprise, handing the controller off to someone else who wanted a turn.
“Ah, well your camping spot has a lot of blind spots I can hide in, you should really find a better place,” Bella laughed, tossing hers off to a raccoon who then thanked her.
“I see Bella’s at it again, huh?” A voice behind her made everyone look over. Alice leaned over the back of the couch the girls were on, grinning like a Cheshire cat. A round of nods made her laugh and high-five Bella before she stood up. “Have you guys even introduced yourselves?” When everyone exchanged looks with each other, she sighed.
“I didn’t really give them a chance to, so it’s mostly my fault,” the wolf laughed to her friend. Standing in the center of the group, the mouse started to point off names to faces.
“The buck is Trace; he works at an outdoor supply store.” He nodded to the girls distractedly, focusing on his phone.
“Russian raccoon over there is Aaron. No one knows why we call him Russian,” she continued, and he gave a sort of wave before pulling his camo hat down farther on his forehead.
“You can call the red panda Asian, Rice, or James.” He looked over from the TV, giving a small smile.
“Wait… James? That’s not very… well, Asian…” Jazzie stammered.
“We don’t ask about that, he gives us a different excuse every time,” Alice grumbled, “Anyway… We’ve got Trace, Aaron, James… Who’s left? Wait, where’s Lithus?” She looked around, trying to find him.
“Grabbing a drink, that’s where,” a male voice announced, coming through the doorway from the kitchen. Into the room walked a snake, tail swaying. He was holding an open soda bottle in one hand, and various beers in the other. On the couch, all the guys raised their hands for their drinks, thanking Lithus when they got theirs.
“Perfect, then I can introduce everyone now. Lithus is the weirdo of the group, don’t mind him.” At that, he puffed up and hissed a bit, which made her laugh.
While they were opening their drinks, a rabbit came in from the back yard through the sliding glass doors. “Hey guys! What am I missing?” His top hat with steampunk goggles sat askew his head, and he straightened it.
“I thought the Mad Hatter was supposed to be the one with the top hat, not the white rabbit…” Bella whispered to Jazzie, smiling playfully.
“To be precise I’m a jackalope, not a rabbit, and you can call me Daniel,” he said matter-of-factly, having clearly heard what she’d said. He raised his hat to reveal a small set of prongs, similar to Trace’s except less heavy. Bella stood up and reached for them, ruffling her hand through his hair to find the base of the antlers.
“Well then… I’ve never met a jackalope before,” she tilted her head to the side. Daniel smiled proudly, no doubt hearing that often before. A muffled cough gained her attention, and she looked over to Lithus, who seemed like he didn’t enjoy having the introductions cut short.
“Right, right… Boys, this is Bella, she’s the cutest damn wolf you’ll ever meet. She draws, dances, and has to be the best kindergarten teacher around,” Alice grinned as Bella hid her face in her hands, knowing she didn’t like being praised.
Jazzie smiled softly, introducing herself instead of letting Alice do the honors. “I’m Jazzie, uh… Yeah, you can call me Jazz, Jazzie, or… well, whatever you want, really.”
“And don’t be afraid to tell her to speak up, she’s super quiet,” Alice chuckled, making the horse blush underneath her freckles.
After that, it didn’t take long before everyone was laughing and playing around in games and with mysteriously-appearing decks of cards. Party-goers came and went, and it slowly dwindled down to the people who were in the living room. As it turned out, they were going to be spending the night because Sarah and her fiancé William had invited them to. By some miracle, Alice and the guys managed to convince Jazzie and Bella to join them.
Dinner was leftovers from the party – mostly chips, hotdogs, and sandwiches. Around midnight the couple went to bed, saying that the guests could grab pillows and blankets then spread around the house at their discretion... within reason, of course.
Aaron and James promptly ran for the pile, hoarding a major portion of them for a pillow fort-style nest. Jazzie grabbed her own pillow, deciding to join in the tent. To Bella, it looked like when her D&D character decided what to do and everyone followed along, because soon the whole group had joined in the fun. The pile of pillows had shrunk down to three and the blankets left were the ones that couldn’t easily be draped across furniture because they were too heavy.
Bella sighed, grabbed two pillows in one arm, and a blanket in the other. She dragged them to the doorway, said goodnight to the dogpile of people, and headed for the only room she was sure had a bed – the spare room. Honestly she had a headache, and she’d eaten too much junk food, so she was burned out with excitement and fun for the day.
Rounding the corner of the hallway to the bedroom, she bumped the door open with her hip. Thankfully the bed had sheets on it, but Sarah hadn’t had time to put anything else on it because of the housewarming party. The pillows were tossed at the headboard and the blankets draped ungracefully over the mattress. There wasn’t anything special in the room yet, but it had a lamp on a table. Bella set her wallet down and took her contacts out, tossing them in the little garbage can beside the bed.
From the living room she could hear someone laugh, then a loud bump as someone dropped down onto what she presumed was a pile of blankets… she hoped. Checking her phone, she saw that the time read 12:18 before she turned its display off and set it on the table as well. She thought about unclipping her bra and taking her shorts off, but considering there were so many people in one house she decided against it, instead choosing to loosen it a bit around her ribs.
The bed was soft, and she felt happy to be out of her apartment for once. It was silly of her to stay cooped up so much, but after what had happened with Geo she didn’t really have much interest in outside activities… Her mind wandered, and she started to relax into daydreams – her usual method of putting herself to sleep. As she drifted slowly to sleep, Bella was glad she’d come to the party.
