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Karen hated parties, almost as much as she hated not being invited to them. They were always loud, everyone had no sense of personal space, and they reeked of alcohol and weed. Still, at least she'll be able to say after graduation she attended one, even if no one is sober enough to remember it. The party had been going on for a few hours at this point, while Karen had only arrived roughly half an hour ago. Nicole had told her ahead of time that cool people arrive late to parties and she didn't particularly want to be there for the entire thing anyway. She had run into Jecka shortly after arriving, getting absolutely wasted with Kelly. Jecka had been her best friend up until Middle School when the two of them had just sort of drifted apart. Recently after finding her and Nicole in the school’s photo lab they had started being on at least civil terms again.
“Hey Jecka, how goes the party?”
Jecka turned in Karen’s direction without saying anything. She had a smile on her face but it looked like she was trying her hardest to remember who this person in front of her was. Then her face lit up all at once.
“Oh my god Karen! I didn’t recognize you at somewhere fun! I’m so glad you came, do you want something to drink?”
“I don’t really think it’s smart for people our age to drink.”
“Oh it’s fine, see? I always drink at these things and I’m pretty and perfect right? You don’t have to drink though, Nicole doesn’t drink either cuz she gets really sad. Hey, if you see Nicole let me know okay? I think she’s with Emily.”
After that Kelly suddenly started clinging onto Jecka, and Jecka started laughing. The conversation was probably done so Karen moved on. 30 minutes later and she was starting to feel sick. The dim lighting was hurting her eyes, she didn’t really know anyone else there, and people kept trying to get her to drink. At this point she was thinking she should leave. If anyone here was sober enough to remember the party they’d at least know she had made an appearance. Karen decided to find her coat and leave. The only problem is, she had no idea where it could be.
When Karen first got to the party, she asked where she should put her coat and someone took it for her. At the time she had been grateful but now that she needed it, she wished she had paid more attention to who took it. She had two choices at this point, leave without her coat or to start searching rooms. Searching rooms felt invasive but she didn’t want to explain to her mom what happened to her coat, so off she went.
Kelly’s house had a lot of rooms, and therefore a lot of places to check. Closets, bedrooms, offices, and almost every single one had at least 2 people in it doing something they shouldn’t be doing in public. It was hard to scan a room while people were chewing on each other’s face but it was a lot harder when they weren’t doing that, instead focusing on her until she left. It came down to the last bedroom and when Karen opened the door, she stopped completely at the entrance before closing it quickly. For once she recognized the people inside snogging, as her favorite books would call it, and it was Nicole and Emily.
“Who the fuck was that?” Karen could hear Nicole yell through the door. “I swear to god when I find out who’s trying to perv on us I’m going to kill them.”
“It’s fine, don’t get so worked up.” Now Karen could hear the blonde. “If it was one of the guys then we’ll be able to tell later when they can’t keep their eyes off us. We can blackmail them then.”
“You’re really not worried about this?”
“About being seen making out with the hottest girl in school? Should I be?”
“All I’m saying is if we come into school on monday and Crispin comes up and says he thinks it’s cool that I’m a lesbian I’m blaming you.”
“I’ll take that risk, now come here.”
Karen didn’t hear anything else through the door after that. Karen's first thought was that if her coat was in there (and it probably was because she now thinks she remembers it was Emily that took her coat) she wasn’t getting it back today. Her second thought was did Jecka know that Nicole was gay? Jecka probably wasn’t homophobic but she did have a history of siding with being popular over her friends so it concerned her. Karen wasn’t really sure it was any of her business, it’s not like she was particularly close to Nicole, but she felt that Nicole had always looked out for her, teaching her new slang, telling her that she’s a hot bitch, convincing her to come to this party, the least she could do was test the waters for her. Karen started looking for Jecka and once again she wasn’t hard to find. Megan was supporting her with one shoulder walking through the living room at the time.
“Hey Megan. What’s going on?”
“What’s going on here is that Kelly asked me to keep an eye on Jecka because she had stuff to do, and I’m not doing that so I was taking her to wherever Nicole is.”
“Oh I could take her there, I know where Nicole is.”
“Please take her then, I don’t like playing sobriety mother to stupid blondes.”
Megan passed the inebriated girl over to Karen who was shocked how heavy she was. As soon as Megan’s back was turned, Jecka stuck her tongue out.
“As if I need to be watched over like a… what needs to be watched over?”
Jecka looked puzzled for a minute before looking over to her side and looking puzzled for a second again. Then once again, her face lit up.
“Oh my god Karen! I didn’t recognize you at somewhere fun! Thanks for helping me stand, I’m a little tipsy right now. What are you doing here?”
“Yeah, um, so like, I just wanted to talk for a bit.”
“Sure thing, what’s going on in Twilight?”
“Not about that, this is about…. Harry Potter yeah! Like what do you think about shipping Draco and Harry.”
“What the fuck is shipping?”
“Like do you think they’d make a good couple?”
“Isn’t Draco like a Nazi?”
“He isn’t he’s just misunderstood, look do you think it’s a problem for men to be dating?”
“What the fuck, are you homophobic?”
Well this had certainly taken a strange turn, Karen couldn’t help but think. Still at least she knew Jecka didn’t hate gay people on principle. Now she just had to make sure she wouldn’t have any problem with Nicole being gay.
“No, of course not. I think gay people should have all the rights normal people do. What if it was someone close to you though, would that impact what you thought of them?”
“Karen, if this is you coming out as a lesbian then I support you but this isn’t really the time, I think I’m going to throw up. Not because you’re gay I just think I had a little too much to drink.”
Karen immediately started dragging Jecka over to the bathroom without another word. Once there, Karen held Jecka’s hair back as she spewed into the toilet. This is why teenagers shouldn’t drink, she thought to herself. They stayed there for a while making sure Jecka had it out of her system, afterwards however it seemed Jecka could stand on her own at least. She still wobbled a bit and had that drunk grin on her face but it was an improvement.
“Sorry about all that, I shouldn’t have drank so much but like I was just trying to keep up with Kelly and she barely seemed buzzed so I kept going. I’ve got no idea how high that bitch’s tolerance is. So anyway you were coming out to me?”
“No, no sorry. I was just trying to see how you’d react. Like, let’s say Nicole was gay, would that impact how you thought of her?”
Jecka looked taken aback at that question before bursting out laughing.
“I’d be more impacted if Nicole wasn’t gay after all that time I spent giving her head last night.”
Karen blushed hard hearing that while Jecka went back to laughing. Okay so apparently she didn’t need to worry about Jecka reacting badly to Nicole being gay because they were dating. However this introduced a new problem that Nicole was cheating on Jecka. She was not prepared to deal with this situation tonight. Now she had to figure out what to do. Was it appropriate to tell Jecka about this? Were they close enough that she should be the one to break the news that her partner was cheating on her? Is this the best place to do it? What would she want to happen if it were her? Jecka has to be told, that much is certain, but when would be best?
“Okay, Jecka, another hypothetical.”
“Karen please, no more thinking tonight. I just wanna hang out with Nicole and Emily, did you see them earlier?”
Yeah, she saw them sucking face.
“Yeah, I think they were hanging out in one of the bedrooms.”
“Okay, so we’ll search the bedrooms, can you get me some water first?”
Karen went off to get water while Jecka sat on the toilet. Hopefully either no one else would need to use it in a hurry or they’d know where the other bathrooms are. Karen went to the kitchen, dodging the people still offering her drinks for some reason, searched the cupboards, found the cups and filled it with water from the sink. At least this was a distraction from what was going to happen when Jecka and her finally found the cheaters. Karen slowly made her way back to Jecka, partially to delay it more and partially to avoid running into anyone.
“Thanks, and you’re sure this is water, not vodka?”
“I poured it myself, it’s fine.”
“Does Kelly have a filter on her tap?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I just prefer filtered or bottled. I wasn’t going to complain that much anyway.”
Jecka downed the entire glass of water in seconds. Then she refilled the cup with water from the sink, gargled and spit it back out.
“Alright I’m feeling better, let’s get searching.”
Karen had been dreading this moment, hopefully Nicole and Emily had knocked it off by now. The two of them began to make their way through each room, once again interrupting many different couples. This time either they had finished what they were doing and gave much angrier glares when the two of them intruded, or they were even further in their relations to the point they didn’t notice anything. Eventually however, there was one bedroom left. Jecka opened the door and inside was-
“Hey Karen, isn’t that your coat on the bed?”
Karen looked into the empty room and sure enough her coat was there. She walked over to pick it up and noticed a burn mark on the bed sheets.
“I think Emily had it, so they probably went outside to smoke or something.”
“Nicole smokes in her own bedroom, Kelly must have caught them in here. I think this is like her parents' room or something.”
Sure enough, it looked like a master bedroom, a large king-sized bed, a nice television visible from it, a connecting bathroom Jecka was now entering.
“Yeah those two were absolutely here, the medicine cabinet was messed with. I don’t think they took anything though, everything in here is like, blood pressure shit and like Tums. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a middle aged white couple on so few drugs.”
“Isn’t it normal not to have a bunch of drugs?”
“Oh Karen, you’ll understand when you’re older. Anyway, let's go check outside.”
Snaking back through the hallways, coat now under arm, the two of them went out to the back patio and sure enough out by the pool, there they were. Nicole was laying down on a beach chair while Emily was dipping her feet into the water.
“There you guys are! How could you just leave me with Kelly all night.”
Jecka took off towards Nicole while Emily got out of the water. Karen really hoped everything was going to be fine. The guilt was starting to twist her up inside and she honestly felt ready to vomit herself out of anxiety. She could tell Jecka tomorrow, surely things can stay calm for just a few more hours.
“The fuck do you mean we left you with Kelly. We were trying to kill time while you got white girl wasted in order to hear the latest sex escapades.”
“And if you don’t start being nicer to me you won’t get to hear about them either, and they’re really juicy. Spoiler: One of the stories involves being inside a Petsmart after hours.”
“I’d be nicer if you didn’t smell like a frat house right now. Did you throw up?”
“Yeah, Karen helped with that. Don’t worry, I washed my mouth out afterwards so I should be fine. Now aren’t you going to kiss your girlfriend?”
“That’s still disgusting Jecka, do I look like the kind of slut that makes out with girls that smell like puke?”
“Do you really want me to answer that?” Emily had slid into the conversation. “Anyway if Nicole doesn’t want to, I will.”
Emily pushed Jecka’s hair to the side and suddenly started kissing her. Like, not even a peck like a really deep kiss. Karen looked over to Nicole who had a very upset look on her face.
“What the fuck are you two doing?”
The two blondes broke apart and Jecka walked over to Nicole, enveloping her completely in a hug with Emily sitting on Nicole’s other side.
“Aw, is Nicole jealous we aren’t paying her any attention?” Jecka started kissing the brunette’s cheek over and over, moving down the side of her neck as she went on while Emily just watched with a smile on her face.
“No you fucking bimbo, Karen is literally right there.”
“It’s fine, Karen told me she was gay earlier, she won’t tell anyone we’re dating.”
Karen was very confused at this point, she felt she should clarify she wasn’t gay, she thinks, but there were more pressing questions.
“I’m sorry, who is dating?”
“The three of us,” Emily said, leaning into the girls on her left. “Me, Nicole and Jecka. Jealous?”
“I don’t care if she’s gay, if you say one word about all of this to anyone I swear we’ll make your life a living hell.”
“I don’t really care but I like keeping Nicole happy, so yeah I guess we’ll torture you or something if you tell anyone.” The way Emily had such a genuine smile on her face as she said that made Karen take a step back.
“Stop scaring her, it’ll be fine.” Jecka got up and walked over, hugging Karen. “Thanks again for helping me out tonight, you were so sweet. I hope you enjoy the rest of the party.”
Jecka smiled, her eyes shimmering in the light of the stars and moon and made Karen start to question if maybe she was a little gay, but either way it was finally time for her to go home. She went back into the house and right when she was about to leave, Kelly stopped her.
“Hey, Karen right? I saw you with Jecka. You know you’re kind of cute with your glasses, do you wanna check out one of the bedrooms with me for a bit?”