I don’t go out much. I’m not good around people. I don’t like smelling like cigarettes and beer. I’m more of a morning person and I get tired and cranky if I stay out late; tired and cranky beyond the normal tired and crankyness caused by excessive conversation and politeness and listening and caring.
One time my housemates dragged me to this party one of their coworkers was throwing. Keg, booze, kitschy 90’s dance party music. I mostly sat on the couch, chatting with a few people I knew or being quiet. I was ready to leave after a few hours, but no one else was, and I didn’t have enough money to get my own cab, so I had to stick it out until someone else felt like leaving.
At some point Kayley came and sat down next to me. She was the only other person in our circle of friends like me: quiet and easily bored. I was sunk way back into the couch at this point, almost prone, eyes half-closed. Kayley and I just sat there listening to other people’s conversations and rolling our eyes at each other. At some point I noticed she was leaning pretty heavily against me. I’d suspected for a while that she liked me, but I couldn’t ever do anything about it because she was dating one of the guys I lived with, Marcus, who happened to be out of town this particular weekend. Kayley and I just sat like that, sinking down into the couch together, hypnotized by the party, leaning into each other from our knees to our hips to our shoulders. I was really enjoying how she felt against me, and I was pretty sure we were both thinking the same thing, so I finally just went for it.
“Do you want to go upstairs?” I asked her. She nodded that she did. We got up and climbed the stairs to the second floor. We found a bedroom which was luckily unoccupied. When we shut the door it was suddenly so quiet, like the party was miles away. We took off our shoes and slipped under the covers, and took a very nice nap together. It was the most fun I ever had a party.