Aside from Rosie, Auden was one of the only people I managed to stay in contact with after school finished. They lived with family, on the outskirts of Blackalls Park, where the house was divided into two; a place for their grandmother, and a place for their mother. Tonight, the party was held at her mother's, as I stepped out from the Barina and was greeted with the faded noise of Green Day wafting from the opened windows. I could already hear the bellowing laughter from a couple of men, and mixed chatter inside, and I knew I wouldn't know a single one of the people within. Still, I reached up and adjusted the red plaid scarf around my neck. Even around strangers, I wasn't about to reveal my little secret, not when one of my friends was already aware and questioning me every second she had, even as I walked out the front door this afternoon.
"I can still see that bruise on your neck!" She had called from the couch, loud enough that any passer-by on the sidewalk would have heard. And when I turned to glare at my roommate, who smiled coyly as she rested comfortably in her skin tight gymwear, with a bowl of popcorn resting next to her side, That 70's Show playing on the TV, I slammed the front door shut. Then I marched back to my room to rummage through the mess within my drawers and, as I ignored the voice in my head screaming to pick something that matched my outfit, I fished out a scarf that I had to hastily wrap around my neck.
Entering the living room to leave quickly, the fear of being late nagging in the back of my mind, I held out my arms and raised an eyebrow towards the back of my roommates head. "Better?"
She turned and looked, taking a few seconds to tilt her head to the side and judge. Meanwhile, my feet were lightly shuffling in the same spot that I stood, anxiously awaiting her response and preparing to leap out the door without another word.
She screwed up her nose, and she said, "It's doesn't go with that top."
Looking down, at the black satin singlet I had chosen, and the grey suede jacket, it looked fine to me as a last-minute throw together. Especially when other plans were on the horizon following the party. I dug my phone out of my pocket. The time read 5:48. Party started at 6. I was definitely not going to make it on time.
So I shoved the iPhone back into my jeans, and headed straight for the door, calling, "I don't care, I'm already running late!"
"But you're going to be a fashion disaster!" Rosie shouted after me dramatically, even when the screen door was long closed and I was heading towards the front gate.
"Kara Maree Aisling, you will not get a second hickey looking like that!" I heard, even lightly jogging away from the townhouse towards my car. And as I unlocked it and dived in, turning on the ignition, I felt the embarrassment creep up my neck and my face turning warm. If I wasn't in such a rush to get out of that house I would have turned back and murdered her with my bare hands, despite that she would have probably snapped my neck before I could even try.
But now, as I walked down the driveway, towards the open, car-less garage, where light was flooding the dark surroundings from a screen door, Rosie's statements repeated in my head. A 21st birthday was not something to dress lightly for. If anything, it was one of the milestones in life you needed to go all out for, to create a night with memories and good company, much like my 21st was only a mere three months ago.
I texted Auden, letting them know I was standing out the front, only just walking into the garage. The 'read' receipt came onto the screen not even two seconds later, and no sooner did my pale friend appear at the screen door, wearing a nice blazer jacket over a Star Trek t-shirt and black jeans, pushing it open to let me inside.
"Hey..." They greeted, pushing the glasses on their round face up towards their bright eyes. "How's it going?"
"Hey..." I replied cautiously, feeling my heart beat against my chest as I take a step towards the house. "I'm not too late, am I?"
"Nah, you're good." Auden assured, turning on me and proceeding into the open space where people were gathered. "Not everybody is here yet anyway. Come on in."
Auden was correct in that aspect. It looked like mostly family members gathered around. The men talking in pairs, the women all gathered in the corner chuckling, and Auden's brother patiently sitting by the snack table, with a pretty, young girl by his side. We walked into the house, passing by the table filled with bowls of chips, dips, and sugar-filled treats.
"Peter, you remember Kara?" Auden pointed to me, their voiced raised over the constant chatter.
Peter took one look at me and shrugged, shaking his head. No words followed. I didn't expect much, given that I had to keep remembering myself that Auden had a sibling to begin with. But as I heard my friend sigh next to me, I turned my head to catch them pushing their glasses up their nose again. They glanced at me, tilting their head to follow them further into the house, and I obeyed
"Sorry, siblings are a pain," They spoke over their shoulder, heading for a cooler two feet away. They opened it, exposing the contents of several soft drink cans, mini bottles of water and crap-load of beer. "What would you like to drink?"
I stared down into the open cooler, spotting familiar names of popular brands: Coca-Cola, Sprite, Fanta, Mount Franklin, Mountain Dew, all resting atop in between ice cubes and beer bottles. The hair on the back of my neck begins to freeze, feeling Auden's gaze on my face as I study the contents within the cooler, and I give them a rushed answer before my face can begin to glow pink. "Coke will do."
No sooner do I say my answer does my friend reach in and grabs a can, handing it to me gently before bending over and reaching for one themselves. The cooler lid is released, falling back down, and the snap of Auden's can splitting open cracks before I can hear the tickling buzz of the fizzy drink within.
I crack mine open myself, taking a glance around the room. The hair on the back of my neck has not settled, leaving me on high alert to the people in the room. It's silly, I know, to think that everyone in this room, whom I've never met nor probably never will, is watching me, but it feels as though they are. The bruise on my neck throbs, despite being covered by a scarf, and my body tenses as another spell of anxiety hits me.
"Hey," Auden speaks up, slurping up a sip of the drink in hand. I look towards them, trying to look focused instead of scared. "Have you heard if Lachlan's coming?"
I take a drink from my own can. A couple of gulps compared to Auden's quick sip, and once I allow myself to swallow and feel the freezing bubbles run down my throat, I lightly shake my head.
"No, I haven't," was my reply, my eyes scanning around the room. "I haven't spoken to Lachlan, in a while..."
Auden sighs, light disappointment sounding from where they stood, and I look back towards my friend, finding their gaze now focused on the wooden floor before them.
"Damn." They finally say, picking their head up and looking at the people around the room. "I was really hoping he'd come to be honest."
In retrospect, I didn't think Lachlan was still talking to any of us. I didn't think he still wanted any of us around for that matter, but this wasn't something I was going to voice to Auden. It was hard to accept that someone you used to spend nearly every day with could turn around and disappear without a trance of where they went. I knew that feeling firsthand, and I'm almost certain counterparts have felt the same about me.
"Oh well." Auden takes another sip from the can, still glancing around the room, seemingly over the initial sadness of missing their friend. Their hand reaches up to push their glasses back again. "How have you been, anyway?"
I shrug, never really knowing how I could answer that question. When does personal become too personal?
"Same old," I tell Auden, taking another sip of my own drink. "Work, video games, Netflix, more work."
"Oh I feel you," Auden says, staring off to a far corner of the room, at a couple sharing a small two seater by the window. "Most days I'm just in my room catching up on anime. I don't think I've left the house in over a week."
I follow Auden's gaze to the couple by the window, huddled close together, both entranced by something on the man's phone, and as I stare I realise who the man is, and I'm almost shocked to see them here.
"Is that Riley?" I blurt, almost in disbelief to see them.
"Oh, yeah," Auden confirms. "He and Mary stopped by not too long ago. I didn't think you knew them."
I faced Auden. "I know Riley. But I didn't realise he had a girlfriend."
How long had it been since I had even talked to Riley? Four years? Five?
"You don't know Mary?" Auden asks inquisitively. "She went to our school."
"She did?" I questioned, looking back, trying to see if I could get a glimpse of her face. She was still looking down at Riley's phone, her light pink hair covering half of her face, not enough to shadow over her right eye and half of her mouth, but the minimal details weren't helping to jog a memory.
"I'll be honest, I was a little nervous inviting you both." Auden confessed, taking another sip of their drink.
I turned, looking right at Auden's face. "Me and Riley?"
"You and Mary," Auden corrects, shuffling where they stood. "I wasn't sure if you two would get along."
They took another sip, which seemed to last longer than the ones before, and then confessed. "You both kind of have...leadership personalities."
"Leadership personalities?" The confusion was surely etched on my face. "What does that mean?"
Before Auden can answer, an older woman approached them from behind, standing as tall as Auden did, but with a rushed gaze attached.
"Uncle Tom just got here. You better go and say 'hello'."
And then she left, just like that. A messenger bird flying back towards the kitchen and disappearing behind the large couch with four men seated watching the Saturday night football. Auden groans, hiking up the jeans they wore and speaking at a low volume, "I'll be right back. I need to go and greet some people."
They walked off, into the thin crowd of people gathering in the living space, possibly to go and talk to 'Uncle Tom'. But as they left, I turned my attention and gaze towards Riley and Mary, still sitting, huddled together, the light of Riley's phone glowing on their faces. It had been years, maybe even since my last days at school, since I had talked to Riley. The time between now and then had already vanished, and the both of us, him more observingly, looked as though we hadn't changed much. He had a beard now, which is definitely a turnaround from the baby-faced guy I used to know, but otherwise, he looked very much the same, and I wondered if maybe he was still the same guy I used to converse with regularly out on the school grounds.
Glancing at Mary again though, I was still at a loss. She had tucked the pink strands behind her ear, revealing three studs, but the light blue eyeshadow and the peach lipstick still didn't ring a bell. Despite that Auden had said she went to our school, her face was about as unfamiliar as the majority of people I had seen since I had walked into this house. Somehow, she felt like the biggest mystery, but that didn't stop me from calmly making my way over to, at the very least, greet Riley, after all the years we hadn't spoken to each other.
And as I made my way through the room, I wondered if he would remember me. Out of all the people I knew from high school, he was one of the ones that always seemed to have something to say. Always had a conversation ready to go, and some smartass remark to make towards my height and my near-white blonde hair, before I dyed it over with brown. Though, as I had discovered in the last five years, you tend to lose touch with people you used to converse with on a daily basis, not because you no longer want to talk, but because life gets busy. You meet different people, you try out different things, and every once in a while you go off the rails and throw yourself towards others in hopes it will fill the hole that's been growing for almost a year.
And as I made my way towards the two of them, I cleared my throat, hoping the next word that would come out of my mouth would sound cheery and welcoming, but if I'm being honest, it just sounded overhyped with too much excitement.
"Hey!"
Both Riley and Mary look up from his phone.
Mary, stunned.
Riley, surprised.
"Kara," he commented. "Oh my God, it's been forever. How have you been?"
I shrug, feeling the anxiety die down as I hear his voice speak my name. It makes the situation so much more comfortable, knowing he can still recognize me, even after so long.
I say, "Can't complain. How have you guys been going?"
"Yeah, we've been trotting along." Riley answers. "Work, Uni, you know?"
I nodded. I did know.
"What about you?" He asks. "What have you been up to?"
I open my mouth, before glancing to the wooden floorboards, kicking at them with my feet. What do you say to someone you haven't spoken to in years? What can you say?
"Yeah, just working, mostly." I finally say. "Staying at home most days, annoying my roommate."
Then Mary pipes up. "Oh, do you live by yourself?"
I nodded, looking up towards her general direction. Her face, it's familiar, but I still can't recollect that this was a girl I used to know back in the days of high school. Her eyes sparkled, her cheeks were lightly rosey, and she was about as pale as Auden, but she had more of a lightness in her expression; one that radiated friendliness.
"Yeah, I guess." I confirm, before correcting myself. "You remember Rosie Minnett? From school?"
Mary's face fell, her nose pinching a little. "Oh, I don't remember many people from school."
And while that leaves me perplexed, realising that she probably knows about as much of me as I do of her, Riley jumps in with a different answer. "Yeah, I kind of do. She was the one that was really short, like you?"
The smartass remark pinches at me, as I turn my head and stare with, what I was hoping was, a blank face. It was the enlightening feel of familiarity, of old jokes rising from the grave, and although I force my eyes to roll to the back of my head to show how irritating the jokes were, I hide a smile. Riley hasn't changed a bit.
"Yes," I reply, as-a-matter-of-factly. "Rosie was the really short one."
"Though, she got really fit, didn't she?" Mary butts in. "And now she's a gym trainer or something?"
"Personal coach, but yeah," I corrected, and lifted the can in my hand up to my face, taking a long sip.
"Far out," Mary turns to look at Riley. "We need to start getting onto that ourselves."
"Yeah, we do," Riley agrees. "It's just hard to find the time nowadays. If I'm not working, I'm sleeping, and if I'm not sleeping I'm playing Playstation."
Mary rolls her eyes as Riley continues to talk.
"Like, I'm trying to finish the main campaign in Dark Souls 3, but it's almost impossible."
"You're attempting Dark Souls?" I ask, a smile shy of appearing on my face. "Oof. I admire you for your bravery."
"He's been playing it non-stop for three weeks," Mary informs me, unimpressed, glaring at her boyfriend. "Still hasn't gotten past the first boss."
"Hey, I've beaten at least three bosses," Riley defends himself, his forehead creasing in as he looks at Mary. "Gwendolin is a fucking bitch though."
Mary rolls her eyes, looking back up at me, dismissing the annoyance Riley had tried to foreshadow over her.
"What about you, Kara?" She asks. "I'm guessing you play as well?"
And while it's set up as a question, she asks it like she already knows the answer, and as I smile and glance at Riley, he jumps in to speak on my behalf. "Yeah, Kara is actually one of the cool kids."
Mary rolls her eyes again. "What a shame."
I feel a smile creep onto my face, as I ask a question I already have the feeling I know the answer to. "I'm guessing you don't play Playstation?"
"Nope," She states, proudly. "I'm Xbox."
And I glance back at Riley again, this time shooting him a questioning look behind the grin that's refusing to leave my face.
"I know, I know," he comments. "What can I say?"
And he stares right at his girlfriend, getting real close so their noses are only millimetres away. "I got unlucky."
She scrunches her nose at him like she wants to bite his face off, but before anything more can be said or done, we're interrupted by a voice calling through the house. "Excuse me, everyone!"
Auden has called everyone to attention, and as they all begin to turn their heads towards the person standing in the middle of the room, laughs and chatter beginning to die down.
I notice Auden's face beginning to blush as everyone's eyes falls on them, and they quickly push their glasses up on their face once more before they begin to speak.
"Uh, I just wanna thank everyone for coming...it's...it's really good to know that I have such great family, and friends, that are here to celebrate this milestone with me...uh...I wanna thank Mum, for helping me set up, of course, and uh...for everyone who came out here from travelling a really far distance. Rory, you especially... and for all my friends from school, who I still talk to to this day..."
Auden glances in my direction for a brief second, giving us a slight nod, before continuing with her speech.
"It's...it's really soothing to know I have such a wonderful network of people around me, even when I had lost touch with people I knew, with family I knew... and with people I may never speak to again. But this room has all the people that matter, all the people who do give somewhat of a shit, and I thank each and every one of you for taking the time to come and celebrate it."
Auden raises that same Coca-Cola can in their hand, and speaks a mildly audible "Cheers..."
"Cheers!" The room erupts, holding up their own cans, cups, glasses, and bottles, and the sudden explosion of noise makes my friend jump in their spot, and push up the glasses on their face once again. People begin to cry out their wishes of 'Happy Birthday' and the room has returned to its noisy, former glory.
