"Pop
Life"
Chapter 80
I stare up at the cheesy glittery disco ball that hangs from the ceiling in the high school gym. I turn my head to the right a little and see Andre standing over to the side. He looks thrilled to be here.
"You having fun?" Preston asks me as he hands me a glass of punch.
I take the glass from him and smile. "Yeah, this is fun."
He sits down next to me. "I'm sure you've been to more exciting parties than this."
I shrug. "It depends on how you look at it. I've been to bigger parties and louder parties, but this one is different and it's with my friends, which makes it fun."
A slow song comes on and I watch Darcy and her date walk to the dance floor.
"Would you like to dance?" Preston asks.
"Sure," I say, standing up.
He stands up beside me and takes my hand and leads me to the dance floor.
Darcy smiles at me when I put my hands on Preston's shoulders and his hands find my waist. We move slowly to the music.
"You look beautiful tonight, have I told you that?" he asks.
"Yes, you have but thank you again."
"I mean, I'm so lucky to be here with the prettiest girl."
I smile at him. "I'm glad you asked me."
"Really?"
I shrug. "Yeah. I wasn't going to come to this thing. Now that I'm here, I'm glad I got to go to at least one dance."
"And your boyfriend doesn't care?"
"Well I hope he cares a little but he understands we're here as friends. He trusts me."
He nods and leans in a little closer. I pull back a little.
"Preston, have you been drinking?"
He smiles and nods his head toward the table with the punch and snacks set up on it. "The punch is spiked," he whispers loudly and then laughs.
"Oh dear Lord. Thank God we have a limo."
"You had some."
"I had one glass. Not enough to make me loopy apparently."
Finally the song ends and a fast one begins. Darcy pulls away from Ted, her date and moves over so they're facing us. I take the hint and start to dance to the music. The four of us form a small circle as we dance. Within minutes, Stacy and John join us.
"Having fun?" Stacy leans over and asks me.
"Where have you been?" I ask.
She wiggles her eyebrows up and down and I shake my head.
"Too much punch."
"I like the punch," she says.
"I bet you do."
"Ohhh, there's Karen. I'll be back, I'm going to find out where the party is at," Darcy says, lifting up her skirt a little so she can run across the gym floor.
She comes back to our group.
"Okay, they're leaving now and it's at the Hilton. Let's go."
"Wait, where?" I ask, grabbing her arm.
"Oh yeah you wouldn't know since you're not in school with us. Karen is having a party. Come on, it will be fun."
Preston looks at me with pleading eyes.
I shrug. "Why not. I'm only going to have one Homecoming Dance."
We all piled into the limo.
"I'm glad he doesn't ask questions," I tell Darcy as I watch Andre climb in the front seat of the limo.
She laughs. "True."
We make our way to the Hilton and all pile out of the limo. Darcy called Karen a few minutes before and found out the room number.
"Okay...let's sneak in a couple at a time," Stacy says. She and John walk in first.
In a couple of minutes, Darcy and Ted walk into the hotel.
"I guess that just leaves us," Preston says.
He takes my hand and leads me into the hotel lobby. We find the elevators and get on one when the door opens. The door starts to shut when I reach my hand out and hold it open for Andre.
"Oh, sorry...I forgot," Preston says. "I'm not used to having a bodyguard around."
"It's okay," Andre says.
We get off at the tenth floor and walk down the hall.
"Have you ever been to one of these?" I ask.
"Sure," he shrugs.
"Oh, okay."
We find the room and he knocks. Suddenly the door opens and we walk into a room with about fifteen other people.
They all greet us and next thing I know, I'm sitting down on the bed with five other girls. They're passing a bottle of win around.
"Go ahead, take a swig," one of the girls tells me.
I look at the bottle and take a sip. I've had wine before, with my parents at dinner. I've had champagne before. This feels different. Maybe it's because I've had a cup of spiked punch, I don't know.
"That's it, loosen up," Preston says after he sees me taking a drink of wine.
"So is this all you do at these things?" I ask Darcy.
"What?"
"Drink? I mean, what's the point?"
"We're having fun."
She continues talking to the other girls about different dresses they saw that night. I stand up and walk over to the window that overlooks Orlando. I feel someone standing behind me so I look over my shoulder to find Preston.
"Nice view," he says.
"Yeah."
I feel his hands start to massage my shoulders.
"You're so tense," he says.
"I'm okay." I keep looking straight ahead.
He moves around so he's next to me.
"Just relax...close your eyes," he says quietly.
His voice is actually soothing so I close my eyes while he continues to kneed my shoulders.
"That's it..."
Suddenly my eyes pop open when I feel his lips cover mind. I shove him away from me and wipe my mouth.
"What are you doing?" I yell.
"If you have to ask, you're more naive than I thought."
"I have a boyfriend."
"And he's not here, but you and I are..." he says as he tries to grab my waist so he can pull me closer again.
I step on his toe with my heel and he yelps and grabs his foot as I walk away from him.
"Where are you going?" a very drunk Stacy asks.
"I'm going home...I'll send the limo back for you guys," I say before I open the door and walk into the hallway.
Andre was leaning up against the wall and straightens up when he sees me.
"Everything okay?" he asks.
I nod. "Yeah...let's go."
He has to jog a little to keep up the pace with me.
"Not my idea of fun...watching my friends get drunk and getting hit on," I mumble.
Andre's eyebrows raise a little as the elevator doors close.
I walk quietly into the foyer. Just as I'm about to climb the stairs to my room, I notice a light on in the family room so I head in that direction.
The TV is on, but the volume is low and I see mama laying on the couch, with a blanket wrapped around her. Her eyes are closed. I smile at the sight.
Suddenly she opens her eyes and look my way.
"Oh...how long have you been standing there?" she asks as she stretches a little bit.
I sit down next to her.
"Just got here."
"So, did you have fun? Are you glad you went?"
I shrug and nod. "Sure. It was an experience."
I start to stand but mama grabs my arm.
"What aren't you telling me?"
I sigh and look over at her. "It just ended up being more about partying than an actual dance. I don't know...I thought it would be different."
"Well, you've been once now so..."
She looks at me closely.
"Baby, did something else happen?" she asks, touching my cheek.
I glance down at my hands. "Preston just got a little friendly, that's all."
"Adriana! Where was Andre?"
"Mama, calm down. He was close by and as soon as Preston tried to kiss me, I stuck my heel in his foot," I chuckled.
"Ouch," mama laughs with me. "Are you going to tell Brad?"
I nod. "Yeah. I don't want to keep anything from him. He warned me about this though."
"About what?" mama asks as she sits up a little bit on the couch.
"About Preston. He said guys have one thing on their mind when they go to these dances. I told him that Preston knew we were going as friends so it wasn't a big deal and I didn't have anything to worry about. I guess I did."
Mama sympathetically rubs my arm. "Not all of them are like that. Just some of them."
"Well, I'm tired so I think I'll go to bed. You should probably go back to bed too."
"I was tossing and turning so I didn't want to bother your father."
"You okay?" I ask as I stand up.
She rubs her stomach and smiles. "Yes...sometimes I just feel a little nauseous and it keeps me awake. But.." she says as she stands up next to me, "I think I will go up with you."
The next day, Brad calls me around lunch time.
"Soooo tell me all about last night. Every detail," he kids.
"It was a dance. We danced, we hung out. That's about it," I say as I twirl my hair around my finger.
"Uh huh. So no one showed up in the same dress or something scandalous like that?"
I giggle. "No. Uh, someone spiked the punch."
"Woohoo now that's living dangerously."
"Yeah...I thought it was stupid."
"So was Preston a nice boy? Did he make sure you got home safely?"
"Not really. I left before he and my friends were finished partying."
"At the dance?"
"No, at the Hilton. Someone got a room so they could go get even drunker."
"Oh...and that's not your thing."
"No. I had a few sips of wine but it just wasn't fun for me."
"Well I'm glad you left if you weren't enjoying yourself. What did your friends think when you left?"
"I doubt they remember."
"Oh. They were that wasted, huh?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Adriana?"
I rub my forehead. "Hmmm?"
"Tell me more. You're keeping something from me"
He knew me too well.
"Preston got a little drunk and he tried to kiss me. I stepped on his foot."
"Tried to kiss you?"
"As soon as his mouth reached mine, I pushed him away and stomped on his foot."
Silence.
"Brad?"
"Hold on, I'm trying to calm down. I hope I never meet this kid..."
"Brad...I appreciate the fact that you're trying to protect me, but really...I'm fine."
"I know you can take care of yourself."
He sounded a little calmer.
The other line rang.
"I hear the beep and I have to go anyway. I'll have more time tonight, okay?" he says.
"Okay. I'll talk to you then. Bye."
I click over to the other line.
"Hello?"
"What happened to you last night?" a very groggy Darcy asks.
"I just didn't feel like watching everyone around me make fools of themselves so I decided to leave."
"You know Adriana, that was very rude to leave your date like that. Preston was humiliated."
I give an evil laugh. "Well it was very rude of him to kiss me like that. Leaving was the only option."
"He tried to kiss you?"
"No, he did kiss me."
"Oh."
"Yeah. So, did you have a fun night?"
"Um, yeah. I think I did."
"I guess that's why we're talking quietly, huh? I wouldn't want to make your head hurt worse. By the way, has your mom seen you yet?"
"My mom's not here," she says.
"Hmm."
"When do you start rehearsing again? Will I get to see you before you go?"
"I'm going to do a little bit of the rehearsals here for a couple of weeks and I start that tomorrow. Then we'll go out to LA and finish up there."
"Okay. We'll have to do lunch before you go."
"Sounds like fun. Go take an aspirin."
"Okay."
We hang up and I kick my feet up on the couch and shake my head. Today was my last day of freedom before I gave my life back to my career and I was going to enjoy it.