“Ah, guys, this is my little sister, Megan,” Brent introduced me to the two guys in the kitchen with him.
One was short, stocky, and heavily muscled. He looked like a cartoon character, in my opinion. The other one was of a similar height, except he was skinny with sleepy eyes that made me think he was either drunk or just high.
“This is Bruce,” Brent said, glancing at the stocky, muscled guy. “And this is Mads.”
I came forward and shook both their hands. “Nice to meet you both.”
“Fuck, dude, you’ve got a sister,” Bruce said. “We didn’t even know.”
“You down to party, Michelle?” Mads asked me.
“It’s Megan, you fucktard,” Bruce said, punching Mads in the arm.
I wanted to roll my eyes at the frat boy language, but I forced my expression to stay polite. “Uh…sure.” I nodded.
The guys started bickering, and I backed away and headed to the bathroom to freshen up a little. I shut the door and took a deep breath. It felt like I spent most of my time in Brent’s bathroom. As nice as he had been by agreeing to let me stay at his place, his kindness hadn’t extended to offering me his room. Which meant I was forced to sleep on his uncomfortable pull out couch in the hall. I didn’t mind sleeping on the lumpy mattress so much as I minded the lack of privacy. But then again, I had made the choice to come here in the first place, so I didn’t want to complain.
I was wearing blue jeans and a thin white sweater that hugged my body. I decided to just stay as I was, but I did wash my face, brush out my hair, and apply a little nude lipstick for the party.
When I went back outside, a few more people had filtered in, and Brent had started up the music. True to form, Brent had supplied generously on the drinks, but he had completely ignored food. I walked around the room, trying to be friendly and mingle, but none of Brent’s friends struck me as be
ing conversationally savvy, and soon, I found myself in the kitchen by myself.
I managed to hide in there for almost twenty minutes before Brent fount me. “There you are,” he said. “Why aren’t you out there talking to people?”
“Do you have any female friends?” I asked.
Brent smiled. “You know I can’t be friends with a woman. They want me too badly for a friendship to last.”
I guffawed with laughter. “You’ve been drinking too much.”
“Come on,” he said, ignoring my dig. “Tracy and Melanie just got here, and last I checked, they are both female.”
He ushered me into the living room and pointed me in the direction of two girls. Both were skinny and dressed similarly, wearing row rise skirts that showed off their tattoos and tight see-through tops that left little to the imagination.
“Yo, Trace, Mel!” Brent yelled across the living room. “This is my sister, Megan.”
With that, he shoved me towards them, and I had no choice but to walk over and introduce myself in a less boorish manner.
“You don’t look much like Brent,” one girl said. I couldn’t remember if she was Melanie or Tracy. She was platinum blonde and had eyeliner that was a little too heavy ringing her eyes.
“Nah, have you got the same parents?” the other girl said. She had dark hair that was streaked with definitive platinum blonde streaks.
I frowned. “Uh…what?”
“She means have you got the same daddy, the same mama?” the platinum blonde one said.
“Yes,” I said, feeling supremely uncomfortable with this strange line of questioning.
“Both?”
“As far as I know,” I replied awkwardly.
“You should know that,” the platinum blonde said to her friend. “You fucked him for like a month.”
“It was more like a week,” she replied. “And, I barely remember that week—we were stoned off our asses.”
I suppressed a sigh as the two girls bantered on without paying any attention to me. I scanned the room, wondering when the appropriate time would be for me to take refuge in Brent’s room and shut out the party. The door opened and a couple more people filtered into the apartment. My eyes fell on one guy in particular; he had the same expression in his eyes that I imagined was in mine.