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Here For The Party
Mar. 2nd, 2014 12:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valerie_vauseThe campus of UNLV thrived during the week but during the weekend it buzzed. Saturday night made it hard to go anywhere without tripping over one frat party or another and for once Valerie wasn’t trying to avoid them. She’d worked herself hard over the past few weeks, and the letter she received, while nice, had only caused her to focus on the loss. That was why she decided to skip patrol for a night. To actually let off steam and act her age for once, and participate in the age old tradition of drowning one's sorrows. It didn’t matter that she hardly knew anyone, people had been smiling and talking to her all night and she realised that was the point. Everyone was out to have a good time, and with it being on campus, it made it easier to stumble back to their rooms without busting out money for a cab.
By the second beer she was getting the hang of strangers just coming over to talk to her. By the fourth she was actually smiling again, and then she realised that maybe if she kept drinking, she’d forget why she’d been sad to begin with. Which was why she grabbed a fifth from the keg before a guy got his friends to hold him up over it while he braced himself upside down to chug. She heard someone say ‘keg-stand’ and found herself cheering him on with everyone else. “I could totally do that.” She said to no-one in particular and raised her plastic cup up to take a gulp of the frothy liquid.
The music was loud and her muscles were relaxed, the faintest buzz was humming through her frame and she grinned as he coughed and spluttered before he got back to his feet. Someone must have been counting because he’d gotten to eleven seconds and people were clapping him on the back. Some others were throwing teasing comments his way, apparently he hadn’t broken the record but had made a good effort. Frat parties, Valerie mused, were interesting in the same way nature documentaries piqued her attention. This was all normal behaviour but it felt so foreign that she couldn’t help but grin and look around.
Girls and guys were all talking and joking around, some had branched into groups where they were playing various games. Beer pong was happening in one room, in another they were all trying to bounce quarters into a glass, a mixed group were playing with an empty bottle and as she walked into the kitchen to grab a snack she heard the phrase ‘never have I ever’. Valerie at least knew beer pong but maybe she’d join in a few of the others. It was with that thought that she grabbed a packet of chips and crunched her way through them before she even made it back to the main room. She ditched the empty packet and chugged the rest of her beer. Truth be told she wasn’t much of a drinker, but being what she was at least meant that it would take a lot more before she fell on her ass. Even if she did, well, she was in college, it was a rite of passage. Wasn’t it? Time for a refill.
By the second beer she was getting the hang of strangers just coming over to talk to her. By the fourth she was actually smiling again, and then she realised that maybe if she kept drinking, she’d forget why she’d been sad to begin with. Which was why she grabbed a fifth from the keg before a guy got his friends to hold him up over it while he braced himself upside down to chug. She heard someone say ‘keg-stand’ and found herself cheering him on with everyone else. “I could totally do that.” She said to no-one in particular and raised her plastic cup up to take a gulp of the frothy liquid.
The music was loud and her muscles were relaxed, the faintest buzz was humming through her frame and she grinned as he coughed and spluttered before he got back to his feet. Someone must have been counting because he’d gotten to eleven seconds and people were clapping him on the back. Some others were throwing teasing comments his way, apparently he hadn’t broken the record but had made a good effort. Frat parties, Valerie mused, were interesting in the same way nature documentaries piqued her attention. This was all normal behaviour but it felt so foreign that she couldn’t help but grin and look around.
Girls and guys were all talking and joking around, some had branched into groups where they were playing various games. Beer pong was happening in one room, in another they were all trying to bounce quarters into a glass, a mixed group were playing with an empty bottle and as she walked into the kitchen to grab a snack she heard the phrase ‘never have I ever’. Valerie at least knew beer pong but maybe she’d join in a few of the others. It was with that thought that she grabbed a packet of chips and crunched her way through them before she even made it back to the main room. She ditched the empty packet and chugged the rest of her beer. Truth be told she wasn’t much of a drinker, but being what she was at least meant that it would take a lot more before she fell on her ass. Even if she did, well, she was in college, it was a rite of passage. Wasn’t it? Time for a refill.