Tomorrow's Blues

30. Shots and Dancing

The dinner was delicious, the wine was delightful, and everyone was quite drunk. I was watching myself, though, because I did not want to spend tonight throwing up. I planned on having a great time.

Alice, however, did not seem to care about being careful with how much she was drinking. I was pretty sure she was about six or seven glasses in, and she was a lightweight. On another table, I could see Catherine glancing at her from time to time with a worried expression. Alice was talking and laughing a bit too loudly, and it was quite obvious she was drunk.

Once dinner was cleared away, a few speeches were made, and then Jennifer and Michael were the first on the dancefloor. The live band was incredible and soon lots of people were dancing.

"Let's get shots!" Sam suddenly said, standing up. "Open bar, baby." He grabbed Ellie's hand and she followed him laughingly to the bar.

"Yes, shots!" Alice said loudly and went after them before anyone could stop her.

I exchanged a glance with Joseph before saying, "I'll go stop her."

But too late – they had all already done tequila shots.

"Ana! Here," Sam said, handing a shot to me. When he saw my doubtful expression, he held it right up to my nose. "Oh, come on. You're not going to throw up again. Probably. If you're not wanting to do a shot of tequila, then you're not drunk enough yet."

I smiled. "Well, how can I turn down that logic?" I downed the shot, wincing at the taste. "That's disgusting. I hate tequila."

"And if you hate tequila, you are most definitely not drunk enough yet," Sam said.

I laughed. It was true. But behind Sam, I saw Alice doing another shot. "Oh god, Alice is going to be hammered."

Sam waved his hand dismissively. "Don't worry about her. She'll be fine."

I sighed but accepted the next shot Sam passed to me. "You're a bad influence on me."

"That's what I'm here for, baby." He clinked our shot glasses together and we chucked them back. My throat burned.

All feeling a bit more drunk as the tequila began to kick in, we went and danced together, Ryan joining us. We were giggling and having so much fun, and I was reminded again of how much I loved my friends. When we all went to sit down for a rest, I suddenly realised that Alice had vanished.

"Oh no," I said loudly. "We've lost a member of the crew."

"Oh no," Ellie repeated. "What ever are we going to do?" We giggled together. Sam shook his head at us while Ryan looked confused.

"Mum and dad had to take Alice back to her room," Joseph said, suddenly appearing and sitting next to me. "She was throwing up."

"Oh no," I said again, in a groan. "I knew it. That girl. Honestly."

"She okay, though?" Ryan asked quickly.

"Yeah, she's fine."

"Can't believe we didn't even notice," Ellie said, a guilty look on her face. "I feel bad."

"Don't feel bad. And I'm allowed to say that, because I'm her brother," Joseph said. "She'll be fine."

"Don't need to tell me twice," Ellie said, pouring herself some more wine and knocking it back. "Let's go dance. Joseph, you're coming too."

"I'm not–"

"She's right," I sang, taking his hand. "You don't have a choice." We all went back onto the dancefloor, Connor and Zoe joining us, dancing and singing together. I practically had to force Joseph to dance, keeping his hand in mine, and I saw Zoe glance down at our joined hands. She smiled, an expression of realisation on her face. Soon a couple of people we didn't know came and partied with us, and Zoe immediately attached herself to one of the boys, who looked more than happy to be dancing with her. Connor disappeared off to the bar with a girl, and slowly the group began to disperse as people went off to do their own things for a while.