Monica was Darren’s age. She had a brother Erin’s age. Everyone said Monica was really hot. I could see it I guess. Big boobs, pretty blonde hair. She laughed a lot. Darren liked her anyway. I thought she was kind of scary and mean, but her parties were like super epic, and I was lucky to go.
Darren parked in a long line of other cars. Monica’s place was big. Not as big as our place, but still pretty big. Older kids hung around outside smoking something that smelled skunky and weird. “Is that weed?” I whispered to Erin.
She nodded. “Don’t smoke any. You’ll hate it. Come on.”
Darren tossed an arm around my shoulder and led me into the house. All the guys out front shook his hand and he introduced me, and one of them said I had on cool shoes, which made me happy, since Darren bought me them for Christmas.
Erin hung around, looking annoyed as always.
The inside was packed with more people. Everyone seemed to know Darren and Erin. I was introduced but couldn’t really hear anyone over the super loud music, which was kind of annoying, how can you have a party with such loud music? But anyway, someone shoved a cup in my hand and apparently there was beer in it, so I took a sip, but then Erin stole it away and I acted all mad which made Darren laugh, but the beer tasted like cold puke so it was okay.
“Was that your first beer?” she asked as Darren made a path into the living room.
“Yeah,” I admitted.
“Did you like it?”
I hesitated. I didn’t like lying to her and anyway she always caught me. “Not really.”
“You will one day.” She took a sip and smiled. She was okay sometimes.
Darren did a shot. He threw it back like a champ. Everyone cheered. I didn’t really get it, I mean, they were drinking a lot and yelling at each other, and it was really confusing and overwhelming. Erin stayed with me, which was annoying at first, but then really good because Darren got pulled into a game of beer pong. I got to throw the ball a few times and even got it into a cup once, and everyone cheered, which was awesome.
But it was also really scary and weird. Erin talked to Monica’s brother and I felt lost, looking around at everyone. I was a Servant, I should’ve been the most important person in this room, but everyone was so much older than me—there weren’t any kids my age around.
Since Erin wasn’t paying attention, and Darren was still playing that beer pong game, I walked off on my own and headed into the backyard.
It was quieter outside. I found a half-empty cup of beer and tried another sip. I made a grossed-out face and dumped it. Seriously, how did people like that crap? Monica’s pool was nice though and I sat down on a chair and watched the water ripple. A big donut-shaped inflatable toy drifted past. I imagined jumping into the pool and going right down through the middle without touching the sides and everyone would cheer and chant my name Servant, Servant, Servant, and they’d love me and treat me just like Darren. I could probably pull it off, but there wasn’t anyone else around, so it seemed kind of dumb to try.
I felt good. The night was cool and cozy. The noise wasn’t so bad. Erin was kind of cool when she wasn’t such a dick. Darren was awesome. I wondered what life would be like for me when I was their age.
Would I do shots? I didn’t think so.
“Hey, kid.”
I looked over, startled. It was Roman. He and Darren were friends, or they were like colleagues, or something like that. Mom tried to explain to me once that our family was a part of some big, fancy, important group, but I didn’t care. Roman was part of that group too or something.
“Hey, Roman. What’s up?”
“Your brother let you come out?” He grinned at me, walked over.
“He said I needed to learn what it was like to be a Servant.”
Roman snorted. I didn’t like that. He didn’t treat my family name the way he should have. Being a Servant was the most important thing in the world, and I didn’t know what I’d do if I weren’t one.
Probably be some stupid, worthless loser, like everyone else.
“That sounds like him.” Roman hesitated, looked around. “Can I ask you something?”
“Uh, yeah, whatever.” I wanted him to go away so I could go back to daydreaming, or maybe I could head inside and find Erin and Darren, or maybe I could try beer again. Actually, okay, no beer, beer was super gross, but maybe beer pong, that was fun. Darren could drink the beer if he wanted.