The Good Life - Chapter One: Losing It

Chapter One: Losing It

"Here's to the good life, bitches," April said with a superior grin as she raised her red plastic cup then downed the contents seconds later. The people standing around her raised their glasses, echoing her words and mimicking her actions, all laughing and carefree from the alcohol that was starting to kick in. Loud music pumped through the speakers, making the little liquor remaining in April's glass shake. She closed her green eyes, letting her body move to the music as drunken chatter from her friends swelled up around her; the girls argued over lime or lemon wedges for tequila shots and the guys discussed sports.

A pair of arms wrapped around April’s waist and she jumped slightly but then grinned, leaning back as chapped lips pecked against her cheek in a friendly manner. "Hey, beautiful," Daniel greeted, the scent of whiskey heavy on his breath.

He let go of her waist and nodded at the two other girls, Lexington and Hayden. “Hello, ladies.”

“Daniel,” they chimed in unison with playful head tilts.

He smiled at them then turned back to April. "When did you get here?" she asked as she turned around to face him. She looked at the stubble forming on his face, normally stubble bothered April but Daniel wore it well, it wasn’t exactly a 5 o’clock shadow but it was barely visible baby fuzz either.

Daniel shrugged and ran a hand through his brown hair. “About thirty minutes ago maybe.” His voice was thick like the first time he had gotten drunk; the night when he couldn’t remember his house address and had to embarrassingly call April to tell him, the night when he and April had danced together until their feet felt like they’d fall off and the night when Daniel had first kissed her on the lips, still in a friend-like way, but with more suggestion.

“And you’re already drunk?” April accused, staring into his dilated hazel eyes. She chuckled as he shook his head, his face serious, but then he smiled and laughed causing her to laugh even more. She breathed in the scent of laundry detergent lingering on his dress shirt and jeans that was combined with the whiskey he was drinking.

He leaned in, closing his arms around April again, and then pressed a kiss on her lips. “I’ll see you later?” he questioned as he twirled a piece of her blonde hair.

April looked around her, checking to see if people were watching them, but everyone was otherwise occupied with their drinks or trivial conversation. She draped her arms around his neck and nodded, making her heartbeat quicken as she thought about what “later” really meant.

Daniel grinned. He kissed her forehead, removed his arms from her waist and left the kitchen. April looked at the crowd of people around her, watching as someone messily poured tequila into shot glasses, chanting the words “Shots, shots, shots, shots, everybody!” and then tipping their head back, gulping the clear liquid down, the others following suit.

She was tempted to take the bottle from them and go up to her room and do shot after shot after shot until the whole thing was gone. However, she refrained, knowing what was going to happen later that night. She wanted to be somewhat sober, even if her nerves were threatening to take over.

April looked down at the small amount of liquid left in her glass, a combination of cherry vodka and Diet 7-Up, and then swallowed the rest. She dropped the empty cup on the table and began to walk out of the kitchen, heading towards the wide staircase just a few feet away.

"Where are you going?" One of the girls, Lexington, called, following her out of the kitchen. "Body shots!" She held up a lemon, proving she had won the argument, and salt shaker as demonstration.

“I’m going to get Bridget and Brooke.” April laughed, pointing up. She began to climb the stairs then murmured, “They’re taking way too long.” When she reached the top, she turned left and clicked down the hall until she reached her bedroom. She pushed her door open and stepped inside, immediately she was greeted with a mess of party dresses splayed across the floor and laughter coming from her bathroom.

Of course they would do that, April thought as she shook her head at the heap of clothing. She grinned slightly as she plucked the clothes up from the floor then dumped them on pile that was already high on her bed. She brushed a hand over the top dress, debating whether to replace the items to their color coordinated spot in her closet, but she pulled her hand away and picked an invisible piece of lint off her own dress instead.

“We were gonna do that you know,” Someone called from her bathroom.

April smirked and walked towards the source of the voice, stepping over more abandoned clothes on her way. She walked into the bathroom and scoffed amusedly at the sight of her two best friends: Brooke in a towel, her red hair still wet even though the party had started almost an hour ago and Bridget standing in front of her applying makeup to her fair face.

“I said we were going to do that, sis!” Brooke, who had no blood relation to April but had been her friend since they were four, opened her pale blue eyes and grinned at her.

“We?” Bridget asked in a slight French accent. She tapped Brooke’s nose for her to close her eyes again as April walked further into the bathroom.

Bridget smiled at April and returned back to doing Brooke’s makeup.

April sat up on the vanity and said, “Yes, I heard you.” She picked up a bottle of foundation and spun it around in her hands, one, two, three, then placed it back on the counter, perfectly straight as if it were in a makeup store. She watched as Bridget dusted shimmery bronzer onto Brooke’s face and then stepped back to examine her work.

Bridget tilted her head to the side then screwed the cap back onto the bronzer and said, “Perfection. Okay, open.” She walked up to April and placed the shimmer on the counter then bumped April’s hip with a mischievous grin. “You excited for tonight, baby?”

April shifted at Bridget’s question, crossing her legs and fixing her hair. “Don’t call me baby.”

“Why?” Bridget challenged, turning towards April.

“Because I’m older than you,” April replied as she straightened the bracelet on her arm. It was a Tiffany with two hearts, one small and blue to represent where it came from and the other slightly bigger and silver, engraved with a B for Bridget and Brooke on one side and an A for April on the other. It had been a gift from Brooke the summer she had gone to New York with her mother, a trip that she hadn’t been allowed to bring friends on because it was “mother-daughter time”. April didn’t think any of them had gone a day without wearing them, even the long Saturdays spent in bed nursing a hangover. Their bracelets were still there, dangling from their wrists, displaying their friendship.

Bridget rolled her blue-grey eyes. “By, like, four months.”

April grinned and kicked Bridget’s hip.

“Well I’m older than both of you,” Brooke said, standing up from the chair she had been sitting on, not even taking care to adjust her towel. She joined both her friends in the mirror, standing between them, and reached for April’s hair brush to detangle her wet mane.

“That must explain why you’re such a slut then,” Bridget told Brooke as she drew a line of red on her bare lips. She rubbed them together then popped them, watching Brooke in the mirror as if waiting for her reaction.

Brooke scoffed and put the brush back on the vanity, placing a hand on her jutted out hip. There was a slight smile to her look of indignation, the same look she had given back in freshman year when a senior guy told her she was a skank. “You can’t say much, you and Clark fuck like two rabbits in heat,” she said, referring to Bridget’s sort of boyfriend who was four years their senior.

Bridget laughed and hit her arm but didn’t respond, a small look of embarrassment on her face. Brooke smiled triumphantly and went back to brushing her hair.

“Will you guys be much longer?” April asked, sliding down from her spot. She smoothed out her dress then turned around and pinched her ivory cheeks until they reddened. It was a technique she had learned from Bridget, when her friendship and arrival to Toronto was still new.

“This is what the French do,” Bridget had announced as she pinched her olive cheeks then poured expensive wine her mother had shipped from France. She gracefully took a sip, not even cringing at the taste as April made a face and Brooke spit hers back in the glass. Bridget had given a throaty laugh and drank both of theirs with ease.

“I’m ready. It’s her I’m waiting for,” Bridget answered, breaking through April’s thoughts, as her fingers flew over the keyboard of her cellphone.

Brooke glared at her. “You can go down without me you know, or are you waiting because your asshole isn’t here yet?”

April snickered. Sophomore year Brooke had been fooling around with Clark, sneaking off to bedrooms at the parties of upperclassmen and making out in the backseat of his car. At one party in particular she had stormed downstairs, her face red, hair tousled and her dress only half on.

“Do you know what that idiot just did?” She had questioned Bridget and April, loud enough for everyone around them to hear. They had both stared back at her with wide-eyed expressions; April reaching forward to zip up her dress and Bridget placing on arm on her shoulders hushing her. “He just pushed down on my head while I was sucking him off! What kind of dickhead does that?”

Bridget closed her eyes and shook her head. “No, Brooke, it’s because if I did you’d be up here until 1AM getting ready.” Then she turned to April and said, “We’ll be quick, promise.”

April nodded. “Find me when you come down.”

Bridget smiled in response as she hopped up on the spot where April had been sitting. She tucked her left leg up underneath her, a habit she never strayed from, and swung her right leg back and forth.

“Wait!” Brooke said turning around. She used a hand to hold her towel up and swept past April out into the bedroom. She squatted down and began rooting through her purse, a large multicolored satchel that only she could pull off. April followed her, standing behind her as she searched. “Here,” Brooke announced, grinning broadly as she stood up, holding a tiny black square in her hand.

April opened her mouth to say something but then shut it, embarrassed. Brooke took one of her hands then opened it up and placed it in her palm. “Protection is a must,” she told her seriously.

April nodded, feeling more panicky now that she held a condom in her own hand. It’s actually happening, she realized. She gulped and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, squeezing the condom tightly. She glanced down at her dress, realizing it didn’t have pockets and held it out in front of her slightly, wondering what to do with it and looking at Brooke for some sort of indication.

Without April needing to say anything Brooke knew what her apprehensive look was about, which made April’s cheeks flush as if she made a fool of herself in front of a hot guy. The fact that Brooke and Bridget both knew what she was planning with Daniel made her want to throw up, but she couldn’t deny that it made her feel better too. Thursday night they had all piled on her couch, legs intertwined under a big blanket as Brooke and Bridget shared horror stories and highlights about their times in bed even though April had already heard them before. The comfort of their excitement helped wash away her nerves that night but now they were back full force.

Brooke took the small square from her and said, “Put it in your bra.” Then she tucked it inside April’s dress and smiled playfully.

“Don’t do that,” Bridget said, striding into the room, her brunette curls bouncing as she walked up to April and Brooke. She reached inside April’s dress, which would most times make April flinch but having been friends with touchy-feely Bridget for seven years it didn’t bother her, and took the condom out.

Bridget’s face creased in concern as if she could sense April’s inner battle. “You guys are still going to the spare room right?”

April nodded. Before everyone arrived, after her mom, June, had taken off for Vancouver and Bridget and Brooke were otherwise occupied, she had snuck off to the extra bedroom in her house to prepare it. Ever since she and Daniel had decided when it was going to happen she knew it should happen in there. Her bedroom wasn’t good enough; it was overused and inadequate while Daniel’s was just messy. The spare room was perfect, barely used and elegant with the pretty golden comforter and big sleigh bed. Halfway through April’s thorough cleaning Bridget had walked in and began helping, a small smile on her face as she watched April.

“Okay, well, I’ll go put it in the bedside drawer okay?” Bridget tucked a piece of hair behind April’s ear as April nodded again. “You’ll be great,” Bridget reassured her, placing the condom into the pocket of her peacock dress. “And don’t be afraid if you need to stop or if it hurts.”

April just stared at Bridget, not knowing what else to say... Thanks for the sex tips guys. She nodded and curled her hands into small, tense balls.

Brooke slung an arm over her shoulder and said, “And don’t be scared if you bleed, like a lot.”

“Why would she bleed?” A voice questioned as Bridget hit Brooke’s arm, murmuring something like “Don’t be so insensitive.”

April’s stomach swooped and she turned around to see her younger sister, May, standing in her doorway. April opened her mouth to give some false explanation to her sister but Brooke spoke instead. “Hi, little Fisher,” she tittered, pulling away from April as if she just hadn’t announced that April would soon be bleeding as if she were anemic.

May groaned, crossing her arms under her chest. “Stop calling me that!” On May’s first day at St. Alexander Livingston, the high school in Lakeview, she had been given the nickname “little Fisher”; the senior guys automatically pinning her as April Fisher’s younger sister and nothing else.

Brooke grinned and walked back to the bathroom. “See you in a few, A!” Seconds later a hair dryer sounded and Bridget leaned in close to April’s ear. April was expecting a few last words of wisdom like “Don’t do this because you’ll look like a porn star” or “Do this, he’ll love it” instead Bridget said, “See you later, my soon-to-be-slut.”

April bit her lip, not being able to help the grin that had formed on her lips and Bridget winked at her then patted her pocket and joined Brooke in the bathroom. April turned around to her sister standing in her doorway, looking at her curiously.

“What was that about?” May questioned, running a hand through her blonde hair which was a shade lighter than April’s. May was basically April’s mini me, minus the basically white hair, ice blue eyes and nonexistent boobs.

April shrugged, turning to her mirror, examining herself. Getting ready had taken longer than usual; she had shaved her legs twice, wanting to make sure they were completely hairless, painted her toenails and fingernails pink then spent at least an hour picking out what to wear. The dress had been easy to choose. Brooke had picked it, cackling, saying that white was fitting because it represented purity, which April had found laughably ironic at the time and decided immediately on the short lace one Brooke held up. That was before her nerves had kicked in; by the time she started looking through her bras her nerves were surging through her on a continuous loop.

Bridget and Brooke had helped her get ready, perfecting every curl and making sure her skin looked smooth and touchable then adding shimmer and perfume to places April had never put it before. It made her feel like she was a bride being prepared on her wedding night or more accurately like an animal being offered up for sacrifice.

May came up next to April, staring at her. She widened her eyes back, an expectant look on her face. “What?” She questioned as she walked towards the door. May followed, picking at a sequin on her gold dress.

“Can I have some of your vodka? Mom has the liquor cabinet locked and all of my Palm Bays are gone,” May said.

April stopped in her doorway, flattening out her dress and shuffling in her colorful heels. “The key is the drawer next to it you idiot.”

“Bitchy, but okay thanks.”

“No problem, little freshman.” April smirked as she departed into the hallway.

May followed her, tapping her arm. “Seriously, fuck off. I’m a sophomore now.”

April laughed and put her arm around May as they reached the stairs and began their descent. The stairs were less crowded than they had been when April had come up. There was a lone couple, the girl pressed up against the railing as the guy kissed her intensely. Curiosity peaked April to where everyone had gone but she was more interested to know where Daniel went.

She reached the stairs and extracted her arm from May as she sauntered into the kitchen and May made a beeline for the booze cupboard. Daniel stood there with their friends; Lexington and Hayden grinned and called to her as she entered, both of them in short black sparkly dresses wearing matching hot pink shoes, and Daniel turned around a wide grin on his face. Immediately he handed April a drink and captured her in his arms, making her giggle and smile.

“To senior year!” Daniel shouted as whistles and whoops went up around him. Everyone raised their glasses, the guys pumped their fists and chugged their beers as Lexington and Hayden said “Hear, hear!” then clinked their glasses of fruity drinks. Daniel leaned in close, his breath on April’s ear. “And to losing it,” he whispered.

April’s heart panged. “To losing it.”