“It’s grand. Just make sure Shannon eats something, will ya,” I said, grabbing my keys and moving for the front door. “She’s skin and bones these days.” You both are.
“I will, I promise,” Mam replied, following me to the front door, and then lingering awkwardly in the doorway when I stepped outside. “Have a good night.”
“Yeah,” I replied. “You too, Mam.”
“Joey,” she called out when I was standing at the garden wall. Wrapping her dressing gown tightly around herself, Mam hurried towards me.
Frozen to spot, I didn’t move a muscle when she reached up and pressed her small hand to my cheek.
Blue eyes watering with unshed tears, she leaned up on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “Be safe.”
“Yeah,” I replied gruffly, clearing my throat, as guilt filled me for the sins that we both knew I would commit tonight. “I will, Mam.”
SLUT DROPS AND ALCOPOPS
OCTOBER 31ST 2001
AOIFE
The Pavilion was packed to the rafters on Halloween night, with people grinding and sweating all over each other in their hunt for a good time, and I was no exception to the rule.
Throwing shapes to Flip & Fill’s Shake Ya Shimmy in my fancy new shoes – courtesy of daddy dearest – with my best friend by my side, I let loose and threw myself into the moment.
With our costumes coordinating, Casey was the slutty devil to my equally slutty angel. With her horns and my halo, we made quite the pair on the dancefloor, enjoying the attention we were receiving from the lads in our year almost as much as the music.
“Cop on, Aoife,” an angry voice growled in my ear, as a big body pressed up against me from behind, and a pair of big hands clamped down on my hips. “Everyone is looking at you.”
“So?”
“That’s the point,” Casey laughed.
“So, I don’t like it,” Paul snapped. “You’re with me, which means you’re mine to look at, not every fella in this place. Enough of the fucking peep show.”
“One; you don’t own me,” I slurred, grinding my body against his. “Two; I’m only dancing.”
“Yeah, like a slut.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I’m serious,” he shouted. “Do you want everyone to think that I’m going out with a slut?”
“Oh my god.” I shook my head angrily and swung around to glare up at him. “You did not just say that to me.”
“My whole fucking team is looking at ya,” he argued, cheeks reddening. “It’s embarrassing for me having my girlfriend shaking her ass like that.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Go fuck yourself, Paul.”
“No, babe, wait—“
Shrugging out of his hold, I grabbed Casey’s hand and sexy danced towards her, ignoring the killjoy behind me.
“What’s his problem?” Casey shouted over the music, gesturing to where Paul was scowling behind me.
“Apparently, I’m embarrassing him.”
Narrowing her eyes, she sucked on her middle finger before using it to flip him off. “Asshole.”
DJ Alligator Project’s The Whistle Song blasted all around us then, drawing every teenager within a ten-mile radius onto the dancefloor.
“Screw him,” Casey ordered, dragging me deeper into the crowd. “Let’s just have a girls night.”
“Excellent plan.”
Drunk off the good time – and the vodka flushing through our veins – we ground against each other, shaking our asses like we were contesting for the role of the next member of Destiny’s Child.
Spying one of the lads from our class, who was dressed as the funniest Marilyn Monroe I’d ever seen in my life, throwing shapes in the middle of the dancefloor, we quickly closed in on him.
“Angel-legs! Devil-tits!” Alec cheered, throwing his arms over our shoulders when we reached him.
Off his head on drink, drugs, and mischief, he bumped and grinded along to the unofficial blow-job song, not giving two shits how ridiculous he looked in his cheap, knock-off relic of her Seven Year Itch white dress and fake blonde wig, with his hairy legs on full display.
“I can’t cope with him,” Casey half-laughed, half-slurred, gesturing to the big eejit grinding his ass against us. “I can’t tell if I want to slap him or kiss him.”
“Both,” I choked out through fits of laugher, as Al ripped the top half of his dress off in dramatic fashion, and pinched his own nipples, eyes rolling in equally dramatic fashion.
“Cover those tits up, Marilyn,” Casey laughed, reaching up to cover our classmate’s nipples with her small hands.
Not missing a beat, Alec’s hands shot out to cup Casey’s barely concealed breasts.
“Are you seriously touching my tits?”
“You’re touching mine,” Alec shot back, waggling his brows at her. “Seems like a fair trade to me.”
“You have some pair on you, boy.”
“I was about to pay you the same compliment.”
“This is the part where they neck on,” a familiar voice shouted over the music, and I turned to find an amused looking Podge. “Told ya.” Winking, he pointed back to where Casey and Alec were now mauling the lips off each other. “So predictable.”
Laughing, I shimmied over to one of my favorite lads from our year and held my hand out to him. “Help a loner out, will ya, Podge?”
“The things I do for friends,” he chuckled, taking my hand and pulling me in for a dance. “Don’t be getting any notions now, ya hear?”
“I’ll try my best.” Grinning, I wrapped my arm around his neck and danced along to the music. “So, where’s your friend tonight?”
“Which friend would that be, Aoif?” he teased, knowing full well who I was referring to me.
I rolled my eyes. “Funny.”
“Lynchy’s in here somewhere.”
”So, he actually knows how to dance?”
“I don’t know about dancing, but he definitely knows how to get a naggin of vodka past the bouncers.”
“Aoife!” Ripping me clean out of Podge’s arms, my boyfriend clamped his hand around my arm and roughly pulled me back to him. “Come here for a sec—“
“Hey,” I snapped, yanking my arm free, as I turned around to glare at him. “That hurt.” I reached up to rub my arm. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t be such a drama queen,” he protested with a roll of his eyes. “Come outside with me.” He reached for my arm again. “I want to talk to you.”
“No.” Yanking my arm free once more, I glared up at him. “You called me a slut.”
“I didn’t mean that the way it came out.” Pulling me into a hug, he leaned down and planted a kiss on my lips. “Come on, babe, it was a slip of the tongue. Don’t fall out with me over it.”
“You said that I look like a slut,” I hissed, shoving at his chest in order to escape his hold.
“Look at you,” he shouted back at me, losing his cool. “You’re practically wearing underwear and rubbing yourself against another fella!”