Party Seven

The girl walked into the room again, returning to [the] party, eyes squinting at the brightness of the lights. She had been gone for awhile --smoked a cigarette, read some books, flipped through a magazine, got caught up in a few things and forgot about the time -- but now she was back, her purple party dress on and gold dangly earrings dangling in dangling places, and hair twisted up and around. No one would notice the faint splotch of mustard on her dress, but her earrings may have been too dangly for this crowd, or not dangly enough, it was a pretty non-dangly dangly crowd, and she felt the sudden urge to run to the bathroom (it was locked) to make sure her hair wasn't too up and around on itself, parties are not for perfectly styled hair. Suddenly a reflection of herself appeared in her mind, and she gasped inwardly at how garish her eyeshadow was, gooping out around the corners and dripping down her nose. But no one seemed to notice this at the party.

God, those lights really were bright to the point of ---------. They seemed to bear in upon her, and although she had stepped inside the entrance, she wasn't sure if the light was coming from the kitchen or the backyard. The lights were so bright that she could hardly make out faces anymore, faces she thought she recognized but couldn't when she looked directly at them. Was this even the same party? Were these the same people? Are these the same people at a different party, or a different party with the same people? A different party with different people? Same party with different people with similar interests?

She was leaning against the wall, wearing her sunglasses and purple party dress, sipping her whiskey ginger. She was there, back at the party, and it seemed like people were happy to see her. Steve smiled at her from across the room and waived distractedly --he was with another girl, good for him, she was really truly totally happy about this -- and even Marvell gave her a little bow, though people were crowded around him and she didn't understand how she was even able to see him because there were so many people.

There was a small group of strangers who seemed to take a particular interest in her.