All Fun and Games

“What’s up bitches!” Ivy called out as she walked into the sorority house. She’d changed at a friend’s place before heading over to save herself the embarrassment of walking into the party wearing her barista uniform, and now she was ready to blow off some steam.

“Ivy!” one of her sorority sisters shouted back. Julia was the chapter head, a tall girl with tightly ringed curls and a nose stud. “I was wondering when you’d get here. Need a drink?”

“Definitely. I’ve got some catching up to do.” Outside of the house’s foyer, the party was in full swing. Music blared from the speaker system, throngs of people roamed with drinks in hand, and shouting from the backyard indicated that a drinking game had started at the ping pong table.

“For sure,” Julia replied, intentionally letting her words slur. “Let’s fix that.”

The pair walked down the hallway into the kitchen where a small crowd parted to let the girls reach the counter. Ivy busied herself making a screwdriver, only to find Julia sliding up a pair of shot glasses.

“Making up for lost time,” Julia said with a wink.

Ivy took her shot glass without hesitation. “Cheers.” The tequila burned like turpentine and Ivy stuck her tongue out, miming a yack. They used the cheap stuff for public events.

“Oh it's not that bad,” Julia told her.

“It’s pretty bad,” Ivy laughed.

“That just means you need to keep taking shots until it tastes good.” Julia poured another.

“Girl,” Ivy told her, “you are six inches taller than me. I’m trying to catch up not pass out.”

Julia swirled the shot glass in front of Ivy’s face. “Two shots isn’t going to get you trashed.”

Relenting with a dramatic sigh, Ivy took the second shot. It wasn’t any better.

“So,” Ivy said, leaning in conspiratorially. “Has Jacob shown up yet?”

“What?" Julia said, flustered. "I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I’m busy hosting!" she answered with exasperation. "I can’t know everyone that’s coming and going.”

“So no?”

Julia took a drink. “He…might be swinging by later. He wasn’t sure.”

Ivy shot her a sour look. “He isn’t sure? If he was serious he’d be sure.”

“He has a big test on Monday,” Julia said, looking down at the counter.

“And he has to study for it Friday night? Come on.”

Julia sighed. “Yeah, it’s a pretty lame excuse.”

“Well screw him then. Boys aren’t shit anyways.”

“Don’t let Ethan hear you saying that," Julia changed the subject. "He was asking about you earlier.”

“Ethan? Eh. He’s a little…” Ivy trailed off, wobbling her hand.

“He’s hot, he’s funny, and most importantly he’s here.”

“Why don’t you go talk to him then?”

“Because I’m too busy being stood up by a guy with an Adam’s apple the size of a grapefruit. Come on Ivy. You and Jordan broke up months ago.”

“I’m not hung up on Jordan,” Ivy protested. “It's just that we graduate at the end of the semester. It’s not worth getting involved with anyone right now.”

“I’m not saying you should marry the guy,” Julia scoffed. “Just go talk with him. Could be fun.”

“I was hoping for more of a girl’s night,” Ivy countered.

“The girls will be here every other night,” Julia insisted. “Come on. Party time.”

Ivy squeaked as Julia grabbed her elbow, but let herself be led to the dimly lit living room. The place was packed. Julia wormed her way into the crowd, towing Ivy along, and shouldered her way past a dancing couple to park the two in front of a pair of guys. Julia tapped on one of their shoulders. Ethan turned around and his face lit up. “Ivy!" he shouted over the music. "You made it!”

“Yeah. It's my sorority,” she said back, though it might have been lost in the noise.

Julia pushed her forward. “Ivy wanted to know if you wanted to dance!”

Ivy felt her face flush. “Uh, yeah.”

“Hell yeah,” Ethan said as he stepped away from his friend.

Ivy had to admit that he was good-looking. He was tall, fit…he played some sport, though she couldn’t be bothered to remember which one. The only thing was that he was a little dumb. Alright, that was probably unfair of her. He wasn’t dumb, he just wasn't in the top half of his class. And he was a good guy. There were worse people to spend a night having fun with.

Ivy worked on killing her drink while she and Ethan danced. Everything started to get fuzzy around the edges as the liquor took effect. She was starting to feel those shots.

The track ended and on came a hard-hitting, half-tempo song with a grinding bass line. Ivy was feeling good. She gave Ethan a mischievous glance and then spun around, waving her hands over her head. Ethan took the cue and got close up against her back, his hands on her hips as she pushed back against him.

Just as she was starting to get into it Ivy felt Ethan pull back. She turned around to find Ethan rubbing his neck, sheepishly greeting another guy. Riley, her brother. Ethan excused himself and beat a quick escape.

“What are you doing here Riley?” Ivy asked.

“It's an open invite isn’t it?”

“You’re allowed to be at the party,” she told him. “What are you doing here? I was dancing with him before you scared him off.”

“Dancing? If that’s what you want to call it.”

“What’s your problem? It's none of your business what I do.”

“It’s never anyone's business how you act,” he said bitterly. “Shouldn’t you be focused on graduating? Did you even get any of your applications back?”

Ivy groaned. He was always like this. He thought that their parents were too soft on her because she was the ‘baby’ of the family. He wasn’t even a full year older than her; they were Irish twins. Ivy was the youngest of six, which made his whole holier-than-though routine even more fucked up because it wasn’t like their parents didn’t like to get down too.

“How’s this going to look like to law school?” Riley continued.

“Why do you even care! I don’t even know if I want to go to law school!”

“Well you’re going to have to make your mind up real soon,” he told her.

“Hey, this guy bothering you?” asked Julia, rolling up like a storm cloud. She pushed a finger into Riley’s shoulder. “No being a bitch at my party.”

“This is between family,” Riley told her.

“And she's my sister. This is our house. So save your shit and go find someone else to bother or I’ll have your ass bounced so fast it'll leave a skid mark on the lawn.”

Riley muttered something that got drowned out by the music. Julia pointed with her finger, eyes daring him to argue, and Riley folded. He shot Ivy one last look as he slinked.

“Thanks,” Ivy said. “He can be such a dick.”

“Yeah. There’s an entire flag pole up his ass. Dude needs to get laid.”

“Gross.”

“Just saying. You want me to get Sophie on it?”

“Gross!”

“She’d do it. Her standards are real low.”

Ivy gave her friend a shove, but Julia laughed, “Come on, let’s go out back." She shot a side glance at Ethan. “Your boy toy probably needs another drink before he’s ready to hop back on the horse.”

Riley had been right about one thing, Ivy knew. Soon she would need to make up her mind about her future. Maybe that meant law school like her parents wanted. Ivy didn’t love the idea, but she hadn’t been able to come up with anything else either. Right now all she really wanted to do was play some beer pong with her friends. She could think about other stuff tomorrow.