Party Extravaganza

Every year, the boredom in me got worse. The New Year’s Eve party was never fun, neither was the New Year’s Day party. Despite that, I’m still forced to attend both parties because it would be my last before I leave my family and move in with my fiancé’s. I can’t say I’m happy with my marriage, but I also can’t say that I hate it because he treats me well. His looks aren’t bad either so what’s there to complain about? Still, this New Year’s Eve party is as lame as ever. I prepared myself with a sigh, then proceeded to walk down the center stairs that led to the main floor. 

“Let’s get this over with quickly…” I mumbled to myself when I stopped at the bottom of the staircase. My hands released the lifted dress it was clutching, allowing the satin cloth to flow down smoothly. My eyes were trained on one area in the room only: where my fiancé was standing. A soft smile graced my lips when I walked up to him. I placed a delicate hand on his arm to inform him of my appearance while greeting and introducing myself to the people he was talking to. 

We stood there talking for a while, polite smiles shared amongst the small circle we formed. In between conversations, we all took sips out of the cups of drinks we were offered. One of the businesswomen in the circle began to talk about our engagement. 

“My, love. You’re so lucky to be getting married to such a hunk. I hope both of you have a happy marriage. When will your wedding be?” she questioned. 

While it is true that my fiancé was handsome, he wasn’t my dream man. He wasn’t the man I would fantasize about or fawn over. As great as he is, I can never love him as much as an actual lover would. One word to describe my love for him was storge.  

We have known each other for years and went through highs and lows together over these years. Despite all that, I never developed romantic feelings for him. Neither did he for me. The two of us didn’t feel obligated to force ourselves to fall in love with the other, so for the sake of this arranged marriage, we agreed to act as we normally do with small affectionate touches for show. 

I smiled sheepishly and replied, “A date has not been set yet. We’re taking it slow, but the wedding will be a private one with family and close friends attending only.” 

The woman’s smile appeared to curl downwards into a slight frown. She attempted to cover it up with the back of her hand while laughing. Her laugh was so ingenuine that anyone can tell it was faked. Once she got it out of her system, she removed her hand from her mouth.

“Silly dear, of course, I’m invited too, right?” 

“No, ma’am. I apologize but as I said before, this is for close friends and family only. I’m afraid neither of us knows you well enough.” I smiled again, this time with more confidence.

She was even more distraught by my answer. Her hand flew to press it against her chest as if I had offended her in the worst way possible. I merely blinked my eyes at her, unaffected by her dramatic antics. 

It was beginning to hurt to smile so I hoped she’d walk away soon. Thankfully, my fiancé was smart enough to end the conversation right then. He bowed politely while excusing us and pulled me towards the food table. 

A sigh simultaneously left our lips once we were a safe distance away from the madwoman. Looking at each other, we burst out into laughter while holding the other’s arm. 

“God I’m so glad that we were able to escape from her. She has been droning on with the most boring topics to talk about for more than 17 minutes already.” he shook his head, disapproval towards the woman evident on his face. 

“Well, that’s the life of a rich man.” I joked. Although I was trying to lighten up the mood, I completely understood his feelings at the moment. 

Having grown up around each other, we understood one another’s emotions easily, a reason why we were paired up for marriage. As the oldest one of our respective families, a lot of responsibility was thrown on us since birth. No matter how hard we tried, there was always something we must improve on. There’s never satisfaction with the oldest child. 

“I’m going to go talk to other people, love. You socialize some more too when you’re ready, all right?” he kissed my temple before taking his leave. Another reason I liked being around him was that he cared about my personal space. He understood my interaction with people was very limited and never pushed me over it. I was thankful for his consideration. 

I mindlessly took a cookie from the tray. I was about to eat it when someone slapped my arm with a booming laugh. 

“GIRL, YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS. ANOTHER ONE OF THOSE OLD BUSINESSWOMEN TRIED TO HOOK UP WITH ME! GOD, IT NEVER GETS OLD TO SEE THEIR FACES WHEN I DOWNRIGHT WALK AWAY FROM THEM AS IF THEY NEVER EXISTED. OH MY GOD, SOLA—” the deep voice cut himself off, realizing he had mistaken me for someone else, “I-I’m sorry! I thought you were… my… friend…” 

He must have been embarrassed by his barbaric outburst because he trailed off his sentence once more. His cheeks were slowly blooming with color and his former confidence had ran away with its tail in between its legs. I couldn’t help but let out a laugh of my own. 

The back of my hand moved to cover my mouth as I slightly raised the volume of my laugh. I tried to calm myself down but all I could do was raise my hand up and try to get him to remain where he was. 

“I-it’s all right. You didn’t- didn’t mean for it to happen.” I replied in between laughing. 

When I was finally able to recover from my giggling session, I took a deep breath to recompose myself. My eyes stared straight at the stranger. 

“I must apologize for laughing like that, but you were the highlight of my night just now. I must thank you for lightening the mood in this gloomy old party.” 

He waved his hand in front of him, chuckling sheepishly, “It’s all right. I’m glad I was able to be of service, ma’am.” 

The two of us talked for the rest of the night, walking around the ballroom to give our stiff joints a little exercise. We took a seat at one of the tables to converse more comfortably. Time passed by quickly when there are good company and captivating conversations. I realized, at this point, that I still had yet to introduce myself to this man. I had been having a conversation with him for more than an hour now and I had yet to ask for his name.

“It seems I’ve forgotten all about formal introductions. This is long due, but my name is Sera.” 

“I’m Joker.” 

The smile I had the whole time faltered in confusion. My eyebrows furrowed as I cocked my head to the side. 

“Joker? Is that your actual name?” 

He immediately denied that with a shake of his head, so I raised my eyebrow as silent permission to clarify himself. 

“It’s just a code name. You don’t have to worry too much about it.” he proceeded to smile while explaining. 

I nodded my head, pretending I understood what he meant. I then shrugged my shoulders and offered him the food set around the table. 

“Do be my guest and take something to eat then, Mr. Joker. It has been a long night.” 

“Oh, don’t worry, it won’t be that much longer now.” 

His smile stretched wider, a creepy aura emanating from his very being. Scared by his demeanor, I took a step back, only to knock against the table behind me. 

The lights in the ballroom flickered, then everything went dark. I let out a frightful shriek alongside with many other people in the room. My hands had flown up to cover my head while I tried to curl my upper body inward. 

I heard my fiancé shout for my name. I immediately called out his. He was able to navigate his way to me in the dark with ease, wrapping his arms around my vulnerable body. 

“Come on, love. Let’s get out of here before something worse happens.” As if on cue, the sound of multiple glass breaking rung around the room. I whimpered in fear, moving my body closer to him. He gently guided me out of the party. 

When we made it outside, he rushed me towards the car. We both got in immediately and he drove off as soon as the vehicle started. I covered my face with my hands in an attempt to feebly calm myself down. 

My fiancé placed a hand on my thigh as he laughed at the situation. I looked at him, baffled by his reaction. While I was ready to cry, he was laughing his butt off. 

“The worst is over love. You don’t have to be so tensed anymore. We’re safe now.” 

I could only silently hold onto his words while I mulled over my conversation with the stranger. Did he know about this? Surely he did. It couldn’t be a coincidence. I wasn’t able to get the situation out of my head and could only find myself reliving that scene over and over again, trying to search for an answer to the mystery. 

No matter how much I tried, I wasn’t able to fully comprehend the situation. Where the people at the party okay? Was it okay for us to drive off just like that? I was beginning to tire myself out with the amount of stress I was putting myself through. I took this chance to fall asleep in the car while my fiancé took me to our destination. The last thing I saw was the leaving state sign. After that night, I never met that man ever again.