Long Time No See

The pixels on the computer gleamed in his eyes as he suffered through the last of his online classes for the day. He was not paying attention. If his teacher called on him through the video screen, he could not have heard. His mind was elsewhere. This was the day of the big party, his first in a while.

Jared hardly got invited to parties ever. He had never tried to be. Most of his free time was spent reading or playing video games or watching movies. He would much rather experience the thrill of social events vicariously through the fictional characters on the page or on the screen than participate in the real thing, but had already accepted; there was no going back. Before he knew it, the clock on the bottom right corner of his screen read 3:15pm, and it was time to log off and get ready.

After taking a quick shower, Jared stood in front of his closet contemplatively. He had never put much thought into his appearance before now. He usually nabbed the shirt off the first hanger and that was that. He had no sense of fashion and never bothered trying to wear matching colors. With the threat of the party looming over him, though, he began to grow self-conscious. He had no clue what he should wear. "Should I put on a suit?" The thought quickly escaped his mind. "It's a high school party, not a wedding." He threw on a red striped polo shirt and some khaki pants, laced up the new Nikes he had gotten for his 17th birthday, and looked at himself in the mirror. It wasn’t much of a look, but it was surely an upgrade from his typical combo of a wrinkled white T-shirt and baggy sweatpants.

After his hair dried, he combed his long, brown hair, assembled his belongings, and walked out the door. It was an outdoor party in the next neighborhood, which was about half a mile from his house. He didn’t have a car yet, and his parents weren’t home, so he had to walk. Jared didn’t mind, though; it was a nice day out. It was that time of the day where the sun just hangs in the middle of the sky, shining dimly as it awaits its inevitable rest. Jared felt that same way tonight, anxiously anticipating the party that would commemorate the end of the school year.

After struggling with the directions, Jared showed up at the party fashionably late. His arrival was received with little fanfare, not even a “glad you could make it” from the host, Brandon, who was standing right near him. He sighed solemnly, figuring the night was already a bust. He grabbed a brown bottle of root beer off a nearby table and took a swig. A smoky, fizzy, bitter taste washed over his tongue and overcame his whole mouth. He gagged and immediately spit it out. That got Brandon’s attention.

“Never had beer before, huh?” Brandon patted his shoulder.

“How could you tell?” he joked in a strained voice, still recovering from the sensation.

Brandon laughed. “It’s an acquired taste. There’s root beer in that big plastic bottle if you want it.” He pointed to the A&W on the table that Jared had somehow missed. 

Jared mumbled, “Alright, I’ll let you get back to--”

“No, no, let me show you around, get you to meet everyone,” Brandon said, turning around to lead the way.

“Brandon,” Jared stopped him. “Can I ask you something?”

Brandon pivoted back to Jared. “Sure, what’s up?”

“Why did you invite me? I know we’re in the same online physics class, but we almost never talk outside of that.”

“The reason I invited you is you seem nice, and I thought you could enjoy hanging out with us.”

“Oh, well, thanks!”

“No problem. Come on, follow me.”

They walked past the blazing campfire where some people were sitting on logs, nursing beers and sodas, and enjoying each other’s company. The warmth of it felt nice against his face on this unusually cool late-spring evening. He and Brandon waved through the little clusters of strangers until they arrived at a group of three people Jared recognized. “This is Christina, Max, and Ashley. Ashley’s my girlfriend. They were in our--”

“Biology class. Last year. Yeah, Max was my lab partner once, I think.”

“Oh, really? I don’t remember that,” Max replied.

“He was probably stoned,” Brandon snorted.

“No, man, it’s just hard to remember what life was like before the pandemic, you know? I haven’t seen any of you in-person since, like, March of last year.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Christina turned to Ashley. “I forgot to tell you, Ashley, I saw you walking downtown with your dad last week.”

Ashley replied, her arm still wrapped around Brandon, “Oh, you should have come up and said hi. You’re one of the only people I hang out with that my dad likes.”

Christina laughed. Jared felt out-of-place in this conversation and started to shuffle his feet in the grass. Brandon took notice, “I think we’re boring Jared here.”

“So, Jared, whatcha been up to?” Ashley asked, taking her arm off Brandon and making eye contact.

“Oh, uh, not much, just looking at colleges mostly.”

“Oh, what colleges?” Ashley asked.

“Let’s see: Columbia, Yale…” Jared started to say.”

“Woah! Mister smarty pants over here. You get good grades?” Brandon exclaimed.

Jared felt self-conscious, “Uh...yeah, straight-A’s.”

“Couldn’t be me,” Ashley said in a sing-song voice. “I almost failed the last physics test.”

“Same,” Max admitted.

“Oh, I do good in physics, just...not in anything else,” Brandon smirked. 

There was a long, awkward silence until Jared chimed in with a “Well, it was good talking to you guys. See you later.” Jared drifted away. It was a short conversation, but he already needed some space and alone time. He grabbed a plate of chips and sat on a log by the fire, the loud crackles of the flying embers disguising his loud crunches. 

Brandon came over and sat next to him, “What’s going on, buddy? You kinda disappeared over there.”

“Did I?”

“Yeah, you okay?”

Jared rubbed his neck. “Um, yeah. I just didn’t want to get in the middle of--whatever it was you were--uh…” he stammered.

“You’ve never been to a party, have you?” Brandon asked.

“Well, not never. I went to a few birthday parties in middle school and some wedding receptions, but yeah, I guess not a real party.”

“Well, then, we’ve got to make a good impression. We’re gonna make this party so hype that you’ll never need to go to another one again in your whole life.”

Jared laughed nervously while Brandon stood on top of the log next to him, making it wobble slightly as Jared sat precariously on the edge. “LISTEN UP!!!!” Brandon shouted, his voice the quality of a megaphone. All the partygoers stopped their conversations and paid attention to the slightly drunken host. “Jared here has never been to a party, so we’re all gonna have to make it memorable for him. And that starts with turning on some music!”

The crowd whooped in support. Brandon dramatically pointed to his friend, Ray, through the flames. “Hey, Ray, turn it up!!” Ray cranked up the knob on the stereo sitting on the picnic table next to him. The stereo started blasting bass-heavy dance music. Jared had a desire to plug his ears, but knowing that would upset Brandon, he decided to sit there and tolerate the noise.

Brandon didn’t let him sit, though. He pulled Jared up and got him to dance on top of the log. Jared tried to pull away but lost his balance, causing himself and Brandon to topple over and hit the ground as the log crushed their feet. Brandon struggled to reach for the log. Ray turned off the music and ran over to them. He pulled the log off of them and helped them both up. Brandon dusted himself off. Jared got to apologizing. “Brandon, I am so, so sorry, I--”

“What? Dude, it’s fine! You have produced the two most memorable moments of the night so far, unintentionally!”

“I have?” Jared looked puzzled.

“Yes! To answer your question from before, I invited you here because you’re a wild card, alright? I don’t know much about you, you don’t know much about me. You’ve never been to a party before. You’re new and exciting.”

“I guess so.”

Brandon took a swig of beer, the foam spilling onto his chin, which he quickly wiped off. “This year has been so predictable and boring. It was like the ultimate anticlimax. And I’ve seen some of these guys once or twice outside of school…” he paused. “...socially distanced of course. But they’re old news. I wanted you because I thought you’d spice things up a little. And look, if you don’t want to dance, I won’t force you. I just want us all to have a fun time in our junior year. Next year, we’re gonna be seniors and applying for colleges, and I want us to enjoy every last minute we have before then. Okay?”

And to his own surprise, Jared took these words to heart. His nervous shuffling turned to dance as he stomped on the ground and clapped, flailing his arms and spinning around. The rhythm overtook his body as he started moving and grooving to the beat, improvising his own dance moves. Brandon looked impressed. His friends took notice and joined in. Soon, everyone at the party was treating the campgrounds as a lit-up dance floor. It was almost ritualistic as they did congo lines and skipped around the fire. The rest of the night was a blur, but what started out as an obligation turned into a lasting memory.