Author's Note: This story takes place during the events of "Party Down".
Last night was awesome.
Totes awesome.
It didn't start out that way, though.
Curious? I'll tell you all about it!
See, my big sister Lori decided she and Bobby were gonna throw a party in the basement at our house, for all of her and Bobby's friends. Sounds fun, right? I was pretty excited when she brought it up to me the day before.
But when I came down to the basement to help with the decorating, she didn't exactly look stoked. She looked... nervous. And fussy. Like she was going over her notes five minutes before an algebra test. And when she saw me come down the stairs, she pulled me aside and told me that she expected me to be on my best behavior. At, first, I thought that was pretty weird. I mean, it's a party. Who cares if I act out a little?
But here's the thing: she didn't want it to be a "fun" party. She wanted to feel grown up and mature, so she tried to make it... you know... fancy... and stuff. What was the word she kept using, again?
Oh, right! "Sophisticated". She wanted a "sophisticated" party. She found this article from a magazine called "50 Ways to Throw a Sophisticated Party" and she decided she was gonna follow it to the letter.
Like, Dad tried to give her some fun props to use, but she turned them down. And then Lincoln tried to show off some funny party tricks, but Lori got mad and sent him up to his room. She sent up most of our sisters, too. Only me, Luna, Luan and Bobby were allowed to stay. I didn't really know why she was so dead-set on the idea of "sophisticated". My guess is that when she saw that article, she thought, "Oh, this is how all the celebrities party. I want to be like them, so this is how I'll party."
So she kept on rattling off items from the list and fussing over the details, and I noticed that Bobby looked kind of uneasy. Like, I could tell he wanted to tell Lori to just throw a regular party. I wanted to tell her that, too. But, well, you know Lori; there's no use arguing with her when she's made up her mind.
She told me to wait upstairs and make sure that only people on the guest list got in. Most of them were people I knew from school, but there were a few I didn't recognize. One of them was this short foreign exchange student named "Lincolnovich". I checked the guest list and he wasn't on it, but he pointed out that I was looking at a shopping list instead. Don't you hate when that happens?
Anyway, after I let Lincolnovich in and got the real list from Lori, a few more people started trickling in. There was Lori's friend Becky, Bobby's friend Joey, some girl named Dana...
...and then he showed up.
I had never seen or heard of him before, but he instantly got my attention. He was this plump little redheaded boy with freckles who was wearing a yellow striped t-shirt and a backwards baseball cap. (So retro.) And he had these big, wide, youthful eyes, sitting right above a cute stubby little nose and two plush, freckled cheeks. He said his name was Chaz.
What a cool name, I thought to myself. Chaz. Sounds a bit like "jazz".
And he did that thing where, like, you say your first name instead of saying "I" or "me". I think Blarney the Dinosaur did that sometimes. He was like, "Let's party! Chaz like parties!" and then he ran downstairs. It was just so cute, the way he did it.
Lori made me man the door until everyone from the guest list was inside, which was kind of a bummer, 'cause I was missing the party. But then when she let me come downstairs, I could see I wasn't missing much. Lori was being a bossy-pants and coming in to break things up whenever people were having fun. Like, Luna was sitting on the washer playing guitar, and everyone was digging it, but Lori said, "It's way too noisy!" and made her stop. Then she made me take a picture of her posing with duck lips. I didn't have the heart to tell her that duck lips are so four years ago.
Anyway, I'm rambling. After I took the picture, Lori kept trying to get her guests to eat this weird icky paste that I forget the name of - I think it was called "placenta" - and then she yelled at Luan when she tried to make a joke about it. Then, Luna started banging out this drum beat, and everyone was getting into it - including Chaz. Especially Chaz. He was showing off sweetest smile you've ever seen, and he was all like, "Yeah! Chaz like!"
And when he said that, I started feeling all fuzzy and warm inside. It just felt good to be around him. He was one of those boys who could brighten up a room just by being in it. He was so energetic, so joyful, so happy to be in the moment.
But then Lori shut everything down again, and this time she kicked Luna and Luan out of the party altogether. I felt this little prickle of pain in my heart when I saw that, and it only got worse when I saw Chaz lose his smile. You know, I love Lori, but she can be such a pain sometimes. At that moment, I just wanted to grab her by the shoulders and give her a good shaking.
Looking back, I probably should have, because what she did next was even worse. Lincolnovitch was impressing Becky with some neat party trick with his underwear, and Lori walked up to him and ripped his mustache clean off! Talk about violent! Lincolnovitch was so offended that he stormed out of the party.
Our group was getting smaller and smaller. And you know what else? Even when she was reading items from her list and trying to force all that fancy stuff on us, Lori didn't look like she was having any fun. She looked like she was pretending to have fun. Throughout the whole party, when she wasn't scolding one of us, she was trying way too hard to act happy and bubbly. Like, when she tried passing around that gross paste, I could tell that she was forcing herself not to cringe. Who was she even trying to impress? What was she trying to prove?
By the time Lincolnovitch left, I was getting pretty upset - almost upset enough to leave. But then, right when I was about to walk towards the basement stairs, I saw... him.
I saw Chaz, that cute little ball of fluff, chatting it up with one of Lori's friends off to the side.
And when I saw him, I got this... like, this tingly feeling in my tummy. Mild at first, but it got stronger as the night went on. The kind of feeling that tells you, "Something big is happening, and you've gotta do something about it!"
So I hovered up to him and the other guy, waved hello, and I just... listened to him. No talking, just listening. He had a very simple way of speaking, and he didn't use too many big words, which I appreciated. I couldn't really think of anything to say, since they were talking about boy stuff like cars and wrestling and football, but I didn't care; I just really liked being close to him, and hearing his voice. I was so taken by the way he talked, the way he acted, and even the way he looked. He was fat, yes, but those extra pounds just made him look so plush and huggable. Like a stuffed animal, or a marshmallow pie. I wanted to squeeze him so badly!
But just when we were starting to get into a groove, of course Lori had to butt in. She pulled me aside so she could complain to me about how nobody was having fun. Well... yeah! I knew she wouldn't listen to me if I told her to knock off the fancy stuff, so I just tried to reassure her that everyone was having fun, just to get her to calm down. But it was kinda hard to argue that after she saw our classmate Joey in the corner of the room doing his homework.
Bobby tried to tell her to just throw a regular, fun party, but Lori was still in full-on sophisticated mode. It was bad enough when she tried to make us eat that patella, but she topped herself right then and there when she tried to goad us into doing line dancing. Yuck! I was so embarrassed for her.
And that was it. That was the final nail in the coffee. You know when you dip your finger in your coffee, and your nail polish leaks into the coffee and ruins it? That's what she did to her party. All of her guests were marching up the stairs and out the door, even as Lori was inviting them to do "vision boards" with her. First Becky, then Joey, then Dana...
...and then Chaz. He said, "Awesome party, Lori!" (though I know he didn't mean it) and he started up the stairs. I wanted so badly to call out to him and ask him to come back, but... I froze up. I didn't know what to say. What could I say to convince him to stay? "Hey, we could use your help with the vision boards"? I don't even know what a vision board is!
So I stood there like a stone statue, and I let him walk out of the house. Out of my life. I didn't even get to ask him where he lived, or where he went to school. He could have come over here from a different state, for all I knew. I lost him.
Of course, Lori started getting all mopey because nobody liked her party, and I tried to be a good sister and cheer her up. But the whole time I was thinking, "Stupid Leni! Stupid, stupid Leni! You met a wonderful boy and you let him slip through your fingers!"
I was fully ready to go right back up to my room and sulk for the rest of the night, but then Lincoln came down to console Lori, and he said that he and our other sisters were throwing their own party in the living room. And - surprise, surprise - Lori aceepted his invitation! She finally decided to stop trying to be sophisticated and just let herself have fun. And as disappointed as I was, I decided to put on a happy face and join them. No use sitting around being a sourpuss, right?
And I gotta say, it's pretty hard to be grumpy when you've got all your siblings trying their best to entertain you. We told jokes, we sang karaoke, we had Lucy tell our fortunes, we ate chocolate, we raced each other on bouncers... and for the first time that night, Lori looked like she was having real, honest-to-God fun. I was so happy for her that I had to document it. I took a picture of her dunking her head in Lisa's chocolate fountain and posted it to Facebook and Instagram.
And then, something amazing happened. Apparently my picture went viral, because just a few minutes after I posted it, all of those guests who walked out on us started coming back to get a piece of the action. Including... guess who? Chaz. Sweet, huggable Chaz.
My heart skipped a beat when I heard that jolly, lovable voice again. "Great party, Lori! Chaz like!"
I thanked my lucky stars for the second chance, and nothing was gonna stop me from taking it. I jumped right into a conversation with him and introduced myself, and the two of us started chatting up a storm. At first, I was a little afraid that we wouldn't have much in common, but when I brought up some of my hobbies, I found out that he's totes into fashion! Who would've guessed? He said he works at a mall clothing store on weekends, so he knows about all the latest trends.
I convinced him to come up to my room and see the dresses I was working on. It was the first time I ever brought a boy up to my room. The first time. I was so excited I thought I was gonna burst. By the time we got up to my door, I was so jittery I could hardly get the door open. But I did, and I showed him my work in progress - a silky black number with a v-shaped hemline and a checkered skirt. And you know what he said, when he saw it?
"Neat dress, Leni! Chaz like!"
Oh-Em-Gosh. I thought I was gonna faint, right there. Fortunately, I didn't, and the two of us spent, like, an hour up there talking about all the latest fashions and our favorite styles. You know, I don't want to sound sexist, but to me it seems like most boys don't really put any thought into what they wear. They just throw on whatever they can find in their dresser. Not Chaz, though! As I found out, he actually spent a lot of time putting together his outfit and making sure his cap, top and bottom were all perfectly coordinated. It was so refreshing to meet a boy who cared so much about how he looked.
And when he complimented my dress, he didn't just say, you know, "it looks nice". He used words like "flattering" and "eye-catching" and he went into detail about how well the body complemented the design on the skirt. I felt like I was being judged by a legit fashion critic. This boy was just full of surprises.
At about 10:00, he said it was getting late and he had to leave. But I wasn't going to make the same mistake twice. As he was getting up, I was like, "Wait! Don't you want to, like, trade numbers? So we can see each other again?"
And he just walked right back to me with a smile on his face, looked up into my eyes, and said, "Yeah, totes, Leni. Chaz would like that."
I did it. I won. There were fireworks going off in my head as I punched his number into my phone, and let him do the same for mine. I wanted to end the night with a hug, but I didn't want to be too forward, so I resisted that urge. So you can imagine my surprise when, out of nowhere, he hugged me. He squeezed me with those chubby arms of his and lifted me up off the floor! I felt like I was flying!
Right after he put me down, said goodbye and left the room, I collapsed down onto my bed, gasping for air. I fell asleep just a few minutes later, with the biggest smile that could fit on my face. What a night. What an experience.
I'm in love.
Totes in love.