New Year's Eve

NewYear's Eve 2011 - Part One

New Year’s Eve 2011

Age: 15

I bounded into the party room, positively raring to go, clearly in a better mood than I had been in compared to recent years. A smile graced my face, and a spring bounced in my step. I appeared annoyingly excited about getting this party started.

As soon as I stepped over the threshold, my parents searched for people to socialise with, and headed off in that direction. I immediately started searching the area for Robert.

Over the past year, Robert and I hung out whenever we could. It quite surprised us to find out we lived near one another, making it easier for us to both meet up. At first, we met up sporadically, as we still remained a little nervous about getting to know each other, and we didn’t want to push it too far. Perhaps it was the beauty of our friendship? How fleeting it was. But eventually, we got over that, and we realised we worked well any time of the year, and we met up whenever we could. I considered him one of my best friends and we quickly became pretty much inseparable.

Robert had also met my best friend Millie and our other friend, Nicole. Now — as much as it seemed mean to admit it — Nicole was one of those friends you tolerated, but you didn’t get along with necessarily. Snobbiness exuded from Nicole whenever you spoke to her. Her dominant personality trait was thinking she was better than others, looking down her nose at anyone she thought was below her. Chances were, she only hung out with Millie and me because we improved her looks. She had loved it when Robert joined us on our outings, and she soon tried to stick her claws into him and claim him as her own.

Which sucked a little, considering I harboured a little crush on Robert.

What? Come on; don’t tell me you didn’t see that one coming! It was obvious! I mean, I got along with him very well, and he was very pleasing to look at. So, it was difficult for me not to have feelings for my best friend. But it was only a little crush… as I continued to tell myself. I couldn’t envision it growing any larger, and nothing would come out of it, I was sure.

Yes, I enjoyed the ocassional young adult romance novel, where the best friends became lovers after a mere confession. But I knew they were nothing but ficiton, and very unlikely to happen in real life.

Two hands gripped my waist, breaking me from my spiralling thoughts. The hands then started tickling my sides. I let out a sound that was a cross between a scream and a squawk. A scrawk? A scweam? Whatever it was called, it was a weird sound, and I couldn’t believe that had come out of my mouth.

“Did you miss me?” A voice came as the hands stilled and landed on my waist. A head peered over my arm and placed itself on my shoulder.

“We saw each other like two days ago, Robert.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed, tempted to throw his head off my shoulder, and the distract myself from my pouding heart at our proximity.

I felt Robert shrug from around me. “So? I’m so awesome that you can barely manage without me for an hour.”

I detached myself from Robert’s arms and turned around to face him with a raised eyebrow. I folded my arms across myself, to portray an air of nonchalance. “Somehow, I doubt that.”

Robert only chuckled before he dragged me away so we could greet each other’s parents. Frank and his wife, Mia, were incredibly down-to-earth, considering they owned a multi-million-pound company, and it was something I only grew to respect as I got to know them. Whenever I visited their house, they were always hospitable, and they offered me an abundance of food and drink, never making me feel bad for accepting or even asking for something. They appeared genuine when they asked how my family and I were doing, and always spoke of how nice a family we were. They quickly became like a second family to me, which was admittedly bizarre and somewhat embarrassing to think about considering how I treated them a couple of years ago. I felt like I needed to apologise but I also didn’t want to bring up the past and remind them just how annoying I once was.

After we exchanged pleasantries, Robert and I went off and did what we did best: we caused trouble. Well, it wasn’t exactly trouble; there was no need for anyone to reprimand us. We were both well-behaved teenagers, but we liked to be a little spontaneous when the mood took us that way. We saw it as supplying entertainment for those who may experience boredom at the party. Perhaps if we had people like us as we grew up, we wouldn’t have been so reluctant to attend these parties when we got to our teenage years.

Our latest set of antics included storming the game of pass the parcel that the DJ started. When the music played, Robert and I would dance around the circle. And when the music stopped — so a child could unwrap a layer — we moaned at the DJ. We told him we were dancing and asked why he stopped it in the middle of the song. We acted as if we didn’t understand the rules for pass the parcel, as we thought we exuded nothing but the height of comedy. Others, perhaps, did not.

Everyone — including the DJ — knew how we would act and entertain ourselves at these parties. This meant that our methods of entertainment did not disgruntle them too much. All the children playing laughed at our antics, so we didn’t annoy anybody. As long as the children were having a good time, that’s all that mattered. Which was an achievement. If we were with a different crowd of people, we would not have done half of the stuff that we did. It was further proof that Frank’s company maintained a family feel.

“That was so much fun!” I chortled as we fell outside into the surprisingly warm air. The game was over, and we had made a speedy exit, in case anyone had taken offence at our messing about.

“Oh, yeah!” Robert laughed. He threw an arm around my shoulder, sending sparks flying around my body in the process. “Aren’t you glad you met me two years ago?”

“Yeah, I am.” I smiled up at him; he had grown taller over the past couple of years. Usually, I’d come out with a sarcastic retort about how I could easily survive without his presence, but I didn’t say that tonight. I didn’t know whether it was his proximity or the thought of the New Year that made me truthful. I mean, I was one step closer to admitting my feelings for him and no-one wanted that. To prevent that from happening, I changed the subject in a panic. “Are you any closer to convincing your dad to let you come to my school?”