Chapter 5:

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter seems a little shorter than the others, it's kind of a boring one too.  I apologize, I'll try to juice up the next one a bit :)  Again, thank you for reading! 

I woke up with the notebook stabbing me in my gut and the aroma of bacon wafting through the air.  I looked at my list and saw I only wrote down “PARTY TO DO”.  I walked down the stairs to the kitchen to see my dad drinking a cup of coffee and reading the paper.  My mom was frying bacon and making omelets while reading the latest issue of ELLE magazine.

“Morning!” I said as I grabbed a mug and poured myself some coffee and Coffee Mate, the closest I would get to a Starbucks from now on.

“Good morning sweetheart.  Would you like bacon and an omelet?” my mom said, flipping over an omelet stuffed with chopped vegetables and cheese.

“Yes please,” I said, kissing my father on the cheek.

“We didn’t hear you come in last night, kiddo,” my dad said.  I’m practically an adult, lay off, I thought to myself but dared not to speak.

“It was kind of late,” I said, sitting down to the left of my dad and grabbing the Life and Style section of the paper.

“How late?” he asked, peering over the page he was looking at.

“Not that late.  Like one or something,” I said, not looking up from the paper.  “Plus, you guys always fall asleep way early so you wouldn’t have known really anyway.”

“Who drove you?”

“Um, Malcolm.”

“Who’s Malcolm?” my mom asked, coming into the conversation.

“A guy.  A friend.  He’s helping me plan a party.”

“Party?” my dad said.

“Well, I kind of wanted to talk to you about it.  There are hardly any parties and it’s the most perfect way to meet people.  And to make my first impression amazing it has got to be the party of the year.  I have—.”

“Hold it.  I don’t want our house becoming a party house.  We don’t know what these people are like,” my dad said, now putting down his paper and looking concerned and angry.

“Dad, please.  These people aren’t like people in New York.  They don’t drink alcohol twen—.”

“Which is another thing.  Alcohol is going to be off limits from now on.”

“Wait. Does that include us too?” my mom interjected.  Great.  Now my mom was freaked out that she may never get wine again.

“Never mind you guys, why can’t I have any?” I said.

“Excuse me?  Your underage for one, and two, we’re not in New York anymore where that kind of thing is excusable.  So, that’s all.  Done.”

“Ugh, fine.  No alcohol at the party.  Can I have one?”

“Rich, honey, I think this would be fun.  It would be like planning a dinner benefit, but a smaller version.  I have great ideas, Jessica,” my mom said, shuffling through a drawer trying to find a pen.

“Uh, Mom?  I have ideas and I kind of want to plan it myself, that is if I can have one,” I said sweetly.

“Oh please, Jessica.  You have never organized a benefit before.  I have experience.  I can call José and he can come down and help plan it!  It would be so much fun.  Oh, and invite list?  Do you know anyone yet?” my mom said, now looking through her Blackberry for José’s, her personal party planner, number.

“Hold your horses, Vicky.  I haven’t even agreed to this.  I want to make sure, first, that everything here will be safe.  I don’t want an out of control party.  I don’t want to be known as that house.”

“So you’re considering it?  I promise, if anything happens I’ll call you guys to come home,” I said.

“Call us to come home?  No way are we leaving.  We used to be gone all the time when you’d have friends over.  We’d come home and the house would smell like pot and whisky,” he said, now standing.

“Dad, these people aren’t like that.  They don’t have money to get that stuff.  They don’t act like that.  At the party last night, the parents weren’t home and the drinks they offered were Coke, Sprite, and Kool-Aid.”  My mother scoffed at this.

“We’ll have to do something good for drinks since alcohol is off limits,” my mom said as she scribbled notes onto a pad of paper.

“Victoria!  Stop!  This is not a benefit.  This is in our own house!  I do not want my house trashed!  And Jessica, we will be here when you have this party!  First and for most, who the hell are you going to invite?” my dad yelled.

Both my mom and I smiled.  “Thank you Daddy!” I said, getting up and hugging him.  My dad smiled again as my mom kissed him on the cheek and cleaned up the plates.

“Don’t worry.  I’m going to call Malcolm who will be getting me a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers.  Don’t worry this will be a proper party.  And I would love for you two to help.  If you want.”

“I can’t help.  I’ve got work,” he said, picking up the paper grudgingly.

“Work?  You mean you got a job?” I said.

“Well, yeah.  A buddy from college owns a large company in Chicago and he offered me a job as a financial manager but he’s letting me do it here.  With the use of technology, I can go to meetings and meet with people.  And the best part, he is paying me almost twice as much as my job back in New York.  It was all too good to be true, so I took it.  I’ll be busy but I took it.  Now your mother doesn’t have to work.  If I need help, she can help me.  It works out perfectly,” he said, smiling.

“Oh my God.  Twice as much?  So now you’ll let me to order things online and catalogs?”

“Nice to know you’re happy for your old man.  But yes, you may now order clothes,” he said, hugging me.

I ran upstairs, too excited to wait, to get online.  There was a pair of brown suede, ankle booties from Tod’s that needed a home.

After ordering more than just the booties, I took my notebook downstairs to begin planning the best party that the little town of Hawesville would ever see.  Little did I know, my mom had already planned half of it.

“I called José and he was all too excited to come down!  He has many ideas, as do I.  So now to think of a theme.  Hm, what to do, what to do?” she said as she bustled around the kitchen.

“Well, I was sort of thinking New York Glam or something,” I said.

“Oh, that would look great!  And José would love it!” she said, reaching for her Blackberry.  “I’ll let him know right away.”  Then she sped off to call José.

By six o’clock, José was sitting on our black leather living room sofa sipping herbal tea from an “I Love NY” mug discussing meaningless gossip with my mom and me.  I only heard half of the conversation as my mind wandered to Travis.  I hadn’t heard from him since the party, and I began to grow anxious, randomly fidgeting from the thought of losing my only friend.  I checked my phone for the thousandth time, to see no missed call or new text message.  Finally, someone calling my name drew me out of my lamenting.  I looked around to see both Mom and José staring at me.

“Huh?” I said, unintelligently.

“I said, Jessica, explain to José what you had in mind,” my mom said.

“Oh.  I was thinking ‘New York Glam’ or something,” I said, waving my hands in the air energetically.

“Oh yes, that’ll be great.  Show these people where you come from, girl,” he answered.  I flashed a strained smile.  For some reason, I could no longer get excited by the thought of a party.  He pulled a pad of paper with a giant pink flower pictured on the front and a glittering purple pen out of his briefcase to start scribbling down ideas.  “Dear, all I’ll need from you is the invite list with names and addresses.  Don’t you worry, José has it covered.”  He flashed a stainless smile that contrasted his dark, tanned skin.

I stood to leave from the living room, suddenly it held no interest in me to stay.  I passed my dad on the way to the front door.  Before closing it behind me, I heard my dad’s booming voice say, “First things first, some ground rules.  No alco--.”  I sat on the front steps, looking out at the dusty road.  My task sat at the front of my mind.  I looked down at my phone and searched through my contacts, resting on Malcom’s name.  I took a deep breath and hit “send”.  To my surprise, it went straight to a voice recording telling me to leave a message after the beep.

“Malcolm, it’s Jessica.  I need the list of people and addresses, let me know when you can come over and drop them off,” I said unenthusiastically and hung up.  My thoughts drifted back to Travis, and for some reason, to the barn.  Without thinking it over, I stood and began walking around the house with one destination in mind.

I stood in front of the massive, faded brown door of the barn that towered above me.  I grabbed the wrought iron handle and pulled with all my strength, finding the door to be extraordinarily heavy.  Dust billowed out, and inhaling it, I started coughing uncontrollably.  Once I could breathe properly again, I slowly stepped into the dark structure, expecting anything.  It took time for my eyes to adjust to the darkness, and even then it was difficult to make anything out.  I found a light switch conveniently placed next to the door and pushed it.  Rows of small, single light bulbs flicked on in various spots.  I gasped.  I had expected dirt and hay and grime everywhere.  However, I found the floors clean, no hay anywhere to be seen, which would explain the lack of the nasty stable smell, and the walls painted a crisp white.  It looked flawless and was the complete opposite of what the exterior advertised.  I walked from stall to stall, imagining the possibilities the barn held.  Struck with a brilliant idea, I ran from the barn all the way to the back door, eager to share my discovery.